The late Jo Stafford (‘Suddenly There’s A Valley’) was born in 1917
The late Bob Crewe (‘Music To Watch Girls By’ and the producer (and often co-writer) for virtually all of the hit songs by The Four Seasons) was born in 1930
The late Mort Shuman (songwriting partner of Doc Pomus – ‘A Teenager In Love’, ‘Turn Me Loose’, ‘This Magic Moment’, ‘Save The Last Dance For Me’, ‘Little Sister’, ‘Can’t Get Used To Losing You’ and ‘Viva Las Vegas’) was born in 1936
The late John Maus (guitarist with The Walker Brothers – ‘The Sun Ain’t Gonna Shine Anymore’) was born in 1943
Rock Factoid: The Walker Brothers – far more popular in England than their native U.S.A. – weren’t actual brothers. In fact they weren’t related in any way. Formed in 1964, the trio of Scott (Walker) Engel, John (Walker) Maus and Gary (Walker) Leeds chose their name for a simple reason.
“No one cared about coming up with a catchy, cool band name. We didn’t put a lot of thought into it. We chose ‘Walker Brothers’ simply because we liked it.” … John Maus
Les McKeown (lead singer with The Bay City Rollers – ‘Saturday Night’) is 60
Lawrence Juber (guitarist with Wings – ‘Getting Closer’) is 63
Neil Young (‘For What It’s Worth’ with Buffalo Springfield, ‘Ohio’ with Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, and ‘Rockin’ In The Free World’ as a solo artist) is 70
Booker T. Jones (keyboards with Booker T. & The MG’s – ‘Green Onions’) is 71
Brian Hyland (‘Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini’) is 72
Rock Factoid: Hyland was 16 years old when he recorded his #1 hit song in 1960. He followed that up with ‘Sealed With A Kiss’ in 1962, but the British Invasion knocked him – and virtually all American teen idols – off the charts. Hyland bounced back in 1970 with ‘Gypsy Woman’, a #3 hit.
Rock Factoid #2: Hyland was a cousin (by marriage) of the late Louis Feinberg, aka “Larry Fine” of the Three Stooges.
Ruby Nash (Ruby & The Romantics – ‘Our Day Will Come’) is 76
The crosswalk down the street would become famous thirty-eight years later, but no tourists were in sight the day Abbey Road Studios (then known as EMI Studios) opened in London—1931
Rock Factoid: The photo shows Sir Edward Elgar in Studio One on the day of the studio’s opening. He conducted the first historic recording of ‘Pomp And Circumstance March No. 1’.
Rock Factoid #2: Elgar’s words to the orchestra as they prepared to record the first song EVER recorded at Abbey Road Studios were “Morning, gentlemen. Glad to see you all. Very light program this morning. Please play this tune as though you’ve never heard it before.”
In the annual Billboard DJ poll in the U.S., the most played single of 1955 was ‘Pledging My Love’ by Johnny Ace. The most promising R&B act was Chuck Berry and the most popular R&B act was Fats Domino. Elvis Presley was voted “most promising country and western artist”—1955
Hill Valley, CA native Marty McFly traveled back to this date from 1985 to make sure his parents got together—1955
Rock Factoid: While in 1955, he played ‘Johnny B. Goode’ at a local sock hop, inspiring Chuck Berry’s “new sound.” Okay, it was just a movie but it did happen on November 12th in Back To The Future.
Jamboree, a movie featuring Fats Domino and Carl Perkins, debuted in Hollywood—1957
‘South Pacific’ became England’s first million-selling album. It spent a phenomenal 115 weeks at #1 in the charts—1963
Shirley Ellis recorded ‘The Name Game’—1964
The Yardbirds debuted on the British charts with ‘Good Morning Little Schoolgirl’—1964
Hollywood’s Sunset Strip riots provided the inspiration for Buffalo Springfield’s ‘For What It’s Worth’—1966
Rock Factoid: In the early sixties, the Strip (and the U.S., really) was transitioning from the glamorous Rat Pack days into the kid-driven rock and roll era. In 1962, Jimmy O’Neill, who hosted the groundbreaking music show Shindig!, opened the purple and gold Pandora’s Box club on a traffic island at Sunset and Crescent Heights, and the teens flocked to it. That was followed by the Whisky and then the Roxy. The flocking teens created traffic jams, causing neighborhood businesses and residents to complain, and in 1966 L.A. County decided to start enforcing a decades-old 10 pm curfew law for anyone under 18.
During a demonstration on November 12, more than a thousand people came out and shut down Sunset, singing and waving signs. There are a lot of different accounts of what happened after that, but eventually police and sheriff’s deputies raided the crowd and started making arrests. Demonstrations continued off and on over the next few months.
The Rolling Stones recorded ‘Ruby Tuesday’ and ‘She Smiled Sweetly’—1966
The Supremes and The Temptations’ second joint TV special, G.I.T. On Broadway, aired on NBC. (The title stood for “Gettin’ It Together”)—1969
Queen started their first British tour (as the opening act for Mott The Hoople)—1973
Jim Croce’s ‘Time In A Bottle’ was posthumously released as a single—1973
Rock Factoid: The song had originally appeared on Croce’s 1972 debut album. ABC Records never intended to release the song as a single, but when Croce was killed in a plane crash in September 1973, the song’s lyrics, dealing with mortality and the wish to have more time, had additional resonance.
Rock Factoid #2: The song started receiving widespread airplay in September 1973, after it was featured over the end credits of She Lives!, a television movie that premiered less than two weeks before Croce’s death.
Queen released the ‘Somebody To Love’ single—1976
ABBA released ‘Dancing Queen’ in the U.S.—1976
Rock Factoid: The single had been released in Sweden and the UK in August. It went to the top of the charts in both countries, as well as in Australia, Canada, Germany, Mexico and Norway. The U.S. may have been late to the (pardon the pun) “dance,” but when it was finally released, it also topped the charts in the United States, ABBA’s only #1 on the Billboard Hot 100.
The Sex Pistols went to #1 on the UK album chart with ‘Never Mind The Bollocks, Here’s The Sex Pistols’—1977
Rock Factoid: The album was met by a hail of controversy upon its release. The first problems involved the allegedly “obscene” name of the album, resulting in the prosecution of the manager of the Nottingham Virgin record shop for having displayed it in a window. More outrage was sparked by the lyrics of the songs ‘God Save The Queen’ and ‘Anarchy In The UK’.
Kenny Rogers released ‘Coward Of The County’. The single would reach #1 on the Billboard Country chart and #3 on the Billboard Hot 100 —1979
The Beach Boys recorded ‘California Dreamin’ for their ‘Made In U.S.A’ album. The cover of the Mama and Papas hit included former Byrd Roger McGuinn on guitar—1982
Madonna released the ‘Like A Virgin‘ album—1984
Sly Stone was arrested during a Santa Monica, California concert for non-payment of child support—1987
Rolling Stones guitarist Ron Wood broke both of his legs in a car accident near London—1990
Carly Simon was hospitalized with breast cancer. The singer would eventually undergo a mastectomy, chemotherapy, and reconstructive surgery—1997
Billy Preston was sentenced to four years in prison—1997
Rock Factoid: He was convicted for possession of cocaine in addition to fraud committed when he arranged a fake burglary of his home in 1994. He served 18 months in California’s Avenal State Prison before being released.
Gary Glitter pleaded guilty to possession of child pornography and was sentenced to four months in prison—1999
LeAnn Rimes filed a lawsuit against her label, Asylum-Curb, seeking to be released from the contract that was signed by her parents on Rimes’ behalf when she originally signed with the label (at the age of 13) in 1995. The label eventually agreed to sign a new contract—2000
Rock Factoid: Earlier in 2000, Rimes had sued her father, Wilbur Rimes, and her former manager, Lyle Walker. She claimed her father and Walker took over seven million dollars from her in the preceding five years. The case was “settled on undisclosed terms.”
Paul McCartney outraged Beatles fans (and Yoko Ono) by changing the Lennon/McCartney songwriting credits to McCartney and Lennon on his live album ‘Back In The U.S’—2002
WCHR-FM, a southern New Jersey shore radio station, deleted all Jethro Tull music from their playlist after Tull frontman Ian Anderson criticized excessive displays of the American flag (following the attacks of 9/11)—2003
Rock Factoid: In an interview with the Asbury Park Press, Anderson said, “I hate to see the American flag hanging out of every bloody station wagon, out of every SUV, every little Midwestern house in some residential area.
“In Europe the only time you see flag-waving is at soccer games but most of the time we keep the flag-waving out of normal society these days because we know that it just engenders old animosities. It’s easy to confuse patriotism with nationalism. Flag waving ain’t gonna do it.”
Rock Factoid #2: WCHR did more than ban all Jethro Tull music. Program Director Phil LoCascio released this statement: “The Hawk has not only stopped playing all Jethro Tull songs, they are urging anyone who attends the two scheduled Anderson shows in New Jersey this weekend to bring along an American flag, just to wave it in the Scotland-born rocker’s face.”
Tony Thompson (drummer with Power Station – ‘Some Like It Hot’ and Chic ‘Le Freak’) died (kidney cancer)—2003
Former Culture Club frontman Boy George was charged with the false imprisonment of a 28-year-old man. Police said the offense was alleged to have taken place at the 47-year-old’s home in Hackney, in London earlier that year—2007
Rock Factoid: In December 2008, George – who was tried under his real name, George O’Dowd – was convicted of the assault and false imprisonment of Audun Carlsen – a Norwegian male escort – and was sentenced to 15 months’ imprisonment. He was given early release after four months for good behavior, but was required to wear an ankle monitor and submit to a curfew for the remainder of his sentence.
Mitch Mitchell (drummer with The Jimi Hendrix Experience – ‘Purple Haze’) died (natural causes)—2008
Doyle Bramhall (drummer/songwriter – co-wrote Stevie Ray Vaughan’s ‘The House Is Rockin’) died (heart failure)—2011
Bob French (drummer with The Tuxedo Jazz Band – ‘Do You Know What It Means To Miss New Orleans?’) died (complications of Alzheimer’s disease)—2012
Rock Factoid: French formed an R&B band in high school that included names who would all go on to stardom in the jazz genre: James Booker, Art Neville, Charles Neville, Kidd Jordan and Alvin Batiste.
Compiled by Ray Lemire ©2015 RayLemire.com. All Rights Reserved.