Rock & Roll History – November 16

The late Winfred ‘Blue’ Lovett (singer/songwriter with The Manhattans – ‘Kiss And Say Goodbye’) was born in 1936

The late John Ryanes (bass vocalist with The Monotones – ‘The Book Of Love’) was born in 1940

The late Pattie Santos (lead singer with It’s A Beautiful Day (‘White Bird’) was born in 1949

Chi Coltrane (‘Thunder And Lightning’) is 67

Garnett Mimms (lead singer with Garnett Mimms & The Enchanters – ‘Cry Baby’) is 82

The Shirelles released ‘Will You Love Me Tomorrow’—1960
Rock Factoid: The song was the first single by an all-girl group to reach #1 in the United States.

Patsy Cline recorded ‘I Fall To Pieces’—1960
Rock Factoid: The song had been offered first to Brenda Lee, who found the song “too country” for her pop style, and then Roy Drusky, who turned it down stating that it was not a man’s song.

The Animals recorded ‘Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood’—1964

Jay & The Americans recorded ‘Let’s Lock The Door (And Throw Away The Key)’—1964

The Iveys (later to be known as Badfinger) released ‘Maybe Tomorrow’ in the UK—1968

Janis Joplin was arrested for using “vulgar and indecent language” while onstage in Tampa—1969
Rock Factoid: The incident began when a local policeman urged Joplin to announce to the audience that they had to be seated. Janis let loose a stream of, um, questionable language and was arrested after her performance. She was booked after midnight but the charges were later dropped.

The Kinks released ‘Preservation: Act 1’. It was not well received, peaking at #173 on the Billboard album chart, and not at all in the UK—1973

The Electric Light Orchestra began recording ‘Beatles Forever’—1982
Rock Factoid: The late Kelly Groucutt, bass guitarist with the group, said in a 1983 interview, “The Beatles song is going to be a big hit single. It’s one of those songs that you know is going to be a smash while you’re working on it. You can’t wait to get it finished so that people can hear it.”
Rock Factoid #2: The group spent months on this song but it remains unreleased. Reportedly the lyrics partly consisted of Beatle song titles, but not one of them was a George Harrison song – potentially very embarrassing for Jeff Lynne who later became very close friends with George.

Topper Headon, drummer with The Clash, was sentenced to 15 months in prison for supplying heroin to a man who died as a result—1987

Stan Love, former manager of the Beach Boys and the brother of lead singer Mike Love, was sentenced to five years probation for embezzling more than $300,000 from the group—1988

Dino Valente (born Chester Powers, Jr. – lead singer with Quicksilver Messenger Service – ‘What About Me’ died (cause unknown)—1994
Rock Factoid: Valenti is best known as the writer of The Youngbloods’‘Get Together’.

The Beatles became the first artists to score three Number One albums in the same year when their ‘Anthology 3’ hit the top of the American charts—1996

The city of Palm Springs, California unveiled a statue in its downtown area honoring the late Sonny Bono, half of Sonny & Cher and mayor of the city from 1998 to 1992—2001
Idle Thought: Just a personal opinion, but that doesn’t look like the Sonny I remember.

Texan billionaire David Bonderman hired John Mellencamp and the Rolling Stones to play at his 60th birthday party, held at the Hard Rock Hotel in Las Vegas. The party cost $7 million—2002

David Bonderman spent over $5 million to hire John Fogerty and Paul McCartney to play at his 70th birthday party at the Wynn resort in Las Vegas—2012

Compiled by Ray Lemire ©2015 RayLemire.com. All Rights Reserved.