Music washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.
~Berthold Auerbach
1930 – The late Robert ‘Squirrel’ Lester (The Moonglows – ‘Sincerely’) was born.
1957 – Elvis Presley recorded ‘Peace In The Valley’, ‘That’s When Your Heartaches Begin’, ‘Mean Woman Blues’ and ‘Take My Hand, Precious Lord’.
1958 – Little Richard released ‘Good Golly, Miss Molly’ / ‘Hey-Hey-Hey-Hey’.
Rock Factoid: Little Richard later admitted he took the music from Ike Turner’s piano intro to Jackie Brenston’s influential ‘Rocket 88’, and used it for ‘Good Golly, Miss Molly’. “I always liked that record and I used to use the riff in my act, so when we were looking for a lead-in to ‘Good Golly, Miss Molly’, I did that and it fit.”
1963 – Bob Dylan sang ‘Blowin’ In The Wind’ on the BBC television presentation of ‘The Madhouse on Castle Street’. The song quickly became the centerpiece of the sixties protest movement.
1964 – Columbia Records released Bob Dylan’s ‘The Times They Are A-Changin’ album.
1965 – The Beach Boys recorded ‘Good To My Baby’, ‘In The Back Of My Mind’ and ‘Bull Session With The Big Daddy’—1965
1967 –The Rolling Stones released ‘Let’s Spend The Night Together’ / ‘Ruby Tuesday’.
Rock Factoid: The A-side peaked at #3 in the UK but stalled at #55 in the U.S. ‘Ruby Tuesday’ went to #1 in America.
1968 – Backed by opening acts (The Statler Brothers and Carl Perkins), Johnny Cash – with June Carter and the Tennessee Three behind him – performed two shows at Folsom State Prison in California. The resulting album (‘At Folsom Prison’) consisted of fifteen tracks from the first show and two tracks from the second.
1969 – The Beatles released the soundtrack album for ‘Yellow Submarine’ in the U.S.
Rock Factoid: The album included six songs by the group and seven orchestral pieces by George Martin. Originally, the four new Beatles songs on the album – ‘Only A Northern Song’, ‘All Together Now’, ‘Hey Bulldog’ and ‘It’s All Too Much’ – were to have been issued as an EP. This was deemed unsuitable for the U.S. market so the full-length album was created.
1978 – The Police began recording their debut album, ‘Outlandos d’Amour’ at Surrey Sound Studios in London—1978
1979 – Donny Hathaway (‘Where Is The Love’ with Roberta Flack) fell to his death from the 15th floor of a New York hotel room. His death at the age of 33 was ruled a suicide, though evidence suggested it was accidental.
1980 – The Grateful Dead, Jefferson Starship, The Beach Boys, Santana and Joan Baez performed a benefit concert for the people of Kampuchea at the Oakland Coliseum in Oakland, CA
2003 –Suspecting he was in possession of child pornography, British police confiscated computers belonging to The Who’s Pete Townshend.
Rock Factoid: After a four-month forensic investigation confirmed no evidence of child abuse images, the police offered a “caution” rather than pressing charges.
2004 – The National Football League rejected Bono’s request to allow U2 to perform ‘An American Prayer’ during the Super Bowl halftime show as part of an effort to raise awareness about the AIDS epidemic in Africa.
2007 – Doyle Holly (bass guitar with Buck Owens’ Buckaroos – ‘Act Naturally’) died of prostate cancer at the age of 70.
2007 – Michael Brecker (acclaimed tenor saxophonist who won 11 Grammy Awards over a career that spanned nearly four decades, including many years as a session man backing the likes of Frank Zappa, Simon & Garfunkel, John Lennon, Billy Joel and Elton John) died of leukemia. He was 57.
2010 –Teddy Pendergrass (lead singer with Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes – ‘If You Don’t Know Me By Now’) died at the age of 59 from respiratory failure. Pendergrass had been a quadriplegic for 28 years, paralyzed from the chest down, following a car accident in 1982.
2011 –Tommy Crain (guitarist with The Charlie Daniels Band – ‘The Devil Went Down To Georgia’) died of natural causes at the age of 59.
2011 – Alex Kirst (drummer with Iggy Pop – ‘Whatever’ and later with The Nymphs – ‘Imitating Angels’) was struck and killed in a hit-and-run crash. He was 47.
2014 – Freddie ‘Fingers’ Lee (boogie-woogie pianist – ‘Break Up’ as a solo artist, and toured and/or recorded with Screaming Lord Sutch, Ritchie Blackmore, Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Fats Domino, Eden Kane, Jerry Lee Lewis, Cliff Richard, Marty Wilde, The Crickets and Gene Vincent) died of pneumonia (following two strokes) at the age of 76.
2014 – Ronny Jordan (jazz guitarist – ‘The Jackal’) died at the age of 51. No cause of death was announced.
Compiled by Ray Lemire ©2016 RayLemire.com. All Rights Reserved.