The late Donald ‘Duck’ Dunn (bass guitar with Booker T & The MGs – ‘Green Onions’) was born in 1941

The late Richard Tee (keyboard session man who played with Paul Simon, Billy Joel, Aretha Franklin, David Bowie, James Brown, Eric Clapton and many others) was born in 1943

Chad Taylor (lead guitar with Live – ‘Lightning Crashes’) is 45

Chris Hayes (guitarist with Huey Lewis & The News – ‘Hip To Be Square’) is 58

Clem Burke (drummer with Blondie – ‘Call Me’) is 60

Lee Michaels (‘Do You Know What I Mean’) is 70
Rock Factoid: Michaels had a bare bones approach to music. Playing his HammondB3 organ, he recorded and performed with just one other musician, a powerhouse drummer by the name of ‘Frosty’ (Bartholomew Eugene Smith-Frost). The sound they produced was amazing for a two person ensemble.

Pete Best (born Randolph Peter Best – drummer fired by the Beatles in 1962 just prior to the start of Beatlemania) is 74

Jim Yester (guitarist/keyboardist/singer with The Association – ‘Along Comes Mary’) is 76

Tommy Allsup (joined The Crickets in April 1958 and played lead guitar on ‘It’s So Easy’) is 84
Rock Factoid: Allsup lost a coin flip with Ritchie Valens for a seat on Buddy Holly’s ill-fated plane.

Harry Belafonte’s ‘Mary’s Boy Child’ became the second single (‘Rock Around The Clock’ was the first) to sell a million copies in the UK. It stayed at #1 for seven weeks and became a perennial British Christmas favorite—1957

The High Numbers, performed their first gig under the new name (The Who) at London’s Marquee Club, promising what the posters famously called “Maximum R&B”—1964>

The Beatles recorded the basic acoustic track for ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’ as they kicked off the sessions for the ‘Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band’ album. The song, originally planned for inclusion on that landmark album, was instead issued as a single—1966
Rock Factoid: John Lennon wrote the song in Almerí­a, Spain in autumn 1966, while filming his role as Private Gripweed in the Richard Lester movie How I Won The War.
Rock Factoid #2: “The second verse goes, ‘No one I think is in my tree.’ Well, what I was trying to say in that line is ‘Nobody seems to be as hip as me, therefore I must be crazy or a genius.’ It’s the same problem as I had when I was five: ‘There is something wrong with me because I seem to see things other people don’t see. Am I crazy, or am I a genius?’ What I’m saying, in my insecure way, is ‘Nobody seems to understand where I’m coming from. I seem to see things in a different way from most people.'” … John Lennon

The Doors shot the album cover photo for their debut album at Elektra Studios in New York City—1966

The Beatles released ‘Hello Goodbye’ / ‘I Am The Walrus’ in the UK—1967
Rock Factoid: On the same date, the band premiered the video clip for ‘Hello Goodbye’ on the Ed Sullivan Show.
“I thought, ‘We’ll just hire a theater and show up there one afternoon.’ And that was what we did: we took our Sgt. Pepper suits along and filmed at the Saville Theatre in the West End. So we went down there, got some girls in Hawaiian skirts, got our Sgt. Pepper outfits on, and I just ran out there, ‘Get a shot of this! Do this for a bit now! Let’s have a shot there!’ It was very thrown away. Nice to do stuff like that.” … Paul McCartney
Rock Factoid #2: One member of the band thought the video should have been thrown away. “Making the film for ‘Hello Goodbye’ was almost as bad as making the record. It was part of the silliness we were all enduring to keep Paul happy.” … George Harrison

Don Kirsher’s In Concert debuted on ABC. The series was a showcase for bands of the era to be taped “in concert” and then broadcast on ABC on Friday nights. The debut program featured Alice Cooper, the Allman Brothers Band, Poco, and Seals & Crofts—1972

Steely Dan released ‘Hey Nineteen’—1980

Big Joe Turner (the original ‘Shake, Rattle And Roll’) died (heart attack)—1985

Kiss drummer Eric Carr died (cerebral hemorrhage while hospitalized for cancer)—1991

Cyndi Lauper married actor David Thornton in Manhattan. The wedding was officiated by Little Richard—1991

Freddie Mercury (lead singer with Queen – ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’) died (bronchial pneumonia resulting from AIDS)—1991

Blues guitarist Albert Collins (‘Frosty’) died (cancer)—1993

Rolling Stone bass guitarist Bill Wyman’s divorce from Mandy Smith was finalized. The 57-year old Wyman was ordered to pay the 23-year old Smith $800,000. It was the end of a relationship which had started when Smith 13 years old—1992

Melanie Thornton (‘Sweet Dreams’) together with Maria Serrano Serrano and Nathaly van het Ende of Passion Fruit (‘Sun Fun Baby’) died (plane crash)—2001

Casey Calvert (guitarist with Hawthorne Heights – ‘Saying Sorry’) died (acute combined effects of prescribed drug intoxication)—2007

Red Hot Chili Peppers bass guitarist Flea’s $4.8 million home was destroyed by a wildfire that swept through Malibu—2007

Kenny MacLean (bass guitar with Platinum Blonde – ‘Situation Critical’) died (heart-related illness)—2008

Michael Lee (drummer with Little Angels – ‘Radical Your Lover’ and later the drummer in Robert Plant’s band and the Plant/Page post-Led Zeppelin collaboration – ‘Read The Letter’) died (epileptic seizure)—2008

Chris Stamp (co-manager of The Who) died (cancer)—2012

Ian Campbell (one of the most important figures of the British folk revival in the 1960s and singer/songwriter with The Ian Campbell Folk Group – ‘The Sun Is Burning’) died (cancer)—2012
Rock Factoid: His sons, Ali, Robin and Duncan, are members of the reggae/pop group, UB40 of ‘Red, Red Wine’ fame.
Rock Factoid #2: Campbell’s career had a few disappointing moments. His band recorded ‘Guantanamera’, but their record label refused to release it as a single because they did not consider it to be commercial. The song became a worldwide hit soon afterwards for The Sandpipers.
Rock Factoid #3: Campbell was equally unlucky with ‘The Sun Is Burning’ – a song he wrote. It was covered by Simon & Garfunkel and included on the original pressing of their ‘Wednesday Morning 3AM’ album. However, it was omitted from the re-pressed and re-marketed version, which went on to sell more than eight million copies, thus denying him huge royalties.

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