This is the week that was in matters musical…
1935, a boy child is born in Tupelo, Mississippi, to Vernon and Gladys Presley … actually, two boys are born, identical twins … one named Jesse Garon Presley is stillborn; his living brother, named Elvis Aaron Presley, will go on to reshape the trajectory of modern music and culture, leaving things all shook up…
1950, the #1 Billboard Pop Hit is “Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer” by Gene Autry … over 8 million copies of the novelty tune are sold making this far and away the singing cowboy’s biggest hit…
1958, Gibson obtains a patent for its Flying V guitar … the instrument doesn’t sell well at first and is discontinued only to be revived later … it eventually becomes associated with many great blues and rock players including Albert King … the futuristic design will be emulated by other manufacturers over the years…
1959, Coral Records issues Buddy Holly’s single, “It Doesn’t Matter Anymore” … it is the last release by the bespectacled rocker before his death … written by Paul Anka, it is among the few Holly hits that were not self-penned…
1963, Gary “U.S.” Bonds brings a $100,000 suit against Chubby Checker, claiming Checker plagiarized “Quarter to Three” and turned it into “Dancin’ Party” … the case is settled out of court … L.A.’s Whisky-A-Go-Go, the city’s first rock club, opens … it becomes the place to be seen and helps launch the careers of such major acts as The Doors…
1964, The Rolling Stones embark on their first British tour as headliners … the opening act is the American girl group, The Ronettes … Johnny Cash’s Ring of Fire becomes the first country LP to top the Billboard pop chart…
1966, the last episode of ABC-TV’s Shindig! airs featuring The Kinks and The Who … the show, which was broadcast on Thursday and Saturday nights, was among the first prime-time programs to feature rock acts…
1968, underground San Francisco FM station KMPX holds a “grass ballot” election in which listeners vote for national officeholders … Bob Dylan is named president, Paul Butterfield gets the nod as VP, George Harrison is voted U.N. ambassador, the Jefferson Airplane are named Secretary of Transportation, and the Grateful Dead are voted the new attorney general … London’s Daily Mirror reports that Jimi Hendrix has moved into a townhouse where Handel was said to have composed The Messiah … the guitar master tells a reporter he plans to do his own composing there and “not let the tradition down”…
1970, Max Yasgur, whose farm was the site of the Woodstock Festival, is sued for $35,000 by neighbors charging property damage…
1973, due to a 1969 drug charge, Mick Jagger is refused a Japanese visa upsetting The Stones’ plans to tour Asia … queried about his drug use by a reporter, Jagger says, “I don’t take drugs. I don’t approve of drugs and I don’t approve of people taking drugs, unless they’re very careful”…
1975, 1,000 ticket-seeking Led Zeppelin fans who have camped out overnight in the lobby of the Boston Gardens go on a rampage causing $30,000 in damage … Boston mayor Kevin White promptly pulls the plug on the show…
1976, America loses one of its roots-music titans when bluesman Howlin’ Wolf dies near Chicago after undergoing brain surgery…
1981, Eagles Live goes platinum … the double LP proves to be the band’s final release until their 1994 comeback album, Hell Freezes Over … John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s LP Double Fantasy goes platinum just over a month after Lennon’s assassination … 1992, Paul Simon is the first international star to perform in South Africa following the end of the U.N.’s cultural boycott … in the 1980s the singer-songwriter had been subjected to criticism for going to South Africa to record his groundbreaking record Graceland during the apartheid era…
1993, bassist Bill Wyman announces that he has left The Rolling Stones … the U.S. Postal Service releases a first-class stamp bearing the likeness of the 1950s-era Elvis … the USPS had asked the public to choose between that image and a portrait of an older, plumper King … the younger, svelter version won hands down…
1994, Nirvana plays its last U.S. date at the Seattle Center Arena…
1998, Sonny Bono dies after slamming into a tree while skiing…
1999, Lauryn Hill racks up ten Grammy nominations for her best-selling album, The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill…
2000, the renowned Chicago club Lounge Axe goes out in a blaze of glory with a surprise appearance by Wilco … the alt-country quartet plays a two-and-a-half-hour set before an SRO crowd … fans had queued up for over seven hours to catch the band … Melissa Etheridge reveals that the sperm donor for the children she parents with partner Julie Cypher was David Crosby…
2000, while going through airport security in Hawaii, Whitney Houston is caught with more than a half-ounce of pot in her purse … though security personnel attempt to detain the singer, she marches off and catches her flight to San Francisco…
2005, pop singer Aaron Carter’s Cadillac Escalade bursts into flames in the middle of the night when a mattress comes loose from a cargo truck in front of him, gets stuck in the Escalade’s undercarriage, and is ignited by the car’s exhaust system … Aaron and a passenger escape relatively unscathed … Kid Rock gets booted off the lineup to play as part of Dubya’s inauguration festivities when Christian groups flood organizers with 100,000 protest emails … the dissenters object to Rock’s hard-partying persona and lyrics about “pimpin’ Barbara Bush” … Strawberry Fields, the Liverpool orphanage commemorated in the 1967 Beatles song, announces that it will close in 2007 … John Lennon played on the grounds of the Salvation Army facility during his childhood…
…and that was the week that was.
Arrivals
January 5: Sun Records founder Sam Phillips (1923), George Brown of Kool & The Gang (1949), Chris Stein of Blondie (1950), Grant Young of Soul Asylum (1964), Kate Schellenbach of Luscious Jackson (1966), Marilyn Manson (1969)
January 6: banjo master Earl Scruggs (1924), Wilbert Harrison (1929), Van McCoy (1940), Syd Barrett of Pink Floyd (1946), Sandy Denny (1948), Kim Wilson of The Fabulous Thunderbirds (1951), Malcolm Young (1953), Kathie Sledge of Sister Sledge (1959), Jazzie B of Soul II Soul (1963), Mark O’Toole of Frankie Goes To Hollywood (1964)
January 7: flautist Jean-Pierre Rampal (1922), Paul Revere Dick of Paul Revere & the Raiders (1942), Kenny Loggins (1948), Kathy Valentine of The Go-Gos (1959)
January 8: Elvis Presley (1935), Shirley Bassey (1937), Marcus Hutson of The Whispers (1943), Doors’ guitarist Robby Krieger (1946), David Bowie (1947), Terry Sylvester of The Hollies (1947), Mike Reno of Loverboy (1955), R. Kelly (1967), Jeff Abercrombie of Fuel (1969), Sean Paul (1975)
January 9: Joan Baez (1941), Roy Head (1943), The Manhattan’s Kenneth Kelly (1943), Jimmy Page (1944), Steeleye Span’s Tim Hart (1948), David Johansen (1950), Crystal Gayle (1951), Gloria Estefan (1957), Eric Erlandson of Hole (1963), Carl Bell of Fuel (1967), Dave Matthews (1967), Steve Harwell of Smash Mouth (1967), A.J. McLean of The Backstreet Boys (1978)
January 10: producer Jerry Wexler (1917), Max Roach (1925), pop crooner Johnny Ray (1927), Domenico Modugno of “Volare” fame (1928), swamp rocker Ronnie Hawkins (1935), Scott McKenzie aka Philip Blondheim (1939), Jim Croce (1943), Rod Stewart (1945), Aynsley Dunbar (1946), Donald Fagen (1948), Cyrill Neville (1948), Pat Benatar (1953), Michael Shenker (1955), Shawn Colvin (1958), Brad Roberts of Crash Test Dummies (1964), Aerle Taree of Arrested Development (1973), Chris Smith aka Paddy MackKris Kross (1979)
January 11: Texas Playboys vocalist Tommy Duncan (1911), Slim Harpo (1924), Don Cherry (1924), Bobby Goldsboro (1941), Springsteen reedman Clarence Clemons (1942), Naomi Judd (1946), Lee Ritenour (1952), The Bangles’ Vicki Peterson (1960), Tom Dumont of No Doubt (1968), Mary J. Blige (1971), Chemical Brothers’ Tom Rowlands (1971)
January 12: Mississippi Fred McDowell (1904), Tex Ritter (1907), Ray Price (1926), Glenn Yarbrough (1930), William Lee Golden of The Oak Ridge Boys (1939), Long John Baldry (1941), Sly & The Family Stone trumpeter Cynthia Robinson (1946), Michael Hutchence of INXS (1960), Charlie Gillingham of Counting Crows (1960), Rob Zombie (1966), Raekwon of Wu Tang Clan (1968), Melanie Chisholm of The Spice Girls (1974)
Departures
January 5: Sonny Bono (1998), Finian’s Rainbow composer Burton Lane (1997), vocalist Billy Windsor (1994), jazz composer-bassist Charles Mingus (1979)
January 6: French jazz pianist Michel Petrucciani (1999), renowned country fiddler Robert Russell “Chubby” Wise (1996), original Clovers lead vocalist Hal Lucas (1994), Dizzy Gillespie (1993), dub-style reggae pioneer King Tubby (1989), tenor saxman Bobby Fields (1981), Georgeanna Tillman of the Marvelettes (1980), Johnny Moore of the Blazers (not to be confused with Johnny Moore of the Drifters) (1969)
January 7: legendary Nashville producer Owen Bradley (1998), Carl White of the Rivingtons (1980), British blues pioneer Cyril Davies (1964)
January 8: Joe Dan Petty of Grinderswitch (2000), Steve Clark of Def Leppard (1991), New Orleans pianist Archibald (1973)
January 9: original Ventures drummer Howie Johnson (1988)
January 10: Jefferson Airplane drummer Spencer Dryden (2005), guitarist Bryan Gregory of The Cramps (2001), beach-movie songwriter Guy Bonson Hemric (1993), Howlin’ Wolf AKA Chester Burnett (1976)
January 11: Bread cofounder Jimmy Griffin (2005), Creem Magazine founder Barry Kramer (1981)
January 12: Brazilian composer-guitarist Luis Bonfa (2001)