1944, jazz comes to the Met for the first time when Louis Armstrong, Benny Goodman, Lionel Hampton, Artie Shaw, Roy Eldridge, and Jack Teagarden take the stage and show ’em how it’s done…
1955, Etta James releases her first hit, “Wallflower”…
1957, this week marks the opening of the Cavern Club in the cellar of a fruit warehouse in Liverpool … the club becomes world famous by the happy choice of the Beatles as its house band in 1961 and ’62 … it remains in business to this day…
1959, the staggering sum of $800 is borrowed by Berry Gordy for the purpose of starting Motown records, which will become one of the most successful and influential labels of the 20th century…
1962, “The Twist” by Chubby Checker tops the charts … the song was written and first recorded by Hank Ballard and the Midnighters…
1963, Bob Dylan performs in a radio play aired by the BBC called The Madhouse of Castle Street … yielding to typecasting, he plays a folk singer…
1966, British popster David Jones becomes David Bowie in an effort to avoid confusion with The Monkees’ Davy Jones…
1967, in an unlikely bit of casting, Roy Orbison and Sheb Wooley (of “Purple People Eater” fame) are featured in the movie The Fastest Guitar Alive … Orbison plays a gold-smuggling Confederate spy who totes a bullet-spewing guitar … the movie also features seven of Orbison’s songs on the soundtrack…
1967, the first Be-In takes place in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park … these gatherings of the incense-and-sandals set go on to become a Bay-area fixture…
1968, The Supremes make a guest appearance on the NBC-TV series, Tarzan … the Motown stars play a trio of nuns…
1970, in a bizarre latter-day bubble of Victorian flatulence, Scotland Yard confiscates eight prints from John Lennon’s exhibit of erotic lithographs … an accountant who has strayed into the gallery, Bag One, complains to the police, “They were exaggerated distorted caricatures depicting intimate sexual relationships of a repulsive and disgusting nature” … the raiding policeman, Detective Inspector Frederick Luff, says, “Many toilet walls depict works of similar merit. It is perhaps charitable to suggest that they are the work of a sick mind … the only danger to a successful prosecution is the argument that they are so pathetic as to be incapable of influencing anyone” … the gallery is closed and its owners prosecuted for violating obscenity laws … a London magistrate finally dismisses the charges and returns the lithos to the gallery, where they had been on sale for $58 each…
1972, Memphis’ Highway 51 South is renamed Elvis Presley Boulevard … within a few years the street goes unmarked because the street signs are stolen as quickly as they can be replaced…
1973, Pink Floyd hits the studio to start laying down tracks for one of the most successful albums ever”Dark Side of the Moon…
1974, singer Dino Martin (son of Dean) of the pop trio Dino, Desi, and Billy, is arrested on suspicion of possession and sale of two machine guns…
1977, Keith Richards wins one … he is acquitted of possession of LSD charges … he also loses one, being found guilty of cocaine possession … charges stem from the discovery of the illegal substance in a car he wrecked on May 19, 1976…
1978, The Sex Pistols play their swan-song show at San Francisco’s Winterland…
1980, Paul McCartney goes down in Japan for a big bag of reefer … he spends 10 days in the slam then gets the ignominious boot … Macca later reported that he spent his time singing Beatles songs with fellow inmates … ruefully, he recalled, “I knew I wouldn’t be able to get anything to smoke over there. This stuff was too good to flush down the toilet, so I thought I’d take it with me”…
1981, the RIAA donates a batch of rock albums to the Library of Congress … titles include Dylan’s Blonde on Blonde, KISS’s Alive!, and the Sex Pistols’ Never Mind the Bollocks, Here’s the Sex Pistols … also this week, Plastmatics singer and former erotic dancer/porn actress Wendy O. Williams is arrested in Milwaukee for pleasuring herself onstage with a sledge hammer … Ms. Williams”who typically performs adorned only in a G string and two tiny strips of electrician’s tape”resists arrest valiantly and receives 12 stitches in the head for her efforts…
1984, Michael Jackson’s hair is ignited by pyrotechnics while filming a commercial for Pepsi … he suffers scalp and neck burns requiring hospitalization … Jackson will recover and the commercial will eventually be aired but sans footage of Michael in flames … the event is later parodied in Neil Young’s video, “This Note’s for You” and in Eminem’s clip, “Just Lose It”…
1991, the crowd rushes the stage at an AC/DC concert in Salt Lake City, crushing three people to death…
1994, Danny Bonaduce of the Partridge Family squares off with Donny Osmond in a boxing ring and beats him in a split decision … proceeds from the Chicago match go to charity…
1996, Jimmy Buffett, Island Records chairman Chris Blackwell, and U2 singer Bono are taking off in Buffett’s seaplane in Jamaica when authorities open fire on them, mistaking them for drug traffickers … nobody is hurt, no drugs are found, and the authorities are contrite … Buffett gets a song out of it, “Jamaica Mistaica”… There’s an opportunity missed 🙄
1996, Lisa Marie Presley shocks the world this week in 1996 by filing for a divorce from the King of Pop after 20 months of matrimonial bliss … “Do we have sex?” Presley volunteers during an earlier interview with the couple, whereupon they both adamantly answer her own question “Yes, yes, yes!” … they do not specify with whom…
1996, a milestone of sorts is achieved when Wayne Newton performs his 25,000th Las Vegas show…
1999, claiming that Victoria’s Secret’s Metallica lip pencils constitute trademark infringement, the band Metallica files suit against the lingerie company…
2000, Sharon Osbourne announces she’ll no longer manage the Smashing Pumpkins … in a statement she says, “It was with great pride and enthusiasm that I took on management of the Pumpkins back in October, but unfortunately I must resign today due to medical reasons – Billy Corgan [the Pumpkins’ frontman] was making me sick!”…
2003, as part of a sting on users of an Internet child porn site, Pete Townshend is arrested at his home and his computer is seized … the irony is that Townshend is an activist against child pornography and foolishly used his credit card to access the site merely to see how bad it was … no child porn is found on Townshend’s computer or in his house … but since his credit card number was on the site, he is given a reprimand and released…
2004, it’s reported that in 2003 the ring-tone industry racked up $3 billion in sales of electronic song clips, throwing off $148 million in royalties to artists and songwriters…
2005, a horde of comedy and musical heavyweights show up to help Tenacious D raise cash for victims of the Indian Ocean tsunami … a benefit show is held at the Wiltern Theatre in Los Angeles and features Will Ferrell, Eddie Vedder, Beck, Chris Rock, Dave Grohl, and Josh Homme all performing with Jack Black and Kyle Gass of Tenacious D…
…and that was the week that was.
Arrivals
January 12: Mississippi Fred McDowell (1904), Tex Ritter (1907), Ray Price (1926), David Platz (1929), Glenn Yarbrough (1930), Mort Shuman (1938), William Lee Golden of The Oak Ridge Boys (1939), Long John Baldry (1941), Family Stone trumpeter Cynthia Robinson (1946), Chris Bell (1951), 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)
January 13: Sophie Tucker (1888), Lester Sill (1918), Bobby Lester (1932), Johnny Funches (1935), Trevor Rabin of Yes (1954), Earth, Wind and Fire drummer Fred White (1955), Tim Kelly of Slaughter (1963), Zach de la Rocha of Rage Against The Machine (1970)
January 14: big-band vocalist Russ Columbo (1908), Joe Seneca (1919), Allen (Alain) Toussaint (1938), Hubert Johnson (1941), Linda Jones (1944), Lamar Williams (1949), Maury Muehleisen (1949), Mark Egan (1951), Chas Smash of Madness (1959), Geoff Tate of Queensryche (1959), Patricia Morrison of Sisters of Mercy (1962), LL Cool J (1968), Dave Grohl (1969)
January 15: Gene Krupa (1909), folk music archivist Alan Lomax (1915), slide guitar blues giant Earl Hooker (1930), crooner Jack Jones (1938), Don Van Vliet AKA Captain Beefheart (1941), Edward Bivins of The Manhattans (1942), Ronnie Van Zant of Lynyrd Skynyrd (1949), Martha Davis of The Motels (1951), ELO bassist Melvyn Gale (1952), Rob Gretton (1953), Lisa Velez of Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam (1967)
January 16: bandleader Phil Harris (1904), Broadway diva Ethel Merman (1908), Roy Lanham (1923), operatic diva Marilyn Horne (1934), Bob Bogle of The Ventures (1937), John Rostill (1942), William Francis of Dr. Hook (1942), Ronnie Milsap (1943), Sade born Helen Folasade Abu (1959), Paul Webb of Talk Talk (1962), Mark O’Toole of Frankie Goes to Hollywood (1964), Maxine Jones of En Vogue (1966), Aaliyah (1979)
January 17: Eartha Kitt (1927), Bobby Bland (1930), Billy Fury (1941), Chris Montez (1943), Mick Taylor [the only lead guitarist to quit The Rolling Stones and live] (1948), Steve Earle (1955), Paul Young (1956), Susanna Hoffs of The Bangles (1957), Shabba Ranks (1966), Kid Rock born Robert James Ritchie (1971)
January 18: Bobby Herne (1938), Bobby Goldsboro (1941), David Ruffin of The Temptations (1941), “Legs” Larry Smith of The Bonzo Dog Band (1944), Tom Bailey of The Thompson Twins (1956), Andrew Wood (1966), DJ Quik (1970), Jonathan Davis of Korn (1971), Irish popette Samantha Mumba (1983)
Departures
January 12: Randy VanWarmer (2004), Maurice Gibb of the Bee Gees (2003), Brazilian composer/guitarist Luis Bonfa (2001), Robert Peterson (1987)
January 13: Brian Keenan (1985), Donny Hathaway (1979), Stephen Foster (1864)
January 14: Jerry Nolan of the New York Dolls (1992)
January 15: John Baker Saunders of Mad Season (1999), blues harp pioneer Junior Wells (1998), Grand Ole Opry performer Vic Willis (1995), Harry Nilsson (1994), songwriter Sammy Cahn (1993), Dee Murray (1992)
January 16: John Siomos (2004), Sollie McElroy (1995), Paul Beaver of Beaver & Krause (1975), Clara Ward of the Ward Sisters (1973), David Seville (1972), Arturo Toscanini (1957)
January 17: multi-instrumentalist Norris Turney (2001), T.D. Bell (1999), bluesman David “Junior” Kimbrough (1998), Robert Covington (1996), Tony Duhig (1991), Dean Reed (1986), songwriter Tommy Tucker (1982), R&B singer Billy “Fat Boy” Stewart (1970), Rico Hightower (1970), Norman P. Rich (1970)
January 18: Keith Diamond (1997), Mel Appleby (1990), McKinely Mitchell (1986)