It happened this week

This is the week that was in matters musical…

1874, classical composer Gustav Theodore Holst is born in Cheltenham, England … Holst will grow up to write The Planets, an orchestral suite that is among the most famous modern classical compositions … bombastic movie composer John Williams (not to be confused with the classical guitar genius of the same name) will borrow freely from The Planets, in his soundtrack for Star Wars…

1942, Glenn Miller and his Orchestra perform for the last time before Miller goes off to do his part for the war effort and eventually disappears over the English Channel…

1943, performing above and beyond the call of duty, Kate Smith goes on the air for 13 continuous hours and collects $39 million in war bond pledges to support the effort against Hitler and Hirohito…

1953, child-prodigy-concert-pianist-turned-popular-entertainer Liberace plays Carnegie Hall for the first time … the hall is sold out…

1956, future Monkee Mickey Dolenz makes his first appearance as Corky on NBC’s Circus Boy series … he travels around the country promoting the show with the elephant, Bimbo … Dolenz’s career will go on to include lending his voice to characters in such cartoons as Scooby Doo and The Funky Fantom … he will also direct Martin Mull’s offbeat comedy show Fernwood Tonight and tour as a solo musical act for years…

1958, “It’s All in the Game” by Tommy Edwards is the Billboard No. 1 Pop Hit … the song was written in 1937 by Charles G. Dawes who served as U.S. Vice President under Calvin Coolidge from 1925-1929 … that same week the Teddy Bears release their song “To Know Him Is To Love Him,” penned by 18-year-old Phil Spector who named the tune for the epitaph on his father’s tombstone…

1959, the Isley Brothers chart for the first time with the now-classic “Shout”…the song will be followed by 40 more Top 100 hits over the next 38 years…

1965, during a Scandinavian tour, Who singer Roger Daltrey neatly lays out Keith Moon with a single punch and gets booted from the band, even though Daltrey founded the band and was the original lead guitar player … the newly virtuous Daltrey is concerned that the band is getting into speed and the music is taking a downturn … the specific precipitating event is Daltrey flushing Moon’s pills down the loo … a couple of days later, Daltrey eats crow, promises to be less violent, and is allowed back into the band…

1965, Great Society, a rock band started by singer Grace Slick, plays out for the first time in North Beach, San Francisco…

1968, Jimi Hendrix releases his version of “All Along the Watchtower,” a Bob Dylan composition…

1969, London’s Daily Mirror is the first paper to report the rumor that Paul McCartney is secretly dead … Paul begs to differ, “Do I look dead?” he asks a reporter, “I’m fit as a fiddle”…

1972, depressed over heart problems and the recent death of his father, British rocker Rory Storm is found dead with his head in a gas oven … Storm, born Alan Caldwell, fronted the Merseybeat group the Hurricanes who were regulars at Liverpool’s Cavern Club and were perhaps most famous for once including a drummer named Richard Starkey…

1974, Robbie McIntosh, the funky drummer for the Scots soul outfit, Average White Band, dies of a heroin overdose at a Hollywood Hills party thrown for Gregg Allman … McIntosh snorts the smack believing it is cocaine … his bandmate Alan Gorrie is saved from the same fate by Cher who is also in attendance and keeps him awake…

1975, soul singer Jackie Wilson suffers a heart attack in mid-performance at the Latin Casino in Camden, N.J. … dubbed “Mr. Excitement,” the singer falls off the stage and strikes his head on a concrete floor causing permanent brain damage … he lapses into a coma and spends the rest of his life hospitalized until death overtakes him in 1984 … the soul group The Spinners donate $60,000 for his medical care but much of that money is consumed in lawyer’s fees due to relatives tussling over control of Wilson’s estate … the singer is laid to rest in an unmarked grave … the Wilson family is haunted by tragedy … son Jackie Jr. is killed in 1970 during a burglary; daughter Sandra will die of a heart attack in 1977; and daughter Jacqueline will be shot to death in a 1987 drive-by shooting…

1979, moments after launching into the song “Better Off Dead,” under the influence of influenza, Elton John bites the stage … after 10 minutes during which he is revived by undisclosed means, he returns to the stage to finish his three-hour set…

1980, 33-year-old Led Zeppelin powerhouse drummer John Bonham is found dead in Jimmy Page’s house after a night out during which he is reported to have drunk 40 shots of vodka … his death marks the end of the seventies’ biggest band…

1985, the first FarmAid concert, organized by Willie Nelson, Neil Young, and John Mellencamp, is mounted in Champaign, Illinois, and raises $10 million to assist beleaguered family farms…

1986, Metallica bassist Cliff Burton is killed when the tour bus he’s riding in skids on an icy Swedish road, crashes, and then rolls on top of him…

1988, in an uncharacteristic lapse into lawlessness, James Brown threatens some tenants with a hand gun, then leads police on an hour-long, two-state car chase before he is arrested in Georgia…

1990, Little Richard gets a street named after him in his hometown of Macon, Georgia…

1990, Dave Grohl, former drummer for D.C. hard-core band Scream, joins Nirvana and finds fame…

1993, September 24 has figured large in the life of former Guns N’ Roses drummer Steven Adler … on this day in 1993 he settles a lawsuit with GNR for $2.5 million … he had been kicked out of the band for failing to kick his heroin habit … five years to the day later, Adler receives a 150-day jail sentence for assaulting two women he dated and violating parole on an earlier domestic violence conviction…

1996, 23-year-old Hank Williams III stands up at the Grand Ol Opry in his grandfather’s black western shirt trimmed with green fringe to sing “Lovesick Blues,” the same song Hank Williams Sr. played for his Opry debut … the Opry had fired Hank Sr. for drunkenness in August of 1952 … he died four months later of a drug/booze overdose in the back of a Cadillac on the way to a gig on New Year’s Eve…

1999, TV’s “Judge Joe” decides that Coolio is not so cool, ruling that he owes his band, the Wyld Bunch, $4,000 in back pay…

2001, Cher wins a lawsuit brought against her by an accountant who claimed that he was fired and harassed after he alleged that there were labor violations during the construction of Cher’s Malibu mansion…

2002, in an out-of-court settlement, British musician Mike Batt forks over an undisclosed six-figure payment to the John Cage Trust for “plagiarizing” Cage’s “4’33,” which is totally silent … Batt had included Cage’s name along with his own when crediting the silent piece on The Planets’ record Classical Graffiti … he tells reporters that the lawyers who brought the suit and represent Cage’s publisher don’t really have much of a case but he agreed to make the contribution as a tribute to Cage’s work…

2004, Cat Stevens is kicked out of the United States after a jet bound for Washington from London was diverted to unload him … the former pop singer, now known as Yusuf Islam, showed up on a US watch list after United Airlines Flight 919 had taken off from London … the flight landed in Maine where Islam, 56, who was travelling with his 21-year-old daughter, was detained and questioned … officials said he was refused entry under the Immigration and Naturalization Act “based on national security grounds” … his daughter was allowed into the US. (but was being followed by a moon shadow) … this same week, famed record producer Phil Spector is finally charged with the murder of actress Lana Clarkson, who was shot to death in Spector’s mansion February 3, 2003 … the coroner deemed the death a homicide and Spector is the only suspect …

…and that was the week that was.

Arrivals

September 21: composer Gustav Holst (1874), Leonard Cohen (1934), Don Felder of the Eagles (1947), Tyler Stewart of Barenaked Ladies (1967), Faith Hill (1967), De La Soul’s Trugoy the Dove (1968), David Silveria of Korn (1972)

September 22: Mike Patto (1942), David Coverdale (1951), Debby Boone (1956), Johnette Napolitano of Concrete Blonde (1957), Joan Jett (1960), Liam Gallagher of Oasis (1972)

September 23: bandleader Tiny Bradshaw (1905), Sam Phillip’s assistant Marion Keisker (1917), blues guitarist and DJ Joe Hill Louis (1921), John Coltrane (1926), jazz bassist Jimmy Woode (1928), Wally Whyton of The Vipers (1929), Ray Charles (1930), singer and songwriter Charlie Fox (1934), Fenton Robinson (1935), Ben E. King (1938), Roy Buchanan (1939), Steve Boone of the Lovin’ Spoonful (1941), Julio Iglesias (1943), Ron Bushy of Iron Butterfly (1945), jazz musician Don Grolnick (1947), Jerry Corbetta of Sugarloaf (1947), Bruce Springsteen (1949), John Baker Saunders of Mad Season (1954), Lita Ford (1959), Ani DiFranco (1970), Jermaine Dupri (1972), Erik-Michael Estrada of O-Town (1979)

September 24: gospel, blues, and doo-wop singer Allen Bunn (1924), Carl Feaster of The Chords (1930), Anthony Newley (1931), Ventures drummer Mel Taylor (1933), James “Shep” Sheppard of Shep & The Limelites (1935), Linda McCartney (1942), Gerry Marsden of Gerry And The Pacemakers (1942), Cedric Dent of Take 6 (1962), Marty Cintron of No Mercy (1971)

September 25: Russian composer Dimitri Shostakovich (1906), Erik Darling of The Rooftop Singers (1933), bluesman Roosevelt “Booba” Barnes (1936), Ian Tyson of Ian and Sylvia (1933), Joseph Russsel of The Persuasions (1939), Wade Flemons of Earth, Wind and Fire (1940), co-founder of Love Bryan MacLean (1946), Zucchero (1955), Will Smith (1968), Diana Ortiz of Dream (1985)

September 26: George Gershwin (1898), New Orleans guitarist Rene Hall (1912), Marty Robbins (1925), George Chambers of The Chambers Brothers (1931), Bryan Ferry of Roxy Music (1945), Olivia Newton-John (1948), Cesar Rosas of Los Lobos (1954), Craig Chaquico of Jefferson Starship (1954), Carlene Carter (1955), Tracey Thorn of Everything But The Girl (1962), Cindy Herron of En Vogue (1965), Shannon Hoon of Blind Melon (1967), Shawn Stockman of Boyz II Men (1972), Christina Milian (1981)

September 27: bluesman “Mighty” Joe Young (1927), Don Nix (1941), Randy Bachman of BTO (1943), Meat Loaf aka Marvin Lee Aday (1947), Greg Ham of Men At Work (1953), reggae bassist Robbie Shakespeare (1953), teen throb Shaun Cassidy (1958), Stephan Jenkins of Third Eye Blind (1966), Mark Calderon of Color Me Badd (1970), Avril Lavigne (1984)

Departures

September 22: virtuoso violinist Isaac Stern (2001), Irving Berlin (1989)

September 23: boogie woogie pianist Lawrence “Booker T.” Laury (1995), Mississippi bluesman Houston Stackhouse (1980), Robbie McIntosh (1974)

September 24: singer-songwriter Matthew Jay (2003), folk rocker Tim Rose (2002)

September 25: Steve Canaday of the Ozark Mountain Daredevils (1999), John Bonham (1980)

September 26: Robert Palmer (2003), songwriter Carl Sigman (2000), jazz diva Betty Carter (1998), Arnold Shaw (1989), Auburn “Pat” Hare (1980), Bessie Smith (1937)

September 27: rockabilly guitarist Paul Burlison (2003), Wings guitarist Jimmy McCulloch (1979), Metallica’s Cliff Burton (1986), Rory Storm of the Hurricanes (1972)