This is the week that was in matters musical …
1955, Georgia Gibbs’ “Dance With Me Henry” is released … it’s a cleaned-up version of the more licentiously-titled “Roll With Me Henry” by Etta James which in turn was retitled “The Wallflower” to keep censors at bay … Coral Records hires original rock DJ Alan Freed as their A&R man …
1958, Elvis Presley is inducted into the U.S. Army as Private Presley, serial number U-S-53310761 …
1962, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards first perform together as Little Boy Blue & the Blue Boys …
1963, teen idol Dion finally takes his “Runaround Sue” out of the marketplace when he marries Sue Butterfield …
1964, wax images of The Beatles go on display in London at the Madame Tussaud Wax Museum … they will later appear on the Sergeant Pepper cover … wax on…wax off…everyone’s favorite high-strung diva, Barbara “Babs” Streisand opens on Broadway in Funny Girl…she wins a Best Actress Oscar for her role in the movie version …
1967, Peter Bergman of Firesign Theatre coined the term Love-In and threw the first such event in April of 1967 in Los Angeles’ Elysian Park, attracting 65,000 people and blocking freeways for miles…Columbia Records producer, Gary Usher is so impressed, he offers Firesign Theatre their first record contract…The Who play their first American gig at New York’s Paramount Theater …
1969, raising the bar for those who love to sleep in, John Lennon and Yoko Ono hold their famous “bed-in” at the Amsterdam Hilton Hotel …
1973, just 12 days after their single “Cover of the Rolling Stone” peaks at #6 on the pop chart, Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show appear on the cover of the magazine … Lou Reed is bitten at a concert in Buffalo, New York …the “rabid” fan, unable to contain his affection, leaps onstage and bites Reed on the bum as he is about to perform Waitin’ for the Man…screaming “leather,” the fan gets past security as he assaults Reed…the fan is ejected and Reed later comments that the US “seems to breed real animals” …
1975, Barry Manilow makes his first appearance on American Bandstand … No. 1 on the Billboard charts is Led Zeppelin’s Physical Graffiti … No. 3 is Bob Dylan’s Blood on the Tracks … No. 2 is Olivia Newton-John’s Have You Never Been Mellow … go figure …
1978, the Police sign with A&M records …
1985, Prince wins an Oscar for Best Original Score for the film Purple Rain … rumor has it that the movie’s title song actually was written by Prince’s backup musicians, Wendy and Lisa … the movie seems to acknowledge this, however the credits don’t … they are credited as co-writers of “Computer Blue,” a song Wendy and Lisa claim in an interview that they had nothing to do with … Billy Joel marries model Christie Brinkley … nine years later, his relationship with the “uptown girl” goes south …
1991, New Kid Donnie Wahlberg narrowly escapes becoming a new kid on the cell block when he is arrested and charged with first-degree arson … he apparently was trying to set the historic Seelbach Hotel in Louisville, KY, on fire with a Molotov cocktail … the charges are later reduced and then dropped in exchange for public service commercials …
1992, after it’s discovered that Milli Vanilli didn’t perform on their recordings, a Chicago judge says the duo’s label should offer refunds to those who bought their records … c’mon, give Rob and Fab a break, nobody performs on their records anymore …
1995, Tupac Shakur is found guilty of sexual assault against a female fan and sentenced to four-and-a-half years in Riker’s penitentiary in February of that year … while in jail, Tupac’s Me Against the World hits number one … he becomes the first rapper to top the charts and get married while incarcerated … a short opera on the life of Martina Navratilova has its Carnegie Hall premiere … the Song of Martina, composed by Dean X Johnson, assistant music director of the New York City Gay Men’s Chorus, featured lesbian comic Lea Delaria in the title role … Duran Duran release Thank You, a collection of cover versions generally considered to be one of the worst albums ever recorded …
1996, the Beatles last charting single, “Real Love,” enters the Top 100 and will eventually rise to #11 … the song is based on a demo cut by John Lennon in 1979 to which the other Beatles added new vocals 16 years after Lennon’s death …
1997, shock rock band Marilyn Manson is forced to cut short a show at the Nimitz Concert Hall in Honolulu, Hawaii, after lead singer Manson injures his hand during the performance … Manson, whose real name is Brian Warner, falls onstage and cuts an artery in his hand … we hear that Manson normally isn’t squeamish at the sight of blood … unless it’s his own … Paul McCartney’s birth certificate is sold to a bidder for Beatles’ memorabilia for $84,146 …
1998, Chuck Negron files suit against his former Three Dog Night bandmates … Negron alleges that a breach of a 1990 settlement put a crimp in the crooner’s career … years later in an odd twist, Negron’s management licenses the rights to use the name of the 1960s horn band Blood, Sweat & Tears from BS&T drummer Bobby Colomby … Negron now appears as Blood, Sweat & Tears Featuring Chuck Negron at various venues …
1999, rapper Ol’ Dirty Bastard is arrested yet again, this time in New York City after police claim to have found crack cocaine in his vehicle after pulling him over for not having license plates on his vehicle … ODB will be charged with a misdemeanor drug possession charge and for driving with a suspended license … he will be arrested again five days later after police pull him over because once again the vehicle he is driving has no license plates … on the positive side of hip-hop, rap mogul Master P donates $500,000 to keep his old grammar school from closing …
2000, with Angus Young in attendance, the Spanish town of Leganes names a street “Calle de AC/DC” …
2003, Guns N’ Roses singer Axl Rose sends the Offspring a cease-and-desist letter after they announce plans to call their new album Chinese Democrazy … “You snooze you lose,” Offspring singer Dexter Holland said in a statement … “Axl ripped off my braids, so I ripped off his album title.” … Madonna’s Swept Away is named worst film at this year’s Razzie … Madonna also ties with Britney Spears for worst actress and wins worst supporting actress for her appearance in the James Bond flick Die Another Day …
2004, Bob Dylan starts hawking lady’s underwear in a television ad for Victoria’s Secret which also features the song “Love Sick” from Dylan’s 1997 album Time Out of Mind … the commercial features Dylan and model Adriana Lima, who is barely clothed while Dylan, thankfully, is fully dressed … music critics, columnists, and Dylan fans immediately erupt on the Internet after the first spot aired, all asking “Why?” … the answer is; no one knows except Bob … however, shedding some possible light, when asked in 1965 what might tempt him to sell out he replied: “Ladies’ undergarments.” …
2005, Justin Jeffre, former member of the boy band 98 Degrees, announces his candidacy for the mayor of Cincinnati … according to pollsters, Jeffre ran a lackluster campaign, which raised the question as to whether fellow bandmate Nick Lachey should have run … as if we need more lackeys in politics … the Decemberists opt to release their new music video, “Sixteen Military Wives,” via BitTorrent, an easy way to give the video exposure without fronting a lot of money for bandwidth … Dawn Barger, manager for the Decemberists, says: “For the most part, MTV and VH1 won’t touch video unless bands have sold a huge number of records. It’s impossible to get rotation” … the experimental release is a success, seeing almost 2,000 downloads its first weekend … American Idol is forced to have a revote after they display the incorrect phone numbers for each of the 11 contestants during the voting stage of the Fox TV talent show …
2006, Apple releases a free software patch for download that permits iPod owners to set a maximum volume level … the action is seemingly in response to articles critical of the device’s potential for hearing damage and a pending class-action lawsuit … so much for self-determination … as Rene Descartes might have said, “iPod therefore I am” …
And that was the week that was.
Arrivals:
March 22: Stephen Sondheim (1930) George Benson (1943), Keith Relf of the Yardbirds (1943) Tony McPhee of The Groundhogs (1944), Jeremy Clyde of Chad and Jeremy (1944), Harry Vanda of the Easybeats (1947), Patrick Olive of Hot Chocolate (1947), Andrew Lloyd Webber (1948), Randy Jo Hobbs, McCoys/Montrose bass player (1948), Richard Ploog of The Church (1962)
March 23: Joey d’Ambrosio of Bill Haley and the Comets (1934), swamp bluesman Louisiana Red (1936), Ric Ocasek of the Cars (1949), Chaka Khan, born Yvette Marie Stevens (1953), Epic Soundtracks, born Kevin Godfrey, founding drummer of the punk band Swell Maps (1959), Damon Albarn of Blur (1968)
March 24: Ollie McLaughlin, producer with Del Shannon (1925), George Lee, singer with Ruby and the Romantics (1936), soul singer Billy “Fat Boy” Stewart (1937), songwriter Peggy Sue, sister of Loretta Lynn and Crystal Gayle (1947)
March 25: Vivian Carter, The “Vee” in Vee-Jay Records (1921), Tom Wilson, producer with Dylan, Simon and Garfunkel, and John Coltrane (1931), Johnny Burnette (1934), Jose L. Rodriguez, engineer for Culture Club, Mary J. Blige, and Gloria Gaynor (1944), Nick Lowe (1949)
March 26: Rufus Thomas, best known for “Walkin’ The Dog” (1917), Diana Ross (1944), Steven Tyler of Aerosmith (1948), Teddy Pendergrass (1950), Bill Lyall, keyboardist for Pilot and Bay City Rollers (1953), Eddie Van Halen (1955)
March 27: Leroy Carr, influential blues pianist (1905), blues guitarist Robert Lockwood Jr., learned from the legendary Robert Johnson (1915), Sarah Vaughan (1924), Reprise Records’ mogul Mo Ostin, who signed Jimi Hendrix (1927), Johnny “Clyde” Copeland, Houston blues guitarist (1937), Brenda Knight of Gladys Knight and the Pips (1948), Tony Banks of Genesis (1951), Mariah Carey (1970)
March 28: Aaron “T-Bone” Walker, legendary electric blues guitarist (1910), Milan Williams of The Commodores (1948)
Departures:
March 22: George Howard, sax player with Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes (1998), Dan Hartman (1994), Dave Guard of the Kingston Trio (1991), one-hit-wonder Mark Dinning of “Teen Angel” fame (1986)
March 23: Cindy Walker, country songwriter who also wrote hits for Ray Charles and Roy Orbison (2006), songwriter-producer J.D. Miller (1996), Don Murray, drummer for The Turtles (1996), Ripley Ingram, tenor vocalist with The Five Keys (1995), Frank Kirkland, Bo Diddley’s drummer (1973)
March 24: Foghat’s founding guitarist Rod Price (2005), Harold Melvin, leader of Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes (1997)
March 25: country legend Buck Owens (2006), Kenny Moore, keyboardist for Tina Turner (1997), folksinger-songwriter Tom Jans (1984)
March 26: Nikki Sudden of Swell Maps (2006), Paul Hester, drummer for Crowded House (2005), Jan Berry, of Jan and Dean (2004), rapper Eazy-E aka Eric Wright (1996), Duster Bennett, member of John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers (1976), songwriter-playwright Noel Coward (1973), Harold McNair, flautist and saxophonist with Donovan and Ginger Baker (1971)
March 27: Clifford Jordan, jazz saxophonist (1993), Paul Gayten, R&B singer, Chess Records talent scout (1991)
March 28: Don Alias, jazz percussionist (2006), actor-jazz pianist Dudley Moore (2002), Freaky Tah, born Raymond Rodgers, of The Lost Boyz (1999), Buddy Red Bow, Lakota country and western singer (1993), father of the blues, songwriter W.C. Handy (1958), Arthur “Big Boy” Crudup (1974)