This is the week that was in matters musical …
1954, Bill Haley & His Comets first recording session for Decca produces the track “(We’re Gonna) Rock Around the Clock” … the single, which melds hillbilly and R&B ingredients, will own the top spot on the Billboard chart for eight weeks and be considered by many to mark the beginning of rock ‘n’ roll …
1956, following Elvis’ show at the Memorial Coliseum in Corpus Christi, Texas, the venue’s manager vows it’ll be the last rock ‘n’ roll show to sully his stage … he is reacting to complaints from fans and parents who condemn the performance as “vulgar” …
1960, rockabilly pioneer Eddie Cochran breathes his last after a brutal car crash in Bath, England, when the chauffeur-driven Ford Consul he is riding in blows a tire and slams into a lamp post … Cochran is thrown out of the car and smashes his head on the pavement … fellow-rocker Gene Vincent and Cochran’s girlfriend, Sharon Sheeley are badly injured … the driver emerges unscathed …
1963, The Drifters cut a topical Lieber-Stoller song titled “Only in America” that, due to lyrics which obliquely refer to race issues, is deemed a hot potato … the black group’s vocals are edited off the track and are replaced with those of Jay & the Americans, a white group … thought to be lost, the Drifters’ version turns up as a bonus track on a Jay & The Americans CD in 1983 …
1966, Jan Berry, half of the duo Jan & Dean, notable for their many car-related hits, wipes out his Corvette and suffers major head injuries that lead to paralysis and a long, hard road to recovery …
1967, proving that capitalists will always be hot on the heels of revolutionaries, Gray Line Tours begins busing tourists through the Haight-Ashbury district of San Francisco on a guided tour of Hippieland … this same day the Rolling Stones slash a hole in the Iron Curtain when they play a show in Warsaw, Poland … some of the fans get out of hand and are doused with tear gas …
1968, Frank Zappa and The Mothers of Invention perform at the National Academy of Arts and Sciences Dinner in New York … Zappa makes some cutting remarks, terming the event, “a load of pompous hokum … all year long you people have manufactured this crap, now for one night you’re gonna have to listen to it!” … recalling the event later, Zappa says, “We played the ugliest sh*t we could … that’s what they expected us to play” …
1970, Johnny Cash drops in on Richard Nixon at the White House and performs “A Boy Named Sue” at the president’s special request …
1981, “This Little Girl” by Gary U.S. Bonds is released … the song was written and co-produced by Bruce Springsteen who has long been a Bonds fan … it will reach #11 on the Pop Chart and become Bond’s first chart hit in 19 years … though Elvis is known as “The King of Rock ‘n’ Roll,” his “Lovin’ Arms” lands on the country chart this week in 1981 marking the 84th time Elvis scored in that genre …
1983, Mountain bassist Felix Pappalardi is shot to death by his wife Gail Collins who claims the gun accidentally fired … she is convicted of criminally negligent homicide … this same day Pretenders bassist Pete Farndon is found drowned in his bathtub, the result of a heroin overdose … the needle is still in his arm …
1989, Roy Orbison’s single “You Got It” enters the Pop Top Ten … it’s his first such hit in 24 years … unfortunately the big-voiced singer is unable to enjoy his revival having died four months earlier …
1993, Elton John’s single “A Simple Life” climbs to #30 on the Pop Chart … it will ultimately top out at #10 and give the British rocker the distinction of being the only artist to enjoy Top 40 hits for 24 straight (if you’ll pardon the expression) years while surpassing Elvis’ 23 …
1998, Linda McCartney dies of breast cancer …
1999, Skip Spence, former drummer and guitarist with The Jefferson Airplane and Quicksilver Messenger Service, and founder of Moby Grape, dies of lung cancer … he suffered for years from drug-induced schizophrenia and was often institutionalized … during his last years he subsisted on welfare, living and panhandling on the streets of Santa Cruz, California … his 1969 psychedelic/folk album Oar is considered a classic of the era … on other fronts, after a year in the grave, the body of Tammy Wynette is exhumed and autopsied as the result of a $50 million wrongful death civil suit brought against the country singer’s doctor by her daughters … the medical examiner says she died of natural causes and the case is settled out of court …
2000, annual record sales peak at $38.5 billion … illegal downloading and piracy will result in significant reductions in that number over the coming years … coincidentally this same week George Lucas’ Lucasfilm Ltd. sues Dr. Dre claiming the rap producer used their trademarked “THX Deep Note” sound on his album 2001 without permission …
2003, R&B singer Luther Vandross lapses into a stroke-induced coma from which he will awaken six weeks later …
2005, Michael Jackson earns the ire of British veterans during his child-molestation trial by wearing military medals purchased from an antiques dealer … Valerie Klink, commander of the British War Veterans of America says, “Where does he get off wearing them? It’s like wearing the Purple Heart when you’re not injured” … a spokesman for the British Ministry of Defence says the official reaction is one of “general indifference” … a source said to be close to Jackson says that the singer “sees going into court as a battle” … meanwhile on another legal front, a settlement is reached between Rosa Parks and rap act Outkast over use of the civil rights pioneer’s name in the lyrics and title of a song appearing on their 1998 CD … as part of the settlement Outkast and its label, Sony BMG, agree to develop programs to “enlighten today’s youth about the significant role Rosa Parks played in making America a better place for all races” …
2006, jazz pianist and composer Thelonious Monk is awarded a posthumous Special Citation by The Pulitzer Prize Board for his contributions to American music … a notebook in which 10-year-old John Lennon scribbled poems, journal entries, and drawings is auctioned for $226,150 … among the drawings is an illustration of Lewis Carroll’s poem, “The Walrus and the Carpenter” that later serves as inspiration for “I Am the Walrus” …
And that was the week that was.
Arrivals:
April 12: raucous bluesman Hound Dog Taylor (1915), Billy Vaughn (1919), Tiny Tim born Herbert Khaury (1930), Herbie Hancock (1940), John Kay of Steppenwolf (1944), David Cassidy (1950), Alexander Briley of The Village People (1951), Pat Travers (1954), Vince Gill (1957), Will Sergeant of Echo and the Bunnymen (1958), Art Alexakis of Everclear (1962), Amy Ray of Indigo Girls (1964), Marc Ford of The Black Crowes (1966), Nick Hexum of 311 (1970)
April 13: violinist Olga Rudge (1895), Jack Casady of Jefferson Airplane (1944), Little Feat’s Lowell George (1945), Al Green (1946), Roy Loney of the Flamin’ Groovies (1946), Jim Pons of the Turtles and The Mothers of Invention (1946), Peabo Bryson (1951), Max Weinberg of the E Street Band (1951), Jimmy Destri of Blondie (1954), Louis Johnson of The Brothers Johnson (1955), Wayne Lewis of Atlantic Starr (1957), Tony James of Generation X (1958), Hillel Slovak of Red Hot Chili Peppers (1962), Aaron Lewis of Staind (1972), Lou Bega (1975)
April 14: Clovers guitarist Willie Harris (1925), Buddy Knox of Buddy Knox and the Rhythm Orchids (1933), Loretta Lynn (1935), Ritchie Blackmore (1945), Matima Kinuani Mpiosso (1951), Joey Pesce of ‘Til Tuesday (1962), Carl Hunter of The Farm (1965)
April 15: classic blues mama Bessie Smith (1894), beatnik songwriter Eden Ahbez (1908), rock biographer Albert Goldman (1927), Roy Clark (1932), Led Zeppelin manager Peter Grant (1934), songwriter David Mook (1936), rockabilly Bob Luman (1937), Clarence G. Satchell of The Ohio Players (1940), Allan Clarke of The Hollies (1942), Dave Edmunds (1944), The Nylons’ Mark Conner (1949), Samantha Fox (1966), Ed O’Brien of Radiohead (1968)
April 16: Henry Mancini (1924), Rudy Pompilli of Bill Haley’s Comets (1924), Roy Hamilton (1929), Herbie Mann (1930), slide guitarist Johnny Littlejohn (1931), Bobby Vinton (1935), Dusty Springfield (1939), Stefan Grossman (1945), Gerry Rafferty of Stealer’s Wheel (1947), Jimmy Osmond (1963), Dave Pirner of Soul Asylum (1964), Selena (1971)
April 17: rock promoter Don Kirshner (1934), Billy Fury (1941), Jan Hammer (1948), Michael Sembello (1954), The Buzzcocks’ Pete Shelley (1955), Stephen Singleton of ABC (1959), James Keenan of Tool (1964), Liz Phair (1967)
April 18: Leopold Stokowski (1882), opera singer Sylvia Fisher (1910), bluesman Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown (1924), Doors producer Paul Rothschild (1935), Mike Vickers of Manfred Mann (1941), Skip Spence (1946), Les Pattinson of Echo & The Bunnymen (1958), Jim Ellison of Material Issue (1964), Everclear’s Greg Eklund (1970), Mark Tremonti (1974)
Departures:
April 12: Boxcar Willie aka Lecil Travis Martin (1999), Peppermint Harris (1999), Herbert Mills of the Mills Brothers (1989), Josephine Baker (1975)
April 13: Chuck Berry pianist Johnnie Jones (2005), Ritchie Cordell (2004), Todd Storz, creator of the first Top-40 format radio station (1964)
April 14: crooner Anthony Newley (1999), Burl Ives (1995), Thurston Harris (1990), Pete Farndon of the Pretenders (1983)
April 15: John Fred (2005), Joey Ramone (2001), country music legend Rose Maddox (1998), Bobby Del Din of The Earls (1992), music industry mogul George Goldner (1974)
April 16: Skip Spence (1999), Brook Benton (1988), Eugene Church of The Clovers (1973)
April 17: Linda McCartney (1998), lyricist Jack Yellen, famous for “Happy Days Are Here Again” (1991), Felix Pappalardi (1983), Vinnie Taylor of Sha Na Na (1974), Eddie Cochran (1960)
April 18: Bernard Edwards of Chic (1996), producer Mike Leander (1996), songwriter Bernie Wayne (1993), Western swing pioneer Milton Brown (1936)