This is the week that was in matters musical …
Another musical death this actual week was infamous manager of the Small Faces, Electric Light Orchestra and Black Sabbath – Don Arden – now probably more famous as father of Sharon Osbourne than his antics that got him his reputation.
1938, born in Nashville to blind musicians, Bobby Hebb is best known for his 1966 hit “Sunny” … Hebb wrote the song following the death of his older brother Harold in a knife fight outside a Nashville nightclub … devastated by the death of his former song-and-dance act partner, he later recalled writing the optimistic tune because, “All my intentions were just to think of happier times-basically looking for a brighter day … ” … the popularity of the song won Hebb a slot on a Beatles tour and has since been covered by hundreds of artists …
1956, the Platters become the first black group to have a number one pop hit when “My Prayer” reaches the top spot on the Billboard chart …
1958, The Teddy Bears’ aching teen ballad “To Know Him is To Love Him” is released … a singer in the group, Phil Spector produces the session … the song title is reportedly taken from his late father’s headstone …
1960, when the scheduled vocalist fails to show for a recording session, producer Ike Turner presses his wife Tina into service on the track, “A Fool in Love” … much sampled by modern hip-hop and R&B acts, the single will be the first of 20 Hot 100 hits produced by the contentious couple … this same day future soul star Aretha Franklin cuts her first secular sides …
1963, the Beatles make their U.S. album debut with Introducing The Beatles distributed by Vee-Jay, a small Midwest label known for its blues, R&B, and doo-wop acts …
1964, country star Jim Reeves dies in a plane crash along with his manager …
1965, The Beatles second feature film Help! debuts in London with that pretty nice girl Queen Elizabeth in attendance …
1966, Bob Dylan suffers major injuries when the brakes on his Triumph motorcycle lock up near his home in Woodstock, New York … though the exact nature of his injuries are never disclosed, it is clear that he suffered a broken neck and used his lengthy convalescence to marshal his artistic resources … reflecting on the wreck later, Dylan says, “When I had that motorcycle accident … I woke up and caught my senses, I realized that I was just workin’ for all these leeches. And I really didn’t want to do that.”
1968, after sustaining heavy losses and being forced by neighboring businesses to remove the psychedelic mural adorning its exterior walls, The Beatles shut down their Apple Boutique in London … a near-riot ensues when the shop’s stock is given away to the public … a day later the lads enter the studio to cut “Hey Jude” … the song will top the Hot 100 Chart for nine weeks and become The Beatles’ biggest hit …
1969, Elvis plays to a packed house at the International Hotel in Vegas … while his client sweats up a storm, manager Colonel Parker works out a multi-year multi-million-dollar contract covering return engagements … the terms are jotted down on a tablecloth in the hotel’s coffee shop …
1973, a rock show held at the Watkins Glen racetrack in upstate New York pulls in a record 600,000 fans to see The Band, The Allman Brothers, and The Grateful Dead …
1974, Mama Cass Elliot of The Mamas and the Papas dies … contrary to the urban folk legend, she did not choke to death on a ham sandwich … her death is the result of a massive heart attack possibly brought on by her roller-coastering weight … she dies in the London apartment owned by Harry Nilsson … in 1978 Who drummer Keith Moon will die in the same flat …
1976, John Lennon receives his green card from U.S. immigration authorities more than three years after he was ordered to leave the country …
1980, the FBI arrests John Phillips of The Mamas and the Papas on cocaine charges … he is later sentenced to five years hard time but dodges prison by delivering 250 hours of anti-drug lectures as an alternative sentence …
1981, MTV bursts onto the airwaves by broadcasting The Buggles’ somewhat prophetic “Video Killed the Radio Star” …
1990, Grateful Dead keyboard player Brent Mydland dies of an overdose at age 38 … the keyboard position for the Dead is proving to be as dangerous a slot as the drummer’s stool in Spinal Tap … Mydland replaced Keith Godchaux who died in an auto wreck in 1979 who in turn had replaced the hard-living original Dead keyboardist Ron “Pigpen” McKiernan who passed on in 1973 …
1991, Unforgettable … With Love, the album in which Natalie Cole sings duets with her deceased father Nat “King” Cole tops the album chart … when the singer originally brought the concept to her label, EMI, it nixed the idea … she then signed with Elektra and cut the record with her dead dad …
1992, ’60s soul singer Mary Wells who was one of Motown’s earliest success stories with hits like “Two Lovers” and “The One Who Really Loves You” dies of cancer … she originally approached Motown as a songwriter pitching a tune she had written for Jackie Wilson to sing … label owner Berry Gordy passes on the song, but after hearing her sing the demo, signs Wells as an artist … meanwhile in Warwick, Rhode Island, Patti Labelle abruptly pulls the plug on her concert there after complaining that the food backstage isn’t up to snuff …
1994, Michael Jackson and Lisa Marie Presley announce they were secretly married in the Dominican Republic 11 weeks earlier … the union will last for 21 months …
1995, Muscle Shoals Sound Rhythm Section guitarist Eddie Hinton succumbs to a heart attack … a much-in-demand session musician, he worked with dozens of major soul, pop, and R&B acts including Aretha Franklin, Wilson Pickett, Joe Tex, Elvis Presley, and Otis Redding … in 1977 Hinton cut his solo album Very Extremely Dangerous for Capricorn Records that received rave reviews but sadly fell victim to the collapse of Carpricorn … a series of personal reverses reduced Hinton to living on the streets of Decatur, Alabama … in later years he staged a modest comeback writing memorable songs and cutting several critically acclaimed albums that failed to do much business …
1996, Margie Ganser of girl-group The Shangri-Las dies of breast cancer … along with twin sister Mary Ann and sisters Mary and Betty Weiss she formed the teen-angst group while in high school … blending tough-girl swagger with innocence and melodrama, the girls scored big with hits like “Remember” and “Leader of the Pack” … this same day Aerosmith cans their manager Tim Collins saying they’re tired of constant pressure to get involved in social causes he’s committed to …
1998, after 12 years and six albums Toad The Wet Sprocket croaks … in San Fernando, California Grammy-winning gospel singer Sandra Crouch is ordained as a minister of the Christ Memorial Church … ordained by her twin brother Andrae, also a gospel star, the pair defy Church of God in Christ rules that forbid female ministers …
1999, Wu-Tang Clan rapper Ol’ Dirty Bastard is busted for bouncing a check he wrote as part payment of bail on one of his many criminal charges …
2003, Chino Moreno of The Deftones pulls a groin muscle during a particularly energetic set at the Hawthorne Racetrack in Chicago causing the band to skip dates on its Summer Sanitarium tour … meanwhile in Memphis, Sam Phillips dies at age 80 … the owner of Sun Studios, he helped create the rockabilly genre, launched Elvis Presley’s and Johnny Cash’s recording careers, and cut classic sides by some of the great pioneers of electric blues including Howlin’ Wolf, B.B. King, and Junior Parker … Phillips also presided over the 1951 recording of “Rocket 88” by Jackie Brenston and His Delta Cats, a band led by 19-year-old Ike Turner … the tune is considered by some music historians to be the first rock ‘n’ roll record …
2004, Simon and Garfunkel play a free concert in Rome for 600,000 lucky Italians …
2005, the former lead singer of the Motown act Martha Reeves and The Vandellas makes her bid for a seat on Detroit’s city council saying, “Summer’s here and it’s time to run” … she ultimately wins and Detroit’s voters dance in the streets … on other fronts, an unnamed bidder coughs up $1.1 million for a scrap of paper on which John Lennon had scrawled the lyrics for “All You Need is Love” in preparation for the Beatles’ 1966 BBC satellite broadcast … Lennon had tossed the sheet following the show and it was retrieved by a BBC employee … during the same auction a pair of Lennon’s specs go for $98,000 … newly-unearthed documents relating to Mick Jagger’s drug bust in 1969 reveal that the Stones singer had alleged he was framed and that a cop planted heroin in his home offering to quash the charges if Jagger paid £1,000 … at the time his allegations were swept aside and he was ultimately fined £200 for pot possession …
2006, Steely Dan’s Walter Becker and Donald Fagen fire off a letter to actor Luke Wilson charging that his brother, director Owen Wilson has misappropriated the name of a character from their song “Cousin Dupree” for the movie You, Me and Dupree in which Luke Wilson’s Dupree character is a couch-hopping loser … the letter, posted on the Steely Dan website warns Wilson, “There are some pretty heavy people who are upset about this whole thing and we can’t guarantee what kind of heat little Owen may be bringing down on himself” … the letter goes on to suggest that Wilson should make an appearance at a Dan concert and apologize to their fans … the tongue-in-cheek feud continues when Wilson fires back, “Cousin Dupree and I don’t even know who this gentleman, Mr. Steely Dan, is. I hope this helps to clear things up and I can get back to concentrating on my new movie, HEY 19.” … in England the long-running Brit TV pop music show Top of the Pops breathes its last gasp … the show had aired on the BBC continuously since 1964 … on the domestic dissolution front, Travis Barker files a divorce suit against Shanna Moakler, his wife of two years and former Miss USA … and keeping up with the Barkers, Chris Robinson of The Black Crowes and his missus, actress Kate Hudson, file for divorce …
And that was the week that was.
Arrivals:
July 26: drummer Louie Bellson born Luigi Paulino Alfredo Francesco Antonio Balassoni (1924), big-voiced girl group singer Darlene Love of The Blossoms (1938), Bobby Hebb (1938), Sir Mick Jagger (1943), Jim McCarty of The Yardbirds (1943), Dobie Gray (1943), Roger Taylor of Queen (1949), Gary Cherone of Extreme (1961), Headliner of Arrested Development (1967)
July 27: Harvey Fuqua of The Moonglows (1928), Nick Reynolds of The Kingston Trio (1933), The Drifter’s Elsbearry Hobbs (1936), Bobbie Gentry (1944), Al Ramsey of Gary Lewis and the Playboys (1946), Maureen McGovern (1949), drummer Simon Kirke of Bad Company (1949), Karl Mueller of Soul Asylum (1963), Rex Brown of Pantera (1964), Juliana Hatfield (1967), Pete Yorn (1974)
July 28: Rudy Vallee (1901), George Cummings of Dr. Hook (1938), Chicago blues-rock pioneer Mike Bloomfield (1944), Rick Wright of Pink Floyd (1945), Jonathan Edwards (1946), Simon Kirke of Bad Company (1949), Steve Morse (1954)
July 29: Charlie Christian (1916), Neal Doughty of REO Speedwagon (1946), Geddy Lee (1953), Patti Scialfa of the E Street Band (1956), John Sykes of Whitesnake (1959), Martina McBride (1966), Chris Gorman of Belly (1967), Wanya Morris of Boyz II Men (1972)
July 30: blistering blues guitarist Buddy Guy (1936), Paul Anka (1941), saxophonist David Sanborn (1945), Marc Bolan (1947), The Sweet’s Andy Scott (1949), Stewart Copeland (1952), Rat Scabies of The Damned, born Chris Miller (1957), Kate Bush (1958), Brad Hargraves of Third Eye Blind (1972)
July 31: Bob Welch of Fleetwood Mac (1946), Karl Green of Herman’s Hermits (1946), singer Gary Lewis (1946), ELO’s Hugh MacDowell (1953), Daniel Ash of Love and Rockets (1957), Bill Berry of R.E.M. (1958) Norman Cook of The Housemartins (1963), Fatboy Slim (1963), Coldplay’s Will Champion (1978)
August 1: Francis Scott Key (1778), Piano Slim aka Robert T. Smith (1928), Ramblin’ Jack Elliot born Elliott Charles Adnopoz (1931), Jerry Garcia (1942), Geoff Britton of Wings (1943), Boz Burrell of Bad Company (1946), Rick Anderson of The Tubes (1947), Rick Coonce of The Grass Roots (1947), Tommy Bolin (1951), Andrew Gold (1951), BTO’s Tim Bachman (1951), bluesman Robert Cray (1953), Joe Elliott of Def Leppard (1960), Public Enemy’s Chuck D (1960), Coolio (1963), Adam Duritz of Counting Crows (1964), Ashley Angel of O-Town (1981)
Departures:
July 26: Sha Na Na bassist Chico Ryan (1998), composer Evelyn Levine (1996), Mary Wells (1992), Brent Mydland of the Grateful Dead (1990)
July 27: saxophonist Harold Land (2001), Lynyrd Skynyrd bassist Leon Wilkeson (2001), Harry “Sweets” Edison (1999), Bobby Day (1990), Metallica’s Cliff Burton (1986), Lightnin’ Slim (1974)
July 28: growling South African mbaqanga singer Simon “Mahlathini” Nkabinde (1999), Margie Ganser of the Shangri-Las (1996), Johann Sebastian Bach (1750)
July 29: Anita Carter of the Carter Sisters (1999) Muscle Shoals guitarist Eddie Hinton (1995), Eddie Guzman (1993), steel guitarist Pete Drake (1988), Tom Jones manager and songwriter Gordon Mills (1986), “Mama” Cass Elliot (1974)
July 30: Sun Studios founder Sam Phillips (2003), Rob Jones of Wonder Stuff (1993), sax man Donald Myrick (1993), guitarist and vocalist Glenn Goins (1978)
July 31: Jim Reeves (1964), Jim Reeves’ pianist-manager Dean Manuel (1964)
August 1: pianist Svyatoslav Richter (1997), Joe “The Honeydripper” Liggins (1987), rockabilly pioneer Johnny Burnette (1964)