This is the week that was in matters musical …
1944, a plane carrying bandleader Glenn Miller vanishes over the English Channel … the fate of the aircraft and its passengers remains a mystery …
1952, “Stormy Weather” by The Five Sharps is issued this week … it has become known as the rarest of all R&B records with only three 78rpm copies known to exist … at auction the record is worth an estimated $20,000 … rumors of a 45rpm version of the Jubilee Records single persist but no copies have ever surfaced …
1955, Carl Perkins writes “Blue Suede Shoes” and records the song less than 48 hours later … Elvis covers the tune later that year …
1960, German authorities deport 17-year-old George Harrison because he is too young to perform with The Beatles in the raucous Hamburg nightclubs … also this week, Elvis Presley is inducted into the Los Angeles Indian Tribal Council … the ceremony coincides with the opening of his movie Flaming Star in which the rocker plays a half-breed …
1961, EMI passes on The Beatles … the British label has second thoughts later on and signs the lads from Liverpool …
1967, The Beach Boys are given transcendental meditation instruction by the guru to The Beatles, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi … within a month of Byrds’ leader Jim McGuinn firing David Crosby, drummer Michael Clarke quits … this happens about two years after another Clark—that is, Gene Clark—quits the band due to his fear of flying … a big liability for a Byrd …
1977, Saturday Night Fever premieres in New York … the movie will spread the disco craze across the country and the soundtrack album will become one of the biggest sellers of all time …
1979, saxman Jackie Brenston dies today at age 52 … he becomes a footnote in music history when in 1951 Ike Turner’s band that included Brenston records “Rocket 88” at Sun Studios … when the record comes out, it is misidentified as being by Jackie Brenston and his Delta Cats instead of Ike Turner and the Kings of Rhythm, denying Turner credit for what is considered by many to be the first rock-and-roll recording …
1983, guitartist Jimmy "Chank" Nolen dies of a heart attack in Atlanta … initially a bluesman influenced by T-Bone Walker, he is best remembered for his "chicken scratch" picking style that became a critical part of James Brown’s signature sound on hits like "Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag" … his funky rhythm chops have been endlessly sampled on modern hip-hop and R&B hits …
1988, James Brown draws a prison sentence of six years for fleeing cops during an interstate car chase … he is paroled in February 1991 …
1998, two of Charlie Daniels’ backup players demonstrate extraordinary work ethics when they schedule surgeries to coincide with their boss’s appointment for knee surgery … all three go under the knife on the same day in the same hospital in order to minimize show cancellations … bassist Jerry Charlie Hayward has a tonsillectomy while drummer Jack Gavin has shoulder surgery … also this week a court finds that songwriter Andrew Lloyd Webber did not plagiarize a liturgical writer’s song in composing the theme for his smash musical The Phantom of the Opera …
1999, announcing that he’ll run for mayor of London, former Sex Pistols manager Malcolm McLaren enumerates the novel planks of his political platform: legalize boozing in public libraries, legalize pot, legalize all-night pubs, and last but not least, install brothels outside the houses of Parliament … he drops out of the race a couple of months later … also in the news this week, Goo Goo Dolls nearly bite the big one when the military transport they’re flying in skids off a runway in Sicily damaging its landing gear and wing, obliging the Goo Goos to beat a hasty retreat via an emergency chute …
2000, the British music journal Melody Maker prints its final issue after continuous publication since 1926 … Pop Staples, the patriarch of the Staple Singers, the first family of R&B, dies at age 84 …
2005, U2 wraps up a 118-date world tour with a show in Portland, Oregon … rated among the band’s best ever by fans, the shows bring in $260 million only shaded by The Rolling Stones … also this week, singer Nellie McKay is dropped by Columbia Records following a protracted squabble over her sophomore release … she wants to release a 23-track, two-CD version of the album while the label wants to pare it down to 16 tracks on a single disc … referring to her breakup with the label she invokes fellow Columbia artist Bob Dylan’s lyric: “I ain’t gonna work on Maggie’s farm no more” …
2006, The Complete Motown Singles – Vol. 6: 1966 is released … included are two tracks cut by The Mynah Birds, an unsung R&B outfit with the unlikely combination of Rick James on vocals and future Buffalo Springfield members Neil Young and Bruce Palmer providing backing … the tunes were originally shelved following James’ bust for going AWOL from the Navy …
And that was the week that was.
Arrivals:
December 13: Wayne “Duster” Bennett (1932), Robert Covington (1941), Jeff “Skunk” Baxter (1948), Ted Nugent (1948), Randy Owen of Alabama (1949), Television’s Tom Verlaine (1949), country star John Anderson (1954), Berton Averre of The Knack (1954), Tom DeLonge of blink-182 (1975)
December 14: Spike Jones (1911), country star Charlie Rich (1932), Warren Ryanes of The Monotones (1937), Don Addrisi (1938), surf music producer Gary Usher (1938), Joyce Vincent Wilson of Dawn (1946), Patty Duke (1946), Cliff Williams of AC/DC (1949), singer Tamara Daanz (1952), The Waterboys’ Mike Scott (1958), Peter Stacy of The Pogues (1958), Brian Dalyrimple of Soul for Real (1975)
December 15: guitarist Oscar Moore of the Nat “King” Cole Trio (1912), Max Yasgur whose dairy farm was the site of Woodstock (1919), DJ Alan Freed (1922), country singer-songwriter Ernie Ashworth (1928), R&B balladeer Jesse Belvin (1933), Johnny Moore of The Drifters (1934), Cindy Birdsong of The Supremes (1939), Dave Clark of the Dave Clark 5 (1942), Carmine Appice of Vanilla Fudge (1946), Harry Ray of The Moments (1946), Paul Simonon of The Clash (1955)
December 16: Ludwig van Beethoven (1770), Ernie Freeman (1922), New Orleans saxman Clarence Ford (1922), Tony Hicks of The Hollies (1943), John Abercrombie (1944), Benny Andersson of ABBA (1946), Harry Ray of Ray, Goodman, & Brown (1946), ZZ Top’s Billy Gibbons (1950), guitarist Robben Ford (1951), Steve Lundy of Force M.D.’s (1965), Christopher Thorn of Blind Melon (1968), Michael McCary of Boyz II Men (1971)
December 17: Boston Pops conductor Arthur Fiedler (1894), Tommy Steele (1936), Art Neville (1938), New Orleans R&B pianist James Booker (1939), Eddie Kendricks of The Temptations (1939), Chicago harp player Paul Butterfield (1942), Bad Company’s Paul Rodgers (1949), Carlton Barrett of The Wailers (1950), Wanda Hutchinson of The Emotions (1951), Mike Mills of R.E.M. (1956), Bob Stinson of The Replacements (1959), Sarah Dallin of Bananarama (1961), Craig “DJ Homicide” Bullock of Sugar Ray (1972)
December 18: bandleader Fletcher Henderson (1897), blues guitarist Pee Wee Crayton (1914), Jimi Hendrix manager Chas Chandler (1938), Keith Richards (1943), Elliot Easton of The Cars (1953), DMX (1970), DJ Lethal of Limp Bizkit (1972), Christina Aguilera (1980)
December 19: Edith Piaf (1915), alto sax man and singer Eddie “Cleanhead” Vincent (1917), New Orleans piano pioneer Professor Longhair aka Henry Roeland (Roy) Byrd (1918), activist-folky Phil Ochs (1940), Earth, Wind & Fire’s Maurice White (1941), blues-rock guitarist Alvin Lee (1944), The Lovin’ Spoonful’s Zal Yanofsky (1944), John McEuen of The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band (1945), Doug Johnson of Loverboy (1957), Australian bassist Tracy Pew (1957), Kajagoogoo’s Limahl (1958), Charles "Mercury" Nelson of Force M.D.s (1964), Kevin Shepard of Zoo Story (1968)
Departures:
December 13: slide guitarist "Homesick" James Williamson (2006), children’s composer Larry Troxel (1998)
December 14: legendary record label honcho Ahmet Ertegun (2006), Zal Yanovsky of the Lovin’ Spoonful (2002), jazz trumpeter Conte Condoli (2001), Kurt Winter of The Guess Who? (1997), Pattie Santos of Beautiful Day (1989), Dinah Washington (1963)
December 15: Rufus “Walkin’ The Dog” Thomas (2001), Bianca Halstead of Betty Blowtorch (2001), music industry executive Nat Tarnopol (1987), Will Shatter of Flipper (1983), R&B shouter Jackie Brenston (1979), Uriah Heep bassist Gary Thain (1975), Glenn Miller (1944), Fats Waller (1943)
December 16: country singer Gary Stewart (2003), Stuart Adamson of Big Country (2001), Nicolette Larson (1997), androgynous disco star Sylvester James (1988)
December 17: opera diva Martha Moedl (2001), saxophonist Grover Washington Jr. (1999), producer Andy Wiswell (1999), singing cowboy Rex Allen Sr. (1999), Irish singer Ruby Murray (1996), Pilot keyboardist Billy Lyall (1989), Big Joe Williams (1982), Theodore “Hound Dog” Taylor (1975)
December 18: English singer-songwriter Clifford T. Ward (2001), folk and pop singer Kirsty MacColl (2000), reggae singer and Bob Marley mentor Joe Higgs (1999), funk guitarist Jimmy "Chank" Nolen (1983), Les Kummel (1978), The Manhattans’ George “Smitty” Smith (1970), Blind Lemon Jefferson (1929), master lutheir Antonio Stradivari (1737)
December 19: Roebuck “Pop” Staples (2000), jazz bassist and photographer Milt Hinton (2000), 10,000 Maniacs guitarist Robert Buck (2000), Sony founder Masaru Ibuka (1997), Muddy Waters sideman Jimmy Rogers (1997), The Byrds’ Michael Clarke (1993)