This is the week that was in matters musical …
1906, the first extended radio broadcast of the human voice also features the first radio music program…carried out by Canadian engineer Reginald Fessenden who had worked for Thomas Edison…a woman sings, Fessenden himself plays "O, Holy Night" on the violin and then he plays a phonograph recording of Handel’s "Largo"…
1940, Frank Zappa is born in Baltimore, Maryland, to Francis and Rose Marie (Colimore) Zappa…contrary to some biographies, Frank is his given name, not Francis…good thing it’s actually Frank, can you imagine saddling your child with a name that might cause them to be ridiculed?…
1942, Bing Crosby’s "White Christmas" tops the Billboard pop chart…the song is re-released during ensuing holiday seasons and nails the top spot again in 1945 and 1947 and ultimately becomes one of the biggest singles ever…
1956, the soundtrack LP to the Jayne Mansfield movie The Girl Can’t Help It is released…all of the artists perform as themselves in the film with Little Richard wailing the title tune written by Bobby "Route 66" Troup, who would later marry Julie London who appears dream-like in the film singing "Cry Me A River"…Eddie Cochran essays "20 Flight Rock," Gene Vincent and the Blue Caps contort themselves to "Be Bop A Lula," and Fats Domino bemoans "Blue Monday"…
1957, before The Beatles came along, pop LPs typically consisted of a couple of hit songs filled out with a bunch of dreck…sometimes the song selection is interesting, take for instance piano-thumper Jerry Lee Lewis’ first Sun Records album that was released this week…it includes his hits "Whole Lotta Shakin’ Going On" and "High School Confidential"…two well-known JLL tunes "Crazy Arms" and "It’ll Be Me"… as well as The Killer’s own spicy song gumbo that mixes in his distinctive flavoring of "Jambalaya," "Ubangi Stomp," "Goodnight Irene," and "When The Saints Go Marchin’ In"…with the whole LP clocking in at well under 30 minutes…
1959, Chuck Berry is arrested for transporting a minor across state lines for an immoral purpose…he has invited a young Native American woman he met in El Paso to come work as a hat check girl in his Club Bandstand in Missouri…the young woman is fired two weeks later and hustles a few days at a local hotel before calling police for help getting back home…the call leads to Berry’s trial, the guilty verdict of which is overturned because the judge made racist remarks…
1962, a couple of rock instrumental groups join the One Hit Wonders club in the same week: The Routers with "Let’s Go (Pony)" and The Tornadoes with "Telstar"…the Top 40 radio format of the ’60s called for the weekly hit survey to typically include an instrumental to balance out a selection of tunes by the male crooner, a female songstress, and vocal groups…also deejays liked instrumentals because they could be easily faded out if they mis-timed their program and had to hit the network newscast at the top of the hour…The Routers’ parenthetical pony refers to the popular dance…produced by the legendary Joe Meek, "Telstar" was the first number one record in the U.S. by a British group…it sold 5 million copies worldwide…
1964, on a flight to Houston, Beach Boy Brian Wilson suffers a major mental breakdown…he retires from touring to devote his time to writing hit tunes and producing Beach Boys albums…
1965, a group called the Wonder Who? hits #12 on the U.S. pop chart with Bob Dylan’s "Don’t Think Twice"…the lead singer’s trademark falsetto easily unmasks them as Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons…the charade was made necessary because they wanted to release the recording but didn’t want it to compete with the Seasons’ current release…
1966, UFO, the premiere psychedelic club in London opens…Pink Floyd are the headliners…
1967, the Rolling Stones release their psychedelic opus Their Satanic Majesties Request… the name is a take off on British passports that advise "Her Britannic Majesty’s Secretary of State requests and requires…" … although obviously influenced by The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, the album ups the visual ante with a 3-D cover showing the Stones dressed in medieval garb with Mick decked out as a wizard…pictures of The Beatles are hidden in the surrounding flowers … the album features horns, strings, classical-influenced piano, mellotron, harp (not blues harp), and pan pipes in addition to the usual guitars, bass, and drums … a few tracks rock out but several others just seem to meander … some groove to it, others call it the worst Stones’ album ever … who knew they’d have 40-plus years to top it … the man who fueled many psychedelic trips on acid—LSD chemist Augustus Owsley Stanley III is busted in Orinda, California, where the LSD is put in tablet form … police seize several hundred thousand doses … Owsley, as he is known, is later found guilty of possessing the illegal substance and is sentenced to three years in prison …
1968, lots of soulful holiday cheer from an all-star Memphis lineup in the second Stax/Volt Yuletide Thing … Booker T and the MGs, the Staple Singers, Albert King, Johnny Taylor, and Eddie Floyd are joined by Janis Joplin …
1972, the New York Dolls have a new drummer, Jerry Nolan who makes his first appearance with the proto-glam rock group featuring lead singer David Johannsen … Nolan replaces original drummer Billy Murcia who, in early November, OD’d on barbiturates and choked to death on coffee that someone tried to get him to drink to revive him …
1975, Punk Magazine, out of NYC, hits the newsstands for the first time …
1976, the Sex Pistols “Anarchy in the U.K.” tour is living up to its name … 16 dates cancelled mostly because British venue managers are afraid to let the band play due to the maelstrom of press stories that predict hooliganism if not downright violence and rioting …
1977, no rioting at this venue, just cake, toys and, sausage rolls (?)… the Sex Pistols play two shows at a children’s benefit Christmas party in Huddersfield, one at 3 o’clock for the kids and again at six for the adults … it is the Pistols’ last British gig …
1998, former guitarist-singer-songwriter for the seminal L.A. band Love, Bryan MacLean dies of a heart attack on Christmas Day … his best-known song is "Alone Again Or" that kicks off Love’s highly regarded classic 1967 album Forever Changes… inspired by his mother’s flamenco dancing, the recording features mariachi-style trumpets; swooping, swooning strings; and exquisitely fingerpicked acoustic guitar all framing emotionally enigmatic lyrics sung by MacLean and bandleader Arthur Lee … the song was originally titled "Alone Again" but Lee added "Or" to make it more distinctive … the song has been covered by such artists as The Damned, UFO, Sarah Brightman, Calexico, The Boo Radleys, as well as Matthew Sweet with Susana Hoffs … MacLean quit the band after the album initially failed to gain an audience and went on to write songs for Debby Boone, Patty Loveless and his sister, Maria McKee…
2004, two members of The Turtles, Mark Volman and Howard Kaylan, sue Applebee’s restaurants and their advertising agency for changing the lyrics from their 1967 hit “Happy Together” to use in a commercial … in the ad, the words “Imagine me and you, I do/I think about you day and night, it’s only right” become “Imagine steak and shrimp, or shrimp and steak/Imagine both of these on just one plate”… arguing their reputation was compromised by lyrics that changed “a sweet love song to a crass paean to shrimp and steak combination plates”… an attorney for Applebee’s contacted the song’s publisher for permission to use the song, but did not contact the Turtles, who are the owners of the original master recording …
And that was the week that was.
Arrivals:
December 20: New Orleans pianist Cousin Joe (1907), blues guitarist Auburn “Pat” Hare (1930), Blood, Sweat and Tears’ Bobby Colomby (1944), Peter Criss of Kiss (1947), Easybeats singer Stevie Wright (1948), Billy Bragg (1957), Chris Robinson of the Black Crowes (1966), JoJo (1990)
December 21: seminal bluesman Peetie Wheatstraw born William Bunch (1902), Frank Zappa (1940), Albert Lee (1943), Beach Boy Carl Wilson (1946), The Rumour’s Martin Belmont (1948), cleanup woman Betty Wright (1953), Gabriel Glaser of Luscious Jackson (1965), Brett Scallions of Fuel (1971)
December 22: Giacomo Puccini (1858), Austin bluesman T.D. Bell AKA Little T-Bone (1922), Alvin “Shine” Robinson (1937), Luther Campbell of 2 Live Crew (1941), The Animals’ Barry Jenkins (1944), Maurice and Robin Gibb (1949), Cheap Trick’s Rick Neilsen (1954), John Patitucci (1959)
December 23: Harold Dorman (1926), Esther Phillips (1935), Eugene Record of The Chi-Lites (1940), Jefferson Airplane’s Jorma Kaukonen (1940), Tim Hardin (1941), Harry Shearer AKA Derek Smalls of Spinal Tap (1943), Spooky Tooth’s Luther Grosvenor (1949), Adrian Belew (1949), Bruce Hornsby (1955), Iron Maiden’s Dave Murray (1958), Will Sin of The Shamen (1960), Slash (1965), Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam (1966)
December 24: New Orleans R&B titan Dave Bartholomew (1920), Lee Dorsey (1924), MGM Records president Mike Curb (1944), Lemmy AKA Ian Kilminster of Motorhead (1945), Jan Akkerman of Focus (1946), Human League’s Ian Burden (1955), Mary Ramsey of 10,000 Maniacs (1963), Ricky Martin (1971)
December 25: Tampa Red born Hudson Whittaker (1900), Cab Calloway (1907), R&B guitarist Oscar Moore (1912), Tony Martin (1913), soul-gospel singer McKinley Mitchell (1934), O’Kelly Isley of The Isley Brothers (1937), Fairport Convention’s Trevor Lucas (1943), Canned Heat’s Henry Vestine (1944), Noel Redding of The Jimi Hendrix Experience (1945), Jimmy Buffett (1946), Barbara Mandrell (1948), UB40’s Robin Campbell (1954), Annie Lennox (1954), Steve Warriner (1940), The Pogues’ Shane MacGowan (1957), Noel Hogan of The Cranberries (1971), Dido (1972)
December 26: Steve Allen (1921), Abdul “Duke” Fakir of The Four Tops (1935), Phil Spector (1940), Lars Ulrich of Metallica (1963), J. Yuenger of White Zombie (1967), Peter Klett of Candlebox (1969)
Departures:
December 20: Denny Payton, played sax and harmonica with The Dave Clark Five (2006), bluesman Son Seals (2004), Spanish singer Carlos Cano (2000), Hank Snow (1999), drummer Nicky Hammerhead (1992), Bobby Darin (1973)
December 21: Karl Denver (1998), trumpeter Johnny Coles (1997), bassist Charlie Tumahai of Be-Bop Deluxe (1995), Albert King (1992), Paul Jeffries of Cockney Rebel (1988), original No Doubt vocalist John Spence (1987), Peetie Wheatstraw (1921)
December 22: country singer Dave Dudley (2003), Lawrence Berk, founder of Berklee College of Music (1995), Dennis Boon of The Minutemen (1985), classic blues diva Ma Rainey born Gertrude Melissa Nix Pridgett (1939)
December 23: composer and classical guitarist John Duarte (2004), Jackie Landry of The Chantels (1997), singer Carl Hogan of the Valentines (1997), British jazz musician and club owner Ronnie Scott (1996), studio guitarist Dan Hamilton (1994), songwriter Jimmy Silva (1994), Eddie Hazel of Parliament-Funkadelic (1992)
December 24: Nick Massi of The Four Seasons (2000), Zeke Carey of The Flamingos (1999), Buddy Ace AKA The Root Doctor (1994), recording artist-songwriter Jimmy Silva (1994), Bobby LaKind of The Doobie Brothers (1992), Johnny Ace (1954)
December 25: James Brown, the hardest working man in show business (2006), jazz guitarist Derek Bailey (2005), Love’s Bryan MacLean (1998), jazz vocalist Damita Jo (1998), Dean Martin (1995), Intruders vocalist Eugene “Bird” Daughtry (1994), blues guitarist Eddie Taylor (1981), Clayton Perkins–Carl Perkins’ brother and bass player (1973), Johnny Ace (1954)
December 26: Armand Zildjian, head of Zildjian Cymbal Co. (2002), rock photographer Herb Ritz (2002), Curtis Mayfield (1999), Lowman Pauling of The “5” Royales (1973)