This is the week that was in matters musical …
1908, Columbia runs an ad in The Saturday Evening Post touting their new two-sided records …
1949, future Dead Boys leader Stiv Bators is born Stivan John Bator in Youngstown, Ohio …
1954, The Penguins record the doo-wop classic “Earth Angel” … the song will choreograph a million back seat couplings …
1956, “Love Me Tender” is the first single to enter the pop charts at #1 … Elvis’ slow dance tune also appears on the Country and Western and R&B charts …
1958, Tommy Facenda, a backup vocalist for Gene Vincent, charts with a single called “High School U.S.A.” … the tune is released in 28 versions, each name-dropping a different major high school across the country … the combined sales get the single to #28 on the pop chart …
1961, 20-year-old Bob Dylan records his eponymous debut album accompanied only by his guitar and harmonica … studio cost is a whopping $400 … filling out the studio’s tax reporting form, he lists his name as “Blind Boy Grunt” … the young folkie goes on to become one of the most important musical figures of the 20th century … meanwhile in Britain, the Beatles join forces with Gerry & The Pacemakers for a one-off show … the combine is billed as The Beatmakers …
1962, the artist known as Little Stevie Wonder makes his first recording … Steveland Morris Judkins’ first single sinks without a trace but the accolades are not far away … this same week James Brown records a live show in the face of objections from his record label—an in-concert soul album has never been done before … Live at the Apollo turns out to be among the Godfather of Soul’s most brilliant performances and the album goes on to sell millions …
1964, a London band known as the High Numbers is rejected after an audition with EMI … formerly known as The Who, the four young rockers have recently come under the influence of manager Pete Meaden, who suggests the name change and dresses the boys in mod suits … Meaden’s all wet, but the kids are all right … in the coming months they’ll assume their old name and ride the magic bus to fame …
1966, The Beach Boys’ “Good Vibrations” charts for the first time on its way to #1 … the single is the result of six months work and 17 sessions in four different studios at a then-unprecedented cost of $16,000 …
1969, The Who start a six-night stand at New York’s Fillmore East in support of Tommy …
1973, John Lennon files suit against the U.S. government alleging that the FBI tapped his phone in an effort to deport him …
1974, soul singer Al Green is seriously burned when a disturbed girlfriend tosses a pot of boiling grits on him … the incident results in Green becoming a minister and leaving secular music behind … it will be 2003 before he releases another non-religious record …
1977, Lynyrd Skynyrd fans take a gut shot this week when they learn that band members Steve Gaines, Cassie Gaines, and Ronnie Van Zant have died along with three members of their entourage in a plane crash in a swamp near Gillsburg, Mississippi …
1978, Sid Vicious attempts to off himself at New York’s Rikers Island jail, where he’s awaiting trial for the murder of his girlfriend, Nancy Spungen … the bad Pistol will get out and OD before he can be tried for the crime … this same week, the bad Rolling Stone, Keith Richards, receives a suspended one-year sentence after pleading guilty to heroin possession in Toronto … he’s also ordered to play a charity concert for the blind …
1986, former Tubes singer Jane Dornacker, who had gone on to a new career as a traffic reporter, dies in a New York helicopter crash … this week also marks the first time ever that three femme popsters hold down the first three positions on the pop chart … in order they are: Janet Jackson with her “When I Think of You,” “Typical Male” by Tina Turner, and Cyndi Lauper with “True Colors” …
1988, Fantasy Records, after more than a decade of rancorous relations with John Fogerty, files a suit claiming he plagiarized his own song, “Run Through the Jungle,” during the composition of “The Old Man Down the Road” … it will be 1995 before the court finally rules that Fantasy is fantasizing …
1992, long before her career as a writer of children’s books, Madonna releases Sex—a steel-bound book of erotic photos of herself and other beautiful people that sells out the first run of a half million copies in no time … she also releases her album Erotica this week … it will sell over two million copies … country singer Lynn Anderson is sprung from a Nashville jail after doing two days for contempt of court … the sentence stemmed from cursing at her former husband in front of their teenage children …
1995, Generation X loses another of its greatest voices when Blind Melon singer Shannon Hoon is found dead of a cocaine overdose on the band’s tour bus in New Orleans … Pretenders frontwoman Chrissie Hynde makes a return trip to her hometown of Cleveland to sing the national anthem at game three of the World Series …
1998, the publisher of Alice Cooper’s “Eighteen” files suit against Cooper’s primary makeup rock emulators KISS, claiming they ripped off his song “Eighteen” for their song, “Dreamin’” … Cooper has nothing to do with it and hasn’t even heard the KISS tune … asked about the outcome years later, Cooper says, “I think we all forgot to show up at court. Paul Stanley bought me a cheeseburger to make up for the whole thing” … meanwhile in Toledo, Ohio, singer Eddie Nichols of the swing band Royal Crown Revue is arrested for taking a swing at a sheriff in a diner …
2001, VH1 hosts its Concert for New York, which raises over $30 million for victims of 9/11 with performances by such heavy hitters as The Who, David Bowie, Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Elton John, and Bon Jovi …
2003, singer-songwriter Elliot Smith takes his own life in his Los Angeles apartment … a hero of the Portland, Oregon, indie-rock scene in the ’90s, Smith gained national prominence after director Gus Van Sant tapped him for the soundtrack to the 1997 film Good Will Hunting … Smith’s song “Miss Misery” was nominated for an Oscar the following year … a posthumous release, From A Basement On A Hill, includes material the singer was working on when he died …
2004, crusading New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer announces an investigation of payola practices in the music business … EMI, Warner Music Group, Sony-BMG, and Universal all receive subpoenas demanding that they produce communications with independent record promoters, the middlemen paid by record companies to get airplay … before it’s all over, the labels will fork over large cash fines … also this week, “singer” Ashlee Simpson gets busted for lip syncing during a performance on Saturday Night Live … her drummer mistakenly cues up a backing track for the same song the band had played earlier in the evening, catching Ashlee off guard … the real fun begins when a prerecorded vocal track begins to play, revealing that the earlier song had been lip synced … the track is quickly faded, but Ashlee is busted, and after dancing an awkward, vaudevillian jig, she exits stage right … the band continues to play along to the first song as the network cuts to a commercial …
2005, Jamaican reggae star Buju Banton is arrested in connection with the beating of six gay men in June 2004 … Banton had a hit with the song “Boom Bye Bye,” whose lyrics addressed burning and shooting gays … Rivers Cuomo, frontman for Weezer announces he’ll return to Harvard University to complete his last semester for a bachelor’s degree … Cuomo’s higher education had been interrupted a couple of times by touring and recording … U2 guitarist the Edge, producer Bob Ezrin, Gibson Guitar, and Guitar Center join forces to supply instruments to Gulf Coast musicians devastated by Hurricane Katrina … the two corporate partners pledge a minimum of $1 million … after taking heat over its copy-protection system that buried software deep in Window’s-based computers, making them susceptible to viruses, Sony BMG announces it will stop embedding the software on its CDs while seeking another approach to piracy prevention …
2006, Neil Young’s 20th Bridge School acoustic concerts host an array of unusual performances including Trent Reznor playing unplugged in front of a string quartet … other headliners include Dave Matthews Band, Death Cab for Cutie, and Brian Wilson … Young sits in with, and energizes, many of the sets … Axl Rose’s manager, Merck Mercuriadis, tells Rolling Stone that the much anticipated Chinese Democracy album will be released before the year is out … word has it that the album is now in the mixing stage and has cost upward of $13 million so far … no one is holding their breath … later this week, Sheryl Crow administers payback to John Mayer by walking onstage mid-set in a Jessica Simpson-inspired bikini … the rocker is rumored to have had a fling with Simpson … a night earlier Mayer had disrupted Crow’s set by hitting the stage in a bear costume … the pair are touring together and are obviously having a lot of fun …
2007, Ron Wood’s autobiography, Ronnie: The Autobiography, is released … in it he candidly addresses the demons he has faced, tells about the time he pulled a .44 Magnum on Keith Richards, and recounts salacious tales from life on the road with The Rolling Stones … this same week, Kid Rock is busted for misdemeanor battery following a scuffle in a Waffle House outside Atlanta … the Kid got into it with a male customer who engaged in a verbal exchange with one of the women in Rock’s entourage … he’s released on $1,000 bail after spending the night in lockup … on a more positive note, Graham Nash, Jackson Browne, and David Crosby sing a rousing rendition of CSN’s “Teach Your Children” and other peace-oriented songs at the Pray for Peace concert held in Washington D.C.’s National Cathedral …
… and that was the week that was in matters musical.
Arrivals:
October 16: Mississippi bluesman Big Joe Williams (1899), Nico of the Velvet Underground (1938), Fred Turner of BTO (1943), Bob Weir (1947), Gary Kemp of Spandau Ballet (1959), Flea of Red Hot Chili Peppers (1962), Wendy Wilson of Wilson Phillips (1969), John Mayer (1977)
October 17: jazz drummer Cozy Cole (1909), recording expert John Mosley (1914), British record executive Louis Benjamin (1922), trombonist Rico Rodriguez of The Specials (1934), Jim Seals of Seals and Crofts (1941), Gary Puckett (1942), James Tucker of The Turtles (1946), Mike Hossack of the Doobie Bros. (1948), Allen Jackson (1958), Rene Dif of Aqua (1967), Ziggy Marley (1968), Chris Kirkpatrick of *NSYNC (1971), Eminem (1972), Wyclef Jean (1972)
October 18: Chuck Berry (1926), Ronnie Bright of the Coasters (1938), The Association’s Russ Giguere (1943), singer-songwriter Laura Nyro (1947), Gary Richrath of REO Speedwagon (1949), Doobie Brother Keith Knudson (1952), Wynton Marsalis (1961), Peter Svensson of The Cardigans (1974)
October 19: Piano Red born William Lee Perryman (1911), Kings of Rhythm drummer Billy Gayles (1931), Dave Guard of The Kingston Trio (1934), Peter Tosh (1944), soul singer George McCrae who had the hit “Rock Your Baby” (1944), Jeannie C. Riley (1945), Procol Harum lyricist Keith Reid (1946), Wilbert Hart of The Delfonics (1947), Patrick Simmons of the Doobie Brothers (1948), Nino DeFranco (1956), Karl Wallinger of World Party (1957), Jennifer Holliday (1960), Dan “Woody” Woodgate of Madness (1960), Pras Michel of the Fugees (1972)
October 20: jazz innovator Jellyroll Morton born Ferdinand Joseph Lamothe (1890), Johnny Moore of The Blazers (1906), master producer Tom Dowd (1925), electric sax man Eddie Harris (1934), rockabilly-ette Wanda Jackson (1937), Jay Siegel of The Tokens (1939), Ric Lee of Ten Years After (1945), Al Greenwood of Foreigner (1951), Tom Petty (1953), Mark King of Level 42 (1958), James George “Soni” Sonefeld of Hootie and The Blowfish (1964), Snoop Dogg (1971)
October 21: Dizzy Gillespie (1917), salsa queen Celia Cruz (1924), manager Jo Lustig (1925), Manfred Mann AKA Michael Lubowitz (1940), Memphis guitarist and producer Steve Cropper (1941), Elvin Bishop (1942), Kathy Young of Kathy Young & The Innnocents (1945), Lee Loughnane of Chicago (1946), Brent Mydland of the Grateful Dead (1952), Go-Go’s guitarist Charlotte Caffey (1953), Eric Faulkner of Bay City Rollers (1955), Julian Cope of Teardrop Explodes (1957), six-string slinger Steve Lukather (1957), early rapper Harold “Whiz Kid” McGuire (1961)
October 22: Franz Liszt (1811), Annette Funicello (1942), Bobby “I Fought The Law” Fuller (1943), Leslie West of Mountain (1945), Eddie Brigati of The (Young) Rascals (1945), Dean Kastran of The Ohio Express (1948), Dead Boy Stiv Bators (1949), Curt Kirkwood of The Meat Puppets (1960), Shaggy (1968), Zac Hanson of Hanson (1985)
Departures:
October 16: jazz vocalist Etta Jones (2001), singer Ella Mae Morse of “Cow Cow Boogie” fame (1999), Richard Kermode (1996), Art Blakey (1990), Gene Krupa (1973), Leonard Chess, co-founder of Chess Records (1969)
October 17: Teresa Brewer (2007), composer Berthold Goldschmidt (1996), Chris Acland of Lush (1996), Criss Oliva of Savatage (1993), Tennessee Ernie Ford (1991), Alberta Hunter (1984), New Orleans guitarist Edgar V. Blanchard (1972)
October 18: reggae star Lucky Dube (2007), singer-actress Julie London (2000), Broadway singer-dancer Gwen Verdon (2000), New Orleans sax man Lee Allen (1994), songwriter Ed Labunski (1980), Houston bluesman L.C. Williams (1960)
October 19: harmonica great James “Snooky” Prior (2006), rock journalist Greg Shaw (2004), Glen Buxton (1997), soul singer Wade Flemons (1993), Level 42 guitarist Alan Murphy (1989), Delta bluesman Son House (1988)
October 20: bassist Paul Raven (2007), jazz pianist and vocalist Shirley Horn (2005), Merle Travis (1983), Ronnie Van Zant, Steve Gaines, and Cassie Gaines—all of Lynyrd Skynyrd (1977)
October 21: J Church frontman Lance (2007), Elliot Smith (2003), Henry Vestine of Canned Heat (1997), Blind Melon singer Shannon Hoon (1995), Elvis’ bassman Bill Black (1965), Jay Perkins, brother of Carl and Luther (1958)
October 22: jazz pianist-vocalist Shirley Horn (2005), album cover artist Reverend Howard Finster (2001), Vagabonds guitarist Robert E. True (1998), sideman and brother of Benny Goodman, Harry Goodman (1997), producer Jimmy Miller (1994), Celtic music star Ewan MacColl (1989), Jane Dornacker of The Tubes (1986), crooner Tommy Edwards (1969), barrelhouse pianist Walter Davis (1963)