This is the week that was in matters musical …
1952, Cleveland DJ Alan Freed mounts his first rock ’n’ roll show dubbed the The Moondog Coronation Ball … the venue holds 10,000 but 30,000 rock-hungry teens turn up causing the cops to call the show off … the resulting riot is a precursor to the coming age of rock …
1956, Carl Perkins receives severe injuries in a Delaware auto accident … he was on his way to the Big Apple to perform on Perry Como’s TV variety show … the El Capris enjoy a minor hit with the tune "(Shimmy Shimmy) Ko Ko Wop" … the song will resurface as a hit for Little Anthony and the Imperials in 1960 … in an early instance of political correctness, it’s retitled "Shimmy Shimmy Ko Ko Bop" …
1964, filming continues for The Beatles second feature-length movie Help with ski scenes in the snow-capped Austrian alps including miming to "Ticket To Ride" … while the Fabs are getting their skis waxed, wax images of The Beatles go on display in London at the Madame Tussaud Wax Museum … they will later appear on the Sergeant Pepper cover …
1967, while playing an extended series of New York dates with The Mothers of Invention, Frank Zappa brings some U.S. Marines onstage, hands them a doll and tells them to think of it as a "gook baby" … the Marines proceed to dismember it … The Doors release their first album The Doors … Jefferson Airplane’s second album Surrealistic Pillow enters the U.S. charts … the title was suggested by Jerry Garcia who plays guitar on a couple of tracks … The Buffalo Springfield’s "For What It’s Worth," written by Stephen Stills about the 1966 teenage riots on the Sunset Strip, peaks at #7 on the pop chart … it’s another one of those ’60s rock songs where the title isn’t sung, such as "The Weight" by The Band, "Omaha" by Moby Grape, and "Randy Scouse Git" by The Monkees … where did the title of the Springfield tune come from you ask? … Stills introduced a new untitled song to his manager by saying, "Let me play you this song for what it’s worth" … the manager suggests the last part of Stills’ introduction become the title … a late night jam in L.A.’s Laurel Canyon with Eric Clapton and The Springfield is broken up by the police who smell marijuana upon arriving … Stills escapes through a window; Clapton is somehow set free; the rest, including Neil Young, spend the night in jail and later plead guilty to disturbing the peace in exchange for having the drug charges dropped …
1968, the last episode of The Monkees airs on U.S. TV after a run of two seasons …
1970, drummer Spencer Dryden quits Jefferson Airplane …
1971, a hard-to-believe entry from the One Hit Wonders Department is Janis Joplin … her recording of Kris Kristofferson’s "Me and Bobbie McGee" is #1 one on the pop charts … Janis isn’t around to enjoy the hit … she died of a heroin overdose the previous October …
… Marvin Gaye finishes recording the basic tracks for What’s Going On, the album that will revitalize his career after the death of Tammi Terrell … along with other serious topics, the album deals with the Vietnam war and the toll it is taking on Marvin’s brother Frankie and the others serving there … the LP also marks the first time that Motown’s Funk Brothers, including legendary bassist James Jamerson, get credits on the sleeve …
1977, "Less Than Zero," Elvis Costello’s first single on Stiff Records is released … the song title was used in 1985 by Bret Easton Ellis for his novel about the dissolute lifestyle of young Los Angelenos …
1978, The Ramones do that thing they do to Bobby Freeman’s "Do You Wanna Dance" for their new single …
1980, psychobilly group The Cramps unleash their new album called Songs The Lord Taught Us … it features "I Was A Teenage Werewolf," "Zombie Dance," and a cover of the Sonics’ "Strychnine" …
1982, Randy Rhoads, lead guitarist for Ozzy Osbourne’s band, is killed when a plane he is flying in crashes into a home and explodes … the band has stopped at the Leesburg, Florida, home of its bus driver, Andrew Aycock, a licensed pilot … Aycock "borrows" a plane from a nearby airfield and invites Rhoads and costume designer Rachel Youngblood to take a quick flight … as Ozzy and the rest of the band sleep on the bus, Aycock circles and buzzes it three times without incident … on the fourth pass, the aircraft bumps the bus, clips a wing, and crashes into a nearby house, erupting in flames … all three onboard are killed … a postmortem exam finds cocaine in Aycock’s system …
1991, Eric Clapton’s 4-year-old son, Conor, falls 56 floors out the window of a New York apartment building in a freak accident … the little boy is in the custody of his mother, Italian actress Lori Del Santo … they are visiting New York and staying in a friend’s apartment … the housekeeper has just cleaned a room and opened the window to air it out when young Conor comes dashing by and falls out the window … Clapton is in his hotel nearby … he had just taken Conor to the circus the previous evening … “Tears in Heaven,” “The Circus Left Town,” and “Lonely Stranger” are all inspired by the deep impact the accident has on Conor’s grieving father …
1994, Bruce Springsteen wins the Oscar for Best Original Song for "Streets of Philadelphia" … the song is from the film Philadelphia, and is the first ever written by Springsteen specifically for a film …
1996, The Beatles last charting single, "Real Love," enters the Top 100 and will eventually rise to #11 … the song is based on a demo cut by John Lennon in 1979 to which the other Beatles added new vocals 16 years after Lennon’s death …
1999, Radiohead debuts its behind-the-scenes film, Meeting People is Easy, at the South By Southwest Music and Film Festival in Austin, TX …
2006, Courtney Love sells her 25% share in Nirvana’s catalog to Larry Mestel, a former Virgin Records executive, for an estimated $50 million … Graceland is named a national historic landmark … Elvis’ former home draws more than 600,000 visitors annually … Alice in Chains announces their first tour in 10 years will begin the following May … this follows the heroin-induced death of singer Layne Staley four years earlier …
2007, members of the ’70s Scots pop band Bay City Rollers sue Arista, their former label, charging that they are owed millions in unpaid royalties … Elsrock, an outdoor heavy-metal rock festival, is given conditional approval to put on its show outside the town of Rijssen, located in the Netherlands’ Bible Belt … the proviso is that there can be no cursing or blasphemy … the 2006 version of the festival had outraged residents … in explaining why the permit was granted, Mayor Bort Koelewijn cites "the stated readiness of the organizers to make sure that no blasphemous words are used, and that the honor of God’s name is not besmirched” …
2008, in an ongoing diversification campaign, Justin Timberlake signs on as executive producer of a new NBC sitcom called My Problem with Women … the show is a spinoff of a hit Peruvian TV show … no word on whether he plans to cast ex-squeeze Britney Spears … in the wake of Radiohead’s successful web-only release of In Rainbows, Nine Inch Nails brings in $1.6 million with its 36-track instrumental album Ghosts I – IV available in five different versions ranging from a nine-song free download to a $300 deluxe vinyl package, all available from the NIN website … ironically just a month earlier, TVT REcords—the indie label that broke NIN—filed for bankruptcy, laying off about 30 of its 50 workers … the Raconteurs, led by Jack White and Brendan Benson, release their new album, Consolers of the Lonely, after announcing the record just a week earlier … the move is part of a trend in which artists are speeding up the traditional months-long lead times between recording and release that has been the norm in the record industry …
… and that was the week that was in matters musical.
Arrivals:
March 19: saxophonist Ornette Coleman (1930), Chicago blues singer Sam Myers (1936), New Orleans R&B singer Clarence “Frogman” Henry (1937), R&B artist Walter Jackson (1938), Grateful Dead keyboard player Tom Constanten (1944), The Monkees’ Mickey Dolenz (1945), The Zombies’ Paul Atkinson (1946), Ruth Pointer of The Pointer Sisters (1946), bassist Billy Sheehan (1953), The B-52s’ Ricky Wilson (1953), Bay City Rollers’ Derek Longmuir (1955), Terry Hall of The Specials (1959), Brann Dailor, drummer for Mastodon (1975)
March 20: gospel singer-guitarist Sister Rosetta Tharpe (1921), guitarist Jerry Reed (1937), blues saxist Eddie Shaw (1937), Carl Palmer of ELP (1951), guitarist Jimmy Vaughan (1951), Slim Jim Phantom of Stray Cats (1961), singer-songwriter Tracy Chapman (1964), Chester Bennington of Linkin Park (1976)
March 21: Johann Sebastian Bach (1685), Delta bluesman Bo Carter (1893), Delta blues legend Eddie "Son" House (1902), Chicago bluesman Otis “Big Smokey” Smothers (1929), blues pianist Otis Spann (1930), Vivian Stanshall of The Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band (1943), Rosemary Stone of Sly and the Family Stone born Rosemary Stewart (1945), Ray Dorset of Mungo Jerry (1946), Eddie Money, born Edward Mahoney (1949), Roger Hodgson of Supertramp (1950), Conrad Lozano of Los Lobos (1951), Russell Thompkins of The Stylistics (1951), Prodigy’s MC Maxim (1967), Ace of Base’s Jonas Berggren (1967), Andrew Copeland of Sister Hazel (1968), rapper Notorious B.I.G. born Christopher Wallace (1972)
March 22: composer Stephen Sondheim (1930), jazz guitarist George Benson (1943), Keith Relf of The Yardbirds (1943), Tony McPhee of The Groundhogs (1944), Jeremy Clyde of Chad and Jeremy (1944), Harry Vanda of The Easybeats (1947), Patrick Olive of Hot Chocolate (1947), Andrew Lloyd Webber (1948), McCoys/Johnny Winter bass player Randy Jo Hobbs (1948), R&B/soul singer Stephanie Mills (1957), Richard Ploog of The Church (1962)
March 23: Joey d’Ambrosio of Bill Haley & His Comets (1934), swamp bluesman Louisiana Red (1936), Ric Ocasek of The Cars (1949), disco singer Karen Young (1952), Chaka Khan, born Yvette Marie Stevens (1953), Epic Soundtracks, born Kevin Godfrey, founding drummer of the punk band Swell Maps (1959), Damon Albarn of Blur (1968)
March 24: Ollie McLaughlin, producer for Del Shannon (1925), George Lee, singer with Ruby & The Romantics (1936), soul singer Billy “Fat Boy” Stewart (1937), songwriter Peggy Sue, sister of Loretta Lynn and Crystal Gayle (1947)
March 25: Vivian Carter, The “Vee” in Vee-Jay Records (1921), Tom Wilson, producer for Dylan, Simon and Garfunkel, The Mothers of Invention, and John Coltrane (1931), Johnny Burnette (1934), songwriter Hoyt Axton (1938), Aretha Franklin (1942), Jose L. Rodriguez, engineer for Culture Club, Mary J. Blige, and Gloria Gaynor (1944), Elton John, born Reginald Dwight (1947), Nick Lowe (1949)
Departures:
March 19: drummer Jeff Ward of Nine Inch Nails and Ministry (1993), Mother Love Bone’s Andrew Wood (1990), Randy Rhoads (1982), Chicago’s first big blues star, bottleneck slide man Tampa Red (1981), Paul Kossoff of Free (1976)
March 20: jazz and R&B guitarist Billy Butler (1991), Cadence Records founder Archie Bleyer (1989)
March 21: songwriter Fred Spielman (1997), Leo Fender (1991)
March 22: George Howard, sax player with Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes (1998), singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Dan Hartman (1994), Dave Guard of The Kingston Trio (1991), one-hit-wonder Mark Dinning of “Teen Angel” fame (1986)
March 23: Walter Turnbull, founder of the Boys Choir of Harlem (2007), Cindy Walker, country songwriter who also wrote hits for Ray Charles and Roy Orbison (2006), songwriter-producer J.D. Miller (1996), Don Murray, drummer for The Turtles (1996), Ripley Ingram, tenor vocalist with The Five Keys (1995), Jeanine Deckers aka the Singing Nun (1985), Frank Kirkland, Bo Diddley’s drummer (1973)
March 24: country singer Hensen Cargill (2007), Foghat’s founding guitarist Rod Price (2005), Harold Melvin, leader of Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes (1997)
March 25: country legend Buck Owens (2006), Kenny Moore, keyboardist for Tina Turner (1997), folksinger-songwriter Tom Jans (1984)