This is the week that was in matters musical …
1948, CBS (Columbia Broadcasting System) demonstrates the long-playing microgroove recording, playing at 33-1/3 revolutions per minute, replacing albums consisting of several 10- or 12-inch 78rpms with a single record … in response, RCA Victor, who had experimented with 33-1/3 in 1931, comes out with its own innovation, the seven-inch 45rpm record, which becomes the standard for single releases … 78rpms are gone by 1960 …
1955, Sun Records releases Johnny Cash’s first single, “Cry Cry Cry” … Johnny will be cashing in for quite some time to come, as it’s the first in a string of over 100 hit singles by the Man in Black …
1962, Hank Ballard and The Midnighters, who wrote and first recorded “The Twist,” are scheduled to perform the song on American Bandstand but have to cancel the date … in an odd twist, Chubby Checker is hired as a replacement to perform his version of the song, which will climb higher on the pop chart than Ballard’s original … twice … it will hit number one, and then do it again a year later …
1963, on his way to becoming huge, Little Stevie Wonder’s “Fingertips Pt. 2” becomes the 13-year-old’s first of 61 records to hit the charts …
1965, The Byrds’ folk-rock version of Bob Dylan’s “Mr. Tambourine Man” starts its week at the top of the charts …
1967, hippies gather in San Francisco’s Haight Ashbury district to celebrate the Summer of Love … as an ominous harbinger of more troubling times, dozens are carted off to psycho wards after ingesting STP, a newly-developed psychedelic that produces scary three-day trips … the following October, a mock funeral for the death of the hippie is held in “the Haight” … that, along with the Stones’ disastrous Altamont concert, signals that the honeymoon is over, and the Summer of Love will soon turn into the winter of our discontent …
1969, Mick Taylor makes his stage debut with The Rolling Stones at a concert in Rome … he replaces guitarist Brian Jones, and will stay with the band until 1975, when he retires and is replaced by Ron Wood … Taylor holds the distinction of being the only Stones guitarist to quit the band and live … Jimi Hendrix earns the largest paycheck to date for a single show, receiving $125,000 for a single set at the Newport Jazz Festival …
… Also this week, the Hollies record “He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother,” with Elton John playing piano … the song reaches No. 7 on Billboard’s singles chart …
1970, “Cinnamon Girl” by Neil Young goes gold, bringing Neil’s search for a heart of the same substance that much closer … the cops in Niagara Falls discover Chubby Checker packing pot and some other illegal substances … perhaps the pot and subsequent munchies explain the nickname … perhaps without the pot, he might have been Slim Checker … although it doesn’t have quite the same ring, luckily for Chubby Whitman …
1973, The Rocky Horror Picture Show opens for the first time in London … after seeing audiences quivering with antici … pation, Tim Curry will reprise his role for the movie version two years later …
1975, Alice Cooper takes a tumble from a stage in Vancouver, British Columbia, resulting in six broken ribs … his makeup, however, emerges unscathed …
1981, Donald Fagan and Walter Becker announce the break-up of Steely Dan … Mark David Chapman pleads guilty to killing John Lennon …
1990, Little Richard hitting the big time is commemorated with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame …
1995, Pearl Jam pulls the plug on its current tour saying they don’t want to cooperate with monopolistic Ticketmaster … don’t you just hate it when people sell tickets to your concerts and give you lots of money? … we hate it when that happens! …
1996, the Furthur Festival kicks off in Atlanta, as the surviving members of The Grateful Dead perform together for the first time since the death of Jerry Garcia …
1998, Paul McCartney personally selects and arranges the flowers—45,000 of them—at Manhattan Riverside Church where friends and family gather to say farewell to his wife Linda … Johnny Cash returns to the stage for the first time since being diagnosed with Shy-Drager Syndrome months earlier … he walks onstage surprising Kris Kristofferson, who is singing “Sunday Morning Coming Down” at a Cash and Waylon Jennings tribute concert at Ryman Auditorium in Nashville … the song was the one a young and unknown Kristofferson had hand-delivered to Cash after landing a helicopter on his lawn in a creative attempt to get his music into the hands of someone who could help him gain recognition as a songwriter …
1999, the band Pantera ride a float in the Dallas Stars Stanley Cup victory parade in downtown Dallas … the honor is bestowed upon the band because Pantera, in addition to being huge Stars fans, wrote the team’s theme song, which is played multiple times at every home game … Eric Clapton auctions off a hundred of his guitars to raise funds for his Crossroads Center, a drug and alcohol addiction treatment center in Antigua … among the guitars sold is his famous “Brownie,” which fetches a cool $497,500, topping the $320,000 paid for Jimi Hendrix’s guitar …
2000, Michael Jackson is slapped with a lawsuit by German promoter Marcel Avram … the suit alleges that Jackson refused to perform two scheduled events … unfortunately for the gloved one, it’s just the beginning of his “legal career” … a harbinger for things to come … exactly 30 years and two days after “Cinnamon Girl” went gold, Neil Young is honored in Toronto with a star on the Canada Walk Of Fame … the Toronto native joins prior honorees Bryan Adams, Celine Dion, Gordon Lightfoot, Rush, Christopher Plummer, Jim Carey, and director Norman Jewison …
2003, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) announces plans to fight Internet piracy by suing hundreds of individual computer users who illegally share music files online … many industry experts argue that suing one’s customers is not a formula for repeat business; however, the RIAA says it will start the following day … hey RIAA, what about selling a better product for less money? … that still works …
2004, Britney Spears announces her engagement to boyfriend, dancer Kevin Federline … the engagement comes about six months after the pop vixen dissolved her Las Vegas marriage to childhood “friend” Jason Allan Alexander, who hails from her hometown of Kentwood, Louisiana … proving once again that what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, the wedding was annulled after two days of intensive marital bliss … Spears’ lawyers contended before a Nevada court that she “lacked understanding of her actions.” … lucky for Kevin, Britney’s had a good six months to figure out the whole getting married thing … however, as time will show, she’ll never really quite get the hang of it, as Federline will become Fed-exed out of her existence …
2005, Tripp Eisen, former guitarist for Static-X, pleads guilty in an Orange County, California, court to having sex with a minor … the following October, Tripp trips up again as he is arraigned on charges involving a 14-year-old girl that include, among other things, kidnapping and enticing a minor in New Jersey … he enters a not-guilty plea and is sprung on bail … also an ex-member of five other bands, including Fractured Mirror, a KISS tribute band, putting the “ex” in sex seems to come naturally to Tripp, though he’ll spend a year in jail sorting it out …
2006, while traveling in the Middle East with his Dark Side of the Moon world tour, Roger Waters visits a concrete wall built by the Israeli government in the East Bank to keep out Palestinian suicide bombers … Waters scribbles sentiments on the structure such as, “Tear Down the Wall!” … the next day the Pink Floyd founder decides to play in a community called Neveh Shalom where Israelis and Arabs peacefully live together instead of Tel Aviv as originally planned … it’s reported that those opposed to the barrier have adopted Waters’ song “Another Brick in the Wall” as a rallying cry … in an ironic twist, the New Cars’ Road Rage tour has the brakes slammed on when the band’s tour bus suddenly swerves to avoid a head-on … guitarist Elliot Easton breaks a clavicle in the incident … rumors that the New Cars next tour will be sponsored by State Farm Insurance and called, “The $500 Deductible Tour,” with Mike And The Mechanics playing warm up, are sadly unfounded … Korn pulls the plug on its European tour when singer Jonathan Davis comes down with a blood disorder … Davis posts a note on the band’s website saying that head-banging with his condition could lead to instant death by brain hemorrhage … then again, so could standing in front of the PA speakers … just before the Stones embark on yet another tour, guitarist Ron Wood enters rehab, apparently he didn’t hab right the first time …
2007, New Order get their marching orders as bassist Peter Hook confirms the breakup of the band to BBC 6 Music … Hook seems upset as he explains the situation, “It has been very sad actually, and it has been very difficult to live with, but that is life, isn’t it? But you pick yourself up, you dust yourself off, and you start all over again.” … pushed to give a reason for the split, he replied simply, “It’s personal.” …
2008, presidential contender Barack Obama continues to rack up support in the rock community with Michael Stipe, Pete Wentz, Billy Joe Armstrong, Bob Weir, Dave Matthews, Jeff Tweedy, and Conor Oberst all signing on to give his campaign support…commenting on the candidate, the Dead’s Weir says, "The contagion of hope is real"… Celine Dion’s rendition of AC/DC’s "You Shook Me" was given the dubious distinction of being the "Worst Ever Cover Song" by the Total Guitar magazine survey … Editor Steven Lawson decried Dion’s version as "sacrilege" … the Canadian singer never released the song as a single, but performed it as a duet with Anastacia during the Live Divas Las Vegas concert six years ago … runners-up in the worst cover category was Sugababes and the Bees’ version of "Walk This Way" … among the best covers judged was Jimi Hendrix’s version of Bob Dylan’s "All Along the Watchtower", followed by The Beatle’s rendition of "Twist and Shout" …
… and that was the week that was in matters musical.
Arrivals:
June 18: Jeanette MacDonald (1907), lyricist Sammy Cahn (1913), Paul McCartney (1942), bassist Carl Radle (1942), pop singer Sandy Posey (1944), Jerome Smith of KC and The Sunshine Band (1953), Tom Bailey of The Thompson Twins (1957), West Arkeen (1960), Alison Moyet (1961), Guns N’ Roses keyboardist Dizzy Reed (1963), Nathan Morris of Boyz II Men (1971)
June 19: bandleader Guy Lombardo (1902), Tommy Devito of The Four Seasons (1936), rockabilly bad boy Robert Gordon (1945), singer-songwriter Nick Drake (1948), Ann Wilson of Heart (1950) Paula Abdul (1962), Brian Vander Ark of The Verve Pipe (1964), Brian Welch of Korn (1969)
June 20: producer Mickie Most (1938), Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys (1942), singer Anne Murray (1945), Lionel Richie (1949), Van Halen bassist Michael Anthony (1955), John Taylor of Duran Duran (1960), Murphy Karges of Sugar Ray (1968), Twiggy Ramirez of Marilyn Manson (1972)
June 21: Ray Davies of The Kinks (1944), Joey Molland of Badfinger (1948), Joey Kramer of Aerosmith (1950), Nils Lofgren (1951), Mark Brzezicki of Big Country (1957), country singer-songwriter Kathy Mattea (1959), Marcella Detroit of Shakespears Sister (1959), British singer and DJ Sonique, born Sonia Clarke (1968), Mike Einziger of Incubus (1976)
June 22: jazz guitarist Johnny Smith (1922), Kris Kristofferson (1936), Peter Asher of Peter & Gordon (1944), singer Howard Kaylan of The Turtles (1947), Todd Rundgren (1948), Alan Osmond of The Osmonds (1949), Cyndi Lauper (1953), Derek Forbes, bassist with Simple Minds (1956), bassist Garry Gary Beers of INXS (1957), Cowboy Junkies’ bassist Alan Anton (1959), singer Jimmy Somerville of Bronski Beat and The Communards (1961), Mike Edwards of Jesus Jones (1964), Tom Cunningham of Wet Wet Wet (1965), singer-guitarist-songwriter Steven Page of Barenaked Ladies (1970)
June 23: saxophone inventor Adolphe Sax (1846), June Carter, singer-songwriter, actor, comedienne, and wife of Johnny Cash (1929), Grateful Dead lyricist Robert Hunter (1938), British singer and actor, Adam Faith (1940), Paul Goddard of Atlanta Rhythm Section (1945), Richard Coles of The Communards (1962), Steve Shelley, drummer with Sonic Youth (1962)
June 24: Mick Fleetwood of Fleetwood Mac (1942), Chris Wood of Traffic (1944), Jeff Beck (1944), bassist John Illsley of Dire Straits (1949), Jeff Cease of The Black Crowes (1957), Astro of UB40, born Terry Wilson (1957), singer-songwriter Andy McCluskey of Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (1959), Curt Smith of Tears For Fears (1961), pop singer Glenn Medeiros (1970), drummer Mario Calire of Ozomatli and The Wallflowers (1974)
Departures:
June 18: Luther Tucker (1993), "Rock Around The Clock" guitar soloist Danny Cedrone (1954)
June 19: mariachi singer-actor Antonio Aguilar (2007), Bobby Helms of “Jingle Bell Rock” fame (1997), composer Vivian Ellis (1996), R&B artist Walter Jackson (1983)
June 20: Kool & The Gang co-founder and guitarist, Claydes Charles Smith (2006), Canadian one-hit-wonder, Bobby Gimby (1998), Lawrence Payton of The Four Tops (1997), Jim Ellison, lead singer and guitarist with Material Issue (1996)
June 21: Mississippi bluesman John Lee Hooker (2001), jazz and R&B crooner Arthur Prysock (1997), gospel singer Thomas Whitfield (1992), bandleader Bert Kaempfert (1980)
June 22: Kripp Johnson, born Corinthian Johnson, lead singer for The Del Vikings (1990), Jesse “Ed” Davis, session guitarist with Taj Mahal (1988), singer-radio personality Dennis Day (1988) Fred Astaire (1987), Warren Corbin, bass vocalist with the Cleftones (1978), Pere Ubu guitarist Peter Laughner (1977), composer Darius Milhaud (1974)
June 23: John Novarese, owner of Hi Records (1996), Tony Romeo, producer of the Cowsills and Partridge Family (1995), country yodeler Elton Britt (1972)
June 24: Ira Tucker of the Dixie Hummingbirds (2008), Hank Medress, lead singer of The Tokens (2007), opera singer Matilda Sissieretta Joyner Jones AKA “Black Patti” (1933)