It happened this week

This is the week that was in matters musical …

1939, “Cherokee” is recorded for the first time by Charlie Barnet and his orchestra … the tune will be recorded by scores of jazz greats and often played at a breakneck pace to humble neophytes …

1953, a young, sideburned truck driver—last name of Presley—drops in at the Memphis Recording Service studio, plunks down his four bucks, and records “My Happiness” on an acetate disc as a gift for his mother …

1958, following a backstage fight between a member of The Drifters and the manager of New York’s Apollo Theater, the group’s manager, George Treadwell, fires the entire lineup … he then recruits the members of the opening act, The Five Crowns, to become a new incarnation of The Drifters with Ben E. King handling lead vocals … this is one more chapter in a bewildering history during which rival groups billed as The Drifters will tour simultaneously and band rosters will change dozens of times …

1960, Duane Eddy appears on Dick Clark’s prime time show and performs a work in progress, “Ramrod” … the appearance spurs orders for 150,000 copies, but there’s no way to fill them since the record hasn’t been finished … producer Lee Hazelwood hits the studio and adds sax and vocal overdubs so the single can be rushed to the pressing plant … it later turns out that the remix probably doesn’t include Eddy on guitar … the twangalicious work having been done by studio vet Al Casey …

1963, the Essex score a #1 R&B hit with “Easier Said Than Done” … it’ll later clinch the top spot on the pop chart too … all the members of the group are active Marines and they have to get the Corps’ approval to tour behind their hit …

1964, The Rolling Stones’ cover of Buddy Holly’s “Not Fade Away” makes it to number 48 on the chart … it is the first in their long line of hits …

1965, Bob Dylan’s “Like a Rolling Stone” is released … it turns out to be his biggest hit ever, climbing to number two on the U.S. pop chart …

1966, Eric Clapton, Jack Bruce, and Ginger Baker get together to form one of rock’s most celebrated trios, Cream … 50-year-old crooner Frank Sinatra marries Mia Farrow, 30 years his junior …

1968, The Beatles’ full-length animated film Yellow Submarine debuts at the Pavilion Theatre in London with John, Paul, and George in attendance … Iron Butterfly’s album In-a-Gadda-da-Vida debuts on the U.S. charts … the title track, clocking in at a whopping 17 minutes, features a long drum solo quickly copied by garage bands across the country so the rest of the band can take a potty break … according to producer Jim Hilton, the song’s title results from singer Doug Ingle’s wine-induced slurred pronunciation of “In Our Garden of Eden” when he was asked for the name of a new song the band was rehearsing … the producer jotted the title down phonetically … Hilton recollects “I felt it was more interesting and a lot more mystical than the straight title … the band thought I had lost my mind, but it was too late to change it, I had already given my OK on the cover for printing” …

…”Wait a minute this sounds like rock and or roll”

1970, British pop star Arthur Brown is held overnight in a Sicilian jail and faces a prison sentence of up to five years after being charged with committing obscene acts in a public place … Brown is performing at the Palermo Pop Festival when he inexplicably strips naked on stage in front of 15,000 people … the crowd hurls objects at him and he is arrested and put in solitary confinement for four days … while in solitary, he receives a petition signed by 200 locals requesting that he leave Italy and never return …

1972, a bomb explodes near a Rolling Stones equipment truck in Montreal … the bomb was placed under a ramp and blows the cones out of a lot of PA cabs … nobody is hurt and it’s never determined who placed the bomb … the show goes on as planned …

1974, John Lennon is given two months to leave the United States by the Immigration and Naturalization Service, who have denied him an extension on his visa … though the deportation is due to Lennon’s guilty plea to a 1968 English pot charge, it will be revealed later that he is under surveillance by the FBI … Joey Ramone slides out from behind the drum kit and steps up to the mic to assume vocal duties for The Ramones …

1982, Moon Unit Zappa, still a young teenager, makes her debut with dad Frank, recording “Valley Girl,” … the song will become Frank’s highest-charting single at #32 and wins Grammy nominations for father and daughter alike …

1986, the film Sid and Nancy premieres at the Limelight Club in London … the film relates the mostly true biographical tale of Sex Pistols bassist Sid Vicious and his girlfriend Nancy Spungen … the raw, dark film culminates in the stabbing death of Nancy, Sid’s arrest for suspicion of murder, and his heroin OD shortly thereafter …

1987, Guns N’ Roses’ debut album, Appetite For Destruction, is released … while it is considered a landmark album now, it won’t start moving significant units or receiving much airplay until MTV puts the video for “Sweet Child o’ Mine” into heavy rotation nearly a year later … after the ballad shoots to the top of the charts, the original lead single from the album, “Welcome to the Jungle,” is re-released and hits the top 10 … another top 10 hit, “Paradise City,” soon follows, as do sold-out arena tours, classic rock star excess, and intra-band conflict …

1988, a California appeals court puts the quash on the old “lets-blame-our-child’s-suicide-on-a-rock-band” game when it upholds a lower court’s decision dismissing a suit against Ozzy Osbourne and CBS … the suit held Ozzy and CBS responsible for the death of a teen who committed suicide after listening to Osbourne’s “Suicide Solution” …

1991, former Guns N’ Roses drummer Steven Adler files suit against the band, claiming they peer-pressured him into heroin addiction then ousted him from the band when he entered a rehab program … eventually, Adler will accept an out-of-court settlement to the tune of 2.5 million bucks …

1995, The Ramones release their 14th and final studio album, Adios Amigos…

1996, drummer Jimmy Chamberlin loses his gig with the Smashing Pumpkins after he ODs on smack with touring percussionist-keyboardist Jonathan Melvoin in a New York hotel room … Melvoin dies and Chamberlin is told to take a hike … Chamberlin has already been booted for a short time on this tour after overdosing in Thailand and again in Portugal … he will not rejoin the band until 1999 …

2004, singer Linda Ronstadt is banned from the Aladdin Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas after praising filmmaker Michael Moore and his new movie, Fahrenheit 9/11 during a performance … before singing “Desperado” for an encore Ronstadt called Moore a “great American patriot” and “someone who is spreading the truth” … her comments draw loud boos, and some of the 4,500 people in attendance storm out of the theater … patrons also tear down concert posters and toss cocktails into the air … Moore responds to the ban by saying the Aladdin owes Ronstadt an apology …

2006, the Boston jam band Dispatch sells out three 20,000-seat shows at Madison Square Garden with proceeds going to poverty-stricken and AIDS-infested Zimbabwe … near-uninterrupted touring builds huge buzz for the band and MySpace proves to be a major force in helping to sell the tickets … Napster-haters Metallica relent and agree that iTunes may sell individual band tracks instead of entire albums …

2007, Tommy Dunbar, the guitarist for 1970s new wave band The Rubinoos sues Avril Lavigne and Dr. Luke, the co-writer of her hit “Girlfriend,” claiming the pair illegally copped the hook from Dunbar’s 1979 song “I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend” …

2008, Billy Joel plays the first of two rock shows to be held at Shea Stadium … the home of the Mets is scheduled for demolition after the baseball season … backed by a 26-piece band and joined by guests John Mayer, John Mellencamp, Tony Bennett, and Don Henley, Joel puts on a show that runs over three hours … tickets for the 55,000-capacity show sold out in 48 minutes … Stones guitarist Ron Wood checks into a London rehab facility to deal with his drinking problem … meanwhile reports emerge that the rocker’s 23-year marriage is in trouble due to a dalliance with a young cocktail waitress …

… and that was the week that was in matters musical.

Arrivals:

July 16:: Sollie McElroy of the Flamingos (1934), soul songstress Denise LaSalle (1939), Ruben Blades (1948), Stewart Copeland (1952), Ed Kowalczyk of Live (1971)

July 17 : Texas R&B singer Peppermint Harris (1925), Spencer Davis (1941), The Sweet’s Mick Tucker (1948), Black Sabbath’s Terry “Geezer” Butler (1949), Nicolette Larson (1952), Doobie Brother Chet McCracken (1952), Phoebe Snow (1952), JC of PM Dawn (1973)

July 18 : Screamin’ Jay Hawkins (1929), Papa Dee Allen of War (1931), Dion DiMucci (1937), Rolling Stones pianist-road manager Ian Stewart (1938), Brian Auger (1939), Martha Reeves (1941), Tim Lynch of The Flamin’ Groovies (1946), Golden Earring’s Caesar Zuiderwijk (1950), Ricky Skaggs (1954), drummer Terry Chambers of XTC (1955), Pearl Jam’s Jack Irons (1962), Tony Fagenson of Eve 6 (1962)

July 19 : ethnomusicologist Alan Lomax (1902), singer-guitarist Buster Benton (1932), Bo Diddley’s fellow guitarist-vocalist Lady Bo born Peggy Jones (1940), pop singer Vikki Carr (1941), Clarence White of The Byrds (1944), Average White Band’s Alan Gorrie (1946), Bobby Neal of the Stone Canyon Band (1947), Brian May (1947), The Eagles’ Bernie Leadon (1947), Dead keyboardist Keith Godchaux (1948), Allen Collins of Lynyrd Skynyrd (1952), Kevin Haskins of Love & Rockets (1960)

July 20 : Buddy Knox (1933), Kim Carnes (1945), The Moody Blues’ John Lodge (1945), Carlos Santana (1947), Twisted Sister’s Jay Jay French (1954), Paul Cook of The Sex Pistols (1956), Simple Minds’ Mick McNeil (1958), Chris Cornell of Soundgarden and Audioslave (1964), Stone Gossard of Pearl Jam (1966), Vitamin C (1972)

July 21 : Floyd McDaniel (1915), Kay Starr (1922), R&B saxophonist Plas Johnson (1931), offbeat pop producer, artist, and impresario Kim Fowley (1939), Cat Stevens AKA Yusuf Islam (1947), Al Di Meola (1954), bassist Howie Epstein of Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers (1955), Emerson Hart of Tonic (1969)

July 22 : 1940s-50s pop singer Margaret Whiting (1924), jazz bassist Keter Betts (1928), George Clinton (1940), Thomas Wayne (1940), teen idol Bobby Sherman (1944), Supertramp’s Richard Davies (1944), Estelle Bennett of The Ronettes (1944), Don Henley of The Eagles (1947), Indigo Girl Emily Saliers (1963), Pat Badger of Extreme (1967), Rufus Wainwright (1973), Daniel Jones of Savage Garden (1973)

Departures:

July 16 : singer and radio star Jo Stafford (2008), agent-manager Don Arden (2007), salsa singer Celia Cruz (2003), Styx drummer John Panozzo (1996), Sun Records’ Bill Justis (1982), Harry Chapin (1981), Peter Cowap of Herman’s Hermits (1977)

July 17 : opera singer Teresa Stich-Randell (2007), Paul Young of Mike and the Mechanics (2000), Marc Hunter of Dragon (1998), Hendrix manager Chas Chandler (1996), blues pianist Roosevelt Sykes (1983), sax giant John Coltrane (1967), “Lady Day” Billie Holiday (1959), harpin’ bluesman Henry Strong (1954)

July 18 : tenor Jerry Hadley (2007), Haroon Shamsher of Joi (2001), Velvet Underground chanteuse Nico, born Christa Päffgen (1988), bandleader Jimmy Liggins (1983), Hi Records owner Joe Cuoghi (1970), Bobby Fuller (1966)

July 19 : highlife bandleader Emmanual Tettey “E.T.” Mensah (1996), R&B sax man Red Prysock (1993)

July 20 : guitarist, producer, and songwriter Artie Traum (2008), singer-guitarist Buster Benton (2007), musician, music executive, and manager Jim Tyrrell (1998), recording engineer Gary Kellgren (1977), Roy Hamilton (1969)

July 21 : agent-manager Don Arden (2007), English bluesman Long John Baldry (2005), film composer Jerry Goldsmith (2004), gospel singer O’Landa Draper (1998), Colonel Tom Parker (1997), Frankie “Cannibal” Garcia, founder of Cannibal and The Headhunters (1996), arranger-songwriter Bert Keyes (1980)

July 22 : jazz guitarist Joe Beck (2008), tenor sax man Illinois Jacquet (2004), singer Tamara Danz (1996), keyboardist Rob Collins of The Charlatans (1996), Chords singer Jimmy Keyes (1995), doo-wop, jazz, and R&B performer Floyd McDaniel (1995), country-pop singer Larry Finnegan (1973)