It happened last week

This is last week that was in matters musical…

1958, Lou Rawls and Sam Cooke are both injured in an Arkansas auto wreck that kills their chauffeur …

1960, Greg Allman turns 13 and gets a guitar for his birthday … 14-year-old brother Duane eclipses him quickly on that instrument while Greg excels at organ and vocals … they’ll play together in the Kings, the Allman Joys, and Hourglass, before they rule southern rock with the Allman Brothers Band, which they’ll form in 1969 …

1961, Jimmy Dean starts a five-week run at No. 1 on the U.S. singles chart with his song "Big Bad John" … Dean will go on to host a TV variety show and success in the sausage trade, as well as being Willard Whyte in the in James Bond film “Diamonds are Forever” …

1963, The Kingsmen release "Louie Louie" … one of the most-covered songs of all time, it is charged that the slurred lyrics are obscene … the song is banned on some radio stations, and especially in Indiana, where Governor Matthew Welch determines the ditty is dirty, despite the fact that after a 31-month investigation, the FBI states that they are "unable to interpret any of the wording in the record"

1965, promoter Bill Graham rents the building destined to become the Fillmore East for a staggering $60 … his first rock show bill features The Jefferson Airplane and The Grateful Dead…

1967, the Richard Lester film How I Won the War starring John Lennon opens in the U.S. … it’s the first film to feature a solo performance by a Beatle … Rolling Stone magazine hits the newstands for the first time …

1969, Jim Morrison gets blotto on a plane trip from L.A. to Phoenix to see The Stones … he’s such a royal pain that he’s arrested on arrival and charged with interfering with the flight and public drunkenness, having harassed a stewardess who apparently didn’t appreciate a drunk Morrison jumping in her game … the charges are eventually dropped …

1971, Led Zeppelin releases their unnamed fourth album, leaving fans and Zep members alike to find a name that suits them … the record is variously referred to as: The Runes Album, ZoSo, and Led Zeppelin IV, the name actually referenced by Jimmy Page …

1972, living up to his last name, Johnny Paycheck starts pulling down a regular salary when he officially joins the cast of the Grand Ole Opry … Johnny makes an even bigger financial splash when he advises legions of disgruntled employees everywhere to "Take This Job And Shove It" … a word of advice Johnny: out-of-work fans can’t buy albums … just something to consider if you don’t want to have to change your stage name to Johnny Unemployment …

… featuring fiery guitarist Jan Akkerman, the album Moving Waves by Dutch prog-rock band Focus arrives on the LP chart in the U.K. … riding his motorcycle in Macon, Georgia, Allman Brothers bass man Berry Oakley crashes into the side of a city bus only three blocks from where Duane met his demise in a motorcycle accident the previous year" … Oakley refuses treatment at the scene and goes home only to die of a brain hemorrhage later that night in the hospital …

1977, Ozzy Osbourne quits Black Sabbath then rejoins the proto-metalists a few weeks later …

1978, Donna Summer’s cover of "MacArthur Park" becomes a #1 pop hit … a decade earlier, actor Richard Harris had taken his bombastic reading of the lyrically incomprehensible Jimmy Webb tune to #2 …

1979, Fleetwood Mac’s album Tusk hits #1 in the U.K. … after its 37-week rise to that spot …

1985, the theme from the TV show Miami Vice rides the top of the Billboard Hot 100 … the soundtrack LP also goes to #1 in the album chart where it will reside for 11 weeks, beating the former TV-theme record-holder, The Music from Peter Gunn …

1986, reinforcing the Miami Vice-music connection, Willie Nelson plays a corrupt cop in a guest appearance …

1988, Whitney Houston’s debut album goes multiplatinum with nine million copies sold … only Boston has matched this performance with a debut LP …

1992, Boyz II Men’s "End of the Road" reaches the end of the #1 road when it makes its 13th and final appearance in the Billboard Hot 100 chart’s top slot … Axl Rose is convicted of property damage in the wake of a Guns N’ Roses show in Missouri … the concert was aborted as Rose threw his microphone down and walked off stage saying, “Thanks to the lame-ass security, I’m going home!” … the other band members followed and the house lights came on, sparking an intense riot that caused significant damage to the newly constructed arena … Rose gets two years’ probation and is ordered to pay $50,000 in fines to community groups …

1995, Michael Jackson’s ATV Music catalog and Sony merge to form the world’s third-largest music publishing company worth an estimated $300 million … among the goodies Jackson brings to the table are a raft of classic Beatles tunes that Jackson snaked out from former friend Paul McCartney after Macca had advised the King of Pop to invest in publishing … here’s a little free advice: never tell people with more money than you about something valuable that you want to buy …

1998, Little Jimmy Dickens’ appearance at the Grand Ole Opry marks his 50th year as a member of the cast … Dickens is best-remembered for his 1965 hit, "May The Bird Of Paradise Fly Up Your Nose" … Rick James has a stroke when a blood vessel in his neck ruptures during a head-banging performance in Denver … Michael Jackson settles his suit against London’s Daily Mirror over pictures and stories run by the scandal sheet claiming that the star’s face has been disfigured by plastic surgery … a lawyer representing the Mirror says, "The photographs were taken honestly and were not tampered with, but the Mirror has since met with the plaintiff in person and acknowledges that the photographs do not accurately represent the plaintiff’s true appearance." … Ahmet Ertegun and Bobby "Blue" Bland are honored with lifetime achievement awards from The Blues Foundation …

1999, proving the old adage, "all that glitters is not golden," Gary Glitter pleads guilty in a British court to charges of taking and possessing indecent pictures of underage children … he receives a four-month jail sentence … and yet “Rock And Roll Part 2” is still played at US stadiums …

2003, Kid Rock announces plans for a continuing creative collaboration with Sheryl Crow … the collaboration has thus far resulted in the hit duet "Picture," and they plan more writing and recording together in the future … looks like the Kid is growing up … perhaps a name-change to Man Rock is in order …

2004, Apple introduces a special black U2 version of the iPod with the band members’ names laser-etched on the case … the unit is launched with an ad that has the band performing its new single "Vertigo" … finally jumping on the bandwagon of mega-rockers who’ve cashed in on cross-promotion, it’s the first time in the band’s 25-year career that it has licensed music for commercial purposes … Bill Wyman, the 68-year-old former Rolling Stones bassman, announces he will retire from touring with the Rhythm Kings, his current band …

2005, following an unfriendly Supreme Court decision about its file-sharing software and website, Grokster shuts down … it is reported that it will pay the music and movie industries $50 million in settlement of lawsuits … unfounded rumors abound that in order to be first in line ahead of the pirates, the major labels are considering their own file-sharing site called Huckster … Elton John and partner David Furnish set a date to wed … Mike Love of The Beach Boys files suit against his cousin Brian Wilson … Love claims that a British promotion for Wilson’s 2004 album Smile that gave away 2.6 million Beach Boys compilations discs, cut into the band’s sales … this marks the seventh time that Beach Boys have sued one another, but apparently there is no Love lost between them … in previous legal contests between Love and Wilson, both parties said in interviews that there was no malice between them; they simply couldn’t come up with an agreeable settlement by themselves … it’s like the old saying goes, "the family who cruise together, sues together" …

2006, former singer and guitarist John Hall of the band Orleans is elected to the U.S. House of Representatives representing the 19th New York congressional district … at his celebration party he elects to skip playing his signature tune "Still the One" in favor of Steven Van Zandt’s "I Am a Patriot" … Yoko Ono observes John Lennon’s 66th birthday in Reykjavik, Iceland … she dedicates the site of a planned Imagine Peace Tower, a 100-foot beam of light that will shine around the clock …

2007, The Eagles’ first studio album in 28 years, Long Road Out of Eden, debuts at #1 with sales of 710,000 copies … this despite its only being available at Wal-Mart stores and the band’s website … Donovan announces plans to open a Transcendental Meditation college in Scotland … it will be called the Invincible Donovan University … rumor has it that the original name was to be Invincible University of Donovan until deep meditation revealed to the former ’60s flower child that its college sweatshirts would bear the initials, IUD … so much for free love …

2008, Van Morrison reprises his 1968 critically revered LP Astral Weeks live at the Hollywood Bowl, supported by a full string section as well as Richard Davis on bass and Jay Berliner on guitar who both performed on the original studio release … a man accused of illegally posting songs on the Internet from an unreleased Guns N’ Roses album agrees to plead guilty … The New York Times announces that Bono will become an op-ed columnist for the paper in the coming year …

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

Arrivals:

November 5: Roy Rogers born Leonard Slye (1911), blues and R&B innovator Ike Turner (1931), Art Garfunkel (1941), Gram Parsons (1946), Peter Noone of Herman’s Hermits (1947), Don McDougall of Guess Who (1948), Mike Score of A Flock Of Seagulls (1957), Bryan Adams (1959), David Bryson of Counting Crows (1961), singer-actress Andrea McArdle (1963), Jon Greenwood of Radiohead (1971), Ryan Adams (1974)

November 6: Adolphe Sax, inventor of the saxophone (1814), John Philip Sousa, inventor of the sousaphone (1854), composer-pianist Ignace Jan Paderewski (1860), musician, songwriter, lyricist Gus Kahn, born Gustav Gerson Kahn, who penned songs such as "It Had To Be You" and "Dream a Little Dream Of Me" (1886), musician-arranger Ray Conniff, who founded The Ray Conniff Singers (1927), Joseph Pope, lead singer of The Tams (1933), singer P.J. Proby (1938), Guy Clark (1941), Glenn Frey of The Eagles (1948), Corey Glover of Living Colour (1964)

November 7: New Orleans trumpeter Al Hirt (1922), Mary Travers of Peter, Paul and Mary (1937), soul singer Dee Clark, whose biggest single was "Raindrops" (1938), Johnny Rivers, rock-and-roll singer, songwriter, guitarist, and record producer, born John Henry Ramistella (1942), singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell born Roberta Joan Anderson (1943), Liam O Maonlai of Hothouse Flowers (1964), Russell Barrett of Chapterhouse (1968)

November 8: Bert Burns, R&B producer of The Drifters and Van Morrison (1929), Bonnie Bramlett of Delaney and Bonnie (1944), Don Murray, drummer for The Turtles (1945), Roy Wood of The Move and ELO (1946), Minnie Riperton, singer-songwriter noted for her five-and-a-half octave vocal range (1947), blues singer-songwriter Bonnie Raitt (1949), Gerald Alston, lead singer of The Manhattans (1951), singer-songwriter Rickie Lee Jones (1954), singer-actor-teen idol Leif Garrett born Leif Per Nervik (1961), Stephen Patman of Chapterhouse (1968)

November 9: big band leader Tommy Dorsey (1905), bass singer Leroy Fann of Ruby & The Romantics (1936), Tom Fogerty of Creedence Clearwater Revival (1941), Phil May of The Pretty Things (1944), Alan Gratzer of REO Speedwagon (1948), Joe Bouchard of Blue Oyster Cult (1948), Tommy Caldwell, bassist for the Marshall Tucker Band (1949), Pepa of Salt-N-Pepa born Sandra Denton (1961), Brad "Scarface" Jordan of the Geto Boys (1969), singer-songwriter Diana King (1970), Susan Tedeschi, blues and roots-music singer and guitarist married to Derek Trucks (1970), Nick Lachey of 98 Degrees (1973), rock-country-rap-rock musician Uncle Kracker born Matthew Shafer (1974), Sisq", lead singer of R&B group Dru Hill, born Mark Althavan Andrews (1978)

November 10: singer-songwriter-musician Dave Loggins, cousin of Kenny Loggins (1947), country singer-songwriter Donna Fargo born Yvonne Vaughan (1947), Greg Lake of Emerson, Lake & Palmer (1948), Ronnie Hammond of The Atlanta Rhythm Section (1950), Mario Cipollina of Huey Lewis and The News (1954), Frank Maudsley of A Flock of Seagulls (1959), West Coast rapper Warren G, born Warren Griffin III (1970), Eve, rapper-singer-actress-musician (1978)

November 11: jazz singer Ernestine Allen (1920), jazz pianist-singer Mose Allison (1927), R&B singer LaVern Baker (1929), David Lastle, New Orleans session sax man (1934), pop singer Brian Hyland of "Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini" fame (1943), The Youngbloods’ Jesse Colin Young, born Perry Miller (1944), godfather of grunge Neil Young (1945), Chris Dreja of The Yardbirds (1945), Vince Martell of Vanilla Fudge (1945), Arthur Tavares of disco singing group Tavares (1946), Andy Partridge of XTC (1953), singer-songwriter-guitarist Marshall Crenshaw (1953), Ian Craig Marsh of Heaven 17 (1956), LeToya Luckett formerly of Destiny’s Child (1980)

Departures:

November 5: Link Wray (2005), Robert Lee “Bobby” Hatfield of The Righteous Brothers (2003), saxophonist Eddie Harris (1996), jazz pianist Bobby Scott (1990), Barry Sadler (1989), Vladimir Horowitz (1989), Bobby Nunn (1986), Guy Lombardo (1977), Robert “Nighthawk” McCollum (1967), Johnny Horton (1960), piano magician Art Tatum (1956), Orioles singer Tommy Gaither (1950)

November 6: Hank Thompson, Texas honky-tonk and western swing pioneer (2007), George Osmond, patriarch of the singing Osmond Family (2007), jazz pianist Pete Jolly (2004), Don Julian, leader of The Meadowlarks (1998), novelty artist Dickie Goodman (1989), New York Dolls drummer Billy Murcia (1972)

November 7: rockabilly singer Jody Reynolds (2008), jazz drummer Vernel Fournier (2000), Jimmy Jones, studio bassist who worked with Wilson Pickett (1995), Carter Cornelius, leader of The Cornelius Brothers with Sister Rose (1991)

November 8: trumpeter Lester Bowie (1999), Dr. Tommy Comeaux of Beausoleil, voted best Cajun guitarist (1997), Country Dick Montana of The Beat Farmers (1995), R&B pianist James Booker (1983), R&B singer Ivory Joe Hunter (1974), pioneering blues guitarist Kokomo Arnold (1968)

November 9: English movie composer Stanley Myers (1993), Egon Wellesz, composer-teacher-musicologist and student of Arnold Schoenberg (1974), Swedish jazz composer Jan Johansson (1968), composer Frederick Preston Search (1957), Broadway and film composer Sigmund Romberg, best known for "Lover Come Back to Me" performed by Billie Holliday (1951), ragtime pianist and composer Ole Olsen born John Siguard Olsen, of the vaudeville act Olsen and Johnson, who hit the big time with the Broadway show and movie Hellzapoppin (1927), Mannheim composer Carl Philipp Stamitz, son of famous composer Johann Stamitz (1801)

November 10: Miriam Makeba (2008), Kanye West’s mother and manager, Donde West (2007), R&B singer Gerald Levert (2006), pop and jazz session guitarist Tommy Tedesco (1997), jazz singer-pianist-composer-actress Carmen McRae (1994), blueswoman Ida Cox (1967)

November 11: Beau Brummels drummer John Peterson (2007), Motown Records executive Gwen Gordy Fuqua (1999), R&B singer Ronnie Dyson (1990), Don Addrisi of the Addrisi Brothers, who wrote the hit "Never My Love" for The Association (1984), Allman Brothers bassist Berry Oakley (1972)