This is the week that was in matters musical…
1957, rock-and-roll wildman Jerry Lee Lewis records “Great Balls of Fire” …
… in Sydney, Australia, another wildman, Little Richard, announces his intention to give up rock-and-roll and “live for the Lord” … he flies to Los Angeles the following day and is baptized as a Seventh Day Adventist … the erstwhile piano pounder and shouter will abide by his decision for five years before resuming his musical career …
1958, Eddie Cochran records the rock-and-roll anthem “C’mon Everybody” …
… the Sex Pistols will also enjoy a hit with their cover in 1979 … an article in Billboard reports that Phil Spector, the writer and arranger of the Teddy Bears’ hit “To Know Him is to Love Him,” is studying to be a court reporter … though the reclusive producer, famed for creating “wall of sound” recordings in the 1960s, never takes up that profession, his trial and conviction for the 2003 murder of Lana Clarkson provides him with lots of courtroom experience …
1959, Bobby Darin becomes the youngest to ever headline at the Copa Room of the Sands Hotel in Las Vegas. He displaces the prior record-holder Johnny Mathis who headlined when he was 23 … Darin is 22 …
1961, the Beatle haircut is born when Paul and John are celebrating John’s 21st birthday in Paris … they meet up with Jurgen Vollmer, a friend from Hamburg who wears his hair brushed forward in a cut popular with French teens … Paul and John like the style and have Jurgen give them haircuts in their hotel room … the rest is sartorial history …
1962, Little Richard and Sam Cooke begin a European tour in Doncaster, England … playing keyboards on the tour is a 16-year-old Billy Preston and the M.C. is Gene Vincent of “Be-Bop-A-Lula” fame, who wasn’t allowed to perform because his work permit had expired … for later concerts it is oddly decided by authorities that Vincent will be allowed to sing, but only in front of the stage, not on it …
1966, the Jimi Hendrix Experience plays its first ever gig at a concert in Paris supporting French pop start Johnny Halliday … the Experience played a 15-minute set of “Hey Joe” (soon to be their first single), “Killing Floor,” and soul standards “Land of a Thousand Dances,” “Respect,” and “Have Mercy” … in San Francisco, Grace Slick replaces expectant mother Signe Anderson in The Jefferson Airplane … Grace leaves her current band Great Society and brings along two songs that will be at the forefront of the San Francisco music scene: “Somebody to Love” and “White Rabbit” …
1967, David Crosby is bounced from The Byrds by leader Roger McGuinn after months of acrimony … Crosby complained that some of his songs the band recorded weren’t being released or, if they were, promoted properly including “Triad,” a song promoting a relationship between two men and a woman … McGuinn called it a “freak-out orgy tune”… Crosby took the song to the Jefferson Airplane who will release their version in 1968’s Crown of Creation … although recorded by The Byrds it was not released until 1987 …
1969, blues giant Muddy Waters is severely injured in a car crash in which three others are killed …
1970, the rock opera Jesus Christ Superstar written by Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber opens on Broadway to mixed reviews, harsh criticism from Webber, and condemnation from some religious groups … the show will close in 1973 after 711 performances …
1976, Joe Perry and Steven Tyler are injured during an Aerosmith concert in Philadelphia when a fan throws a cherry bomb onto the stage … The boy band The Sex Pistols enter Landsdowne Studios in London with producer Dave Goodman and engineer Hugh Padgham to attempt to record their debut single “Anarchy In The U.K.” … unhappy with the results they try again a week later at Wessex Studios with Chris Thomas producing and Bill Price engineering … a key to the recording is Thomas layering Steve Jones’ guitar parts to create a roaring wall of sound …
1980, Bob Marley collapses in New York while preparing for a tour … he is diagnosed with cancer and will die seven months later …
1987, the three members of ZZ Top book their seats on the first passenger flight to the moon … at press time, they are still awaiting their confirmations …
1990, members of the British alt-rock band The Stone Roses are fined $5,100 each after being convicted of trashing their former record company’s offices …
1996, former Smashing Pumpkin Jimmy Chamberlain pleads guilty to disorderly conduct … the charges are related to fellow band member Jonathan Melvoin’s death from a heroin overdose …
1998, the Crossroads Centre of Antigua opens … the treatment facility for drug addicts is bankrolled by Eric Clapton …
2000, British scandal sheet, The Daily Mirror, reports that singer Toni Braxton will skip England’s MOBO Awards ceremonies celebrating black singers after one of her breast implants explodes …
2001, U2 launches the third leg of its Elevation tour with a South Bend, Indiana, concert inviting the world to see and hear it for free … the performance is webcast and accessible to U.S. fans on U2.com …
2005, Marilyn Manson announces he’s working on a line of perfumes and cosmetics … a recently discovered live recording of the Thelonious Monk Quartet featuring John Coltrane debuts in the #2 spot on the Billboard jazz chart … the tape of the 1957 Carnegie Hall performance was discovered in a dusty Library of Congress archive the previous January by a researcher … Tommy Lee of Mötley Crüe is treated in Casper, Wyoming, for second-degree burns after sparks from a pyrotechnic display during a show burn his arms and face …
2006, Weird Al Yankovic scores his first Top Ten hit with “White & Nerdy” … after a 30-year hiatus, proto punk band The Stooges hit a Chicago studio to cut a new record … Weezer files suit against Miller Brewing Co. after the beer monolith airs ads that include images of ticket stubs for its shows along with those of Audioslave, Devo, and Incubus … Incubus also filed suit in 2005 charging misappropriation of its name … the Weezer action seeks millions in damages for “dilution of the value of the Weezer name and good will” … the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame mounts an exhibit titled Revolution Rock: The Story of the Clash featuring 150 artifacts including lyric sheets and Joe Strummer’s well-worn Telecaster … Grace Slick is on hand to help California Gubernator Arnold Schwarzenegger christen the first of a new fleet of Virgin Airlines planes with the moniker “Jefferson Airplane” … while the pair do the champagne thing, “White Rabbit” plays … commenting on the the name choice, Slick observes dryly that, “The Grateful Dead would’ve been a bad name so they picked us.” …
2008, Eminem releases his memoir The Way I Am … in it the rapper reveals that his blonde hair was the result of an Ecstacy trip and that his 2003 “Superman” was the outcome of a romance with Mariah Carey … in their first gig together in four years, Grateful Dead alumni Mickey Hart, Bob Weir, Phil Lesh, and Bill Kreutzmann play a benefit for Barack Obama at Penn State University … on the other hand, Robert Plant squashes rumors of a Led Zeppelin reunion tour when he posts a statement on his website saying, “It’s both frustrating and ridiculous for this story to continue to rear its ugly head when all the musicians that surround the story are keen to get on with their individual projects and move on.” … apparently this word hasn’t reached Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones, and Jason Bonham who have been reported to be continuing rehearsals without Plant at the mic … and here’s a union, not a reunion: Ritchie Blackmore marries longtime live-in musical partner Candice Night at the Castle on the Hudson in England … they have been recording and performing as Blackmore’s Night since 1997 …
…and that was the week that was.
Arrivals:
October 7: banjo player-singer-songwriter-comedian “Uncle” Dave Macon (1870), Martin Murray of The Honeycombs (1941), Dino Valenti of Quicksilver Messenger Service (1943), Kevin Godley of 10cc (1945), David Hope of Kansas (1949), John Mellencamp (1951), Tico Torres of Bon Jovi (1953), singer-songwriter Toni Braxton (1968), Radiohead’s Thom Yorke (1968), Leeroy Thornhill of Prodigy (1969)
October 8: composer Toru Takemitsu (1930), Doc Green, baritone with The Drifters (1934), Tornados guitarist George Bellamy (1940), Redbone drummer Butch Rillera (1945), Ray Royer of Procol Harum (1945), Toni Wilson of Hot Chocolate (1947), Johnny Ramone born John Cummings (1948), Hamish Stewart of Average White Band (1949), Robert “Kool” Bell of Kool & The Gang (1950), Cliff Adams of Kool & The Gang (1952), roots blues revivalist Lonnie Pitchford (1955), Steve Perry of Cherry Poppin’ Daddies (1963), C.J. Ramone, aka Christopher James Ward of the Ramones (1965), R&B singer Teddy Riley (1967)
October 9: John Lennon (1940), John Entwistle of The Who (1944), Jackson Browne (1948), Brendan Mullen, founder of L.A. punk club Masque (1949), P. J. Harvey (1969), Sean Ono Lennon (1975)
October 10: composer Giuseppe Verdi (1813), Ivory Joe Hunter, R&B singer-songwriter-pianist, best known for his hit recording “Since I Met You, Baby” (1914), inventive pianist-composer Thelonious Sphere Monk (1917), “The Big Bopper” born Jiles Perry Richardson Jr. (1932), country singer Dottie West (1932), soul singer O.V. Wright (1939), singer-songwriter John Prine (1946), Edward Freche of the Neville Brothers band (1947), singer-songwriter-multi-instrumentalist Midge Ure (1953), David Lee Roth (1955), Tanya Tucker (1958), singer-songwriter Kirsty MacColl (1959), Martin Kemp of Spandau Ballet (1961), Mike Malinin of Goo Goo Dolls (1967), Michael Bivens of Bel Biv Devoe (1968), Nine Days drummer Vinnie Tattanelli (1972), pop and R&B singer Mya Harrison (1979)
October 11: hard-hitting jazz drummer Art Blakey (1919), bluesman Little Willie Littlefield (1931), jazz trumpeter Lester Bowie (1941), Gary Mallaber of The Steve Miller Band (1946), blue-eyed soul singer Daryl Hall (1949), Andrew Woolfolk of Earth, Wind & Fire (1950), Haircut 100 drummer Blair Cunningham (1957), Scott Johnson of The Gin Blossoms (1962), MC Lyte (1971)
October 12: composer Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872), Guitar Gabriel AKA Robert Lewis Jones (1925), Sam Moore of soul duo Sam and Dave (1935), Luciano Pavarotti (1935), Melvin Franklin of The Temptations (1942), Status Quo guitarist and vocalist Rick Parfitt (1948), Irish singer-songwriter Brian Kennedy (1948), Pat DiNizio of The Smithereens (1955), Hüsker Dü frontman Bob Mould (1960), Garfield Bright of Shai (1969), Dixie Chicks fiddle player Martie McGuire (1969)
October 13: Paul Simon (1941), Robert Lamm of Chicago (1944), Sammy Hagar (1947), Simon Nicol of Fairport Convention (1950), Marie Osmond (1959) R&B vocalist Ashanti (1980)
Departures:
October 7: NRBQ guitarist Steve Ferguson (2009), British rocker Johnny Kidd (1966), blues singer Overton Amos Lemons aka Smiley Lewis (1966), American tenor and movie star Mario Lanza (1959)
October 8: singer-songwriter Nicky James (2007), Nat “King” Cole Trio guitarist Oscar Moore (1991), country singer Harold Dorman (1988), Cliff Gallup of Gene Vincent and The Blue Caps (1988), Dr. Demento favorite Jimmy Cross (1978)
October 9: founder of The Modern Jazz Quartet, Milt Jackson (1999), New Orleans R&B artist Joseph “Mr. Google Eyes” August (1992), Belgian singer-songwriter Jacques Brel (1978), R&B and gospel singer Sister Rosetta Tharpe (1973), R&B sax honker Earl Bostic (1965)
October 10: Darren Robinson, 400-pound member of The Fat Boys known as The Human Beat Box (1995), Lenny Peters of British pop duo Peters and Lee (1992)
October 11: reggae star Alton Ellis (2008), composer Neal Hefti (2008), Werner von Trapp, member of the singing family (2007), BBC star and pop singer Andy Stewart (1993), Edith Piaf (1963)
October 12: Blue Cheer bassist-vocalist Dickie Peterson (2009), Brendan Mullen, founder of L.A. punk club Masque (2009), songwriter Baker Knight (2005), bluesman Frank Frost (1999), John Denver (1997), Ricky Wilson of the B-52’s (1985), rockabilly pioneer Gene Vincent (1971)
October 13: singer-actor Al Martino (2009), Ralph “Pee Wee” Middlebrooks of The Ohio Players (1996), Shirley Brickley of The Orlons (1977), Ed Sullivan (1974)