This is the week that was in matters musical…
1958, Billie Holiday is sentenced to a year’s probation after pleading guilty to narcotics possession … Perry Como’s “Catch a Falling Star” becomes the first certified gold record …
1963, Gerry Marsden of the Merseybeat group Gerry & The Pacemakers is fined £50 for trying to slip a German guitar past British customs … imported instruments are subject to high duties …
1965, The Beatles have a lock on the Top Ten with their ownership of the top four positions on the chart … in order they are, “She Loves You,” “I Want to Hold Your Hand,” “Please Please Me,” and “Twist and Shout” … meanwhile, their LP Meet The Beatles has moved over three-and-a-half million platters making it at the time the biggest-selling album ever … Billboard reports that the lads from Liverpool account for 60 percent of the singles market in the U.S. … Eric Clapton splits from The Yardbirds to join John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers …
1967, The Velvet Underground’s debut album is released sporting Andy Warhol’s banana-peel cover … Dick James, the Beatles’ music publisher, announces that 446 versions of “Yesterday” have been waxed to date making it the all-time champ among covered songs …
1972, country music star and reformed burglar Merle Haggard is given a pardon by California governor Ronald Reagan … it’s been 12 years since Merle did his singing behind bars at San Quentin …
1974, John Lennon and his drinking buddy Harry Nilsson are booted out of West L.A.’s Troubadour Club after razzing comic Tom Smothers … apparently, like Smother’s mother, John and Harry like Dickie best …
1976, former porn star Andrea True scores with her #4 disco single “More, More, More” …
1979, Soul Brother (and Good Old Boy) Number One, James Brown, gets funky at the Grand Ole Opry … singer Bonnie Bramlett slugs a highly inebriated Elvis Costello when he utters a racial slur about Ray Charles … Costello has publicly apologized on many occasions for this gaffe …
1991, Janet Jackson reveals … we know what you’re thinking … that she is moving from A&M Records to Virgin in a deal worth about $40 million … seven members of Reba McEntire’s touring band and her road manager are killed when their plane crashes into a mountainous area near the California/Mexico border … McEntire was traveling in a separate plane … guitar legend Eddie Van Halen and his wife, actress Valerie Bertinelli, celebrate the birth of their son … they name the boy Wolfgang …
1992, 40,000 people show up for Farm Aid in Irving, Texas … the star-studded show is organized by Willie Nelson to help failing family farms …
1997, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II proves she’s a pretty nice girl by knighting Paul McCartney …
1998, Cathay Pacific Airways announces that Oasis singer Liam Gallagher has been banned from flying with the airline following a flight during which he is reported to have screamed obscenities and smoked in the cabin … lawyers representing Korn serve Assistant Principal Gretchen Plewes of Zeeland High School in Michigan … the papers demand that she stop making “defamatory comments about Korn and its products” … the action stems from the suspension of a student who wore a Korn T-shirt to school …
2000, in the middle of a Fargo, North Dakota, show, Korn drummer David Silveria suddenly loses use of one of his wrists … Mike Bordin of Faith No More subs for the rest of the tour while Silveria heals … Chrissie Hynde is busted in New York for slashing leather goods at a Gap store … she’s part of a PETA action … blink-182 is forced to cut short its European tour when singer-guitarist Tom DeLonge and drummer Travis Barker are both felled by strep throats …
2002, R.E.M. is inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame at the 22nd annual dinner …
2003, the Chinese government orders The Rolling Stones to axe four songs from the set lists of their Shanghai and Beijing shows … the banned tunes are “Brown Sugar,” “Honky Tonk Women,” “Beast of Burden,” and “Let’s Spend the Night Together” …
2004, Starbucks announces it’s partnering with Hewlett-Packard to offer customers digital music downloads via HP tablet computers … Axl Rose is denied a restraining order that would prevent Universal Music Group from releasing a Guns N’ Roses greatest hits album … the label argues that it has every right to release the record since Rose has failed to deliver on his contract to produce the long-threatened Chinese Democracy album …
2005, a London audience is treated to an unannounced appearance by Mick Jagger during a Ron Wood concert; Jagger handles vocals on the Stones song “Dance (Pt. 1)” … Coldplay gives L.A. fans a thrill by playing a one-off gig at The Troubador … Legendary tenor Luciano Pavarotti lends his voice to a new version of Deep Purple classic “Smoke on the Water” for a new retrospective album covering the 40-year career of rocker Ian Gillan …
2006, Isaac Hayes quits South Park, the animated show where he voiced the character of Chef for nine years … Hayes cites the show’s take on religion as his reason for leaving: “There is a place in this world for satire, but there is a time when satire ends and intolerance and bigotry toward religious beliefs of others begins.” … Matt Stone, the show’s co-creator, cites a recent episode that targeted Hayes’ religion, Scientology … “He has no problem—and he’s cashed plenty of checks—with our show making fun of Christians.” … Hasidic reggae star Matisyahu fires his management team at JDub with three years left to go on their contract … the sacking comes as Matisyahu enjoys having two albums in the top 40 album chart … the JDub crew, who were the artist’s buddies in college, are reported to be considering suit …
2008, Van Halen postpones 17 more concert dates so that guitarist Eddie Van Halen “can continue medical tests to define a course of treatment,” … that band’s website notes that Eddie remains “under doctors’ care” … it’s announced that Snoop Dogg will guest star on the long-running soap One Life to Live … he’ll perform a couple of tracks from his newest CD, Ego Trippin’, and mashup the show’s theme music … the Allman Brothers are forced to postpone their annual May engagement at New York’s Beacon Theater while Gregg Allman recuperates from hepatitis C … Apple’s iTunes displaces Best Buy as the second biggest music retailer … Wal-Mart retains the top spot, though the giant chain has continued to shrink its CD rackspace in stores making more room for DVDs and video games …
2009, in another indication of foundering CD sales, BMG Music Service, the last of the record clubs to offer those 10-CDs-for-a-penny promotions, announces that it is shutting down … former competitor Columbia House had closed a couple of years earlier … Capitol Records executive Alan Livingston dies … after the U.S.-based label rejected the first four Beatles singles, he gave the go-ahead to release “I Want to Hold Your Hand” … Neil Young releases his video for “Johnny Magic” on the Internet … it’s Neil in his car lip-synching to the song with his dog in the back seat, one camera, no edits … Neil explains the “economy look” goes with the times …
…and that was the week that was.
Arrivals:
March 10: legendary trumpeter Leon “Bix” Beiderbecke (1903), Tex-Mex legend, producer Huey “The Crazy Cajun” Meaux (1929), Dexter Tisby of The Penguins (1935), swamp rocker Johnny Allen (1938), Dean Torrence of Jan & Dean (1940), Eddie Guzman, percussionist for Rare Earth (1944), Tom Scholz of Boston (1947), Jeff Ament of Pearl Jam (1963), Neneh Cherry (1964), Edie Brickell (1966), Sims Ellison, bassist with Pariah (1967)
March 11: bandleader Lawrence Welk (1903), Mike Hugg of Manfred Mann (1940), Golden Earring’s George Kooymans (1948), singer Bobby McFerrin (1950), singer Nina Hagen (1955), Bruce Watson of Big Country (1961), drummer and Pantera co-founder Vinnie Paul, born Vincent Paul Abbott (1964), singer-songwriter Lisa Loeb (1968), Joel and Benji Madden of Good Charlotte (1979)
March 12: one-man-band Jesse “Lone Cat” Fuller (1896), R&B bandleader Red Saunders (1912), Leonard Chess, co-founder of Chess Records (1917), L.C. Williams, Houston bluesman who worked with Lightnin’ Hopkins (1930), singer Al Jarreau (1940), Paul Kantner of Jefferson Airplane (1942), singer-actress Liza Minelli (1946), singer-songwriter James Taylor (1948), Bill Payne of Little Feat (1949), Mike Gibbons of Badfinger (1949), Marlon Jackson of The Jackson 5 (1957), Steve Harris of Iron Maiden (1957), Graham Coxon of Blur (1969)
March 13: bluesman Lightnin’ Slim (1913), Willie Williams, drummer with Howlin’ Wolf (1922), songwriter Mike Stoller (1933), singer-songwriter-pianist Neil Sedaka (1939), Mississippi-born electric guitarist Melvin Taylor (1959), U2’s Adam Clayton (1960)
March 14: baroque composer Georg Philipp Telemann (1681), Austrian romantic composer Johann Strauss Sr. (1804), bandleader Les Brown (1912), singer-songwriter Phil Phillips, who penned “Sea of Love” (1931), trumpeter-arranger-composer-producer Quincy Jones (1933), “Queen of Country Music” Loretta Lynn (1940), Jim Pons of The Turtles (1943), Chicago’s Walt Parazaider (1945), Boon Gould of Level 42 (1955)
March 15: bluesman Lightnin’ Hopkins (1912), Grateful Dead bassist Phil Lesh (1940), Mike Love, co-lead singer of The Beach Boys (1944), Sly Stone, born Sylvester Stewart (1944), War’s Howard Scott (1946), slide guitarist-singer-composer Ry Cooder (1947), Twisted Sister’s Dee Snider (1955), singer-songwriter Terence Trent D’Arby (1962), Brett Michaels of Poison (1963), Mark McGrath of Sugar Ray (1970), Mark Hoppus of blink-182 (1972), Joseph Hahn of Linkin Park (1977)
March 16: country singer-songwriter Jerry Jeff Walker, born Ronald Clyde Crosby (1942), Heart’s Nancy Wilson (1954), Flavor Flav of Public Enemy (1959), rock and metal guitarist Marcus Henderson, lead guitar for Guitar Hero video game (1973), bassist and son of Eddie, Wolfgang Van Halen (1991)
Departures:
March 10: Welsh guitarist Mickey Jones of Man (2010), Danny Joe Brown, lead singer of Molly Hatchet (2005), Dave Blood, bassist for the Dead Milkmen (2004), jazz and R&B singer LaVern Baker (1997), Doc Green, baritone singer with The Drifters (1989), Andy Gibb (1988), bluesman Blind Joe Reynolds (1968)
March 11: Stacy Guess of The Squirrel Nut Zippers (1998), South African saxophonist Basil “Manenberg” Coetzee (1998), blues harmonica player Sonny Terry (1986)
March 12: singer and songwriter Lesley Duncan (2010), Marc Moreland, guitarist for Wall of Voodoo (2002), violinist and conductor Yehudi Menuhin (1999), singer-songwriter Alex Taylor, older brother of James Taylor (1993), alto sax innovator Charlie “Yardbird” Parker (1955)
March 13: Capitol records executive Alan Livingston (2009), soul singer Lyn Collins (2005), reggae singer Judge Dread, born Alex Hughes (1998), rock and jazz producer Bob Shad (1985), Jerry Blaine, jazz bandleader and founder of Jubilee Records (1973)
March 14: country singer-songwriter Tommy Collins, born Leonard Raymond Sipes (2000), songwriter Jerome “Doc” Pomus (1991), R&B bandleader Larry “Big Twist” Nolan (1990), Keith Relf of The Yardbirds (1976), ’60s soul singer Linda Jones (1972)
March 15: rapper Harold “Whiz Kid” McGuire (1996), violinist Olga Rudge (1996), Electric Flag bassist Roger “Jelly Roll” Troy (1991), tenor sax giant Lester “Prez” Young (1959), boogie-woogie pianist Clarence “Pine Top” Smith (1929)
March 16: Ola Brunkert, drummer for ABBA (2008), singer Carol Richards, who teamed with Bing Crosby on “Silver Bells” (2007), ska pioneer Justin Hinds (2005), Jakson Spires, drummer, co-founder, and songwriter for Blackfoot (2005), Joseph Pope, lead singer of The Tams (1996), singer-songwriter Johnny Cymbal (1993), John Simmons of The Reflections (1990), bluesman and electric guitar pioneer Aaron “T-Bone” Walker (1975), soul singer Tammi Terrell (1970)