Thursday, April 3, 2008

This Day In Music History- April 3

Richard Manuel, keyboardist and vocalist with the Band, was born in Stratford, Ontario, Canada in 1943.

In 1961, a Pittsburgh quintet called The Marcels took "Blue Moon", a tune written in 1934, to the top of the Billboard chart. It was also a #1 in the UK.

Que sera sera... Doris Day was born Doris Mary Anne von Kapelhoff in 1922.

The late Jan Barry of Jan & Dean ("Surf City") was born in 1941.

Billy Joe Royal ("Down In The Boondocks") turns 66.

Tony Orlando ("Candida") is 64.

Wayne Newton ("Danke Shoen") is 66.

A motley member of Motley Crue. Guitarist Mick Mars was born with the moniker Robert Alan Deal in 1956. A one-time class clown, he legally becomes Mick Mars before he’s 18.

Sarah Vaughan ("Broken-Hearted Melody") died on this day in 1990.

The British Broadcasting Corporation bans the Coasters' "Charlie Brown" over its reference to "spitballs" (a ban it lifts two weeks later) in 1959.

In 1956, Elvis Presley made the first of two appearances on The Milton Berle Show, live from the flight deck of the USS Hancock. He earned $5,000 for performing "Heartbreak Hotel,” "Money, Honey" and "Blue Suede Shoes.” It's estimated that one out of every four Americans saw the show.

Elvis Presley's "It Happened At The World's Fair" movie opened in Los Angeles (it opens nationally a week later) in 1963.

In 1965, Sam the Sham & the Pharaohs released their garage classic "Wooly Bully."

Sebastian Bach, the somewhat outspoken singer with Skid Row, was born in the Bahamas in 1968.

The Doors' Jim Morrison turned himself in to the FBI in Los Angeles. He was charged with inter-state flight to avoid prosecution on six charges of lewd behavior and public exposure at a concert in Miami on March 2nd, 1969. He is later released on $2000 bail.

1989 - Pepsi dismissed Madonna as a spokesperson after her "Like a Prayer" video was called "blasphemous" by the Vatican.

In 1960, The Everly Brothers begin their first ever UK tour in London, where they were supported by The Crickets.

Also in 1960, Elvis Presley enters a Nashville studio where he records "It's Now Or Never" and "Are You Lonesome Tonight?"

In 1971, the Temptations hit the top of the Billboard Pop chart for the third and final time with "Just My Imagination". They would however, place 11 more songs in the Top 40 over the next 20 years.

In 1973, Capitol Records issued two Beatles' greatest hits packages - "The Beatles: 1962-1966" and "The Beatles: 1967-1970". Fans call them "the red album" and "the blue album.”

Ray Charles became the first performer to have hits on Billboard's charts in six different decades when his version of Leon Russell's "A Song For You" entered the R&B singles chart in 1993.

The Traveling Wilburys (Bob Dylan, George Harrison, Tom Petty, Roy Orbison and Jeff Lynn) began recording their "Handle With Care" album in Malibu in 1988.

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