Wednesday, November 5, 2008

This Date In Music History-November 5

Birthdays:

Air Supply guitarist David Moyse was born in 1957.

Birthday wishes to Bryan Adams.

Art Garfunkel ("All I Know") turns 67.

Peter Noone of Herman's Hermits ("I'm Into Something Good") is 61.

Rob Grill of the Grass Roots was born in 1944.

History:

In 1954, Elvis Presley made his only commercial, for Southern-Made Doughnuts, on the Louisiana Hayride radio program.

Bobby Hatfield of the Righteous Brothers was found dead in his hotel room in Kalamazoo, Mich., in 2003. The vocalist, who with Bill Medley sang "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'" and "Unchained Melody," was 63.

33 year old Johnny Horton, who had a number one hit with "Battle of New Orleans", died when his Cadillac was hit by a drunken truck driver in Milano, Texas in 1960. Ironically, Johnny had just played his last show at the Skyline in Austin, where Hank Williams had played his last show as well. Horton's widow, Billy Joe, was also Hanks Williams' widow.

In 1965, The Who released a song called "My Generation" which will become a sort of anthem for British teens, rising to number two on the UK chart. In the US however, despite performing the tune on The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, the song was mostly ignored and would get no higher than number 74 on the Billboard chart.

Eight weeks after their TV series debuted in 1966, The Monkees had the number one record in the US with "Last Train To Clarksville". They revealed during a press conference that no members of the group had played on the record.

In 1971, announcer Al Dvorin utters what would become a well known phrase: "Elvis has left the building" at the end of a Minneapolis concert by the King. He was asked to make the announcement in an effort to quiet the fans who continued to call for an encore.

In 1986, Bobby Nunn, vocalist for The Coasters on their 1958 hit, "Yakety Yak", died of a heart attack at the age of 61.

In 1988, The Beach Boys had the number one record in the US when "Kokomo", from the movie Cocktail reached the top. It made #25 in the UK. It had been 22 years since the group had their last US chart topper with "Good Vibrations". Their only other Top Ten hit in that time had been "Rock and Roll Music" in 1976.

Link Wray, the electric guitar innovator who is often credited as the father of the power chord, died at his home in Copenhagen in 2005 of natural causes. He was 76. His 1959 instrumental, "Rumble" was banned by many radio stations, even thought it had no lyrics what so ever.

In 1988, 'The Locomotion', became the first song to reach the US Top 5 in three different versions, when Kylie Minogue's reached No.4 on the UK chart. The song had also been a hit for Little Eva and Grand Funk Railroad.

In 1977, the manager of a Virgin Records store in Nottingham England was arrested and charged under the UK's Indecent Advertising Act for displaying a poster that read "Never Mind The Bollocks: Here's The Sex Pistols". At his trial two weeks later, defense lawyers called Professor James Kingsley, who testified that the word "bollocks" had several different meanings, both slang and proper. After a twenty minute deliberation, the court returned a verdict of not guilty.

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