Saturday, March 22, 2008

This Day In Music History- March 22

Tom Petty forms Mudcrutch in Gainesville, Florida in 1970. Guitarist Mike Campbell joins the same year and keyboardist Benmont Tench signs on in 1973.
'Apostrophe,' Frank Zappa's highest-charting album, was released in 1974. It reached #10 and became Zappa's second consecutive gold album.

In 1975, 'Physical Graffiti,' a double album by Led Zeppelin, reached #1 in its second week of release. It stayed there for six weeks.

"Another Brick in the Wall," by Pink Floyd, topped the singles charts for the first of four weeks in 1980. It is their second and final Top Forty single in the US.

Jeremy Clyde of Chad & Jeremy ("Summer Song") is 64.

Mark Dinning, who scored a US number one hit in 1960 with "Teen Angel", died of a heart attack on March 22nd at the age of 52. The song had been written by his sister, Jeannie. Although he never had another hit, Mark continued performing throughout the 1960s, but felt his lack of success was because, "groups were in and singles were out", once the British Invasion started.

Dave Guard of the Kingston Trio ("Tom Dooly") died of lymphoma, in 1991. The Kingston Trio had 17 chart singles and nine gold albums between 1958 and 1963.

John Lennon and Yoko Ono began their "bed-in for peace" in Amsterdam in 1969.

Elvis Presley's "Easy Come, Easy Go" movie opened in 1967.

Bob Dylan's first electric album, "Bring It All Back Home" was released in 1965.

Today in 1986, the song "These Dreams" by Heart topped the charts and stayed there for a week.

In 1997, Paul McCartney's birth certificate was sold to a bidder for Beatles memorabilia for $84,146.

The Police were signed to A&M Records in 1978.

The Who played their first American live gig at New York's Paramount Theater in 1967.

Jazz guitarist George Benson was born in Pittsburgh in 1943. He shares a birthday with Yardbird singer and harmonica player Keith Relf, who is also born today in Richmond, England.

Coral Records hired original rock DJ Alan Freed as their A&R man in 1955.

1958 - Hank Williams Jr. made his stage debut in Swainsboro, GA, at the age of eight.( and it wasn't on MNF, which wasn't on the air back then)

The Beatles' first album, "Please Please Me," was released in the U.K. in 1963.
In 1978, the BBC airs “The Rutles: All You Need Is Cash.” It’s the ultimate (and very funny) Beatles parody. (and actually contains some great music as well!)

Franki Valli returned to the US Top 40 for the first time in nearly seven years in 1975 when "My Eyes Adored You" went to number one. The song was originally titled "Blue Eyes In Georgia" by its writers, Bob Crewe and Kenny Nolan, but Valli altered the lyrics to suit himself.

Diana Ross' first solo album for RCA, "Why Do Fools Fall in Love" goes platinum less than three months after its release in 1982.

In 2001, Earl Beal of the Philadelphia vocal group The Silhouettes died at the age of 76. The group topped the Billboard chart in 1958 with "Get A Job".