Monday, March 24, 2008

This Day In Music History- March 24

The O'Jays hit #1 with "Love Train" in 1973 and the song has been reborn in a beer commercial.

The late Billy Stewart ("Summertime") was born in 1937.

Nick Lowe ("Cruel To Be Kind") and a member of Rockpile turns 59.

Dave Appell of the Applejacks ("Mexican Hat Rock") is 86.

The late Nervous Norvus ("Transfusion"-- real name is Jimmy Drake) was born in 1912.

Private Elvis Presley (serial number US53310761) was inducted into the U.S. Army in 1958.

Future Rolling Stones Mick Jagger and Keith Richards made their professional stage debut with the group called Little Boy Blue & the Blue Boys at a club in Ealing, England in 1962.

In 2001, "Duane Allman Boulevard" was dedicated in Macon, Georgia, near where he died in a motorcycle crash.

Freddie & the Dreamers' "Do The Freddie" was released in 1965 and set off yet another silly dance craze.

Today the song "Tragedy" by Bee Gees topped the charts and stayed there for 2 weeks in 1979.

50s and early ‘60s guitar great Duane Eddy rumbled on to the earth in 1938.

In 1966, the New York Assembly makes the sale of unauthorized recordings, known as bootlegs, a misdemeanor.

In 1945, Billboard Magazine published their first album chart with
"A Collection of Favorites" named as #1.

In 1963, the Beatles were the opening act for American Pop stars Chris Montez and Tommy Roe in the quartet's hometown of Liverpool, England.

In 1966, the Beatles posed with mutilated and butchered dolls for the cover of the album, "Yesterday and Today". After a public outcry, the L.P. was pulled from stores and re-issued with a new cover.

In 1992, a Chicago judge settled the Milli-Vanilli class-action suit by approving cash rebates of up to $3 to anyone proving they bought the group's music before November 27, 1990, the date the lip synching scandal broke. Arista Records and its parent, BMG, paid out more than $400,000. About 80,000 claims were filed, most of them by people who bought compact discs.

57 year old Harold Melvin, leader of the Philadelphia Soul group Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes, died of heart related problems on March 24th 1997. The group is remembered for their 1972, #3 hit, "If You Don't Know Me By Now.”

Rod Price, a founding member of Foghat, died in 2005 after falling down a stairway at his home. The 57 year old guitarist was with the band for three platinum and eight gold records, including their highest charting US single "Slow Ride" in 1976.

During a show in Buffalo, NY, in 1973, a fan bites Lou Reed on the butt. The assailant shouts "Leather" before security hauls him away. (he must like ‘butt’ roast’)

Billy Stewart, the dynamic soul belter who scored a hit with "Summertime," was born in Washington, D.C. in 1937.