Birthday wishes to Albert Greene, better known as soul singer Al Green, who was born in Forrest City, Arkansas in 1946.
Bill Conti ("Gonna Fly Now") turns 66.
David Crosby of the Byrds and Crosby, Stills & Nash was arrested for the second time in three weeks with drugs, this time in Dallas in 1982.
Polish police used tear gas to control a riot at a Rolling Stones concert in 1967.
The Beatles were named Best New Artist at the Grammy Awards in 1965. Good call.
Today in 1957, the song "All Shook Up" by Elvis Presley topped the charts and stayed there for 9 weeks.
In 1968, the song "Honey" by Bobby Goldsboro topped the charts and stayed there for 5weeks. It made #2 on the UK chart and would eventually sell over three million copies world wide.
Rock 'n' roll pianist Johnnie Johnson died aged 80 in St. Louis in 2005. A member of Chuck Berry's band, Johnson co-composed many of Berry's seminal hits and was the inspiration for the anthem "Johnny B. Goode."
In 1995, folk singer Burl Ives died at age 85. He was the face of folk music in the late 1950s. As an actor he played Big Daddy in the 1958 movie Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and narrated the Christmas TV special Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.
The Star Club opened in Hamburg in 1962 with the Beatles as its house band. The association between the group and venue would later make the Star Club world famous.
Jack Cassady was born in Washington, D.C. in 1944. His jazz and blues inspired bass playing helped shape the character of Jefferson Airplane and Hot Tuna. Cassady is also heard on the Jimi Hendrix album “Electric Ladyland.”
"The Grand Ole Opry" debuted on television in 1985.
Max Weinberg (Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band) has a birthday today. The drummer and television personality (Late Night With Conan O'Brien) is a Newark, NJ native.
“We Are The World" went to #1 in 1985. The song raised money for Africa relief and has performances (singing a line of the song) by Bob Geldof (organizer and member of Boomtown Rats), Lindsey Buckingham (Fleetwood Mac), Steve Perry (Journey), Bruce Springsteen and Stevie Wonder and many others.
"Surfin' USA" by the Beach Boys was released in the US in 1963, where it became the group's second Billboard chart-maker, reaching #3. The song was a note-for-note copy of Chuck Berry's "Sweet Little Sixteen" with new lyrics. After Berry sued, he was granted royalties and all further issues of the song gave him writing credit.
Paul McCartney's LP "Band On The Run" topped the Billboard album chart in 1974. It went on to sell over 6 million copies world-wide.
Sunday, April 13, 2008
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