Wednesday, June 18, 2008

This Date In Music History- June 18

Birthdays:

Nathan Morris of Boyz II Men is born in Philadelphia in 1971.

Sandy Posey ("Born A Woman") turns 61.

Tommy Hunt of the Flamingos was born in 1933.

James Paul McCartney was born in Liverpool, England in 1942.

History:

In 1918, Morganfield receives the nickname "Muddy Waters" as a result of his grandmother calling him "little muddy baby" because he liked to play in dirty water puddles and a muddy creek. "Waters" was added later, thus resulting in the moniker Muddy Waters.

In 1967, Jimi Hendrix performed at the Monterey International Pop Festival. Brian Jones of the Rolling Stones introduced him as "the most exciting performer I've ever heard." At the end of his performance, he burns his Fender Stratocaster. "The time I burned my guitar it was like a sacrifice," Jimi said. "You sacrifice the things you love. I love my guitar. I'd just finished painting it that day and was really into it." Literally overnight, the Jimi Hendrix Experience became one of the most popular acts in rock music.

Hank Medress of the Tokens ("The Lion Sleeps Tonight") died from lung cancer in 2007.

In 1977, Fleetwood Mac scored their only Billboard number one hit with "Dreams.” Over the next dozen years, they would reach the Top 40, thirteen more times.

1977- The No. 1 album in the U.K. is The Beatles at the Hollywood Bowl, a live album created by splicing together two performances at the venue from 1964 and 1965.

In 1987, a concertgoer sued Motley Crue, claiming that she went deaf because their PA was turned up too loud.

In 1948, Columbia Records began the first mass production of the 33 1/3 RPM LP. The new format could contain a maximum of 23 minutes of music per side, versus the approximately three minutes that could be squeezed on to a 78 RPM disc.

Guitarist Danny Cedrone died in 1954, following a freak stairway fall, just a month after he had recorded the lead on "Rock Around The Clock" with Bill Haley and His Comets.

Our parents were delighted to find out that Frank Sinatra's "Strangers In The Night" overtook The Rolling Stones' "Paint It Black" as the best selling single in the US in 1966.

Ray Charles' funeral was held at the First AME Church in Los Angeles in 2004. Among the performers at the service are Stevie Wonder, Willie Nelson, and B.B. King. Also in attendance are Little Richard, Berry Gordy Jr. and Jesse Jackson.

The epic “River Deep Mountain High” was released in 1966. The Ike & Tina Turner’s single, produced by Phil Spector, who considered the record his masterpiece, falls far short of the Top 40 in the U.S. causing a disillusioned Spector to go into semi-retirement. The song does go to #1 in the U.K.

In 1993, A&M Records chairman Jerry Moss and vice-chairman Herb Alpert announced they were leaving the company they founded more than 30 years earlier. They had sold A&M in 1990 to Polygram for about $500-million. Moss and Alpert started the label in the garage of Alpert's Los Angeles home in 1962.

In 1977, the Sex Pistols’ Johnny Rotten gets his face and hands slashed by some thugs who apparently didn’t take to kindly to the group’s U.K. hit “God Save The Queen.”

Rare Earth drummer Peter Hoorelbeke was arrested in 1974, after throwing his drumsticks into the crowd.

R&B legend Fats Domino recorded "I Want to Walk You Home" in New Orleans in 1959.