Friday, January 2, 2009

This Date In Music History-January 2

Birthdays:

Chick Churchill - Ten Years After (1942)

Ricky Van Shelton - US country singer (1957)


They Are Missed:

45 year-old Randy California, who was best known as the leader of the rock band Spirit, died tragically in 1997 when he was gripped by an undertow while swimming on the coast of the Hawaiian island of Molokai. Before he died, he was able to save his 12 year-old son, Quinn.

Sam Cooke was born in Clarksdale, Mississippi in 1931.

Roger Miller ("Chug-A-Lug") was born in 1936.

In 1980, Larry Williams ("Bony Maronie") was found dead of an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Country superstar Tex Ritter died of a heart attack in Nashville in 1974.

Jazz cornetist Nat Adderley died in 2000.

David Lynch of The Platters died of cancer in 1981.


History:

Paul Simon's self-titled album was released in 1972, a year after the breakup of Simon and Garfunkel. It yielded two popular singles: "Mother and Child Reunion" (#4) and "Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard"(#22).

Petula Clark reached #1 in 1965 with "Downtown."

The Marcels reached #1 in 1961 with "Blue Moon.”

In 1959, "Bad Girl," by the Miracles, was the first single released on the Motown label. The name is a concentration of Motor Town, a reference to Detroit's status as the center of the auto industry.

Muddy Waters made his first recordings with Columbia Records in 1944. These recordings are not released.

The Beatles Story, yet another America-only collection of Fab Four releases, goes to # 7 in the American album charts in 1965. The Beatles are currently #1 in the singles charts with "I Feel Fine."

In efforts to defend himself from deportation, John Lennon and his lawyers were granted access to Department of Immigration files in 1975. The pop star wanted to find out if he's been barred from the U.S. because of drug use, or his remarks about President Richard Nixon.


In 1968, the entire shipment of John and Yoko's album 'Two Virgins' was seized by authorities in New Jersey due to the full frontal nude photograph of the couple on the cover. The album was eventually wrapped in plain brown paper in record stores.

Elvis Presley went to #1 on the US album chart in 1965 with the soundtrack from 'Roustabout,' Presley's eighth #1.

The trial of ex-Sex Pistol, Sid Vicious for the October 1978 murder of his girlfriend Nancy Spungen, opened in New York City in 1979. Vicious died of a heroin overdose, thereby not living to hear the verdict.

The George Harrison album 'All Things Must Pass' started a seven week run at #1 on the US album chart in 1971, making Harrison the first solo Beatle to score a US #1 album.

In 1964, the Rolling Stones performed “I Wanna Be Your Man” (written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney) on the first edition of the landmark British TV music show Top Of The Pops.

After refusing to sign an oath that says they have never been members of the Communist party, the American Folk group, the Weavers were removed from the line-up of NBC-TV's Jack Parr Show in 1962.

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