This Date In Music History- October 8

Birthdays:

Buzz Clifford ("Baby Sittin' Boogie") turns 66.

Robert "Kool" Bell of Kool & the Gang ("Hollywood Swingin'") is 58.

Fred Cash of the Impressions ("Gypsy Woman") is 68.

Guitarist/singer Hamish Stuart of the Average White Band was born in Glasgow, Scotland in 1949.

Procol Harum guitarist Ray Royer has a birthday (1945).

History:

Johnny Ramone - the Ramones' famed one-chord guitarist - was born in Long Island, NY in 1951. He died of prostate cancer on 15th September 2004.

Little Richard began a rock and roll comeback tour in Britain in 1962. In November, he shares the bill at Hamburg's Star Club with the Beatles.

'Survival,' a militant new album by Bob Marley and the Wailers, was released in 1979 as a 47-date tour kicked off at Harlem’s Apollo Theatre.

'Hail! Hail! Rock 'n' Roll', a movie documentary and concert tribute to Chuck Berry, with Keith Richards as musical director, debuts in 1987. A year later, Berry publishes his autobiography.

Jerry Lee Lewis recorded "Great Balls Of Fire" in 1957.

Farewell to Dark Side of the Moon. The Pink Floyd album finally dropped out of the Billboard 200 chart in 1988, 741 weeks after it first debuted there. It stayed on the chart longer than any recording in history.

In 1992, the US Postal Service said it would celebrate Bill Haley, Buddy Holly, Elvis Presley, Ritchie Valens, Clyde McPhatter, Otis Redding, and Dinah Washington with their own stamps.

"Imagine" was recorded by John Lennon in 1971.

Radio stations across the U.S. “mysteriously” received advance copies of Fleetwood Mac’s “Tusk” album in 1979. This forced Warner Brothers to move up the release date.

The Four Aces led the US hit parade in 1955 with "Love Is A Many Splendored Thing", the first US number one record that was specifically written for a motion picture.

After a long dry spell, Dionne Warwicke returned to the US top ten in 1974 with "Then Came You", recorded with The Spinners. Due to some superstitious feelings having to do with astrology, the former Ms. Warwick added an "e" to the end of her name for good luck. She would later return to the old spelling, which is actually a mis-spelled version of her real name: Warrick.

Billy Joel's breakthrough album, "The Stranger", entered the Billboard album chart in 1977, where it would crack the Top 10. The LP contained four US Top 30 singles and would be his first effort to reach the UK album chart.

In 1987, the three members from ZZ Top made advance bookings for seats on the first passenger flight to the Moon. The boys are still waiting for confirmation of the trip.

In 1964, working at Abbey Road studios in London, The Beatles recorded their next single ‘She's a Woman’ in seven takes plus overdubs, recording the song from start to finish in five hours.