This Date In Music History- March 25

Birthdays:

Aretha Franklin (1942)

Elton John (1947)

Nick Lowe (1949)

Bonnie Guitar is 85.

Anita Bryant ("Paper Roses") turns 69.

Cathy Dennis, singer, songwriter (1969)


They Are Missed:

Blind guitarist Jeff Healey was born in 1966. Healey died of cancer on March 2, 2008.

Born on this day in 1934, singer Johnny Burnette. He was killed in a boating accident on Clear Lake, California on August 1, 1964 (age 30).

Hoyt Axton, who wrote Steppenwolf's "The Pusher" and Three Dog Night's "Joy to the World," was born in Duncan, Oklahoma in 1938. Axton died of a heart attack on October 10, 1999 (age 61).

Country legend Buck Owens died in 2006 (age 76). His songs were covered by The Beatles and he hosted Hee-Haw for several years.

Bill Kenny, lead singer of The Ink Spots died in 1978.


History:

In 1956, Alan Freed’s 3-day Rock ‘n’ Roll Show in Hartford, Connecticut, concluded after several arrests. Hartford Institute of Living psychiatrist Dr. Francis Braceland claimed “Rock ‘n’ Roll is a communicable disease… driving teenagers to do outlandish things. It’s cannibalistic and tribalistic.” Cannibalistic??

Roy Orbison recorded "Only the Lonely” in 1960.

Ray Charles recorded his signature song "Georgia on My Mind" in 1960.

The Who played their first American show at New York's RKO Radio Theater in 1967.

Elvis Presley performed on the USS Arizona in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii in 1961. It was to be his last concert appearance for eight years.

In 1964, the Beatles made their first appearance on Britain's Top of the Pops, singing "Can't Buy Me Love."

The last episode of The Monkees television show aired in 1968. The idea of following the hi-jinks of a rock band's life was taken from the Beatles' A Hard Day's Night film.

Today in 1967, the song "Happy Together" by the Turtles topped the charts and stayed there for 3 weeks.

Van Halen release Van Halen II in 1979.

In 1966, at a photo session with Bob Whitaker’s studio in London, The Beatles posed in white coats using sides of meat with mutilated and butchered dolls for the cover of their next American album, ‘Yesterday and Today’. After a public outcry, the L.P. was pulled from stores and re-issued with a new cover.

Today in 1972, the song "A Horse with No Name" by America topped the charts and stayed there for 3 weeks.

In 1995, Pearl Jam front man Eddie Vedder was rescued after a riptide carried him 250 feet offshore in New Zealand.

John and Yoko started their week long 'bed-in' in the presidential suite at The Amsterdam Hilton Hotel in 1969. The couple invited the world's press into their hotel room every day, to talk about promoting world peace.

Motley Crue's Tommy Lee was arrested in 1990 for mooning at the audience during a gig in Augusta. Lee was charged with indecent exposure.

In 1983, Motown Records celebrated its 25 anniversary with a concert in Pasadena, featuring; The Supremes, Stevie Wonder, The Temptations, The Four Tops, Martha Reeves, Jr. Walker, The Commodores, Marvin Gaye, Smokey Robinson and The Jackson 5.

In 2008, the B-52s issued “Funplex,” their first album of original material in 16 years. 2008