This Date In Music History-December 4

Birthdays:

Freddy "Boom Boom" Cannon (1940)

Bob Mosley - Moby Grape (1942)

Chris Hillman - Byrds (1942)

Terry Woods - Pogues (1947)

Southside Johnny - Southside Johnny and The Asbury Jukes (1948)

Gary Rossington - Lynyrd Skynyrd (1951)

Brian Prout - Diamond Rio (1955)

Bob Griffin - BoDeans (1959)

Jay-Z (Shawn Carter) (1969)

Justin Welch - Elastica (1972)


They Are Missed:

On this day in 1976, guitarist Tommy Bolin died from a heroin overdose (age 25). Member of Zephyr (1969 to 1971), The James Gang (1973 to 1974) and Deep Purple (1975 to 1976).

Born today in 1944, Dennis Wilson, drums, vocals, The Beach Boys. Wilson drowned while swimming from his boat moored in Marina Del Rey, California on December 28, 1983 after a heavy day's drinking.

Founding Gin Blossoms guitarist, Doug Hopkins, was found dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound in his Tempe home in 1993. He wrote the group’s first two hits, "Hey Jealousy" and "Found Out About You."

Multi-instrumentalist, producer and one of the most accomplished composers of the rock era, Frank Zappa died of prostrate cancer in 1993. He was 52. Zappa recorded many albums with The Mothers Of Invention and solo including the 1969 album 'Hot Rats' and 1974 album 'Apostrophe.' Zappa recorded one of the first concept albums, 'Freak Out'. He married Adelaide Gail Sloatman, in 1967, they had four children: Moon Unit, Dweezil, Ahmet Emuukha Rodan and Diva Thin Muffin Pigeen.




History:

In 1956, four Sun Records stars — Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis and Johnny Cash — recorded what will later be known as the Million Dollar Quartet. Recordings from the impromptu session won't be released for 25 years.

Lloyd Price recorded the "Bandstand version" (with non-violent lyrics, as requested by Dick Clark) of "Stagger Lee" in 1958.

Gene Chandler's "Duke of Earl" was released on Vee Jay Records in 1961. It became his biggest hit reaching #1 and selling over one million copies worldwide.



The Beatles made their London-area debut on television in 1962 when they appeared in a live broadcast from Wembley on ‘Tuesday Rendezvous’, on ITV station Rediffusion. The Beatles performed live, doing lip-sync performances of "Love Me Do" and 45 seconds of "P.S. I Love You."

The Beatles released their fourth album 'Beatles For Sale' in 1964. The album featured: "No Reply," "I'm a Loser," "Rock and Roll Music," "I'll Follow the Sun," "Eight Days a Week," "I Don't Want to Spoil the Party" and "Everybody's Trying to Be My Baby," among others.

Also in 1964, the Beatles fan club in England announced its current membership now totaled 65,000.

The Kinks entered the Hot 100 in 1965 with a song that sets them apart from every other contemporary British band, "A Well Respected Man," a tune which marks the beginning of band leader Ray Davies' look of the British way of life. The song peaked at #13 in its 14 weeks on the charts.

In 1965, Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards was knocked out by an unground microphone during a concert in Sacramento, California. He recovered in seven minutes and the concert continued.

In 1965, Ken Kesey and his Merry Pranksters held the second Acid Test — a psychedelic multimedia happening fueled by liberal ingestion of the hallucinogenic drug LSD — at a home in San Jose. The Grateful Dead, having recently changed their name from the Warlocks, provided the music.

The Byrds started a three week run at #1 on the US singles chart in 1965 with 'Turn! Turn! Turn!' the group's second #1.



In 1969, President Richard Nixon, Vice-President Spiro T. Agnew and forty U.S. governors embark on a magical mystery fact-finding mission to discover the causes of the generation gap. They viewed films of "simulated acid trips" and listen to hours of "anti-establishment rock music."

Don McLean's ‘American Pie’ entered the US Hot 100 in 1971. The eight and a half minute song would eventually sell over 3 million copies.



Tragedy struck Deep Purple in Jakarta, Indonesia in 1975, after their bodyguard Patsy Collins falls six floors down an elevator shaft in their hotel. Rumors persist that Collins had gotten into a fight with local promoters who owed the heavy-metal band money. Collins was still conscious after his fall and got into a taxi demanding to be taken to the hospital, but he died en route. Mysteriously, his body was never recovered.

In 1976, workers at EMI records went on strike, refusing to package the Sex Pistols single 'Anarchy In The UK.'

In 1980, Led Zeppelin declared that they will not re-form following the death of drummer John Bonham, although Jimmy Page and Robert Plant later tour together in the '90s. Their statement read: "We wish it to be known that the loss of our dear friend, and the deep respect we have for his family, together with the sense of undivided harmony felt by ourselves and our manager, have led us to decide that we could not continue as we were."

Roy Orbison gives his final concert in Akron, Ohio in 1988. He will die 2 days later.

In 1990, Madonna appeared on "Nightline" to defend her "Justify My Love" video. She denied the video's explicit contents were intended to stir up controversy and get her publicity. The video was banned by MTV. She knew exactly what she was doing, she is one shrewd businesswoman.

In 2006, Yahoo revealed that Britney Spears was the most searched for term of 2006 with more online searches done about Spears than any other topic or person. No wonder it all went to her head....

Also in 2006, a page of Paul McCartney's working lyrics for the Beatles tune "Maxwell's Silver Hammer" " (from the Beatles’ "Abbey Road" album) nets $192,000 at Christie’s memorabilia auction in New York. A ‘68 Fender Stratocaster guitar once owned by Jimi Hendrix goes for $168,000. A handwritten poem by late Doors singer Jim Morrison sold for $50,400.

Pink Floyd’s 16-CD collection, "Oh, By The Way," was issued as an import-only release in 2007. It held 14 studio albums packaged in miniature reproductions of the original vinyl sleeves and was limited to an initial run of 10,000 copies.