ON THIS DAY IN MUSIC

August 15th

1955 - Elvis Presley

Elvis Presley attended a meeting in Memphis with his manager Bob Neal, Colonel Tom Parker and Vernon Presley, at which a new contract was signed that named Colonel Parker as "special advisor" with control of virtually every aspect of Elvis' career. Parker was not really a Colonel at all, but a Dutch immigrant named Andreas Cornelius van Kujik, whose honorary title was given to him in 1948 by Governor Jimmie Davis of Louisiana. He was a flamboyant promoter whose pre-Elvis experience included shows called The Great Parker Pony Circus and Tom Parker And His Dancing Turkeys and was a veteran of carnivals, medicine shows and various other entertainment enterprises. In retrospect this could be seen as the biggest mistake Elvis ever made and he grew to hate the Colonel, it was his taste that steered him too the dreadful films,  choice of songs that led him away from rock and forbade him touring into Europe and the UK. Parker's huckster shill character contributed no less to Elvis demise and kept his 'property' tightly controlled so that the 'comeback' of 68 was probably always going to be the highlight and his descent into a life times' Las Vegas residency only added to that showbiz schtick that inevitably killed him!

Vernon Presley, Elvis and Parker

1962 - The Beatles

Lennon and McCartney drove from Liverpool to Skegness, to ask Ringo Starr to join the Beatles, (Starr was playing a residency with Rory Storm & the Hurricanes at Butlins). Shortly before, Starr had agreed to join Kingsize Taylor in Hamburg, as Taylor was offering £20 a week, but Lennon and McCartney offered £25 a week, which Starr accepted.

1965 - The Beatles

The Beatles set a new world record for the largest attendance at a pop concert when they played in front of 55,600 fans at Shea Stadium in New York City. The Beatles were paid $160,000 for the show, the set list included: ‘Twist and Shout’, ‘She's a Woman’, ‘I Feel Fine’, ‘Dizzy Miss Lizzie’, ‘Ticket to Ride’, ‘Can't Buy Me Love’, ‘Baby's In Black’, ‘I Wanna Be Your Man’, ‘A Hard Day's Night’, ‘Help!’, and ‘I'm Down’. Two of the Rolling Stones were among the audience, Mick Jagger and Keith Richard and later that evening; Bob Dylan visited The Beatles at their hotel.

1966 - The Beatles

During a US tour The Beatles appeared at the D.C. Stadium in Washington DC to over 32,000 fans. Tickets cost $3. Five members of the Ku Klux Klan, led by the Imperial Wizard of Maryland, picketed the concert.

1969 - WOODSTOCK 

Max Yasgur the farmer who provided his fields for Woodstock with Michael Lang in Bethel NY some 43 miles from Woodstock

Jim borrowed a 35mm camera and one roll of film to record the weekend. He isn't in any of the photos he took: "Selfies weren't invented yet" ©️Jim Shelley

Jim snapped this image of the crowd cheering after Santana performed©️ Jim Shelley

Woodstock Festival was held on Max Yasgur's 600 acre farm in Bethel outside New York. Attended by over 400,000 people, the event featured, Jimi Hendrix, Crosby Stills Nash & Young, Santana, The Who, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Grateful Dead, Janis Joplin, The Band, Canned Heat, Joan Baez, Melanie, Ten Years After, Sly and the Family Stone, Johnny Winter, Jefferson Airplane, Ravi Shanker, Country Joe and the Fish, Blood Sweat and Tears, Arlo Guthrie, and Joe Cocker. During the three days there were three deaths, two births and four miscarriages.

she didn't make it! She watched it on TV . . . . . . 

1981 - Diana Ross

Diana Ross and Lionel Richie started a nine week run at No.1 on the US singles chart with 'Endless Love', a No.7 in the UK. The song was the title from a film starring Brooke Shields.

1987 - Michael Jackson

Michael Jackson had his third UK No.1 with the single 'I Just Can't Stop Loving You', a duet with Siedah Garrett. It was originally intended to be a duet between Jackson and either Barbra Streisand or Whitney Houston. Session singer Siedah Garrett also worked with Madonna.

1991 - Paul Simon

Paul Simon played a free concert in New York's Central Park before an audience of three quarters of a million people.

1992 - Jackie Edwards

Jamaican singer-song writer Jackie Edwards died. Edwards worked as a singer, songwriter for Island Records. He wrote both ‘Keep On Running’ and ‘Somebody Help Me’, that became No.1 singles for The Spencer Davis Group as well as releasing his own albums.

2000 - David Bowie

David and daughter

David Bowie and his wife Iman celebrated the birth of their first child a baby girl named Alexandria Zahra Jones.

Family Bowie

2002 - John Lennon

A memorial to John Lennon was unveiled in the remote Scottish village of Durness where Lennon had spent his holidays from age seven to fifteen. The lyrics from 'In My Life' had been inscribed on three stones.

2004 - Charlie Watts

Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts was being treated for throat cancer after being diagnosed with the disease in June.

2008 - Jerry Wexler

US record producer Jerry Wexler, who influenced the careers of singers including Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles and Bob Dylan died at his home in Sarasota, Florida aged 91. Wexler produced the Aretha Franklin hit Respect, the Wilson Pickett song, In the Midnight Hour and helped Bob Dylan win his first Grammy award by producing the 1979 album, Slow Train Coming. He also coined the term ‘rhythm and blues’ while writing for Billboard magazine in the late 1940s.

Jerry Wexler and Aretha Franklin

Dusty and Jerry

Wexler, Bette Midler and Dr John

BIRTHDAYS

1946 - Jimmy Webb

Jimmy Webb American singer, songwriter who wrote the 1968 hit for Richard Harris 'MacArthur Park', plus 'Galveston', for Glen Campbell (and other hits for Campbell), and 'Up Up and Away', a hit for 5th Dimension. According to BMI, his song 'By the Time I Get to Phoenix' was the third most performed song in the fifty years between 1940 and 1990. Webb is the only artist ever to have received Grammy Awards for music, lyrics, and orchestration.

with thanks to On This Day In Music