ON THIS DAY IN MUSIC
August 21st
1961 - Marvelettes
Tamla Records released the Marvelettes first single, 'Please Mr. Postman'. The song went on to sell over a million copies and become the group's biggest hit, reaching the top of both the Billboard Pop and R&B charts. The song is notable as the first Motown song to reach the No.1 position on the Billboard Hot 100 pop singles chart. First heard here by The Beatles and a classic from the period
1961 - Patsy Cline
Patsy Cline recorded the classic Willie Nelson song, ‘Crazy’. Cline was still on crutches after going through a car windshield in a head-on collision two months earlier and had difficulty reaching the high notes of the song at first due to her broken ribs. 'Crazy' spent 21 weeks on the chart and eventually became one of her signature tunes.
The Rolling Stones started a three week run at No.1 on the US album chart with 'Out Of Our Heads' the group's first US No.1 album. One of the best puns in album titles ever. I didn't get it until I went there me'sen and then twigged it!
On their last ever US tour The Beatles performed in two cities due to a cancellation due to rain the previous day. First they performed at Crosley Field in Cincinnati, Ohio. Then they flew to St. Louis, Missouri, for a concert at Busch Stadium, where they performed under a tarpaulin due to heavy rain. It was this gig that convinced Paul McCartney that The Beatles should stop performing live.
The Doors started recording their second album at Sunset Sound Studios, Hollywood, California. I bought it when it came out and totally identified with the surrealism and sentiments therein
still using Jims notebooks from his time on the roof of his friend's house in Redondo Beach where Ray found him that summer reciting strange fantastic poems, this album would prove to be a unique document in the counter culture drug fuelled hallucinogenic times enjoyed by so many (ahem)
1968 - Tommy James
still using Jims notebooks from his time on the roof of his friend's house in Redondo Beach where Ray found him that summer reciting strange fantastic poems, this album would prove to be a unique document in the counter culture drug fuelled hallucinogenic times enjoyed by so many (ahem)
1968 - Tommy James
Tommy James and The Shondells returned to the UK No.1 position for the second time with the single 'Mony Mony'. In a peculiar twist, in 1987 Billy Idol's version of the song replaced another Tommy James hit at No.1 on the Billboard Hot 100 — 'I Think We're Alone Now', covered by Tiffany. Quite what inspired my teachers to organise an art based school trip to The Mediterranean and Northern Africa when this was released and we played so many sounds of the era onboard was totally beyond me. Walking the casbah in groups in Morrocco when Burroughs was still there. I was fifteen and the first experience of mahjoun in the markets of Northern African proved life changing. What can they have been thinking?!
1972 - Jack Casady
Jack Casady of Jefferson Airplane was arrested after a fight broke out on stage during a concert when the police felt abused. Someone in the band's crew allegedly called the police "pigs" from the stage, sparking the melee: the crewmember -- Jack Casady's brother Chick -- was dragged off the stage and arrested. Grace Slick was maced and Kantner injured at the show in Akron and they threatened to quit the rest of the tour. This is amongst the last events and tour by this incarnation of the Airplane and the lineup would not feature again in this format.
1976 - The Knebworth Festival
The Rolling Stones, 10CC, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Todd Rundgren's Utopia and Hot Tuna all appeared at The Knebworth Festival, Hertfordshire, England, tickets £4.50.
1983 - Johnny Ramone
Ramones guitarist Johnny Ramone had a four-hour brain surgery operation, after being found unconscious in a New York Street where he had been involved in a fight. Johnny was the real deal and would have taken on any gang threatening him with a flick knife and a growl.
Former Stone Roses drummer Alan Wren was jailed for seven days after being rude to a top Manchester Magistrate. He was before the court due to having no car insurance and lost his temper after being quizzed about his earnings.
1997 - Oasis
Oasis' third album 'Be Here Now', became one of the fastest selling albums ever, shifting over 350,000 units on the first day of release. The cover image for Be Here Now was shot at Stocks House in Hertfordshire, the former home of Victor Lownes, the head of the Playboy Clubs in the UK. Be Here Now was the title of a Baba Ram Das counter culture classic on meditation and early mindfulness so after Wonderwall the band's purloining of almost every idea they ever had continues unabated. Derivative drivel . . . . now somewhat considered the folly of their entire output a testament to coke fuelled 90s excess
Be Here Now was it REALLY that bad? - Yup! NME
Be Here Now was it REALLY that bad? - Yup! NME
2002 - Andy McCluskey (of Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark)
Atomic Kitten were facing legal action after sacking Andy McCluskey, the singer/songwriter producer who wrote the bands first No.1 'Whole Again.' The band were about to be dropped by Innocent records when they recorded the song that became a huge hit. The girls then wanted a bigger share of royalties, which McCluskey had turned down. Under the original deal each girl got 4p from the sale of one single.
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| Andy McCluskey of O.M.D. |
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| Atomic Kitten |
2005 - Robert Moog
Robert Moog, inventor of the synthesiser died aged 71, four months after being diagnosed with brain cancer. Dr Moog built his first electronic instrument, a theremin - aged 14 and made the MiniMoog, "the first compact, easy-to-use synthesiser" in 1970. He won the Polar prize, Sweden's "music Nobel prize", in 2001. Wendy Carlos' 1968 Grammy award-winning album, Switched-On Bach, brought Dr Moog to prominence.
Robert Moog, inventor of the synthesiser died aged 71, four months after being diagnosed with brain cancer. Dr Moog built his first electronic instrument, a theremin - aged 14 and made the MiniMoog, "the first compact, easy-to-use synthesiser" in 1970. He won the Polar prize, Sweden's "music Nobel prize", in 2001. Wendy Carlos' 1968 Grammy award-winning album, Switched-On Bach, brought Dr Moog to prominence.
2006 - The Beatles
A man surfing the Internet in America foiled three men who broke into a Liverpool shop in Liverpool, England. The man who had logged onto a site streaming live footage of Mathew Street and a forthcoming Beatles festival saw the men smashing a window of a shop and climb inside. He phoned Merseyside police who arrested the men!
2008 - Gary Glitter
Paedophile and ex-pop star Gary Glitter returned to Thailand after being refused entry to Hong Kong. Chinese authorities informed the UK Foreign Office they had barred Glitter from entry. He was earlier deported from Vietnam after spending almost three years in jail for sexually abusing two girls. He flew to Hong Kong from Bangkok after refusing to fly to the UK, and had made a plea for medical treatment after saying he was suffering a heart attack. I know quite a few folks who would have liked to come to his aid to help his 'treatment'!!
2008 - Buddy Harman
Drummer Buddy Harman died of congestive heart failure, aged 79. Worked with Elvis Presley (‘Little Sister’), Patsy Cline (‘Crazy’), Roy Orbison (‘Pretty Woman’), Johnny Cash (‘Ring Of Fire’), Tammy Wynette (‘Stand By Your Man’). Harman was the first house drummer for The Grand Ole Opry and can be heard on over 18,000 recordings.
BIRTHDAYS
1957 - Budgie
Budgie, Siouxsie and the Banshees, (1983 UK No.3 single 'Dear Prudence', plus over 15 other UK top 40 singles). The Creatures, (1983 UK No.14 single 'Right Now').
1952 - Joe Strummer
Turkish-born English musician, singer, actor and songwriter Joe Strummer who was the co-founder of The Clash, who had the 1979 UK No. 11 single 'London Calling' and the 1982 US No. 8 single 'Rock The Casbah. Their 1991 UK No.1 single 'Should I Stay Or Should I Go', was first released 1982. He later formed Joe Strummer & The Mescaleros. He died on 22nd December 2002 of an undiagnosed congenital heart defect. Never a fan of the Clash [too much pose and posturing] but hey . . . . . I liked Joe and later on began to appreciate him, in interview and in acting roles he seemed genuine and of interest I am only sorry I didn't get it earlier . . . . . .
1944 - Jackie DeShannon
Jackie DeShannon singer, (1969 US No.4 single 'Put A Little Love In Your Heart').
is an American singer-songwriter with a string of hit song credits from the 1960s onwards, as both singer and composer and she is worth checking out as she had the most extraordinary life story from worsting classic pop/country classics to forming a band in '64 with Ry Cooder (I kid you not) through to singing by invite on Van Morrison's Hard Nose The Highway. . . . she is simply, a legend!
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| Cooder the age he would have been playing with DeShannon |
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| with Jimmy Page |
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| Playing Monopoly with George Harrison |
1938 - Kenny Rogers
Kenny Rogers, singer-songwriter, record producer, actor, and entrepreneur. He has charted more than 120 hit singles across various music genres, topping the country and pop album charts for more than 200 individual weeks in the US alone. He was voted the "Favorite Singer of All-Time" in a 1986 joint poll by readers of both USA Today and People. Now almost totally unrecognisable after facial plastic surgery
a country legend somehow and his work with people like Dolly Parton has meant he is a globally known successful figure
well there's something going on . . . . . .
1904 - Count Basie
Count Basie, bandleader. was an American jazz pianist, organist, bandleader, and composer. In 1935, Basie formed his own jazz orchestra, the Count Basie Orchestra, and in 1936 took them to Chicago for a long engagement and their first recording. He led the group for almost 50 years, creating innovations like the use of two "split" tenor saxophones, emphasizing the rhythm section, riffing with a big band, using arrangers to broaden their sound, and others. Many musicians came to prominence under his direction, including the tenor saxophonists Lester Young and Herschel Evans, the guitarist Freddie Green, trumpeters Buck Clayton and Harry "Sweets" Edison and singers Jimmy Rushing, Helen Humes, Thelma Carpenter, and Joe Williams.. He died on 26th April 1984.
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