ON THIS DAY IN MUSIC

December 14th

1962 - Bill Wyman

Bill Wyman made his live debut with The Rolling Stones at the Ricky Tick Club, Star and Garter Hotel in Windsor, England. The group were known as The Rollin' Stones during this period.

1963 - The Beatles

The Beatles played a show for their Southern Area Fan Club at Wimbledon Palais, London. To prevent damage to the stage from fans the management of the Palais constructed a platform for The Beatles to perform on, surrounded by a steel cage.

1963 - Dinah Washington

American singer and pianist Dinah Washington died at the age of 39. An autopsy later showed a lethal combination of secobarbital and amobarbital (highly addictive barbiturates used as sleepers and hypnotics also as lethal injections!) had contributed to her death. Washington gave herself the title of "Queen of the Blues”. She had her first top ten pop hit in 1959 with a version of ‘What a Diff'rence a Day Made’, and then two successful duets in 1960 with Brook Benton, ‘Baby (You've Got What It Takes)’ and ‘A Rockin' Good Way (To Mess Around and Fall in Love).

1967 - The Rolling Stones

Rolling Stones guitarist Brian Jones was rushed to St Georges hospital in London after collapsing. A doctor reported Jones was tired and suffering from over strain and was also recovering from having some teeth out.

1968 - Marvin Gaye

Marvin Gaye scored his first US No.1 single when 'I Heard It Through The Grapevine' started a five-week run at the top of the charts. It was Marvin's 15th solo hit and also his first UK No.1 single in March 69. Written by Norman Whitfield and Barrett Strong in 1966, the single was first recorded by Smokey Robinson & the Miracles as well as Gladys Knight & the Pips.

1971 - Led Zeppelin

Led Zeppelin IV was riding high in the Top 10 of the US album charts. In 2006, the album was rated No.1 on Classic Rock magazine's '100 Greatest British Albums' poll, and No.1 in a poll conducted by Guitar World. The album has now sold over 23 million copies in the US. The typeface for the lyrics to Stairway to Heaven, printed on the inside sleeve of the album, was Jimmy Page's contribution. He found it in an old arts and crafts magazine from the late 19th century. He thought the lettering was interesting and arranged for a designer to create a whole alphabet.

1972 - Ringo Starr

Born To Boogie the Ringo Starr directed movie premiered in London. The film was based around a concert at Wembley Empire Pool, London, England starring Ringo Starr, Marc Bolan and T. Rex and was released on The Beatles Apple Films label.

1979 - The Clash

The Clash released their third studio album London Calling. Perhaps their most iconic album not least because of the album cover design as a pastiche or homage of the first Elvis Presley album designed by legendary graphic designer Ray Lowry with pink letters down the left side and green text across the bottom. The double album received widespread acclaim and was ranked at number eight on Rolling Stone's list of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time in 2003 and was ranked as the sixth-greatest album of the 1970s by NME.

1980 - Yoko Ono

Yoko Ono called on fans to observe ten minutes of silence in memory of John Lennon. 30,000 gathered outside St George's Hall in Liverpool, while nearly 100,000 attend a memorial in New York's Central Park. I followed suit and lay on the front living room floor of my parent's house and think they were quite struck by my commitment to doing so. I have said before we grew up alongside our brother Beatles especially being from the same par of the world and despite my not being uncrtitical especially of the difficult and taciturn damaged Lennon, I still miss him. We are poorer for his loss . . . . . . 

1998 - Billy Preston

Billy Preston pleaded guilty to insurance fraud in a Los Angeles court and agreed to testify against six other defendants who allegedly participated in starting fires, staging thefts and rigging car crashes for which a total of 18 fraudulent insurance claims were filed. Preston received five years of probation and one year in jail to run concurrently with a sentence he was already serving for violating probation on a prior conviction for cocaine possession. Gosh maybe not as christian as I thought he was . . . . . . . 

1999 - Paul McCartney

Sir Paul McCartney appeared at The Cavern Club Liverpool, England in front of 300 people with David Gilmour, Deep Purple drummer Ian Paice, Pete Wingfield on keyboards and the legendary Mick Green (of Johnny Kidd & The Pirates) on guitar. It marked McCartney's last gig of the year and the 20th Century. His last gig at the venue was in 1963. The show went out as a live webcast and was estimated to have been watched by some three million people worldwide (a record at the time for an online audience), BBC Radio 2 broadcast the show live and BBC1 TV also aired the historic performance.

2003 - Ozzy Osbourne

Ozzy & Kelly Osbourne went to No.1 on the UK singles chart with 'Changes' a remake of a track first sung by Ozzy on the Black Sabbath album Volume IV in 1972. It was the first father and daughter chart topper since Frank & Nancy Sinatra in 1967.

2004 - Dimebag 

The funeral took place in Arlington, Texas for Damageplan and Pantera guitarist Dimebag Darrell Lance Abbott, Eddie Van Halen, placed Darrell’s original black and yellow stripes guitar into the KISS Kasket he was buried in. Several thousand fans and friends gathered at the Arlington Convention Center in Arlington, to mourn the guitarist’s death. Darrell was shot five times in the back of the head during a gig at the Alrosa Villa Club in Columbus on 8th Dec 04 by a mentally ill former US Marine. Damageplan's drum technician, John Brooks, and tour manager, Chris Paluska, were both injured in the incident.

2006 - Ahmet Ertegun

The co-founder of Atlantic Records Ahmet Ertegun died, aged 83. Ertegun who founded Atlantic Records with Herb Abramson in 1947 helped make Ray Charles and Aretha Franklin stars and signed The Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin in the early 70s. He suffered a head injury when he fell at a Rolling Stones concert at New York's Beacon Theatre in October, and died after slipping into a coma.

2011 - Reg Presley

The Troggs singer Reg Presley was hospitalized in Winchester, England, with what was suspected to be a stroke. Presley had become ill during a gig in Germany a few days earlier.

2011 - Billie Jo Spears

American country music singer Billie Jo Spears died of cancer age 74. She reached the top 10 of the US country music chart five times between 1969 and 1977, her biggest being ‘Blanket on the Ground’, a 1975 No.1 hit. One of Spears's first singles was 'Harper Valley PTA', but her single release was beaten off the presses by Jeannie C. Riley's version which became a monster crossover hit, while Spears's failed to chart. I loved this song and got it's naughtiest of premises . . . . .

2015 - Adele

Adele was at No.1 on both the UK and US chart with her third album 25. The album was a massive commercial success, debuting at No.1 in more than 25 markets and broke first-week sales records in many countries, including the UK and US. 25 eventually became the world's best-selling album of 2015 with 17.4 million copies sold within the year, and has sold 20 million copies as of June 2016, making it one of the best selling albums worldwide.

BIRTHDAYS

1970 - Beth Orton

Beth Orton, English singer-songwriter, known for her 'folktronica' sound, which mixes elements of folk and electronica.
I like her. . . . . . 

1958 - Peter Stacy

Peter 'Spider' Stacy, tin whistle, from Irish-British Celtic punk band The Pogues who scored the 1987 UK No.8 single 'The Irish Rover' and the 1987 UK No.2 single with Kirsty MaCcoll, 'Fairytale Of New York'.

1958 - Mike Scott

Mike Scott, singer, songwriter, The Waterboys, (1991 UK No.3 single 'Whole Of The Moon', first released 1985).

1946 - Jane Birkin

Jane Birkin, English actress, singer, and songwriter who had the 1969 UK No.1 single with Serge Gainsbourg 'Je t'aime...Moi non plus', the only French language UK chart- topper. She is also known as being the namesake of the popular Hermès Birkin bag.

Jane recently

Mother and daughter Charlotte and Jane

great beauty

Jane and Serge in Oxford

1942 - Dick Wagner

Dick Wagner, American rock music guitarist, songwriter who worked with Alice Cooper and Lou Reed. He died from a lung infection aged 71. Wagner had also written songs with Kiss and Aerosmith. I will forever remember him for this intro to Lou walking on stage for the seminal version of 'Sweet Jane' battling with Steve Hunter on fellow lead guitar and the wonderful Prakash John on bass . . . . . . TURN IT UP! 

with thanks for the resource to On This Day In Music