ON THIS DAY IN MUSIC

February 11th

1963 - The Beatles

In less than ten hours, The Beatles record ten new songs for their first album plus four other tracks which would be the next two singles. John Lennon's vocal on The Isley Brothers 'Twist & Shout' was recorded in one take to complete the album. Twist and Shout EP was the first Beatles disc I bought

1964 - The Beatles

The Beatles made their live concert debut in the US at the Washington Coliseum. Over 350 police surrounded the stage to keep the 8,000 plus screaming fans in control. One police officer who found the noise so loud stuck a bullet in each ear as ear plugs. The Beatles had to stop three times and turn Ringo's drum kit around and re-position their microphones so that they faced a different part of the audience. The set list: ‘Roll Over Beethoven’, ‘From Me to You’, ‘I Saw Her Standing There’, ‘This Boy’, ‘All My Loving’, ‘I Wanna Be Your Man’, ‘Please Please Me’, ‘She Loves You’, ‘I Want to Hold Your Hand’, ‘Twist and Shout’, and ‘Long Tall Sally’.

1969 - Monkees

The Monkees set a new record when their second album, 'More Of The Monkees' jumped from No.122 to the top of the US chart. The album then stayed in pole position for eighteen weeks.
The only Nesmith song on the whole album

but the album did have a hit on it

1972 - Led Zeppelin

Led Zeppelin scored their third US Top 20 hit single with 'Black Dog / Misty Mountain Hop', peaking at No.15, and taken from their fourth album. The song's title is a reference to a nameless black Labrador retriever that wandered around the Headley Grange studios during recording. Robert Plant recorded his vocal for the track in two takes.

1973 - The Rolling Stones

A local charity raised over £500 ($850) selling bedsheets and pillowcases used by The Rolling Stones after a show at Western Springs Stadium in Auckland, New Zealand.

1977 - David Bowie

David Bowie released 'Sound and Vision' as a single, which was taken from his latest album Low. 'Sound and Vision' was used by the BBC in the UK on trailers at the time, providing considerable exposure, much needed as Bowie opted to do nothing to promote the single himself, and helped the song to No.3 on the UK charts. 

1985 - The Brit Awards

The Police won Outstanding Contribution to British music at the fourth annual Brit Awards held in London. Other winners included Prince for best International Act and Best Soundtrack for Purple Rain, British Single was Frankie Goes To Hollywood 'Relax', British Video was Duran Duran for 'Wild Boys', British Comedy Recording Neil (Nigel Planer from The Young Ones) 'Hole In My Shoe', British Album went to Sade for 'Diamond Life', British Male Solo Artist was won by Paul Young, British Female Solo Artist, Alison Moyet and Best British Group went to Wham!


1987 - The Smiths
The Smiths were at No.1 in the UK indie charts with 'Shoplifters Of The World Unite.' The title alludes to the communist slogan "Workers of the world, unite!", and the 1966 David and Jonathan hit 'Lovers of the World Unite'. The photograph on the sleeve is of a young Elvis Presley. 

1989 - Paula Abdul

Paula Abdul started a three week run at No.1 on the US singles chart with 'Straight Up', the first of three No.1's in 1989, a No.3 hit in the UK.

1998 - Bernie Taupin

The hand-written lyrics to 'Candle in the Wind' by Bernie Taupin were auctioned off at Christie's in LA for £278,512.

Elton and Bernie

2000 - Geri Halliwell

Spice Girls Geri Halliwell appeared in court to give evidence over the dispute with Aprilia Motorcycles. The company were suing the Spice Girls for £1.6 million ($2.72 million) over lost advertising as sponsors for the 1998 Spiceworld World tour.

2008 - Paul McCartney

Heather Mills and Sir Paul McCartney appeared at the High Court in London for a hearing to reach a financial settlement for their divorce. The hearing in the Family Division, which was taking place in private, was expected to last five days. The couple, who had a four-year-old daughter, Beatrice, announced the end of their four-year marriage in 2006. There had been speculation among divorce experts, based on contemporary cases, that the settlement would reach £60m.

2009 - Ronettes

Ronettes singer Estelle Bennett died at her home in Englewood, N.J. She was 67. The 60s girl group best known for their work with producer Phil Spector had the 1963 hit 'Be My Baby' which epitomised the famed "wall of sound" technique. 

2012 - Whitney

Whitney Houston was found dead in suite 434 at the Beverly Hilton Hotel, submerged in the bathtub. Beverly Hills paramedics arrived at approximately 3:30 p.m. and found the singer unresponsive and performed CPR. Houston was pronounced dead at 3:55 p.m. Local police said there were "no obvious signs of criminal intent." It was later ruled by the coroner to have been an "accidental drowning" The recently TV broadcast 'Whitney' here proved harrowing stuff and never was there a portrait of a star surrounded by dysfunction and self seeking sycophants and hangers on, family or not. 

BIRTHDAYS

1981 - Kelly Rowland

Kelly Rowland, singer with Destiny's Child who had the 2000 US No.1 & UK No.3 single 'Say My Name', and the 2001 US & UK No.1 single & album 'Survivor'. as a solo artist had the 2003 UK No.2 single 'Stole', and the 2002 US & UK No.1 single with Nelly 'Dilemma'. Rowland joined the judging panel on the eighth series of the British reality television competition The X Factor in 2011.

1979 - Brandy

Brandy, American singer, who had the 1998 US No.1 and UK No.2 single with Monica, 'The Boy Is Mine'. I prefer this style of singing and writing to the Rowlands and Destiny's Child work that seemed to reflect the early start of the monotonous lack of melody music more akin to rap and spoken word than singing to these ears and also the diva style of warbling all around the note and taking an age to get there a la Whitney and Mariah . . . it's called melodrama and histrionics and here this song has a clear structured melody and an orchestration that I rather care for . . . . Rowlands and Destiny's Child not so much

1962 - Sheryl Crow

Sheryl Crow, US singer, songwriter, who had the 1994 US No.2 & UK No.4 single 'All I Wanna Do', 1993 album 'Tuesday Night Music Club'. Crow worked as a backing singer on the Michael Jackson 'Bad' tour.

1941 - Sergio Mendes

Sergio Mendes, Brazilian singer, who had the 1983 US No.4 & UK No.45 single 'Never Gonna Let You Go'.

here made all the better by an intro from the legendary Eartha Kitt

1939 - Gerry Goffin

Gerry Goffin, American songwriter of over 20 US hits with his then wife Carol King, including The Shirelles 'Will You Love Me Tomorrow', The Drifters 'Up On The Roof', The Chiffons, 'One Fine Day', Herman's Hermits, 'I'm Into Something Good'. Goffin died on 19th June 2014 at the age of 75 in Los Angeles. After he and King divorced, Goffin wrote with other composers, including Barry Goldberg and Michael Masser, with whom he wrote 'Theme from Mahogany (Do You Know Where You're Going To)' and 'Saving All My Love for You', also No.1 hits. During his career Goffin wrote over 114 Billboard Hot 100 hits, including eight chart-toppers, and 72 UK hits.

1935 - Gene Vincent

Gene Vincent, (born Eugene Craddock), US rock ‘n’ roll singer with His Blue Caps who had a 1956 US No.7 & UK No.16 single with ‘Be Bop A Lula’. Vincent died on October 12th 1971. Gene Vincent Craddock took his signature pose of a straight leg after an accident made it less easy to bend and it became a central part of his bad boy image