bmusic - Newsletter No. 202

In 1957, the Cavern Club opened in Liverpool.

In 1959, Buddy Holly made his last recordings in his New York apartment. Among the tunes were "Peggy Sue Got Married" and "Learning the Game". Holly used the same Ampex tape recorder on which he had recorded such hits as "That'll Be the Day" and "Peggy Sue". He died in a plane crash a month later.

In 1965, the Rolling Stones arrived in Sydney, Australia for a tour with Roy Orbison. Thousands of fans rioted at the airport.

In 1968, Bob Dylan and the Band horrified folk music purists by playing electric instruments at a Tribute to Woody Guthrie concert at New York's Carnegie Hall. Guthrie, a folk music pioneer, had died the previous October.

In 1969, Led Zeppelin's debut album was released.

In 1969, Pete Best won his defamation suit against the Beatles. He had sought around 4 million pounds, but was ultimately awarded considerably less.

In 1971, Jimi Hendrix's father established a memorial foundation for his son. The foundation provided music scholarships for five music students at Washington State. Jimi had died the previous September, the victim of what appeared to be an accidental overdose of barbituates.

In 1974, Dean Martin's son, Dean Paul Martin, was arrested after he was alleged to have tried to sell a machine-gun to a US undercover agent.

In 1974, former members of a number of bands, including Free, Mott the Hoople and King Crimson, formed their new band, Bad Company.

In 1976, promoter Bill Sargent offered the Beatles US$30-million in the first of several pitches for a reunion concert. The event never took place.

In 1978, on the last date of their U.S tour Sex Pistols' Johnny Rotten sneered at his San Francisco audience, "How does it feel to be swindeled?" The next morning he announced the group's break-up, blaming manager Malcolm McLaren for "sensationalizing" everything about the band. That afternoon Sid Vicious was taken unconscious off their London bound plane in New York and rushed to a hospital where he received treated for an overdose of barbituates and alcohol.

In 1980, former Beatle Paul McCartney and his wife Linda were arrested in Tokyo after customs agents found marijuana in his luggage. On the same date four years later, they were arrested for marijuana possession in Barbados.

In 1982, singer Ozzy Osbourne was taken to hospital after biting the head off a dead bat during a concert in Des Moines, Iowa. Osbourne threw the remains of the bat into the audience. He had to endure a series of rabies shots and their effects caused him to collapse on stage the following week.

In 1988, Chicago music critic Charles Eddy sued the Beastie Boys for half a million dollars. He alleged that the rap music group broke into his Hollywood hotel room while he slept, poured water on his head and filmed the prank for a video.

In 1989, Guild, the Rhode Island guitar company that made instruments for such stars as Elvis Presley and Johnny Cash, was sold to a Wisconsin amplifier manufacturer. The court-ordered sale to Randall Corporation followed two months of bankruptcy proceedings. Guild had been losing about US$30,000 a month.

In 1995, Bonnie Raitt raised US$80,000 at a New York City benefit for her project to provide guitar lessons for girls. Fender guitars later announced the launching of the Bonnie Raitt Signature Stratocaster, the first Fender named after a woman. Raitt donated all her royalties from the line to her project and Fender said it would provide free guitars.

In 1996, Jamaican authorities opened fire on Jimmy Buffett's seaplane, mistaking it for a drug trafficker's plane. U2 singer Bono was with Buffett, but neither was hurt.

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Births In 1889, Huddie Ledbetter, better known as Leadbelly, was born in Morningsport, Louisiana. Leadbelly, popular during the 1930's and '40s, was probably the first country blues artist to become known to the white audience. Many of his songs, such as "Goodnight Irene", "Rock Island Line" and "The Midnight Special" are still sung wherever folk music is played.
Leadbelly spent more than a dozen years in the prisons of Texas and Louisiana for violent crimes, including murder. He died in New York in December, 1949.

In 1935, Sam Cooke, who provided the early foundations of soul music, was born in Chicago.
Sam Cooke was shot to death in December 1964 by the female manager of a Los Angeles motel. Another woman had fled from Cooke to the motel office, and there was a confrontation.

In 1937, Phil Everly, of the Everly Brothers, was born in Brownie, Kentucky. He and his brother Don were responsible for some of the biggest pop records of the late 1950's. The brothers came from a country music family, and their parents took them to Nashville in 1956 to meet Chet Atkins. A year later, the Everly Brothers had their first hit, "Bye Bye Love".
The relationship between the two brothers began to deteriorate about 1963, although they continued to perform together for another decade. The Everly Brothers got together again in the 1980's.

In 1941, Neil Diamond was born in Brooklyn, New York. He began in 1962 as a $50-a-week songwriter, and among the songs he churned out was "I'm a Believer," a hit for the Monkees in 1966, and later remade by Anne Murray. Diamond signed with Bang records in 1965, turning out a series of teen hits such as "Cherry Cherry" and "Kentucky Woman." At the end of the '60s, successes such as "Sweet Caroline" and later "Song Sung Blue" established him as a major star.

In 1942, singer-actor Michael Crawford. Crawford went from bumbling Frank Spencer in the UK sitcom "Some Mother's Do 'Ave 'Em" to winning a Tony award in the U.S. for his role in the "Phantom Of The Opera".

In 1943, Janis Joplin was born in Port Arthur, Texas. Janis Joplin was found dead of an accidental drug overdose in October, 1970.

In 1945, Eric Stewart, lead guitarist with 10 CC.

In 1945, Rod Evans, the original lead vocalist with Deep Purple.

In 1946, country star Dolly Parton was born in Sevierville, Tennessee.

In 1948, Mick Taylor, one of the great slide guitarists in rock music, was born in Welwyn Garden City, England. He left school at 15 and taught himself guitar, playing in a local group called The Gods. Taylor sat in for Eric Clapton when Clapton missed a gig with John Mayall's Bluesbreakers. Taylor later joined Mayall's group when Clapton left permanently.
Taylor's playing on John Mayall's "Bare Wires" album led to him being selected to replace the deceased Brian Jones in the Rolling Stones in 1969. His highlight with the Stones is the album "Exile on Main Street". Mick Taylor left the Stones in 1974, played briefly with a band led by Jack Bruce, then in 1979 began a solo career.

In 1949, singer Robert Palmer.

In 1949, Steve Perry, lead singer of Journey.

In 1950, "When The Goin' Gets Tough" singer Billy Ocean.

In 1951, Dewey Bunnell of the group America.

In 1952, Paul Stanley, lead singer and guitarist for glam-rock legends KISS.

In 1953, singer Cyndi Lauper.

In 1955, Van Halen bassist Michael Anthony.

In 1955, country-rock singer Steve Earle.

In 1957, Susannah Hoffs of the Bangles.

In 1965, U.S. country singer John Michael Montgomery.

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Deaths In 1965, U.S. disc jockey Alan Freed, who helped spread rock 'n' roll music by playing black rhythm-and-blues records on his shows in Cleveland and New York, died of uremia in a hospital in Palm Springs, California. He was only 42 and a borderline alcoholic - a broken man because of his involvement in the payola scandals.
In December 1962, Freed was fined US$300 and given a suspended sentence on two counts of commercial bribery - accepting money for playing records. Three years earlier, he was the top disc jockey in the US on New York station WABC, which fired him when he refused to sign a statement saying he had accepted bribes. Freed was facing charges of tax evasion when he died.
Alan Freed was said to have coined the term rock 'n' roll from the words to Bill Haley's 1952 recording of "Rock A'Beatin' Boogie".

In 1970, soul singer Billy Stewart and three members of his band died in a car accident in North Carolina. Stewart, who was only 32 when he died, had started as a member of The Rainbows, who had a hit in 1955 with "Mary Lee". Also in the group with Stewart were future stars Marvin Gaye and Don Covay.

In 1973, pioneer New Orleans jazz musician Edward (Kid) Ory died in Hawaii of pneumonia and heart failure at the age of 86. Ory, a trombonist, led one of the most successful bands in New Orleans from 1912 to 1919. Louis Armstrong joined in 1916.

In 1984, Jackie Wilson, one of the premier black vocalists of the late 1950's and through the '60s, died in hospital. He had been in a coma for more than eight years - since September 25th, 1975. That was the night he suffered a heart attack and collapsed on stage at a Dick Clark revue at the Latin Casino in Cherry Hill, New Jersey.

In 1986, Albert Grossman, who managed the careers of Janis Joplin and Bob Dylan, died on a flight from the U.S. to Britain.

In 1989, Steve Wahrer, the drummer who helped lift the Trashmen and their hit single "Surfin' Bird" to number four on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 in 1964, died in Robbinsdale, Minnesota of throat cancer. He was 47. It was Wahrer who snarled out "The Bird is the Word" on the record. "Surfin' Bird" was an almost note-for-note copy of the Rivingtons' 1962 hit "Papa-Oom-Mow-Mow".

In 1991, Three people were crushed to death at an AC/DC concert in Salt Lake City. The victims had been crushed by people who rushed the stage.

In 1995, songwriter and singer Gene MacLellan, whose tune "Snowbird" became a worldwide hit for Anne Murray in 1970, died in Summerside, Prince Edward Island, at age 54. The cause of death was not officially released but local media reported MacLellan committed suicide.
The eyepatch-wearing MacLellan was never comfortable with fame and gave up performing in 1972, although he continued to write songs.

In 1995, Grammy Award-winning producer David Cole died in New York of complications from spinal meningitis. He was 32. Cole won his Grammy for "The Bodyguard" soundtrack

In 1996, Jonathan Larson, the creator of the hit Broadway play "Rent," died in his New York apartment of a ruptured artery. He was 35.

In 1997, Colonel Tom Parker, the manager who helped guide Elvis Presley to stardom, died in Las Vegas at age 87. Parker became Presley's manager in 1955 when Elvis was on the verge of becoming a rock 'n' roll star. He had firm control over Elvis's career until Presley's death in 1977, taking between 25 and 50 per cent of the singer's earnings. But the courts ruled that Parker had no legal rights to Presley's estate.

In 1997, Irwin J. Levine, who co-wrote the hit "Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Old Oak Tree", died of kidney failure in Livingston, New Jersey at age 57.

In 2000, Spencer Goodman, the man who kidnapped and killed the wife of ZZ Top manager Bill Ham in Houston in 1991, was executed by lethal injection in Huntsville, Texas. Ham was present for the execution.

In 2002, vice-president rap, hip-hop, jazz and dance label Warlock Records, Diana Lemchak was shot and killed by her husband.

In 2002, sound enginner Gary Clugston shot himself after murdering his wife, Diana Lemchak.

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