This Date in Rock Music History: February 12

1956:  Dean Martin had the #1 song in the U.K. with "Memories Are Made Of This".

 
1958:  The Crickets released the single "Maybe Baby".  (Note:  some websites claim that the song was released January 23, 1957, but according to the book 'Buddy Holly:  A Biography' by Ellis Amburn and the Rockabilly Hall of Fame, the song was released on February 12.)

1961:  "Shop Around" by the Miracles became the first million-selling single for Motown Records.
1964:  The Beatles certainly had a great plan.  On the heels of their record-breaking performance on The Ed Sullivan Show and wild American Debut at the Coliseum in Washington, D.C., the group boarded a train and played two concerts at Carnegie Hall in New York City.  








1966:  The Rolling Stones released the single "19th Nervous Breakdown" in the United States.

1966:  "Crying Time" by Ray Charles was the #1 Easy Listening song.

1966:  Stevie Wonder remained calm at #1 for a fourth week on the R&B chart with "Uptight (Everything's Alright)".
1966:  Rubber Soul by the Beatles earned a sixth straight week at #1 on the Album chart. 
1967:  Police raided the home of Keith Richards, lead guitarist of the Rolling Stones, in West Wittering, England.  The police found several substances of "a suspicious nature".  Richards and Mick Jagger, the lead singer of the Stones, were arrested May 10 on drug charges.
1968:  Jimi Hendrix returned to his home in Seattle, Washington, where he received a key to the city and an honorary high school diploma.

1972:  Yes released the single "Roundabout".
1972:  The Carpenters led the way on the Adult chart with "Hurting Each Other" for a second week.










           
                                        Climax with their one and only hit..

1972:  Al Green landed the #1 song with "Let's Stay Together".  Don McLean's classic "American Pie" dropped to second with Nilsson's "Without You" eyeing the top.  Newcomer Climax was at #4 with "Precious And Few", jumping over Three Dog Night and "Never Been To Spain".  The rest of the Top 10:  The Carpenters with "Hurting Each Other", the new Osmonds song--"Down By The Lazy River", "Joy" from Apollo 100 moved up to #8, former #1 "Brand New Key" by Melanie was #9 and Badfinger dropped with "Day After Day".










1973:  Stealers Wheel released the single "Stuck In The Middle With You".
1975:  Olivia Newton-John released the follow-up to her breakthrough album If You Love Me (Let Me Know).  This one was titled Have You Never Been Mellow.
1976:  Sal Mineo ("Start Movin'") was stabbed to death in an alley behind his apartment in Hollywood, California at age 37 during an apparent robbery.
1977:  The Police recorded their first single--"Fall Out" at Pathway Studios in London.
1977:  If you were one of the lucky people who went to Whisky a Go Go in Los, Angeles on this date, give a shout out.  You saw Blondie, Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers and the Ramones on the same night.  They were wrapping up a four-night show at the Whisky.





                         "Let Me Take You Home Tonight", from Boston's debut...

1977:  The Soundtrack to "A Star Is Born" took over from Hotel California by the Eagles as the #1 album.  Songs in the Key of Life from Stevie Wonder, itself a former #1 album, remained third.  Wings took fourth with Wings Over America while Queen's A Day at the Races was #5.  The rest of the Top 10:  Al Stewart with Year of the Cat, the Greatest Hits package from Linda Ronstadt, Boston's debut was still going strong at #8, Frampton Comes Alive!  from Peter Frampton was #9 after 55 weeks and the Steve Miller Band bounced back into the Top 10 with Fly Like An Eagle.

1977:  Stevie Wonder's "I Wish", one of The Top 100 R&B Songs of the 1970's*, was #1 on the R&B chart for a fifth week.
1977:  Barbra Streisand landed a fifth week at #1 on the Adult chart with "Love Theme From 'A Star Is Born' (Evergreen)".

1977:  Bread entered the Top 10 with their 12th hit and 6th Top 10--"Lost Without Your Love".













1978:  ELO released the single "Sweet Talkin' Woman".
1981:  Rush released the album Moving Pictures.










1983:  Bob Seger moved to #1 on the Adult Contemporary chart with the great song "Shame On The Moon".
1983:  "Billie Jean" by Michael Jackson took over at #1 on the R&B chart.








                        "Lovers in the Night" from 'Toto IV'...

1983:  Men At Work remained at #1 on the Album chart for the 14th week with Business As Usual, one of the best performances ever by a newcomer in the Rock Era.  Built for Speed by the Stray Cats was #2 for the 12th week while H2O from Hall & Oates took third place.  Pat Benatar's newest--Get Nervous was #4 with the new Michael Jackson album Thriller at #5.  The rest of the Top 10:  The Distance from Bob Seger & the Silver Bullet Band, the Clash placed Combat Rock at #7, Hello, I Must Be Going!  by Phil Collins was steady in the #8 spot, the multi-award winning Toto IV was next followed by Foreigner Records, the new compilation album by Foreigner.








1983:  Men At Work returned to #1 for a fourth week with "Down Under".  Patti Austin and James Ingram were one step away with "Baby, Come To Me".  Marvin Gaye was talking about "Sexual Healing" while Bob Seger & the Silver Bullet Band were up to #4 with 'Shame On The Moon".  The rest of the Top 10:  previous #1 "Africa" from Toto, "Maneater" by Hall & Oates was still at #6, Eddie Rabbitt & Crystal Gayle with "You And I", the Clash maintained with 'Rock The Casbah", newcomers the Stray Cats crawled up to 9 and Phil Collins remained at #10 with his remake of the Supremes' #1 song "You Can't Hurry Love".
1979:  Ringo Starr appeared on Shining Time Station on PBS-TV.  (Note:  some websites incorrectly report his appearance as being in 1979.  'Shining Time Station' aired form 1989-1993--the correct date is February 12, 1989, according to 'TV.com'.)







1991:  Whitney Houston released the single "The Star Spangled Banner" due to tremendous demand following her historic performance at the Super Bowl.  Whitney donated all proceeds of the song to charity.  The song was later re-released following the September 11, 2001 murders, and again, all proceeds were donated to help the victims and their families.  
1994:  Alice In Chains debuted at # on the Album chart with Jar of Flies.












1994:  Celine Dion had her first #1 song with "The Power Of Love".  Rod Stewart, Bryan Adams and Sting dropped with "All For Love", Toni Braxton edged a step closer with "Breathe Again" and former #1 "Hero" from Mariah Carey was fourth.  The rest of the Top10:  "The Sign" from Ace of Base, Salt 'N' Pepa and En Vogue jumped from 16 to 6 with "Whatta' Man", Domino and "Getto (sic) Jam", the Cranberries vaulted into the Top 10 with "Linger", Michael Bolton's "Said I Loved You...But I Lied" came in ninth and Ace of Base had a second song in the week's Top 10 with "All That She Wants".







1997:  David Bowie received a star that they give out often for the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
2000:  Oliver ("Jean" from 1969) died at age 54 of cancer in Shreveport, Louisiana.
2000:  Screamin' Jay Hawkins died at the age of 70 in Paris, France after surgery to treat an aneurysm.
2000:  John London, songwriter and bassist who worked with Linda Ronstadt, James Taylor and the Monkees, and wrote "The Tide Is High" for Blondie, died in Rockport, Texas at age 58.







2000:  Mariah Carey was on top of the chart for the 15th time in her career with "Thank God I Found You".  She trailed the Beatles (20) and Elvis Presley (18) for the most all-time #1 songs.
2001:  The 9th District U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Napster must stop its users from trading songs without the permission of their copyright owners.  Finally.  Let's all remember who the owners are and who the consumers are.  (Note:  some websites erroneously report the date of the ruling as February 11.  The correct date is February 12, according to the University of Yale Law School, 'ABC News', and 'Billboard'.) 

2003:  Bob Weir, Mickey Hart and Phil Lesh--the surviving members of the Grateful Dead--changed their name from the Other Ones to the Dead.
2005:  Sammi Smith ("Help Me Make It Through the Night" from 1971) died at age 61 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma after battling illness associated with smoking.

2006:  Leo Sayer and Meck had the top U.K. song with "Thunder in My Heart Again".

2007:  Sting confirmed at a press conference at the famous Whisky a Go Go in Los Angeles that the Police were getting back together for a tour.
2007:  Eldee Young of the Ramsey Lewis Trio ("The In Crowd") and Young-Hold Unlimited ("Soulful Strut") died of a heart attack in Bangkok, Thailand at the age of 71.
2010:  The surviving members of Status Quo ("Pictures Of Matchstick Men" from 1968) were awarded Officers of the Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth of England in a ceremony at Buckingham Palace.
2010:  Anne Murray carried the Olympic flag of her native Canada at the opening ceremonies of the Winter Olympics in Vancouver, British Columbia.
2011:  Dolly Parton, the Kingston Trio and the Ramones were given Lifetime Achievement Awards at the Grammys.

2012:  Adele captured six Grammy Awards, including Album of the Year (21) and Song of the Year and Record of the Year ("Rolling In The Deep").

Born This Day:
1928:  Vincent Montana, Jr., composer, arranger, and session musician who was a member of MFSB ("TSOP") and the Salsoul Orchestra, was born in Philadelphia Pennsylvania; died April 13, 2013 in Cherry Hill, New Jersey.  Montana worked with the Spinners, the Jackson 5, the Stylistics, the O'Jays, the Pet Shop Boys, Johnny Mathis, Teddy Pendergrass, Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes, Frankie Avalon, Lou Rawls, Eddie Kendricks, Cliff Nobles, the Delfonics, and Eddie Holman. 

1935:  Gene McDaniels ("A Hundred Pounds Of Clay" from 1961) was born in Kansas City, Kansas; died July 29, 2011 in Kittery Point, Maine.  (Note:  some websites incorrectly state that Gene was born in Kansas City, Missouri.  According two highly respected newspapers, 'The New York Times' and 'The Los Angeles Times', McDaniels was born in Kansas City, Kansas.)

1939:  Ray Manzarek, songwriter, co-founder and outstanding keyboardist of the Doors, was born in Chicago, Illinois; died May 20, 2013 in Rosenheim Germany of bile duct cancer.

 

1946:  Joe Schermie, original bassist of Three Dog Night, member of S.S. Fools with former members of TDN and Bobby Kimball of Toto, who also worked with Stephen Stills, Yvonne Elliman and others, was born in Madison, Wisconsin; died March 25, 2002 of a heart attack in Los Angeles at age 56.  (Note:  some websites list his birth year as 1945, and, while there are no credible sources for either year, our best research indicates that the 1945 date could be a misprint, and he was born in 1946.)
1945:  Cliff DeYoung ("My Sweet Lady" from 1974) was born in Los Angeles.  (Note:  some websites claim that DeYoung was born in Los Angeles.  According to the Long Beach, California newspaper 'Independent Press-Telegram', Cliff was born in Inglewood.)





1946:  Rutger Gunnarsson, who played bass on every album by ABBA and also performed with the supergroup on tour, was born in Linköping, Sweden; died May 8, 2015 in Stockholm, Sweden  Gunnarsson began playing in the Hootenanny Singers along with future ABBA star Bjorn Ulvaeus, and also backed artists such as Sir Elton John, Celine Dion, and Gwen Stefani.1949:  Stanley "Goober" Knight, leads guitarist of Black Oak Arkansas, was born in Little Rock, Arkansas; died February 16, 2013 in Jonesboro, Arkansas.

1950:  Steve Hackett, lead guitarist for Genesis before founding GTR, was born in Pimlico, London.  (Note:  some websites show that he was born in London.  While there are no credible sources for the exact place of birth, our best research shows that Steve was born at London University Hospital in Pimlico, Greater London.)

1951:  Gil Moore, drummer and vocalist of Triumph ("Hold On" and "Lay It On The Line") was born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.  (Note:  numerous websites claim Gil was born on October 4, 1953.  According to the band's official website, Gil was born on February 12, 1951.)
1951:  Vincent James of Sweet Sensation ("Sad Sweet Dreamer" from 1974) was born in St. Mary's, Jamaica.

1952:  Michael McDonald of Steely Dan and the Doobie Brothers and a solo star, was born in St. Louis, Missouri.

1956:  Brian Robertson, guitarist of Thin Lizzy, was born Glasgow, Scotland.

1966:  Paul Crook, guitarist who worked with Meat Loaf, Anthrax and Sebastian Bach, was born in Plainfield, New Jersey.

1968:  Chynna Phillips of Wilson Phillips and daughter of John & Michelle Phillips of the Mamas and the Papas, was born in Los Angeles.

1970:  Jim Creeggan, bassist of Barenaked Ladies, was born in Scarborough, Ontario, Canada.  (Note:  'Allmusic.com' lists his birthplace as Toronto.  Creeggan was born in Scarborough, which has now been incorporated into the city of Toronto.  In 1970, however, Scarborough was its own city, and official birth records from 1970 will show Scarborough rather than Toronto.)