Thursday, September 18, 2014

This Date In Rock Music History: September 19

1955:  Frank Sinatra sang "Love And Marriage" on the "Producer's Showcase" production of the play Our Town on NBC-TV.
1957:  Cliff Richard, 16 years old and known by his real name (Harry Webb), joined the Dick Teague Skiffle Group.
1960:  "Kiddio" by Brook Benton was #1 on the R&B chart for the fourth week. 
1960:  Hank Ballard and the Midnighters became the first group to own three songs in the Top 100 simultaneously--"Finger Poppin' Time", "Let's Go Let's Go Let's Go" and "The Twist".  After the group refused to perform "The Twist" on television, Dick Clark suggested Chubby Checker do the song.  He did, and... 
1960:  "The Twist" worked its way to #1 for Chubby Checker.
1963:  Jimmy Dean premiered his prime time television show on ABC.  It lasted three seasons.
1964:  Dean Martin notched week #8 on top of the Easy Listening chart with "Everybody Loves Somebody".







1964:  An excellent Top 10 on this date--The Animals held on to #1 for a third week with "The House Of The Rising Sun".  The Newbeats happy-go-lucky song about staples "Bread And Butter" was #2 while the Supremes' former #1 "Where Did Our Love Go" was on its way down.  Quite the opposite for Roy Orbison, who moved from 10 to 4 with "Oh Pretty Woman".  The rest of the Top 10:  Ronny & the Daytonas had #5--"G.T.O.", good ol' Dean Martin was at 6 with "Everybody Loves Somebody", the Shangri-Las were back with "Remember (Walkin' In The Sand)", the Dave Clark Five had "Because", Manfred Mann owned one of the hottest songs of the year with "Do Wah Diddy Diddy", which jumped from 31-9 while Martha & the Vandellas couldn't match that but were close (25-10) with "Dancing In The Street".
1966:  John Lennon flew to Spain to begin filming How I Won the War.  Lennon played Private Gripweed in the movie.


1968:  Steppenwolf was awarded a Gold record for the single "Born To Be Wild".
1969:  CCR sat on top in the U.K. with "Bad Moon Rising".












1969:  CCR released the double-sided smash "Fortunate Son"/"Down On The Corner" on Fantasy Records.
1970:  Anne Murray enjoyed her fourth week at #1 on the Easy Listening chart with her first hit "Snowbird".
1970:  Newcomer James Taylor's great song "Fire And Rain" moved from 83 to 50.






1970:  Diana Ross had her 13th #1 but her first as a solo artist with "Ain't No Mountain High Enough".
1970:  The great LP Cosmo's Factory by CCR remained at #1 for the fifth week, trailed by the Soundtrack to "Woodstock" and Joe Cocker's Mad Dogs & EnglishmenTommy by the Who moved up to #4 while Chicago II was at position #5.  The rest of the Top 10:  Blood, Sweat & Tears 3, Stage Fright from the Band, Live at Leeds by the Who, Grand Funk Railroad came in ninth with Closer to Home and Neil Diamond/Gold moved from 16 to 10.
1971:  The Jackson 5 starred in the television special "Goin' Back To Indiana", which aired on NBC.
1973:  Gram Parsons of the Byrds and Flying Burrito Brothers died of drugs at the age of 26 in Joshua Tree, California.
1974:  Max Weinberg debuted as drummer for Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band at the Main Point in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania.

1974:  Bad Company's debut album was certified Gold.
1975:  Queen signed John Reid, manager of Elton John, to be their manager as well.
1974:  Eric Clapton was awarded a Gold record for the single "I Shot The Sheriff".








1977:  The Bee Gees released the single "How Deep Is Your Love".
1978:  Linda Ronstadt released the album Living in the U.S.A, which had advance orders of two million copies.










1979:  The Doobie Brothers, Tom Petty, James Taylor, Bruce Springsteen, Carly Simon, Stephen Stills, David Crosby, Jackson Browne, Poco and Bonnie Raitt appeared in the first No Nukes Concert (the first of five nights) at Madison Square Garden in New York City.







1981:  An historic date in the history of the Rock Era.  Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel recorded The Concert in Central Park before 750,000 fans in New York City for an HBO special.
1981:  The Rolling Stones moved from 8 to 1 with their album Tattoo You.  They didn't mean it literally.
1981:  Lionel Richie & Diana Ross remained at #1 for a third week on the Adult Contemporary chart with "Endless Love".
1981:  Ross & Richie spent a fifth week at #1 on the R&B chart.




1981:  Great singer/songwriter Dan Fogelberg had one of the big movers of the week, rising from 45 to 29 with "Hard To Say".









1983:  Billy Joel released the single "Uptown Girl".  (Note:  one naive website claims the song was released September 29.  "Uptown Girl" debuted on the Singles chart on September 24.  It is physically impossible for a song to be included on the Singles chart if it has not been released as a single.)
1985:  A United States Senate committee heard testimony on labeling and rating of rock music, initiated by the Parents Music Resource Center.  The procedures were put into place but only work if parents pay attention to them.
1987:  The third annual Farm Aid benefit concert took place at Memorial Stadium in Lincoln, Nebraska with John Mellencamp, John Denver, Steppenwolf, Neil Young, Joe Walsh, and Lou Reed among the performers.
1987:  Michael Jackson moved to #1 on the R&B chart with "I Just Can't Stop Loving You".



1987:  The Soundtrack to "Dirty Dancing" was the new #1 album, taking the place of Tunnel of Love from Bruce Springsteen.  Bad by Michael Jackson fell to 3 followed by Whitesnake's self-titled release and A Momentary Lapse of Reason from Pink Floyd.  The rest of the Top 10:  Hysteria by Def Leppard, The Lonesome Jubilee from John Cougar Mellencamp, Whitney by Whitney Houston, The Joshua Tree by U2 at #9 and Billy Idol moved into the list with Vital Idol.
1987:  Whitney Houston climbed to #1 on the AC chart with "Didn't We Almost Have It All".





1987:  Los Lobos was down to 3 with "La Bamba" and Whitesnake remained at 4 with "Here I Go Again".  The rest of the Top 10:  ABC and "When Smokey Sings", Huey Lewis & the News and "Doing it All For My Baby", Dan Hill with Vonda Sheppard--"Can't We Try", Bananarama had song #8--"I Heard A Rumour", Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam moved from 16-9 with "Lost In Emotion" and Grateful Dead had their only Top 10 of their career--"Touch Of Grey".
1988:  Bon Jovi released the album New Jersey on Mercury Records.
1989:  Janet Jackson released her album Rhythm Nation 1814 on A&M Records.






1992:  Don Henley & Patti Smyth had the new #1 AC song on this date with "Sometimes Love Just Ain't Enough".
1992:  This was week #6 for Boyz II Men at #1 with "End Of The Road", one of the Top 500 Songs of the Rock Era*.











1996:  George Benson was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame (7055 Hollywood Boulevard).
1997:  A "Storytellers" concert featuring Elton John from the House of Blues in New Orleans, Louisiana was aired on VH1.
1998:  Fabian married his third wife, Andrea Patrick, who is a former Miss Pennsylvania (1980) and Miss West Virginia (1983), at the Nemacolin Woodlands Resort and Spa in Farmington, Pennsylvania.
1998:  Robbie Williams grabbed his first #1 song in the U.K. with "Millennium".





1998:  Lauryn Hill had the top album with The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill.
1999:  Edward Cobb, singer, songwriter ("Tainted Love" for Soft Cell in 1981) and producer, and member of the Four Preps ("Big Man" in 1958), died at the age of 61 from leukemia in Honolulu, Hawai'i.
1999:  Eiffel 65 from Italy had the #1 song in the U.K., Austria, Finland, Germany, Denmark and Norway ("Blue (Da Ba Dee)").
2000:  Madonna released the album Music.
2000:  Glenn Frey released his compilation 20th Century Masters -The Millennium Collection on MCA Records.

2003:  Jack Bruce, bass guitarist of Cream, underwent a successful liver transplant.




 2004:  Skeeter Davis, who gave us the great song "The End Of The World" from 1963 and others, died in Nashville, Tennessee at the age of 72 after a long battle with cancer.
2004:  Embrace had the top U.K. album with Out of Nothing
.
2005:  In today's episode of Inmates Run Rap Music, Lil' Kim began a sentence of 366 days in prison for perjury.
2005:  Willie Hutch, who wrote "I'll Be There" and "Never Can Say Goodbye" for the Jackson 5, and also worked with Michael Jackson, Diana Ross, Marvin Gaye, and Smokey Robinson & the Miracles,  died at the age of 59 in Dallas, Texas.  (Note:  some websites claim Hutch was 60 when he died--according to 'Billboard', he was 59.)
2006:  Danny Flores, saxophone player of the Champs who wrote "Tequila" (and was the group member who shouted "Tequila" during the recording), died of pneumonia at the age of 77 in Huntington Beach, California.
2008: Earl Palmer, session drummer for the Beach Boys, Frank Sinatra, the Monkees, the Righteous Brothers ("You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling"), Ike and Tina Turner, Neil Young, Little Richard ("Tutti Frutti"), Fats Domino and many others, died at his home in Banning, California at the age of 83 after a long illness.

2009:  Arthur Ferrante, half of the amazing piano duo Ferrante & Teicher ("Exodus", "Theme from 'The Apartment'", "Midnight Cowboy" and "Tonight"), known as "The Grand Twins of the Twin Grands", died of natural causes at his home in Longboat Key, Florida at the age of 88.
2009:  Whitney Houston returned to #1 on the Album chart for the first time in 17 years with I Look To You.
2010:  Joey Dee was honored in his hometown of Passaic, New Jersey as "Joey Dee & the Starliters Square" was dedicated.
2010:  A bust of Frank Zappa was dedicated at a library in his hometown of Baltimore, Maryland.


Born This Day:
1921:  Bill Ward of the Dominoes was born in Los Angeles, California; died February 16, 2002 in Inglewood, California.


1931:  Brook Benton was born in Lugoff, South Carolina; died April 9, 1988 of pneumonia in Queens, New York.  (Note:  many sources report his birthplace as Camden.  Brook was born in Lugoff, and sang in choir in nearby Camden, according to 'The New York Times' and 'The Daily Item', a newspaper in nearby Sumpter.)










1934:  Brian Epstein, manager of the Beatles, was born in Liverpool, Lancashire, England; died of an overdose of Carbitrol, a form of sleeping pill, on August 27, 1967 in London.
1935:  Nick Massi, bass singer and bass guitarist of the Four Seasons, was born in Newark, New Jersey; died of cancer in Newark on December 24, 2000.
1936:  Gene Dinwiddie, saxophone player with Paul Butterfield Blues Band, was born in Louisville, Kentucky; died January 11, 2002 in Los Angeles, California.



1940:  Bill Medley of the Righteous Brothers and later a successful solo star, was born in Los Angeles, California.  (Note:  some sources report his birthplace as Santa Ana--according to his own website, he was born in Los Angeles and moved to Santa Ana.)
1942:  Danny Kalb of the Blues Project was born in Brooklyn, New York.  (Note:  sources are split on Kalb's birthday between the 9th and the 19th.  The most reliable ones show the 19th.  The latter sources also report that he was born in Brooklyn and moved to Mount Vernon, New York, while some sources report his birthplace as Mount Vernon.)
1940:  Paul Williams, successful songwriter of tunes such as "We've Only Just Begun" and "Rainy Days And Mondays" for the Carpenters, "An Old Fashioned Love Song" for Three Dog Night and "Evergreen" for Barbra Streisand, was born in Omaha, Nebraska.
1942:  Lee Dorman, bass guitarist of Iron Butterfly, was born in St. Louis, Missouri; died December 21, 2012 of natural causes in Laguna Niguel, California.  (Note:  some sources report birthday as September 15, but 'The New York Times' and 'Huffingtonpost.com', among others, report his birthday as the 19th.

1943:  Cass Elliot (real name Ellen Cohen) of the Mamas & Papas was born in Baltimore, Maryland; died of a heart attack on July 19, 1974 in her hotel room in London after a concert series at the London Palladium.
1945:  Freda Payne, who gave us "Band Of Gold" in 1970, was born in Detroit, Michigan.
1945:  David Bromberg, guitarist, fiddler and mandolin player who worked with Bob Dylan and Willie Nelson, among others, was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
1946:  John Coghlan, drummer of Status Quo, was born in London, England.
1947:  Lol Creme of 10cc and Godley & Creme ("Cry") was born in Prestwich, Lancashire, England.  (Note:  some sources report the birthplace as Prestwich, Manchester, but that is incorrect.  Prestwich was not included in the county of Manchester until 1974 by virtue of the Local Government Act of 1972.  As that was 27 years after Creme was born, it is physically impossible for him to have been born in the county of Manchester.)
1951:  Daniel Lanois, producer of U2 (The Joshua Tree), Peter Gabriel, Bob Dylan, Robbie Robertson and many others, was born in Hull, Quebec, Canada.

1952:  Nile Rodgers, songwriter and guitarist of Chic, who became a prolific producer and arranger, was born in the Bronx, New York.
1956:  Rex Smith ("You Take My Breath Away") was born in Jacksonville, Florida.








1958:  Lita Ford, guitarist of the Runaways and a solo artist, was born in London.  (Note:  some sources report birth year as 1959.  According to 'Billboard', Lita was born in 1958.)
1969:  Candy Dulfer, saxophone player ("Lily Was Here" with David Stewart) was born in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
1977:  Ryan Dusick, drummer of Maroon 5, was born in Los Angeles.

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