 |
|
|
 |
|
|
|
October 16 It was 20 years ago today ... or maybe a little longer. But if it happened in rock, you'll find it here in the Rock Clock, our daily diary of the births, deaths, and moments that changed music forever. 1911 Gospel's first superstar, Mahalia Jackson is born in New Orleans. 1923 Bert Kaempfert, the composer of "Strangers in the Night," the first man to sign the Beatles, and the person on the coolest album cover ever (his own Very Best Of), is born in Hamburg. 1935 Soul singer Sugar Pie Desanto ("I Want to Know") is born in Brooklyn, N.Y. 1938 Iconic anti-singer Nico is born in Cologne, Germany. 1943 Bassist C.F. "Fred" Turner of Bachman-Turner Overdrive is born. 1947 Grateful Dead guitarist Bob Weir is born in San Francisco. 1953 Guitarist Tony Carey, who as well as performing solo was in Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow, is born in Fresno, Calif. 1954 Elvis Presley performs for the first time on the Louisiana Hayride radio show. 1957 Sam Cooke releases his single "You Send Me." The No. 1, written by his brother Charles Cooke, becomes his first and biggest hit, selling 2.5 million copies. 1959 Comedian and actor Peter Sellers records "Wouldn't It Be Loverly" with future Beatles producer George Martin. 1960 Spandau Ballet's Gary Kemp is born in Islington, England. 1961 DJ Mark the 45 King, producer of seminal records by Queen Latifah and Chill Rob G, is born. 1962 Motown launches an American package tour featuring the Miracles, the Supremes, and Little Stevie Wonder in Washington, D.C. Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea is born in Melbourne, Australia, as Michael Balzary. 1963 It's announced that the Beatles will play at this year's Royal Command Performance. The Beatles themselves record performances of "I Saw Her Standing There," "Love Me Do," "Please Please Me," "From Me to You," and "She Loves You" for the BBC program Easy Beat. 1964 The Beatles appear on the British TV program Ready Steady Go. 1965 A day after opening San Francisco's Coffee Gallery, the Great Society featuring Grace Slick score another gig. This time the band plays with Jefferson Airplane and the Charlatans at the Family Dog collective dance and concert at San Francisco's Longshoremen's Hall. The Beatles record "Day Tripper." 1966 Grace Slick performs as a member of Jefferson Airplane for the first time at San Francisco's Fillmore West after Signe Anderson bows out of the group's lineup. Slick introduces the band to two new songs, "White Rabbit" and "Somebody to Love." 1967 Joan Baez is arrested with 123 draft protesters when they block the entrance to the Armed Forces Induction Center in Oakland, Calif. Baez spends 10 days in jail. 1968 George Harrison flies to Los Angeles, where he will produce Jackie Lomax's 1969 debut, Is This What You Want. It wasn't. 1969 Chess Records founder Leonard Chess, 52, dies of a heart attack in Chicago. But there's some good news. Wendy Wilson of Wilson Phillips is born in Los Angeles. 1971 Isaac Hayes releases "Theme From Shaft." The theme music of the hit blaxsploitation film goes to No. 1. 1972 Creedence Clearwater Revival announce they are splitting. The chooglers say in a statement, "We don't regard this as breaking up. We look at it as an expansion of our activities. We will devote our time to individual rather than group projects." There really were only so many songs you could write about Louisiana. 1973 Gene Krupa, the jazz superstar who invented the drum solo, dies in Chicago. 1976 Stevie Wonder releases his double album Songs in the Key of Life, boasting the No. 1 singles "Sir Duke" and "I Wish." Writing in Rolling Stone about the long-delayed release, Vince Aletti says, "Wonder confronts us virtually single-handedly, grasps our expectations and wrestles them to the ground. I give him four out of five falls gratefully, happily; were it not for his lyrics he might have won them all." Songs later wins the Album of the Year Grammy. 1981 Bob Dylan kicks off his Shot of Love tour at the Milwaukee Auditorium. It's his first live outing since his controversial 1979 tour, during which he played only Christian material. 1982 Hall & Oates release their album H2O. Featuring the hits "Maneater," "One on One," and "Family Man," the record peaks at No. 3. 1986 Eric Clapton and Keith Richards perform at a birthday party for Chuck Berry, who celebrates turning 60 on October 18. 1987 George Harrison releases his single "I Got My Mind Set on You" in the U.S. The song goes to No. 1. 1990 Drummer Art Blakey, whose The Freedom Rider is the only jazz album the Rock Clock compiler owns, dies in New York. He was a great man, but we never made it past side one. 1992 Two weeks after tearing up a picture of the pope on Saturday Night Live, Sinead O'Connor is booed at a Bob Dylan tribute concert at Madison Square Garden. She replies by reciting the words to Bob Marley's "War" before being escorted from the stage by Kris Kristofferson, who advises her, "Don't let the bastards get you down." George Harrison, Neil Young, Tom Petty, and Eric Clapton also perform in less controversial ways. 2000 Madonna wins back the domain name Madonna.com from a New York Web site developer who used the URL to post non-Madonna-related pornography. |
|
|
||
|
|||||||
