Presty the DJ for Jan. 26

The number one single in Great Britain today in 1961 included a Shakespearean reference:

Eight years later came the live version …

… which included, instead of “Do you gaze at your doorstep and picture me there,” Presley’s impromptu “Do you gaze at your bald head and wish you had hair.” Which prompted a front-row concertgoer to remove his toupee and start swaying to the music.

Then backup singer Cissy Houston, mother of Whitney and aunt of Dionne Warwick, cracked up Presley further with singing what she was supposed to sing. Afterward Presley said, “Fourteen years down the drain right there.”

Five years after Presley’s death, the live version reached Britain’s top 30.

The number one single today in 1965 included Jimmy Page, later of Led Zeppelin, on guitar:

Today in 1970, John Lennon wrote, recorded and mixed a song all in one day, which may have made it an instant song:

The number one British single today in 1973:

The number one British album today in 1985 was Foreigner’s “Agent Provocateur”:

Today in 1986, Allen Collins, who survived the 1977 Lynyrd Skynyrd plane crash that killed two band members, crashed his car, killing his girlfriend and paralyzing him from the waist down.