More has happened in rock music on Christmas than one might think.
The number one single today in 1971:
The number three British single today in 1982 at least has a Christmas theme:
No comments on Presty the DJ for Dec. 25
Category: Music
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Starting shortly after my birth, my parents purchased Christmas albums for $1 from an unlikely place, tire stores.
(That’s as seemingly outmoded as getting, for instance, glasses every time you filled up at your favorite gas station, back in the days when gas stations were usually part of a car repair place, not a convenience store. Of course, go to a convenience store now, and you can probably find CDs, if not records, and at least plastic glasses such as Red Solo Cups and silverware. Progress, or something.)
The albums featured contemporary artists from the ’60s, plus opera singers and other artists.
These albums were played on my parents’ wall-length Magnavox hi-fi player.
Playing these albums was as annual a ritual as watching “The Grinch Who Stole Christmas,” “A Charlie Brown Christmas,” or other holiday-season appointment TV.
Those albums began my, and then our, collection of Christmas music.
You may think some of these singers are unusual choices to sing Christmas music. (This list includes at least six Jewish singers.)
Of course, Christians know that Jesus Christ was Jewish.
And I defy any reader to find anyone who can sing “Silent Night” like Barbra Streisand did in the ’60s.
These albums are available for purchase online, but record players are now as outmoded as, well, getting glasses with your fill-up at the gas station. (Though note what I previously wrote.)
But thanks to YouTube and other digital technology, other aficionados of this era of Christmas music now can have their music preserved for their current and future enjoyment.
The tire-store-Christmas-album list has been augmented by both earlier and later works.
In the same way I think no one can sing “Silent Night” like Barbra Streisand, I think no one can sing “Do You Hear What I Hear” like Whitney Houston:
This list contains another irony — an entry from “A Christmas Gift for You,” Phil Spector’s Christmas album. (Spector’s birthday is Christmas.)
The album should have been a bazillion-seller, and perhaps would have been had it not been for the date of its initial release: Nov. 22, 1963.
Finally, here’s the last iteration of one of the coolest TV traditions — “The Late Show with David Letterman” and its annual appearance of Darlene Love (from the aforementioned Phil Spector album), which started in 1986 on NBC …
… and ended on CBS:
Merry Christmas.
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Today in 1954, R&B singer Johnny Ace had a concert at the City Auditorium in Houston. Between sets, Ace was playing with a revolver. When someone in the room said, “Be careful with that thing,” Ace replied, “It’s OK, the gun’s not loaded. See?” And pointed the gun at his head, and pulled the trigger. And found out he was wrong.
The number one album today in 1965 was the Beatles’ “Rubber Soul”:
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Today in 1964, a group of would-be DJs launched the pirate radio station Radio London from a former U.S. minesweeper anchored 3½ miles off Frinton-on-the-Sea, England.
It’s probably unrelated, but on the same day Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys had a nervous breakdown on a flight from Los Angeles to Houston. Wilson left the band to focus on writing and producing, with Glen Campbell replacing him for concerts.
The pernicious influence of unions reared its ugly head today in 1966, when Britain’s ITV broadcast its final “Ready, Steady, Go!” because of a British musicians’ union’s ban on miming. The final show featured Mick Jagger, The Who, Eric Burdon, the Spencer Davis Group, Donovan and Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick and Tich.
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Proving that there is no accounting for taste, I present the number one song today in 1958:
The number one single today in 1962 was by a group whose name was sort of a non sequitur given that the group came from a country that lacks the meteorological phenomenon of the group’s title:
The number one single today in 1963:
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The number one album today in 1968:
Today in 1969, the Supremes made their last TV appearance together on CBS-TV’s Ed Sullivan Shew, with a somewhat ironic selection:
Today in 1970, Army veteran Elvis Presley volunteered himself as a soldier in the war on drugs, delivering a letter to the White House. Earlier that day, the head of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration had declined Presley’s request to volunteer, saying that only the president could overrule him.
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The number one British album today in 1969 was the Rolling Stones’ “Let It Bleed”:
The number one British single today in 1980 came 12 days after its singer’s death:
The number one song today in 1986:
The number one album today in 1975 for the second consecutive week was “Chicago IX,” which was actually “Chicago’s Greatest Hits”:
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The biggest thing that happened today wasn’t in music, it was in movies, today in 1968:
The number one British single today in 1958:
Today in 1961, Elvis Presley got a dubious Christmas gift in the mail — his draft notice:
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The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, such as it is, announced its newest inductees earlier this week.
Two of the acts have Wisconsin ties. Cheap Trick …
… was from Rockford, but spent considerable time in Madison (even, rumor has it, playing at a Madison high school band prom).
Steve Miller is from Milwaukee, and was a protégé of the legendary Les Paul:
Deep Purple straddled the line between ’60s psychedelic rock …
… and ’70s hard rock:
My “such as it is” comment refers to NWA, which has as much to do with rock as fellow HOF member Whitney Houston. (As opposed to such acts not in the RRHOF as Yes, Jethro Tull, Judas Priest, the Moody Blues, The Cars, Bon Jovi, the Doobie Brothers, Emerson Lake & Palmer, Ozzy Osbourne, the Spinners, the B-52s, Journey, Dire Straits, Boston, Supertramp, Electric Light Orchestra, Three Dog Night, and Paul Revere and the Raiders, among others.)
The biggest news, however, is that the second best selling U.S. rock act in history, whose first greatest-hits album was the number one album in the U.S. 40 years ago this week …
… FINALLY got in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, thanks apparently to the millions of Chicago fans who voted online as many times as necessary to get Chicago inducted. (It seems appropriate that a group named for a city whose reputation includes ballot-stuffing may have gotten to a hall of fame through e-ballot-stuffing.)
If you need me to explain the importance of Chicago in rock history, you haven’t been paying attention to this blog.
Suffice to say that Chicago (and others in the limited sphere of brass rock) made playing brass cool in the rock world and in the world of middle schools and high schools, for us multiple-generation band geeks. (Including our sons the trumpet, trombone and bass players.)
Terry Kath is one of the most underrated rock guitarists of the ’60s and ’70s, as noted by none other than Jimi Hendrix.
Sadly, Kath died in a gun accident in the late 1970s, so he won’t be attending the induction ceremony.
The interesting question for Chicago fans is which of the members who are no longer in the band will be attending.
The three notable names are Peter Cetera, the first bass player and one of the original three singers; Danny Seraphine, the first drummer; and Bill Champlin, who was in the band in the period to which I choose to not listen much.
It is remarkable (similar to the Rolling Stones) how many original members are still in the group, though.
Robert Lamm has moved from keyboard to keytar; he was one of the singers along with Kath and Cetera.
Walt Parazaider’s health hasn’t been good of late, but he hasn’t retired from the group as its original saxophone player.
James Pankow is Chicago’s first and only trombone player.
Lee Loughnane is Chicago’s first and only trumpet player.
As you know, I’ve seen the group three times — once at the Dane County Coliseum in Madison, once at a football field in Fond du Lac (really), and once at the EAA in Oshkosh (really), where the group has played twice.
Before Chicago played in Madison in 1987, the UW Band tried to get Chicago to play with them at a Badger football game. (Which would have been the highlight of my life for about my first 27 years of life had that worked out, but sadly arrangements did not work out.)
If I ever win a big lottery jackpot, one of the things I will do with my millions (other than purchasing several Corvettes) is hire the band for an outdoor concert. (It would be cool to play with them too, but no one wants to hear me sing, and it would be an insult to Loughnane to replace him.)
To me it remains cool that a group that formed since 1967 not only continues to record and tour, but obviously enjoys continuing to perform for its fans, even the songs Chicago has played repeatedly for 48 years. (Year 49 includes a concert with Earth Wind & Fire in Milwaukee March 31.)
One amusing similarity between Chicago and Deep Purple is that each recorded songs about the creative process — “25 or 6 to 4,” which could also be about the middle of the night at the newspaper, and “Smoke on the Water,” in which recording an album at the Montreux, Switzerland, casino where Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention were playing was thwarted by “some stupid with a flare gun” that “burned the place to the ground.”
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We begin with an entry from Great Business Decisions in Rock Music History: Today in 1961, EMI Records decided it wasn’t interested in signing the Beatles to a contract.
The number one single over here today in 1961:
Today in 1966, a friend of Rolling Stones Mick Jagger and Brian Jones, Tara Browne, was killed when his Lotus Elan crashed into a parked truck. John Lennon used Browne’s death as motivation for “A Day in the Life”:
The number one album today in 1971 was Sly and the Family Stone’s “There’s a Riot Going On”:
Steve Prestegard.com: The Presteblog 