Category: Music

Today in 1964, EMI Records rejected a group called the Hi-Numbers after its audition. Who? That’s the group’s current name:

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Today in 1960, Roy Orbison had his first number one single:

Today in 1962, the number one single in the U.S. was a song banned by the BBC:

The number one single today in 1973:

Today in 1977, four members of Lynyrd Skynyrd and two others were killed when their plane crashed near McComb, Miss.:

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We begin with one of the stranger episodes of live radio, Arthur Godfrey’s on-air firing of one of his singers today in 1953:

The number one song today in 1959 was customized for sales in 28 markets, including Buffalo, Chicago, Cleveland, Denver, Detroit, New Orleans, New York, Pittsburgh and San Francisco:

The number one British album today in 1967 was not the Beatles’ “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band”; it was the soundtrack to “The Sound of Music,” two years after the movie was released, on the soundtracks’ 137th week on the charts:

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The number one song today in 1969:

Britain’s number one single today in 1979 probably would have gotten no American notice had it not been for the beginning of MTV a year later:

The number one album today in 1986 was Huey Lewis and the News’ “Fore”:

The City of Los Angeles declared today in 1990 “Rocky Horror Picture Show Day” in honor of the movie’s 15th anniversary, so …

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The number one song today in 1960:

The number one song today in 1964:

The number one song today in 1970:

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This column is not about my advancing age, or anyone else’s advancing age.

Being from the Ironic Generation, I am amused that the headline is a line from Aerosmith’s “Dream On,” which was released 40 years ago. Suffice to say that the lines on Steven Tyler’s face are getting clearer by the day.

Age, of course, means you’ve survived long enough to be around for a while. And in rock music, age means you’ve survived long enough, maybe, to be named to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. And the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame comes up because of this year’s nominees …

… The Cars, Chic, Chicago, Cheap Trick, Deep Purple, Janet Jackson, The J.B.s, Chaka Khan, Los Lobos, Steve Miller, Nine Inch Nails, N.W.A, The Smiths, The Spinners and Yes.

This year’s field has something for all Presteblog fans. Before I get to Chicago’s inclusion: Deep Purple arguably could be included for just one song …

… which is one of the few rock songs about writing a song.

The Cars were all over the radio in the 1980s.

The Wisconsin ties are represented by Cheap Trick (Rockford natives who, rumor has it, once played a Madison high school prom, and at any rate were hugely popular in southern Wisconsin before they hit the national scene) …

… and Milwaukee native Steve Miller, who got his inspiration from Les Paul.

The Smiths were ’80s alternative rock about a decade before alt-rock became a category of its own. Nine Inch Nails dates to the 1990s. Yes practically defines progressive rock.

The J.B.s, Chic, Janet Jackson, Chaka Khan, Los Lobos, N.W.A and the Spinners’ inclusion on the ballot depends, I suppose, on your definition of “rock and roll” as well as popularity longevity. The J.B.s were James Brown’s backup band. Chic had radio airplay for a few years, as did Los Lobos. Does disco and rap count as “rock”?

That gets to the problem with the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, captured in this Facebook meme:

Many Chicago fans seem to believe that Chicago is not in the hall o’ fame because of an animus against the group by HOF founder Jann Wenner, publisher of Rolling Stone magazine. Others assume it’s because of Chicago’s sappy ballads, forgetting the sappy ballads of others already in the HOF.

When you consider the number of records Chicago has sold in the rock genre (second only to the Beach Boys among American acts) and its unique niche in the rock world, there is really no good reason for Chicago to not be in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. To that end, Chicago has a large lead in the online fan voting.

Today in 1972, Creedence Clearwater Revival split up:

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The number one single today in 1966:

Today in 1971, Rick Nelson was booed at Madison Square Garden in New York when he dared to sing new material at a concert. That prompted him to write …

If I told you the number one British album today in 1983 was “Genesis,” I would have given you the artist and the title:

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The number one song today in 1957 was the Everly Brothers’ first number one:

The number one British single today in 1960:

The number one album today in 1967 is about an event that supposedly took place on my birthday:

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