Category: Music

Today in 1962, the Beatles recorded their first radio appearance, on the BBC’s “Teenagers’ Turn — Here We Go”:

(more…)

The number one British album today in 1965 was “The Rolling Stones No. 2”:

The number one single today in 1965:

Today in 1970, an album was released to pay for the defense in a California murder trial.

You didn’t know Charles Manson was a recording “artist,” did you?

(more…)

Today in 1955, Elvis Presley made his TV debut, on “Louisiana Hayride” on KWKH-TV in Shreveport, La.

The number one album today in 1966 was Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass’ “Going Places”:

The number one single today in 1966:

(more…)

The Grammy Awards premiered today in 1959. The Record of the Year came from a TV series:

Today in 1966, John Lennon demonstrated the ability to get publicity, if not positive publicity, when the London Evening Standard printed a story in which Lennon said:

Christianity will go. It will vanish and shrink. I needn’t argue with that; I’m right and I will be proved right. We’re more popular than Jesus now; I don’t know which will go first — rock and roll or Christianity. Jesus was all right, but his disciples were thick and ordinary. It’s them twisting it that ruins it for me.

Lennon’s comment prompted Bible Belt protests, including burning Beatles records. Of course, as the band pointed out, to burn Beatles records requires purchasing them first.

The number one single today in 1967:

Today in 1973, Pink Floyd began its 19-date North American tour at the Dane County Coliseum in Madison.

(more…)

Today in 1966, Neil Young, Stephen Stills and Richie Furay formed the Buffalo Springfield.

The number one British single today in 1967:

Today in 1971, the South African Broadcasting Corp. lifted its ban on broadcasting the Beatles.

Perhaps SABC felt safe given that the Beatles had broken up one year earlier.

(more…)

The number one British single today in 1961:

The number one single today in 1963:

Today in 1964, the Beatles began filming “A Hard Day’s Night,” and George Harrison met Patti Boyd, who became Harrison’s wife.

Boyd later would become the subject of an Eric Clapton song (in fast and slow versions), and then Clapton’s wife, and then Clapton’s ex-wife.

(more…)

This post is not about one of my favorite Bruce Springsteen songs as the title might suggest.

However, Springsteen is an example of what this blog discusses:

I was let into a Facebook group, Cover Me Baby, which features, as you can guess, cover songs — songs recorded by an act different from the first act that performed the song.

Readers of my Presty the DJ blogs know that I posted covers on occasion.

The irony of the first cover here is that the Pointer Sisters and other artists recorded Springsteen songs while Springsteen was in a dispute with his first manager that kept him out of recording two years after “Born to Run” was released.

One of the more famous — or infamous, depending on your perspective — early cover artists was Pat Boone, who recorded songs first recorded by black artists:

But Boone wasn’t the only one to do that:

In fact, nearly every rock band sings, and often records, cover songs until they generate enough of their own material. Or they record someone’s song they like.

There are some songs that are so old that no one really knows the original artist …

… and some songs you probably never realized were recorded more than once (which might make you ask why they were recorded more than once):

Linda Ronstadt has made an entire career of cover songs, in her pop and her Big Band iterations:

More often than not, the covering artist is best advised to do something different from the original …

… although that’s not easy if you’re covering, well, yourself:

More often than not, but not always, the covered song is not as good as the original.

And there is the rare instance of taking two different songs of the same title …

… and putting them together:

This is a topic that could go on indefinitely, choking bandwidth until the Internet grinds to a stop.

Today in 1961, Elvis Presley signed a five-year movie deal with producer Hal Wallis.

(more…)

The number one single today in 1970:

The number one single today in 1976 is the first record I ever purchased, for $1.03 at a Madison drugstore:

Today in 1977,  a member of the audience at a Ray Charles concert tried to strangle him with a rope.

(more…)

The number one single today in 1961:

The number one British single today in 1964 was sung by a 21-year-old former hairdresser and cloak room attendant:

That day, the Rolling Stones made their second appearance on BBC-TV’s “Top of the Pops”:

(more…)