Category: Music

How can two songs be the number one song in the country today in 1956? Do a Google search for the words “B side”:

(Those songs, by the way, were the first Elvis recorded with his fantastic backup singers, the Jordanaires.)

Today in 1962, the Beatles made their debut with their new drummer, Ringo Starr, following a two-hour rehearsal.

Four years later, the Beatles were at number one (again with the B side):

Diana Ross reached number one today in 1973 with her first post-Supremes hit:

The number one album that same day was, believe it or not …

The number one song today in 1979:

The number one song today in 1984:

Birthdays today begin with Johnny Preston:

Nona Hendryx of Labelle:

Dennis Elliott was the original drummer of Foreigner:

The Beatles were never known for having wild concerts. (Other than their fans, that is.) Today in 1960, the Beatles played their first of 48 appearances at the Indra Club in Hamburg, West Germany. The Indra Club’s owner asked the Beatles to put on a “mach shau.” The Beatles responded by reportedly screaming, shouting, leaping around the stage, and playing lying on the floor of the club. John Lennon reportedly made a stage appearance wearing only his underwear, and also wore a toilet seat around his neck on stage. As they say, Sei vorsichtig mit deinen Wünschen.

Four years later, the council of Glasgow, Scotland, required that men who had Beatles haircuts would have to wear swimming caps in city pools, because men’s hair was clogging the pool filters.

Today in 1968, the Doors had their only number one album, “Waiting for the Sun”:

Today in 1974, this 1½-hit wonder had the number one song in Britain:

(What do I mean by “1½-hit wonder?” The Three Degrees sang at the end of MFSB’s instrumental hit “The Sound of Philadelphia,” another great late Motown song.)

Birthdays today start with John Seiter of Spanky and Our Gang:

Gary Talley played guitar for the Box Tops:

Boston drummer Sib Hashian:

Kevin Rowlands sang for one-hit wonder Dexy’s Midnight Runners (hey, that rhymes):

Belinda Carlisle of the Go-Gos:

Drummer Steve Gorman of the Black Crowes:

Colin Moulding of XTC:

The number one song today in 1972:

Britain’s number one album today in 1972 was Rod Stewart’s “Never a Dull Moment”:

The title track from the number one album today in 1978:

Birthdays begin with blues guitarist B.B. King:

Joe Butler of the Lovin’ Spoonful:

Bernie Calvert of the Hollies:

Betty Kelly was one of the Vandellas:

Kenney Jones played for the Faces and the Who:

David Bellamy was one of the Bellamy Brothers:

Richard Marx:

We begin with an interesting non-musical anniversary: Today in 1945, Major League Baseball sold the advertising rights for the World Series to Gillette for $150,000. Gillette for years afterward got to decide who the announcers for the World Series (typically one per World Series team in the days before color commentators) would be on first radio and then TV.

This was quite a day for concerts. Today in 1965, the Beatles (along with Brenda Holloway, The King Curtis Band, The Young Rascals and Sounds Incorporated) played at Shea Stadium in New York, setting a world record for attendance at 55,000, including Mick Jagger and Keith Richards:

Today in 1969, on a farm in Bethel, N.Y, Woodstock began:

Birthdays start with Bill Pinckney of the Drifters:

Peter York played drums for the Spencer Davis Group:

Thomas Aldrich, who played drums for Black Oak Arkansas …

… was born the same day as Bill Griffin of the Miracles:

Who is Adam Yauch? Some know him as MCA of the Beastie Boys:

The number one song today in 1965:

Three years later, the singer of the number one song in Britain announced …

Today in 1976, Chicago released what would become its first number one single:

Darrell “Dash” Crofts, the latter half of Seals and Crofts …

… was born one year before David Crosby of the Byrds and Crosby Stills Nash (and occasionally Young):

Tim Bogert of Vanilla Fudge:

Today in 1992, Tony Williams, the first singer of the Platters, died:

The number one song in Britain today in 1964 (a song brought back to popularity by the movie “Stripes”):

That same day, the Kinks hit the British charts for the first time with …

This was, of course, the number one song in the U.S. today in 1966:

That same day, the number one album in the U.K.  was the Beatles’ “Revolver”:

That same day, the Supremes hit the charts for the first time by reminding listeners that …

Speaking of the Beatles: Today in 1971, John Lennon left on a jet plane from Heathrow Airport in London to New York, and never set foot in Britain again. (Despite Richard Nixon’s efforts to deport Lennon.)

Today in 1980, four masked burglars broke into the New York home of Todd Rundgren, tied him up, and stole audio equipment and paintings. According to reports, during the break-in one of them was humming …

The only birthday of note today is Dan Fogelberg:

Today in 1968, Jimmy Page, Robert Plant, John Paul Jones and John Bonham played together for the first time when they rehearsed at a London studio. You know them as Led Zeppelin:

Today in 1972, this was the number one song in Britain, which is odd since school was indeed out at the time:

(That, by the way, is a song that will be played as long as school exists.)

These are not rock music birthdays, but since country music is one of the fathers of rock, I’ll note that Buck Owens and Porter Wagoner are celebrating birthdays today.

Today’s first birthday is the writer of “Hit the Road Jack,” Percy Mayfield:

Cliff Fish of one-hit-wonder Paperlace:

Mark Knopfler of Dire Straits:

Jerry Speiser of Men at Work:

Roy Hay of Culture Club:

Today in 1985, Kyu Sakamoto died in a plane crash in Japan. He was the first Japanese artist to have a U.S.-number-one song, in 1963:

We begin with a non-musical anniversary: On Aug. 11, 1919, Green Bay Press–Gazette sports editor George Calhoun and Indian Packing Co. employee Earl “Curly” Lambeau, a former Notre Dame football player, organized a pro football team that would be called the Green Bay Packers:

Today in 1964, the Beatles movie “A Hard Day’s Night” opened in New York:

Two years later, the Beatles opened their last American concert tour on the same day that John Lennon apologized for saying that the Beatles were “more popular than Jesus. … Look, I wasn’t saying The Beatles are better than God or Jesus, I said ‘Beatles’ because it’s easy for me to talk about The Beatles. I could have said ‘TV’ or ‘Cinema’, ‘Motorcars’ or anything popular and would have got away with it…”

Today in 1976, the Who drummer Keith Moon collapsed and was hospitalized in Miami.

You might have the knack for music trivia if you can identify the number one today in 1979:

Today in 1984, President Reagan either forgot or ignored the dictum that one should always assume a microphone is open:

Birthdays start with Manfred Mann drummer Mike Hegg:

James Kale of the Guess Who …

… was born the same day as Denis Payton, one of the Dave Clark Five:

Joe Jackson:

Who is Richie Beau? You know him better as Richie Ramone:

Today, this would be the sort of thing to embellish a band’s image. Not so in 1959, when four members of The Platters were arrested on drug and prostitution charges following a concert in Cincinnati when they were discovered with four women (three of them white) in what was reported as “various stages of undress.” Despite the fact that none of the Platters were convicted of anything, the Platters (who were all black) were removed from several radio stations’ playlists.

Speaking of odd music anniversaries: Today in 1985, Michael Jackson purchased the entire Beatles music library for more than $45 million.

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