Today in 1965, the Rolling Stones released the song that would become their first number one hit, and yet Mick Jagger still claimed …
An august group of acts is represented in birthdays today, beginning with James Pankow, trombone player of Chicago:
Isaac Hayes:
Robert Plant of Led Zeppelin:
The late Phil Lynott of Thin Lizzy:
The late Doug Fieger of The Knack:
How much money would you have paid for tickets for this concert at the Cow Palace in San Francisco today in 1964: The Beatles, the Righteous Brothers, the Bill Black Combo, the Exciters and Jackie DeShannon:
The number one song in the U.S. today in 1967 is because, according to the Beatles …
Five years later, Chicago had the number one album, “Chicago V”:
What a group of birthdays we have today, beginning with Ginger Baker of Cream:
Johnny Nash, who says he …
Ian Gillan of Deep Purple:
John Deacon of Queen:
Two deaths of note: Today in 2008, saxophonist LeRoi Moore, a founding member of the Dave Matthews Band, died after a vehicle crash at his farm:
One year ago today, Michael Been, lead singer for The Call, died of a heart attack at a concert where he was his son’s band’s sound man:
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:
Today in 1962, the Beatles replaced drummer Pete Best with Ringo Starr. Despite those who claim Starr is the worst Beatle musically, the change worked out reasonably well for the group.
Today in 1975, Peter Gabriel announced he was leaving Genesis. Despite those who claim Genesis was better with Gabriel in the group, the post-Gabriel Genesis outsold the Gabriel Genesis by an order of magnitude:
Today on her birthday in 1986, Madonna had the number one album, “True Blue,” and the number one single:
To begin our birthday selections, one asks: Who is Edithe Gormezano? She is the wife of Sidney Liebowitz; they are better known as (in backward order) Eydie Gormé and Steve Lawrence.
Gary Loizzo, the lead of the American Breed …
… was born one year before Gordon Fleet of the Easybeats (too bad his birthday wasn’t on Monday):
Barry Hay of Golden Earring:
Tim Spooner of The Tubes:
It’s James Taylor’s birthday, but not that James Taylor — the member of Kool and the Gang:
Tim Farriss played guitar for INXS:
Robert Johnson did not perform rock music. But he influenced countless rock musicians after his death at, yes, 27:
But the most famous rock music death today came in 1977, when, while sitting on the “throne” reading The Scientific Search for Jesus, Elvis Presley got to meet, we assume, Jesus personally:
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:
This was 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:
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:
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