Tag: Chicago the Band

The number one song today in 1957 …

… came from a just-opened movie:

The number one song today in 1967:

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The number one British album today in 1973 was the Rolling Stones’ “Goats Head Soup,” despite (or perhaps because of) the BBC’s ban of one of its songs, “Star Star”:

Who shares a birthday with my brother (who celebrated his sixth birthday, on a Friday the 13th, by getting chicken pox from me)? Start with Paul Simon:

Robert Lamm plays keyboards — or more accurately, the keytar — for Chicago:

Sammy Hagar:

Craig McGregor of Foghat:

John Ford Coley, formerly a duet with England Dan Seals:

Rob Marche played guitar for the Jo Boxers, who …

One death of note: Ed Sullivan, whose Sunday night CBS-TV show showed off rock and roll (plus Topo Gigio and Senor Wences) to millions, died today in 1974:

Today in Great Britain in the first half of the 1960s was a day for oddities.

Today in 1960, a campaign began to ban the Ray Peterson song “Tell Laura I Love Her” (previously mentioned here) on the grounds that it was likely to inspire a “glorious death cult” among teens. (The song was about a love-smitten boy who decides to enter a car race to earn money to buy a wedding ring for her girlfriend.  To sum up, that was his first and last race.)

The anti-“Tell Laura” campaign apparently was not based on improving traffic safety. We conclude this from the fact that three years later, Graham Nash of the Hollies leaned against a van door at 40 mph after a performance in Scotland to determine if the door was locked. Nash determined it wasn’t locked on the way to the pavement.

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Today in 1959, Bertolt Brecht‘s “Threepenny Opera” reached the U.S. charts in a way Brecht could not have fathomed:

T0day in 1968, Apple Records released its first single by — surprise! — the Beatles:

Today in 1969, this spent three weeks on top of the British charts, on top of six weeks on top of the U.S. charts, making them perhaps the ultimate one-number-one-hit-wonder:

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Today in 1965, the Rolling Stones released the song that would become their first number one hit, and yet Mick Jagger still claimed …

Today in 1967, the New York Times reported on a method of reducing the noise recording devices make during recording. The inventor, Ray Dolby, had pioneered the process for studio recordings, but the Times story mentioned its potential for home use.

Ray Dolby, by the way, is no known relation to the other Dolby …

Today in 1987, Lindsey Buckingham refused to go out on tour with Fleetwood Mac for its “Tango in the Night” album, perhaps thinking that the road would make him …

The band probably told him …

… but look who came back a few years later:

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How much money would you have paid for tickets for this concert at the Cow Palace in San Francisco today in 1964:

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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.

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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, to the regret of all true brass rock fans:

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Today should be a national holiday. That is because this group first entered the music charts today in 1969, getting three or four chart spots lower than its title:

That was the same day the number one single predicted life 556 years in the future:

Today in 1975, the Bee Gees hit number one, even though they were just just just …

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