| Gennaio | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 |
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| Febbraio | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | ||
| Marzo | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 |
| Aprile | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | |
| Maggio | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 |
| Giugno | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | |
| Luglio | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 |
| Agosto | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 |
| Settembre | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | |
| Ottobre | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 |
| Novembre | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | |
| Dicembre | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 |
Stevie Wonder has had nine #1 songs, starting when he was only twelve.
As it turns out, he had already cut "Fingertrips" for a studio album that
failed to chart, but Motown's Berry Gordy had the foresight to iusse a
live version - with Woner's spontaneous "Everybody say 'Yeah" and a
musician's confused "What key, what key?" - that captured his energy and
talent. He was on his way.
1941 Born: Ritchie Valens, "Donna," #2 in 1959; killed in a plane krash with
Buddy Holly and Big Bopper on 2/03/59
1943 Born: Mary Wells, "Two Lovers," #7 in 1963; died, 7/26/92 at 49 of cancer.
Hoping to cash in a second time on their word-garbled 1963 hit, the Kingsmen re-release
"Louie Louie". But this time around it stalls at #97, and its chart sojourn lasts a mere two weeks.
Despite its poor showing, however, the reiusse stirs another round of controversy over the supposedly
obscene lyrics.
1936 Born: Bobby Darin, "Splish Splash," #3 in 1958; died, 12/20/73 of heart failure.
1955 "Bo Diddley" by Bo Diddley hits the R&B charts where it will rise to #2,
his biggest hits.
1973 Certified Gold: Kenny Loggins with Jim Messina Sittin' In, their first LP.
The blend is perfect: a Dylan song; a Rock group born of Folk called The Byrds (misspelled
a la Beatles); Columbia Records' youngest producer, Terry Melcher (son of Doris Day);
and session musicians including Leon Russell and Glen Campbell. The resulting song, "Mr. Tambourine
Man" - wich today tops the chart - creates and defines the new musical genre, Folk Rock.
1937 Born: Trini Lopez, "If I Had a Hammer", #3 in 1963.
1938 Born: Lenny Welch "Since I Fell For You", #4 in 1963.
1963 Grammy honors go to Peter, Paul and Mary for "Blowin' in the Wind" and Ray Charles
for "I Can't Stop Lovin' You".
At The Fillmore East a man rushes on stage, grabs the mike, announces, there's a fire next door,
and orders everyone to leave: The Who's Pete Townshend reponds by throwing the weirdo off the stage.
The next thing Townshend knows, he's wrestled to the ground, arrested, and hauled off to spend the night in jail,
charged with assaulting a plainclothes police officer.
1958 One week after leaving WINS, DJ Alan Freed is hired by competing NY radio station WABC.
1964 "My Guy" by Mary Wells become #1 (2 wks)
1965 Chuck Berry and The Rolling Stones appear on TV's "Hollywood A-Go-Go."
1965 The Beach Boys perform "Help Me, Rhonda" on "The Ed Sullivan Show."
Just two weeks before their Tour of the Americas '75, Rolling Stone Mick Jagger puts
his hand through a restourant window in Montauk, Long Island. Jagger is fortunate: though twenty-one stitches
are required to close the gash, there's no serious damage to nerves or tendons, and the tour goes on as scheduled.
1963 Folk singer Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, Pete Seeger, and Peter, Paul and Mary headline che first Monterey Folk Festival
1967 Don't Look Back, the documentary film of Bob Dylan's 1965 tour of Great Britain, opens in San Francisco.
1969 The New Musical Express reports that in 1968 LPs outsold singles in the U.K. for the first time.
Recorded just before he left for Vietnam, "Tighten Up" becomes a hit at the wrong time for Archie Bell
of The Drells. When the song reaches #1, Bell is in a West German hospital recuperating from a combat wound.
What's more, because Uncle Sam won't let him tour, other groups are going around posing as The Drells.
By the time he is discharged in 1969, sadly, the moment is gone.
1912 Born: Perry Como, "Catch a Falling Star", #1 in 1958.
1942 Born: Albert Hammond, "It Never Rains in South California", #5 in 1972.
1959 "Kansas City" by Wilbert Harrison becomes #1 (2 wks).
1959 "If You Want to Be Happy" by Jimmy Soul becomes #1 (2 wks).
"I've been fight all my life to make people realize the superficial qualities of
Rock and Pop are not the parameters though which you should judge the product of [my] generation...
Ultimately, the activists were less important than the overall underlying mood of reaction that
music became a symbol for". Pete Townshend of The Who, Rolling Stone, 1987.
1961 The Everly Brothers start Caliope Records to promote new talent.
1969 Certified Gold: "get Back" by The Beatles.
Jimi Hendrix sings with U.S. Reprise Records. For years he
backed such stars as B.B. King, James Brown, and Little Richard. But
it was't until he went to London in 1966 and formed The Jimi Hendriz Experience that he gained fame.
In the U.K. he has two Top-10 hits and an upcoming LP, and he is about to make a
dynamic guitar-burning U.S. debut at The Monterey Pop Festival.
1942 Born: Jill Jackson "Paula" of Paul & Paula, "Hey Paula", #1 in 1963.
1944 Born: Joe Cocker, "You Are So Beautiful", #5 in 1975.
1946 Born: Cher (Cherilyn LaPierre) of Sonny and Cher, "I Got You Babe", #1 in 1965.
1967 "Groovin'" by The Young Rascals becomes #1 (4 wks).
At a London concert by teen idol David Cassidy, more than 1.000 hysterical fans
have to be treated by medical staff. Six girls are taken to the hospital, four are admited, and one,
a fourteen-year-old girl, dies four days after suffering cardiac arrest. The British Safety Council
calls the show the "Suicide Concert".
1920 Born: Peggy Lee (Norma Jean Engstrom) "Fever", #8 in 1958.
1949 Born: Vicki Lawrence, "The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia", 1973.
1962 "Stranger On The Shore" by Mr. Acker Bilk hits #1 (1 wk).
1962 Certified Gold: "Twist and Shout" by The Isley Brothers.
On this day in 1962, Bob Dylan's seminal second album The Free Wheelin' Bob Dylan is released.
It contains the classics "Blowin' in the Wind", "Girl from the North Country", "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall" and
"Don't Think Twice", a song that by 1970 will be covered by fifty-six atrists, including Peter, Paul and Mary in 1963 and The Wonder Who?
(aka The Four Seasons) in 1965.
1935 Born: Ramsey Lewis, "The 'In' Crowd", #5 in 1965.
1957 Released: "That'll Be the Day" by Buddy Holly and the Crickets, their only #1 hit.
1967 "Soul Finger" by Bar-Kays hits the B&B charts, headed for #3. The Bar-Kays are Otis Redding's backup band.
"River Deep, Mountain High" by Ike and Tina Turner enters the chatrs. Although it's a huge hit in U.K., it stalls at #88 in the U.S.
The Disappointment is so great for producer Phil Spector - who considers this his best work - that he goes
into seclusion for two years.
1944 Born: Gladis Knight "I Heard It Through the Grapevine", #2 in 1967.
1945 Born: John Fogerty of Creedence Clearwater Revival, "Bad Moon Rising", #2 in 1969.
1955 Billboard reports over 18 million copies of nine versions of "The Ballad of Davy Crockett" have been sold.
1966 "When A Man Loves A Woman" by Percy Sledge becomes #1 (2 wks).
The #1 song on this date - "Travlin' Man", Ricky Nelson's biggest selling hit -
was literally culled out of the garbage. Jerry Fuller had written it for Sam Cooke, but
after Cooke's manager listened to it, he threw it into the waste basket. In the adjacent
office, however, Nelson's bass player heard the demo throug the wall, asked to hear it again,
and was given the tape.
1959 9'000 hear Ray Charles, B.B. King, Ruth Brown, The Drifters, and
others at Atlanta's Herdon Stadium.
1965 "Help Me, Rhonda" by The Beach Boys goes to #1 (2 wks).
1971 The Rolling Stones' LP Sticky Fingers and take-out single, "Brown Sugar", are both #1.
The Blues Revival of the sixties - led by The Rolling Stones, The Yardbirds, Cream,
Fleetwood Mac, Ten Years After, Dave Van Ronk, Michael Blomfield, Paul Butterfield, Canned Hea, Duane
Allman and Johnny Winter - leads Columbia Records to announce plans to release five
double albums (160 tracks) of perhaps the greatest Blues Singer of them all, Bessie Smith (c. 1898-1937).
1964 "Love Me Do" by The Beatles become #1 (1 wk).
1964 The Dave Clark Five appear at Carnegie Hall.
1971 At a Grateful Dead concert in San Francisco,
three dozen fans are treated for hallucinations after unknowingly drinking LSD-spiked apple drink.
One of Peter, Paul and Mary's biggest hits was "Puff the Magic Dragon",
a song many believe is about drugs. It isn't. One evening in 1959, Cornell student Larry Lipton,
inspired by on Ogden Nash poem about a dragon, used Peter Yarrow's typewriter to compose a
poem about lost innocence. As Lipton convincingly argues, "At Cornell in 1959, no one smoked grass."
1961 Opening: Chuck Berry's Berry Pak, an amusement park near St. Louis
1964 The Dave Clark Five appears on "The Ed Sullivan Show"
1973 Certified Gold: The LP Can't Buy a Thrill by Steely Dan; includes the hit
"Reeling in the Years"
Pat Boone straddled the line between what is and isn't R&R. His covers of songs
by black artists, such as Little Richard and Fats Domino, drew him succes - four #1s
and thirty-eight Top-40 hits (second only to Elvis at the time) - and criticism, with many DJs
refusing to air "his" records. By 1962, R&R music, wich he helped to popularize, had passed him by and
he began to fade.
1945 Born: Linda Scott, "I've Told Every Little Star", #3 in 1961.
1959 "The Battle of New Orleans" by Johnny Horton hits #1 (6 wks).
1963 "It's My Party" by Lesley Gore becomes #1 (2 wks).
Two Hackensack, NJ men are sentencted to a year in jail for record bootlegging.
Here's how the scam works: first the bootleggers bribe some guy in a record plant to prress extra
copies of a hit, then they buy the illegal cuts at 10% - 20% of retail. With no production,
talent, or promotion costs, they get their profits right from the artist's and label's pocket.
1932 Born: Sammy Turner, "Lavender -Blue", #3 in 1959.
1937 Born: Jimmy Jones, "Handy Man", #2 in 1960.
1962 "I Can't Stop Living You" by Ray Charles hits #1 (5 wks).
1962 "My Love" by Paul McCartney & Wings reaches #1 (4 wks).
You take a voice trained to reack heaven, season it with the insight of producer
Jerry Wexler (who took a chance on Aretha Franklin despite eight no-hits), and add
Otis Redding's composition. The result is the #1 song, "Respect". The rest is all respect for
"The Queen of Soul": over forty Top-40 hits, fifteen Grammys, and the distinction of being the first
woman inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.
1957 "Love Letters in the Sand" by Pat Boone becomes his third #1 (7 wks).
1972 "I'll Take You There" by The Staple Singers is #1 (1 wks).
Freddy Fender had been performing Tex-Mex for twenty years before he had a hit;
he even recorded a Spanish version of "Don't Be Cruel". Then producr Huey P. Meaux recorded
him in Houston singing, "Before the Next Tear Drop Falls". It did well regionally, then went
to #1 nationally in 1975. His follow-up, "Wasted Days and Wasted Nights", went to #8 in 1975.
1945 Born: singer/actress Holly Michelle Gilliam Phillips of The Mamas And The Papas
, "Monday, Monday", #1 in 1966.
1945 Born: Gordon Walter of Peter and Gordon, "A World Without Love", 1964.
Actually Elton John has three first names. His real name is Reginald Keith Dwight.
Today his critically acclaimed LP Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy becomes the
first album ever to enter the chart at #1. And the huge advance order earned it a gold record
on May 21, more than two weeks before its release!
1940 Born: Tom Jones, "Whats New Pussycat?", #3 in 1965.
1971 Certified Gold: Tapestry by Carole King; remains on the charts for over three years.
1975 "Thank God I'm A Country Boy" by John Denver reaches #1 (1 wks).
Tragedy seems to stalk Roy Orbison. Today the witnesses the motorcycle
crash that claims the life of his wife Claudette (about whom he wrote The Everly Brothers'
1958 Top-40 hit "Claudette"). Two years later, tragedy strikes again when a fire in his Nashville
home kills two of his three children. And during his 1988 comeback, he suffers a fatal heart attack.
1940 Born: Nancy Sinatra, "These Boots Are Made For Walkin'", #1 in 1966.
1942 Born: Chuck Negron of Three Dog Night, "Easy To Be Hard", #4 in 1969.
1974 "Band on the Run" by Paul McCartney & Wings goes to #1 (1 wks).
Claiming artistic differences, Brian Jones announces he is leaving
The Rolling Stones. He is replaced by former John Mayall guitarist, Mick Taylor.
Less than a month later, Jomes' body is found in his swimming pool. The coroner say he drowned
"while under the influence of alchool and drugs" and - amid rumors of suicide and murder - lists
his death as a "misadventure".
1934 Born: Jackie Wilson, "Lonely Teardrops", #7 in 1959; died on 1/21/84.
1958 "The Purple People Eater" by Sheb Wooley hits #1 (6 wks).
1970 Princetown University confers the honorary title Doctor of Music on Bob Dylan
The single "Rain" is the first of a number of experimental Beatles songs to
incorporate the reversed-tape method also found in "Revolution #9" on The White Album (officially
entitled The Beatles). By now, they have free rein to experiment, and it results in some
of their most creative work, as evidenced on the Rubber Soul and Revolver LPs.
1967 Fantasy Fire and Magic Mountain Music Fest is held at Mt. Tamalpais,
CA, drawing 15'000 to see Jefferson Airplane, The Doors, The Byrds, Smokey Robinson, and others
1972 "Candy Man" by Sammy Davis, Jr., hits #1 (3 wks)
David Bowie's "Space Oddity" was released in 1969 to coincide with U.S. moon
shot. Despite the lyrics about an astronaut who doesn't make it back, TV networks use it as
the theme for the news coverage. Though popularized by the lunar landing, the song does not become
a hit until 1973 when it peaks at #15.
1940 Born: Joey Dee, of Joey Dee and the Starliters, "Peppermint Twist-Part I", #1 in 1962.
1966 "Paint It Black" by The Rolling Stones becomes #1 (2 wks).
1966 Janis Joplin makes her stage debut with Big Brother and the Holding Company at the Avalon Ballroom in San Francisco.
The Jimi Hendrix Experience - booked at the urging of Paul McCartney - make their American debut
at the Monterey Pop Festival. Following The Who's manic performance, Hendrix blows away the crowd with his
virtuosity and theatrics. He plays the guitar with his teeth and even his pelvis, and for a finale, he burns his guitar as fans
scream loud appreciation.
1942 Born: Paul McCartney, of The Beatles and Wings, "I Want to Hold Your Hand", 1964
1974 Rare Earth drummer Peter Hoorelbeke is arrested for throwing his drumsticks at the audience during a concert.
The Motown songwriting/producing team of Holland/Dozier/Holland does it again: the song they wrote for
The Four Tops, "I Can't Help Myself," takes over #1, displacing another HDH song, The Supremes' "Back in My Arms Again".
The public takes little notice that these hits are coming from the same source. They just keep buying them.
1942 Born: Elaine "Spanky" McFarlane, lead singer of Spanky and Our Gang, "Sunday Will Never Be the Same", #9 in 1967.
1961 "Moody River" by Pat Boone becomes #1 (1 wk).
1971 "It's Too Late" by Carole King hits #1 (5 wks).
George Harrison - the first Rocker to use the tinkly hauting drone of this traditional Indian stringed instrument - plays it
on "Norwegian Wood". A few months later Brian Jones of The Rolling Stones uses it on "Paint It Black". Other groups, such as
The Turtles and Yes, follow, and soon the sitar becomes a staple of psychedelia.
1937 Born: Jerry Keller, "Here Comes Summer", 1959.
1957 Released: "Words of Love" by Buddy Holly.
1964 Released: The Rolling Stones' "Not Fade Away", written by Buddy Holly.
Three days before the begin a twenty-eight date tour of the U.S., The Rolling Stones file a $5 million
suit against fourteen New York hotels for banning the band, claming discrimination under New York's Civil Rights Law. We understand
the Stones have had a little trouble booking a New York hotel since.
1936 Born: O. C. Smith, "Little Green Apples", #2 in 1968.
1972 Certified Gold: Joplin in Concert by Janis Joplin, released after her death.
1975 "Love Will Keep Us Together" by The Captain & Tennille is #1 (4 wks).
The Turtles logged at least five personnel changes during their six years, but the heart of the group remained the same.
Howard Kayland and Mark Volman, friends since high school, led the group through a string of nine hits, including their
1967 chart-topper, "Happy Together". After the group folded, the two stayed together as members of Frank Zappa's Mothers of Invention.
1944 Born: Peter Asher of Peter and Gordon, "I Go To Pieces", #9 in 1964.
1959 "Back in the U.S.A." by Chuck Berry and "Remember When" by The Platters enter the charts.
1968 "This Guy's In Love With You" by Herb Alpert becomes #1 (4 wks).