It happened this week

This is the week that was in matters musical …

1956, Little Richard enters the Top 40 with "Long Tall Sally" … sample lyric: "Long Tall Sally she’s built for speed, she’s got everything that Uncle John needs" … Paul McCartney proved he could rock with The Beatles’ 1964 cover … who needs silly love songs? … couldn’t have done it without Mr. Richard Penniman …

1960, freshly discharged from honorably serving Uncle Sam, Elvis Presley records "Elvis Is Back" … a typical genre-spanning affair that includes rock, blues, and ballads … the best song is El’s take on Lowell Fulsom’s "Reconsider Baby" with a smoking sax solo from Boots Randolph …

1960, RCA begins issuing pop records in both stereo and mono formats beginning with Elvis Presley’s "Stuck On You" … promotional 45s are issued to radio stations with one side in mono and the flip side in stereo …

1965, Bob Dylan’s latest single "Subterranean Homesick Blues" breaks into the Hot 100 in the U.S. … unlike other Dylan hits, this one features an electric rock band backing him up … the much-copied promotional film shows Dylan in a New York alley displaying the song lyrics on a series of cue cards … Dylan gets to appear enigmatic while getting out of lip-synching …

1966, The Velvet Underground perform for the first time with Andy Warhol’s Exploding Plastic Inevitable in a New York City multimedia event; the Velvets singing about hookers, drug dealers, heroin addiction, sadomasochism, accompanied by dancers with whips and screenings of Warhol’s films …

1967, Cream takes a novel approach in recording "Strange Brew" at Atlantic Studios in New York … producer Felix Pappalardi asks if he can work with the tapes for "Lawdy Mama" a Junior Wells/Buddy Guy blues tune the trio had just recorded … Pappalardi and his wife write a new melody and lyrics … the next day Eric Clapton records a fresh guitar part and vocal on top of the "Lawdy Mama" backing track … in San Francisco, Tom Donahue and radio station KMPX-FM forge a new style of music programming that will come to be called "progressive FM radio" … instead of adhering to a tight Top 40 playlist of three-minute pop hits, underground DJs play lengthy album cuts and ditch frentic, over-the-top jock spiel in favor of more laid-back patter …

1968, Donovan records "Hurdy Gurdy Man," a big Top 40 hit … for years, many listeners believed that session guitarist Jimmy Page provided the swirling lead guitar … as reported on songfacts.com, session drummer Clem Cattini says the lead guitar was provided by Alan Parker … so agrees future Page bandmate John Paul Jones, who played bass, did the arrangement, and served as musical director for the Donovan recording session …

1975, lead guitarist Richie Blackmore leaves Deep Purple and is replaced by Tommy Bolin, an American who played in the Boulder, Colorado, band Zephyr … after six albums as lead singer for The Rotary Connection, Minnie Riperton goes solo and demonstrates her five-octave vocal range on her #1 hit "Loving You" … it was her only hit … the following year she is diagnosed with cancer and succumbs in 1979 …

1977, The Clash release their first album in the U.K. … Columbia, their U.S. label, doesn’t release the record, saying it is crudely produced and won’t sell … after 100,000 import copies are sold, Columbia relents … former Beatles and Stones manager Allen Klein is indicted in New York on charges of income tax evasion …

1978, The Cramps record a cover version of The Trashmen’s "Surfin’ Bird" … the group calls the sound "psychobilly" – psychedelic-rockabilly, or what some just call southern-fried weirdness … the group churns out a combination of punk and surf sounds with two guitars, drums, and no bass … in performance, lead singer Lux Interior sticks the ball of the microphone fully into his mouth and grunts rhythmically … Prince releases his debut album and Duran Duran play their first gig …

1980, debuting as the "Twisted Kites," R.E.M. plays its first show in its Athens, Georgia, hometown … they perform at a party in a converted church that also serves as the group’s rehearsal space …

1984, the rockumentary This Is Spinal Tap premieres … directed by Rob Reiner, the movie is an acidic parody of a hapless heavy metal band trying to tour the United States while suffering a number of breakdowns in communication, direction, and spirit … just about every heavy metal band claims to be the inspiration for Spinal Tap, but the reality is they all contributed in their own way …

1985, after two years’ of negotiations with Chinese officials, English pop-soul duo Wham! performs at the Peking People’s Gymnasium before 15,000 teenagers … Wham! will break up a couple of years later, and singer George Michael will go on to superstardom …

1987, Joshua Tree by U2 enters the U.S. album charts at #7 … the first two singles "With Or Without You" and "I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For" become #1 hits …

1988, the former "Twisted Kites," now known as R.E.M., sign with Warner Brothers records for $6 million …

1991, Dweezil Zappa and Donny Osmond perform the Bee Gees "Stayin’ Alive" on Dweezil’s Confessions album …

1994, Kurt Cobain dies from a self-inflicted shotgun wound … he was last seen checking out of a rehab clinic near Los Angeles … Cobain explained in his suicide note that he had long struggled with his fame …

2002, guitarist Dave Mustaine injures his left hand and arm after falling asleep with his arm hanging over a chair in a hospital waiting room … he was being treated for kidney stones … because he can’t play, Megadeath breaks up … after much physical therapy, Mustaine resumes playing the guitar the following year and Megadeath is re-formed in 2004 …

2006, singer-songwriter Gene Pitney dies from natural causes … known for his impassioned-borderline-histrionic vocal style, he had more than 20 Top 40 hits including "It Hurts To Be In Love," "Only Love Can Break Your Heart," "Looking Through The Eyes Of Love," and "Town Without Pity" … he also wrote "Hello Mary Lou," a hit for Ricky Nelson, and "He’s A Rebel," a #1 hit for The Crystals … Gene also played piano on the first Rolling Stones album …

2007, Keith Richards, ’fesses up to blending his late father’s ashes with some cocaine and snorting the mixture during an interview with the British rock mag NME … “He was cremated and I couldn’t resist grinding him up with a little bit of blow. My dad wouldn’t have cared,” he said. ” … It went down pretty well, and I’m still alive.” Richards’ father, Bert, died in 2002, at 84 … a day after the interview, a publicist for the Stones says Keef was only joking, but four months later Richards confirms his previous confession with a slight revision: "The cocaine bit was rubbish. I said I chopped him up like cocaine, not with. I pulled the lid off [my father’s urn] and out comes a bit of dad on the dining room table,” Richards continued. “I’m going, ‘I can’t use the brush and dustpan for this’" … with the latest Chinese incarnation of American Idol about to debut, China’s State Administration of Radio Film and TV (SARFT) warns the producers of the show whose title translates as Happy Boys Voice that it will tolerate “No weirdness, no vulgarity, no low taste” … a previous show called Super Girls Voice corralled an audience of more than 400 million, but according to regulators had also drawn public and official criticism for its vulgarity … further defining the standards, the SARFT warns the producers that Happy Boys Voice should include only “healthy and ethically inspiring” songs and avoid scenes of screaming fans or losing contestants in tears, … the show should “maintain a happy atmosphere” … scenes of wailing and screaming were called “low taste” …

And that was the week that was.

Arrivals:

April 3: country musician-songwriter Don Gibson (1928), country singer Johnny Horton (1929), R&B/funk guitarist Jimmy Nolen (1934), jazz organist Jimmy McGriff (1936), bassist Scot LeFaro (1936), Phillipe Wynne of The Spinners (1938), songwriter Jeff Barry, born Joel Adelberg (1939), Jan Berry of Jan & Dean (1941), The Duprees’ Joe Canzano (1941), Joey Vann of The Duprees (1943), Tony Orlando (1944), The Band’s Richard Manuel (1945), Elton John bassist Dee Murray (1946), Grand Funk’s Mel Schacher (1951), Mike Ness of Social Distortion (1962), Criss Oliva of Savatage (1963)

April 4: Cecil Gant (1913), Muddy Waters, born McKinley Morganfield (1915), writer/actor/dancer/singer/poet laureate Maya Angelou (1928), Tiny Tim, born Herbert Khaury (1930), Margo Sylvia of The Tune Weavers (1936), trumpeter Hugh Masekela (1939), soulman Major Lance (1941), Tangerine Dream’s Christophe Franke (1942), Allman Brothers’ bassist Berry Oakley (1948), Dire Straits’ Pick Withers (1948), Peter Haycock of Climax Blues Band (1952), Humble Pie’s Jerry Shirley (1952), Mick Mars of Motley Crue (1956)

April 5: jazz drummer Stan Levy (1926), The Platters’ Tony Williams (1928), Leroy Griffin of The Nutmegs (1934), fiddler Dave Swarbrick of Fairport Convention and Strawbs (1941), violin player David LaFlamme of It’s a Beautiful Day (1941), Eric Burdon (1941), Allan Clarke of the Hollies (1942), Crispin St. Peters (1944), Agnetha Faltskog of ABBA (1948), Everett Morton of The English Beat (1951), Dream Theater’s James LaBrie (1963), Michael McCready of Pearl Jam (1964)

April 6: blues harpist Walter “Shakey” Horton (1917), Burnetta “Bunny” Jones (1917), Merle Haggard (1937), Michelle Phillips of The Mamas and The Papas (1944)

April 7: Billie Holiday (1915), bandleader/composer Percy Faith (1918), Ravi Shankar (1920), Bobby Bare (1935), Charlie Thomas of The Drifters (1937), Don Julian of The Meadowlarks (1937), Spencer Dryden of The Jefferson Airplane (1938), trumpeter Freddie Hubbard (1938), Mick Abrahams of Jethro Tull (1943), Bill Kreutzmann of The Grateful Dead (1946), Pat Bennett of The Chiffons (1947), John Oates (1949), Janis Ian (1951), tenor saxophonist Bob Berg (1951), Bruce Gary of The Knack (1952), Victoria Addams of Spice Girls (1976)

April 8: Carmen McRae (1922), Jimmy Witherspoon (1923), Belgian singer-songwriter Jacques Brel (1929), Steve Howe (1947), Izzy Stradlin of Guns N’ Roses (1962), Julian Lennon (1963), Biz Markie born Marcel Hall (1964)

April 9: guitarist/songster Mance Lipscomb (1895), "Twist and Shout" songwriter Phil Medley (1916), Carl Perkins (1932), Rockin’ Sidney (1938), Grand Funk progenitor Terry Knight (1943), drummer Gene Parsons (1944), Chico Ryan of Sha-Na-Na (1948), producer Alex Sadkin (1949), Kevin Martin of Candlebox (1969)

Departures:

April 3: Lester “Big Daddy” Kinsey of The Kinsey Report (2001), session sax man Alvin “Red” Tyler (1998), Rob Pilatus of the disgraced Milli Vanilli (1998), Roosevelt “Booba” Barnes (1996), Sarah Vaughan (1990)

April 4: songwriter Kurt Weil (1950)

April 5: Gene Pitney (2006), Layne Staley of Alice in Chains (2002), drummer Colin “Cozy” Powell (1998), Kurt Cobain (1994), Nesuhi Ertegun, cofounder of Atlanta Records (1989), Danny Rapp of Danny & The Juniors (1983), soul singer Joe Hinton (1981), Memphis session guitarist Rick Harvey (1981), Bob Hite of Canned Heat (1981)

April 6: Niki Sullivan of The Crickets (2004), vibes maestro Red Norvo (1999), Tammy Wynette (1998), Wendy O. Williams (1998), session guitarist Edward Freche (1995), Ral Donner (1984)

April 7: L.A. session drummer Carlos Vega (1998), Harold “Sonny” Wright of The Diamonds (1996), Lee Brilleaux aka Dr. Feelgood (1994), King Records producer Henry Glover (1991), Who manager Kit Lambert (1981), rockabilly legend Charlie Shivers (1961)

April 8: DJ and “Heartbreak Hotel” writer Mae Axton (1997), Laura Nyro (1997), drummer Billy Gayles (1993)

April 9: cellist Tom Cora (1998), Buzzcocks and Joy Division producer Martin Hannett (1991), Dave Prater of Sam & Dave (1988), singer-songwriter Brook Benton (1988), folksinger Phil Ochs (1976)

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