It happened this week

This is the week that was in matters musical …

1940, John Lennon is born in Liverpool, England …

1957, in Sydney, Australia, Little Richard announces his intention to give up rock-and-roll and “live for the Lord” … demonstrating his sincerity he tosses four diamond rings into a river … Richard flies to Los Angeles the following day and is baptized as a Seventh Day Adventist … five years later he resumes his music career …

1958, an article in Billboard reports that Phil Spector, the writer and arranger of the Teddy Bears’ hit “To Know Him is to Love Him,” is studying to be a court reporter … though the reclusive producer famed for creating “wall of sound” recordings in the 1960s never takes up that profession, his indictment for the murder of Lana Clarkson in 2003 promises to provide him with lots of courtroom experience …

1959, 22-year-old Bobby Darin becomes the youngest performer to ever headline at the Copa Room of the Sands Hotel in Las Vegas … he displaces the prior record-holder, Johnny Mathis, who headlined when he was 23 …

1960, the to-be Beatles record together for the first time when Lennon, McCartney, and Harrison are called upon to provide backing for Lou Walters of The Hurricanes on his rendition of “Summertime” … also on hand providing the backbeat is Ringo Starr, the Hurricanes’ drummer … the single that ensues sinks without a trace …

1961, the Beatle haircut is born when Paul and John are celebrating John’s 21st birthday in Paris … they meet up with Jurgen Vollmer, a friend from Hamburg who wears his hair brushed forward in a cut popular with French teens … Paul and John like the style and have Jurgen give them haircuts in their hotel room … the rest is history …

1962, just after his return to show biz, Little Richard headlines a concert in Liverpool … The Beatles are the warm-up act … it is reported they all hit it off splendidly …

1966, Grace Slick replaces expectant mother Signe Anderson in The Jefferson Airplane … she leaves her current band The Great Society bringing along two songs that will be at the forefront of the San Francisco music scene: “Somebody to Love” and “White Rabbit” …

1967, David Crosby is bounced from the Byrds by leader Roger McGuinn after months of acrimony …

1968, The New Yardbirds, a band later renamed Led Zeppelin, plays its first British show at Surrey University …

1969, blues giant Muddy Waters is severely injured in a car crash in which three others are killed …

1970, Jesus Christ Superstar opens on Broadway …

1971, Creedence Clearwater Revival is sued by a music publisher claiming that John Fogerty’s song “Travelin’ Band” is a ripoff of “Good Golly, Miss Molly” … the suit is later dropped … a crowd expecting ’50s teen idol Rick Nelson to play all his old hits at a Madison Square Garden show turns surly when he insists on performing new material … the hostile reception is later memorialized in his song “Garden Party” that becomes a hit the following year … a line from the song goes, “If memories are all I’d sing, I’d rather drive a truck” …

1973, The Stones’ “Angie” is the No. 1 Billboard Pop Hit … supposedly a paean to David Bowie’s missus, the song is covered by Tori Amos in the ’90s … the Supreme Court refuses to review a Federal Communications Commission directive ordering broadcasters to censor songs with drug-oriented lyrics before airing them … it will be another three decades before the FCC becomes concerned over breasts …

1975, Neil Young undergoes surgery on his vocal chords … his recovery is slow and he is obliged to quit midway through his tour with Stephen Stills the following year due to the strain on his voice …

1976, The Who and The Grateful Dead pair up as dual headliners for a concert at the Oakland-Alameda County Stadium … Joe Perry and Steven Tyler are injured during an Aerosmith concert in Philadelphia when a fan throws a cherry bomb onto the stage … Boyband The Sex Pistols enter Landsdowne Studios in London with producer Dave Goodman and engineer Hugh Padgham to attempt to record their debut single “Anarchy In The U.K.” … unhappy with the results they try again a week later at Wessex Studios with Chris Thomas producing and Bill Price engineering … a key to the recording is Thomas’ layering of Steve Jones’ guitar parts to create a roaring wall of sound, all while John Lydon dreams of advertising butter on British telly … meanwhile, back in the States, Ike and Tina Turner split up their act …

At the end of 1976 music went to a 51 week year, so musicians weren’t allowed to tour, record or indeed do anything during this one week in October, Bing Crosby’s funeral was picketed by angry union members when he broke the agreement by dying in ’77. Things stayed like this until the “lost October week” was reintroduced to the musician’s calendar in…

1986, Janet Jackson’s “When I Think of You” reaches number one this week … it makes her and brother Michael the first siblings to each have a number-one hit in the rock era …

1988, UB40’s “Red Red Wine” is the Billboard No. 1 Pop Hit … the British group originally released the Neil Diamond-penned song in 1984 when it rose to No. 34 …

1993, Peter Gabriel’s “Sledgehammer” video is ranked No. 1 in video history by Rolling Stone magazine … the video received a record nine awards at the 1987 MTV Video Music Awards ceremony, and is still cited as one of the most influential videos of its time …

1997, Sir Paul McCartney receives six curtain calls at the Royal Albert Hall for the world premiere of his symphonic poem “Standing Stone,” performed by the London Symphony … despite this acclaim, critics give the composition low marks saying it’s forgettable and dull … the soundtrack for the 1942 film Casablanca is released … the CD contains the movie’s signature song “As Time Goes By” as well as Max Steiner’s lush score and film dialog … Patricia Richardson, a Virginia concert promoter, brings a suit against rapper Snoop Dogg and his manager charging that they duped her into bringing packages with seven pounds of pot to a venue where Snoop was performing, leading to her arrest …

1998, The Crossroads Center, a $6.5 million recovery center for drug addicts, opens in Antigua … the facility is underwritten by Eric Clapton, a former heroin addict himself …

2000, Carlos Santana is presented with a key to the city of Tijuana, where he grew up …

2001, U2 launches the third leg of its Elevation tour with a South Bend, Indiana, concert … the band invites the world to see and hear it for free … the performance is webcast and accessible to fans on U2.com …

2004, Eminem’s hit video “Just Lose It” shows the rapper impersonating Michael Jackson … he’s seen on a bed with young boys, with his hair ablaze, searching for his lost nose, and being vomited on … a Jackson spokesman complains, “It’s one thing to be spoofed, but Michael felt Eminem crossed the line” … after an appeal from Jackson, BET agrees to stop airing the vid but MTV keeps it in heavy rotation … Melissa Etheridge undergoes surgery for breast cancer … Britney Spears announces that in a mutual decision she and long-time manager Larry Rudolph have decided to go their separate ways … Rudolph is given credit for having discovered Spears at age 13 …

2005, Mötley Crüe drummer Tommy Lee is treated in Casper, Wyoming, for second-degree burns after sparks from a pyrotechnic display during a show burn his arms and face … Following protests by anti-violence groups, some billboards promoting 50 Cent’s movie Get Rich or Die Tryin’ are taken down … they had depicted the rapper with a mic in one hand and a gun in the other … observing what would have been John Lennon’s 65th birthday, Yoko Ono plants a tree at England’s Coventry Cathederal … school children sing “Imagine” during the ceremony … Paul McCartney joins forces with the co-sponsor of his 2005 tour, Fidelity Investments, to establish the Music Lives Foundation … the non-profit will fund music programs and provide students with instruments in the U.S. and U.K. …

2006, after a protracted battle with its landlord, New York punk Mecca CBGB closes its doors forever … on hand to close the joint is Patti Smith who performs most of the songs from her 1975 Horses album … club owner Hilly Kristal, who founded CBGB as a country venue in 1973, is offered a new location by the city of New York but passes on it saying renovation costs are too steep … talk persists about the club moving to Vegas together with many of its storied decorations as well as its legendarily filthy basement toilets … the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame mounts an exhibit titled Revolution Rock: The Story of the Clash featuring 150 artifacts including lyric sheets and Joe Strummer’s well-worn Telecaster …

2007, hours before he is scheduled to perform at the BET Hip-Hop Awards in Atlanta, rapper T.I. is busted in a parking lot by federal agents who claim he was there to pick up machine guns and silencers purchased earlier by his bodyguards …

… and that was the week that was in matters musical.

Arrivals:

October 9: John Lennon (1940), John Entwistle of The Who (1944), Jackson Browne (1948), P. J. Harvey (1969), Sean Ono Lennon (1975)

October 10: composer Giuseppe Verdi (1813), Ivory Joe Hunter, R&B singer, songwriter, and pianist, best known for his hit recording “Since I Met You, Baby” (1914), Thelonious Sphere Monk (1917), “The Big Bopper,” born Jiles Perry Richardson Jr. (1932), country singer Dottie West (1932), singer O.V. Wright (1939), John Prine (1946), Edward Freche, session guitarist who toured with the Neville Brothers (1947), singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist Midge Ure (1953), David Lee Roth (1955), Tanya Tucker (1958), singer-songwriter Kirsty MacColl (1959), Martin Kemp of Spandau Ballet (1961), Mike Malinin of Goo Goo Dolls (1967), Michael Bivens of Bel Biv Devoe (1968), Nine Days drummer Vinnie Tattanelli (1972), pop and R&B singer Mya Harrison (1979)

October 11: Art Blakey (1919), Little Willie Littlefield (1931), jazz trumpeter Lester Bowie (1941), Gary Mallaber of The Steve Miller Band (1946), Daryl Hall (1949), Andrew Woolfolk of Earth, Wind & Fire (1950), Scott Johnson of The Gin Blossoms (1962), MC Lyte (1971)

October 12: composer Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872), Guitar Gabriel aka Robert Lewis Jones (1925), Sam Moore of Sam and Dave (1935), Luciano Pavarotti (1935), Melvin Franklin of The Temptations (1942), Pat DiNizio of The Smithereens (1955), Bob Mould (1960), Garfield Bright of Shai (1969), Martie Seidel of The Dixie Chicks (1969), Ashanti (1980)

October 13: Paul Simon (1941), Robert Lamm of Chicago (1944), Sammy Hagar (1947), Simon Nicol of Fairport Convention (1950), Marie Osmond (1959)

October 14: Jimmy Liggins (1922), monster picker Mickey “Guitar” Baker of Mickey & Sylvia (1925), Bill Justis (1926), Robert “Barefootin” Parker (1930), Barry McGuire of The New Christy Minstrels (1935), Marv Johnson (1938), Cliff Richard (1940), Colin Hodgkinson of Whitesnake (1945), Moody Blues vocalist Justin Hayward (1946), Danish pop king Tommy Seebach (1949), Thomas Dolby (1958), A.J. Pero of Twisted Sister (1959), Karyn White (1965), Natalie Maines of The Dixie Chicks (1974), Shaznay Lewis of All Saints (1975), Usher (1978)

October 15: singer Victoria Spivey (1906), Bobby Gimby (1918), Barry Sadler (1939), Richard Carpenter of The Carpenters (1946), Chris DeBurgh of “Lady in Red” fame (1948), Tito Jackson (1953), Ginuwine (1970)

Departures:

October 9: founder of The Modern Jazz Quartet, Milt Jackson (1999), New Orleans R&B artist Joseph “Mr. Google Eyes” August (1992), gospel singer Sister Rosetta Tharpe (1973)

October 10: Darren Robinson, 400-pound member of The Fat Boys known as The Human Beat Box (1995), Lenny Peters of British pop duo Peters and Lee (1992)

October 11: Edith Piaf (1963)

October 12: bluesman Frank Frost (1999), John Denver (1997), Ricky Wilson of the B-52’s (1985), Gene Vincent (1971), songwriter Baker Knight (2005)

October 13: Ralph “Pee Wee” Middlebrooks of The Ohio Players (1996), Shirley Brickley of The Orlons (1977), Ed Sullivan (1974)

October 14: Leonard Bernstein (1990), Bing Crosby (1977)

October 15: songwriter Terry Gilkyson (1999), Tasha Thomas (1984), Jud Strunk (1981), Bobby Lester of The Moonglows (1980), Cole Porter (1974)

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