This is the week that was in matters musical…
1910, Chester Burnett is born in rural White Station, Mississippi … later known as Howlin’ Wolf, he’ll become legendary for his huge, raw voice and matching physique … one of the pioneers of electric blues, Wolf will exert a powerful influence on many British blues musicians and his songs such as “Spoonful,” “Smoke Stack Lightning,” and “Little Red Rooster” will be covered by a generation of rockers including The Stones …
1949, Hank Williams makes a big impression at his Grand Ole Opry debut, earning an unprecedented six encores from the Nashville crowd …
1957, “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On” hits the C&W charts for Jerry Lee Lewis … the record will ease over onto the pop chart within a week to become a crossover hit … John Lennon and The Quarrymen enter a talent competition in Liverpool but lose to The Sunnyside Skiffle group … I think we know who truly won in the end …
1958, Jerry Lee Lewis’ producer, Sam Phillips, forces the rocker to sign an apologetic letter to his fans … Phillips then runs it as a full-page ad in Billboard trying in vain to bolster Lewis’ plummeting reputation in the fallout from his marriage to 14-year-old second-cousin Myra … the letter doesn’t help much … the Killer’s career will remain in the toilet until he reinvents himself as a country star in the 1960s …
1961, country singer Patsy Cline is involved in a near-fatal head-on crash in Nashville … she is slammed into the windshield where she receives scars she hides with makeup and wigs the remainder of her career … she is still recovering when she records the Willie Nelson-penned “Crazy,” her signature hit …
1963, Kyu Sakamoto’s “Sukiyaki” hits number one on the U.S. pop chart … it is the first and last Japanese song to do so …
1964, Ringo Starr comes down with acute tonsillitis days before a Beatles world tour is to begin … his replacement is session drummer Jimmy Nichol who thereby becomes a Beatle for 11 days …
1965, it is announced that The Beatles will receive MBE (Member of the Order of the British Empire) medals from Queen Elizabeth in October … in the controversy that ensues, some previous recipients return their awards … in 1969 John Lennon will return his medal, symbolizing his opposition to Britain’s support of the U.S. in Vietnam …
1966, “Paperback Writer” is released by The Beatles … the b-side is “Rain,” a song they created using a reversed-tape effect for the first time … it’s the same technique that will later incite “Paul-is-dead” rumors … this same week, rumors of Roger Daltrey’s death are greatly exaggerated as European radios spew misinformation after Pete Townshend is injured in a car wreck …
1970, Derek & The Dominos, featuring established blues rock guitarist Eric Clapton and nobody named Derek, plays its first gig together at London’s Lyceum Theatre…
1972, One of America’s most lilting pop voices is silenced when singer Clyde McPhatter dies of a heart attack at 39 after years of hard living … McPhatter was signed by Ahmet Ertegun of Atlantic Records after leaving Billy Ward and the Dominoes to become the lead singer of the newly formed Drifters … this lineup (there would be many) enjoys several big hits including a doo-wop version of “White Christmas” that prominently features his tenor … after leaving the Drifters in the mid-’50s, McPhatter will have sporadic success as a solo act, but his career is undermined by alcoholism …
1973, American Graffiti, directed by George Lucas and featuring a pre-Han Solo Harrison Ford, opens up in theatres in New York … the movie is a success as is the soundtrack having gone triple platinum in the US and peaking at #10 on the Billboard 200 charts album charts…
1977, Alice Cooper’s boa constrictor, a major component of the shock-rocker’s stage schtick, dies after being bitten by a rat intended as the snake’s snack … Joe Strummer and Topper Headon of The Clash are each fined $8 by a London judge for spray-painting the band’s name on a wall … a couple days later they’re back in front of another London magistrate, this time for having pinched a pillowcase from a Holiday Inn … the fine is stiffer: $170 apiece …
1986, Jerry Garcia goes into a five-day diabetic coma requiring the Dead to cancel shows … three Ozzy Osbourne fans die when they plunge from a balcony at a Long Beach, California, concert …
1988, a birthday bash held in London for Nelson Mandela features performers Stevie Wonder, Dire Straits, and Simple Minds …
1988, Nirvana’s debut album, Bleach, is released … the name comes from ubiquitous street posters warning junkies to bleach their works …
1990, 25 years to the day after their father Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys owned the top of the pops with “Help Me Rhonda,” Wilson Phillips, the trio composed of Carnie and Wendy Wilson together with Chynna Phillips, owns the same spot on the Top 100 chart with their single, “Hold On” …
1991, Stevie Wonder and Aretha Franklin perform at the funeral of Temptations’ lead singer David Ruffin … The King of Pop, Michael Jackson, pays for the event … speaking of paying, Ruffin’s bandmate Eddie Kendricks is arrested at the funeral for not paying child support … Kendricks will die the following year …
1992, a judge in L.A. dismisses a $25 million palimony suit brought by model Kelly Emberg against Rod Stewart … she charges that they had lived together in a marital-like state between 1985 and 1990 and had a child together … despite their current contretemps, sources close to Emberg report that she still thinks Rod is sexy …
1994, Falcons wide receiver Andre Rison’s Atlanta mansion burns to the ground … it’s later determined that his girlfriend Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes of the R&B girl group TLC committed the arson in a fit of pique …
1995, 90 minutes before he’s to perform at a Texas police convention, country star Ty Herndon is busted by an undercover cop for drug possession … he will plead guilty …
1998, a judge in the Appellate Division of the New York Supreme Court hears opening arguments in a suit brought by ’60s girl group The Ronettes against their former producer, Phil Spector, charging him with breaching their 34-year-old contract by failing to pay royalties … in 2002 the reclusive studio guru is finally ordered to pay the girls $2.9 million plus interest …
2000, Bobby Brown is sentenced to 75 days in jail after pleading guilty to 2 charges of probation violation from a 1996 drunk driving charge … when passing through U.S. Customs at Newark International Airport in New Jersey with then-wife Whitney Houston, his name is run through a computer database where an outstanding warrant is spotted for failing a drug test … He admits to being an addict and alcoholic, stating “Hopefully I can get back to what I do best, dancing and singing. The day I get out will be the day I start working again.” … as of this writing, we’re still waiting for a new album, allegedly titled The Masterpiece … when it’s released is his prerogative …
2003, Adam Ant is busted for stripping off his clothes in a London café after smashing his neighbours’ windows with stones …
2004, following a layoff of 1,000 employees in March, Warner Music Group announces that it’s cutting its artist roster by nearly one-half in the face of a continuing soft market for music … Iggy Pop and The Stooges are reported to be working on songs for their first new studio record in 31 years … Pop speculates that they may record the album in Los Angeles noting, “That will torture me deeply” … after complaining about what he believes to be a pinched nerve in his shoulder, David Bowie receives an emergency angioplasty to deal with a severely blocked artery …
2005, after deliberating for 32 hours, a California jury finds Michael Jackson not guilty of child molestation charges …
2006, despite having a #1 album with Taking the Long Way Home, The Dixie Chicks are having trouble selling seats in some venues for their summer tour … it is believed anger over Chicks singer Natalie Maines’ criticism of George W. Bush in 2003 is behind the sluggish box office … Jacob the Jeweler aka Jacob Abarov, purveyor of bling to hip-hop’s glitterati, is busted by the Feds on charges of money laundering in a case that also includes drug peddling by the Black Mafia Family of Detroit … he will be sentenced to 30 months in federal slam and ordered to pay a $2 million fine …
2008, AC/DC’s next studio album will be exclusively sold at Wal-Mart stores in the United States, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal … while touring Europe, Bob Dylan tells The London Times he supports Barack Obama’s run for the White House … the historically apolitical Dylan says, “Right now, America is in a state of upheaval. Poverty is demoralizing. You can’t expect people to have the virtue of purity when they are poor. But we’ve got this guy out there now who is redefining what a politician is, so we’ll have to see how things play out. Am I hopeful? Yes, I’m hopeful that things might change. Some things are going to have to.” … Rolling Stone names Chuck Berry’s “Johnny B. Goode” the all-time greatest guitar record … Jimi’s “Purple Haze” and Cream’s “Crossroads” place second and third respectively …
2009, Blur make their live comeback after a 10-year live hiatus at an intimate gig at the East Anglian Railway Museum near Cochester near where they made their first-ever public performance 20 years before …
2010, R. Kelly and the Soweto Spiritual Singers perform “Sign of Victory” during the opening ceremonies of the 2010 FIFA World Cup Anthem in front of a sold-out crowd at Soweto’s Soccer City …
… and that was the week that was …
Arrivals:
June 9: songwriter Cole Porter (1891), bandleader and financial backer of the first electric blender Fredrick Waring (1900), Les Paul born Lester Polfus (1915), R&B singer and Russian roulette-ist Johnny Ace born John Marshall Alexander Jr. (1929), operatic soul singer Jackie Wilson (1934), Wild Jimmy Spruill (1934), Deep Purple’s Jon Lord (1941), Jimi Hendrix Experience drummer Mitch Mitchell (1947), guitarist Paul Chapman of UFO and Lone Star (1954), Dean Felber of Hootie & The Blowfish (1967), Dean Dinning of Toad the Wet Sprocket (1967), neo-classical metal guitarist Rick Renstrom (1971), black metal guitarist Samoth, born Tomas Haugen, of Emperor and Zyklon (1974), Muse frontman, guitarist, and pianist Matthew Bellamy (1978), sitarist Anousha Shankar, daughter of Ravi Shankar (1981), Chloë Agnew, youngest singer in Irish group Celtic Woman (1989)
June 10: Chester Burnett AKA Howlin’ Wolf (1910), Judy Garland (1922), Brazilian singer and guitarist João Gilberto (1931), British free-improvisational drummer John Stevens (1940), Mickey Jones of The First Edition (1941), The Shirelle’s Shirley Alston (1941), Skyliners vocalist Janet Vogel (1942), The Move’s Rick Price (1944), Will Shatter of Flipper (1956), Stray Cats guitarist and frontman Brian Setzer (1959), Kim and Kelley Deal of The Breeders (1961), Jimmy Chamberlin of Smashing Pumpkins (1964), Pixies lead guitarist Joey Santiago (1965), Darren Robinson of The Fat Boys (1967), guitarist Emma Anderson of Lush (1967), N.W.A. rapper The D.O.C., born Tracy Curry (1968), Mike Doughty of Soul Coughing (1970), Joel “Jo-Jo” Hailey of K-Ci & Jo-Jo (1971), guitarist Erik Rutan of Hate Eternal (1971) Faith Evans (1973), Lemisha Grinsted of 702 (1973), rapper Flesh-N-Bone of Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, born Stanley Howse (1973)
June 11: boogie-woogie pianist Clarence “Pine Top” Smith (1904), West Coast jazz drummer Shelly Manne, born Sheldon Manne (1920), country vocalist Jud Strunk (1936), drummer Bernard Purdie, creator of the funky “Purdie Shuffle” (1939), Joe DiNicola of Joey Dee and the Starlighters (1940), Frank Beard of ZZ Top (1949), free-jazz bassist Jamaaladeen Tacuma, born Rudy McDaniel (1956), Donnie Van Zant of .38 Special (1952), Dan Lavery of Tonic (1969), multi-instrumentalist Steven Drozd of The Flaming Lips (1969), contemporary Christian musician Chris Rice (1970)
June 12: New Orleans jazz cornet player Emmett Louis Hardy (1903), bandleader Archie Bleyer (1909), R&B bassist Eddie Williams of Johnny Moore and The Three Blazers (1912), Jim Nabors (1941), pioneer rockabilly Charlie Feathers (1932), keyboardist Chick Corea (1941), British folksinger-songwriter Roy Harper (1941), The Dovelles’ Len Barry, born Leonard Borisoff (1942), Reg Presley of The Troggs (1943), bassist John Wetton of Asia (1949), Brad Delp of Boston (1951), Bun E. Carlos of Cheap Trick (1951), bassist Pete Farndon of The Pretenders (1952), John Linnell of They Might Be Giants (1959), Michael Hausman of ’til tuesday (1960), bassist Kira Roessler of Black Flag (1961), Grandmaster Dee of Whodini (1962), keyboardist Paul Clark of The Bolshoi (1962), Bobby Sheehan of Blues Traveler (1968), Bardi Martin of Candlebox (1969), blues guitarist Kenny Wayne Shepherd (1977), Robyn (1979), country singer Chris Young (1985)
June 13: Bobby Freeman of “Do You Wanna Dance” fame (1940), Arlester “Dyke” Christian of Dyke and the Blazers (1943), John Kahn of the Jerry Garcia Band (1947), vocalist and guitarist Dennis Locorriere of Dr. Hook & The Medicine Show (1949), Howard Leese of Heart (1951), James Smith of The Stylistics (1951), Bo Donaldson (1954), Godsmack’s Robbie Merrill (1963), Paul DeLisle of Smash Mouth (1963), David Gray (1968), Denise Pearson of Five Star (1968), Søren Rasted of Aqua (1969), Rivers Cuomo of Weezer (1970), Jason “J” Brown of Five (1976), country singer Jason Michael Carroll (1978), Canadian fiddler Natalie MacMaster Raz B of B2K (1985)
June 14: folk singer and actor Burl Ives (1909), pianist Cy Coleman (1929), Motown sax man Junior Walker (1931), Renaldo “Obie” Benson of The Four Tops (1936), session organist Spooner Oldham (1943), Rod Argent of the Zombies (1945), Barry “Fish” Melton of Country Joe and the Fish (1947), Jim Lea of Slade (1949), Alan White of Yes (1949), King Diamond (1956), Maxi Jazz, rapper for Faithless, born Maxwell Fraser (1957), jazz musician Marcus Miller (1959), gender-bending popster Boy George (1961), Chris DeGarmo of Queensryche (1963), guitarist Matt Freeman of Operation Ivy and Rancid (1966), rapper MC Ren, born Lorenzo Patterson (1969), British pop diva Billie Myers (1971), Rob Nanna of Braid and Hey Mercedes (1975), Siobhán Donaghy of Sugababes (1984)
June 15: jazz pianist Jaki Byard (1922), Nigel Pickering of Spanky & Our Gang (1929), Waylon Jennings (1937), singer-songwriter Harry Nilsson (1941), Doug Roberts of Jimmy Gilmer and the Fireballs (1941), Muff Winwood, bassist for The Spencer Davis Group (1943), French pop singer Johnny Halliday (1943), Muscle Shoals session guitarist Eddie Hinton (1944), Noddy Holder of Slade (1946), Russell Hitchcock of Air Supply (1949), Steve Walsh of Kansas (1951), country-pop singer Terri Gibbs (1954), Garry Roberts of Boomtown Rats (1954), drummer Scott Rockenfield of Queensryche (1963), Michael Britt of Lonestar (1966), Ice Cube (1969), Dryden Mitchell of Alien Ant Farm (1976), Gordon Lightbody of Snow Patrol (1976), guitarist Billy Martin of Good Charlotte (1981), Nadine Coyle of Girls Aloud (1985)
Departures:
June 9: German singer Drafi Deutscher (2006), folksinger Walter Pardon (1996), ’60s R&B singer Arthur Alexander (1993), jazz and blues singer Clarence “Big” Miller (1992)
June 10: The Swampers’ keyboardist Barry Beckett (2009), Jamaican singer Ruddy Thomas (2006), Graeme Kelling of Deacon Blue (2004), Ray Charles (2004), Steve Sanders of The Oak Ridge Boys (1998), Alan Blakely of the Tremoloes (1996), Jimmy Weston of the Danleers (1993), American jazz pianist and arranger for Woody Herman, Nat Pierce (1992), The Shirelles’ Addie “Mickey” Harris (1982), organist Earl Grant (1970)
June 11: A.R.E. Weapons guitarist Ryan Noel (2004), Al Rinker of the Rhythm Boys with Bing Crosby (1982)
June 12: Danny Davis of The Nashville Brass (2008), drummer Matthew Fletcher of Heavenly (1996), “Shaddup You Face” novelty Italian-American singer Lou Monte (1989), the “Vee” in Vee-Jay Records, Vivian Carter (1989), American Dixieland trumpeter and bandleader Bob Scobey (1963), jazz legend Jimmy Dorsey (1957)
June 13: country singer and sausage slinger Jimmy Dean (2010), jazz saxophonist and composer Ken McIntyre (2001), Southern blues guitarist John Campbell (1993), bandleader and clarinetist Benny Goodman (1986), Clyde McPhatter of The Drifters (1972)
June 14: Ventures bassist Bob Bogle (2009), jazz pianist Esbjörn Svensson of E.S.T. (2008), flamenco singer Delores Alcantara (1999), bluesman Rory Gallagher (1995), composer Henry Mancini (1994), Brenda Payton of Brenda and the Tabulations (1992), songwriter-producer Cliff Goldsmith (1991), drummer Pete DeFreitas of Echo and the Bunnymen (1989), reedman Charles Miller of War (1980), jump blues singer Wynonie Harris (1969)
June 15: pianist for Janis Joplin’s Full Tilt Boogie Band, Richard Bell (2007), jazz double-bassist Leonard Bush (2004), Lew Chudd, founder of Imperial Records (1998), Ella Fitzgerald (1996), tour musician Kin Vassy (1994), Steely Dan drummer Jim Hodder (1990), “Music Man” composer, songwriter, conductor, and playwright Meredith Wilson (1984), jazz alto saxophonist Art Pepper (1982), jazz guitar great Wes Montgomery (1968)