This is the week that was in matters musical . . .
1957, Johnny Cash hits network TV for the first time as a guest on The Jackie Gleason Show . . .
1959, armed with naught but an acoustic guitar and a tape recorder, Buddy Holly holes up in his New York apartment to lay down the last tracks he will ever record . . . tunes include “Crying, Waiting, Hoping” and “Peggy Sue Got Married” . . . Coral Records mixes in backing instrumentation and releases the songs posthumously . . .
1960, Sam Cooke signs his record deal with RCA Records . . .
1966, Nancy Sinatra, the most famous fruit of Frank’s loins, enters the Hot 100 for the second time with the timeless cheek and brassy cool of “These Boots Are Made for Walkin'” . . .
1970, Dr. Robert Moog introduces the Mini Moog . . .
1973, Jerry Lee Lewis is invited to play the Grand Ole Opry with the proviso that he neither perform rock ‘n’ roll tunes nor utter profanities . . . The Killer proceeds to belt out “Great Balls of Fire,” “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On,” and “Good Golly Miss Molly” and then announces that he’s a “rock and rolling, country and western, rhythm and blues singin’ motherf****r” . . .
1974, Bob Dylan and The Band are the cause of a nine-mile-long traffic jam in the sunny state of Florida . . . the queue takes so long to clear up that many fans do not get into the Hollywood Sportatorium, located between Miami and Fort Lauderdale, until the show is halfway over . . .
1980, Saturday Night Live comedian John Belushi busts out his rawest Blues Brothers chops in a post-birthday jam with The Dead Boys at The Whisky A Go Go in Los Angeles . . .
1981, Plasmatics singer and former erotic dancer-porn actress Wendy O. Williams is arrested in Milwaukee for becoming too intimate with a sledge hammer on stage . . . Ms. Williams-who typically performed adorned only in a G string and two strategically placed strips of electrician’s tape-resists arrest valiantly and receives a 12-stitch head wound for her efforts . . .
1982, a highly-soused Ozzy Osbourne gnaws the head off a bat that has been tossed onstage by a fan . . . Ozzy later says he thought it was a fake rubber model . . . legend has it that he is obliged to go through a course of rabies shots just to be safe . . . this same week bluesman and ex-disc jockey B.B. King makes record collectors drool as he donates his entire record collection to the University of Mississippi . . . the veritable audio treasure trove is B.B.’s effort to enrich the university’s Center for the Study of Southern Culture and includes about 20,000 rare blues records . . .
1986, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame holds its first induction ceremony in New York City . . . started just three years prior, it will be nine more years before the Hall has a proper building . . .
1988, Nirvana records a ten-song demo tape with producer Jack Endino and with The Melvin’s Dale Crover holding down the drumming responsibilities as a favor to the band . . . the six-hour session’s tracks are never released as a collective album but will be spread across the Nirvana albums Bleach, Incesticide, From the Muddy Banks of the Wishkah, With the Lights Out, and numerous bootleg CDs . . .
1991, he rocks his peers and the cash register at record stores: the L.L. Cool J album Mama Said Knock You Out is certified Platinum by the RIAA . . .
1993, the U.S. Supreme Court decides Tom Waits can keep the $2.6 million judgment awarded him in a lawsuit against Frito Lay . . . the snack food company had asked to use Waits’ song “Step Right Up” in an advertisement, but he declined the offer . . . in a moment of overwhelming stupidity, Frito Lay hired a Tom Waits sound alike to record a song strikingly similar to “Step Right Up” and used it in the commercial . . . ironically, Waits wrote and recorded the song as “an indictment of advertising” and it contains the lyric “What the large print giveth, the small print taketh away” . . .
1998, James Brown gets out of the hospital . . . he has been undergoing treatment for addiction to painkillers . . .
2001, Bob Dylan takes the Best Original Song award at the Golden Globes . . . this same week Nelly Furtado makes a splash with her debut album Whoa, Nelly! which is nominated for five Juno Awards . . .
2002, it is announced by Virgin Records that they are going to fork out 28 million smackers to be free of Mariah Carey and her $80 million contract for several albums . . . Carey has undergone a woeful personal and professional collapse with rambling suicidal missives on her website, a laughably bad movie, and a poor-selling soundtrack-her first record with Virgin . . .
2003, Phil Spector is arrested on suspicion of murdering his girlfiend Lana Clarkson . . .
2005, Camper Van Beethoven is robbedagain . . . just three months after having their equipment stolen in Montreal their gear disappears once more, this time from a hotel parking lot in Dallas . . . the trailer was backed up against a parking deck wall so the doors would not open . . . the thieves cut through the side of the trailer and helped themselves . . . the band even had a security guard . . . a $1,000 reward is offered for information leading to the recovery of their gear . . .
2006, soul man Wilson Pickett dies of a heart attack . . .
. . .and that was the week that was in matters musical.
Arrivals:
January 18: Bobby Herne (1938), Bobby Goldsboro (1941), David Ruffin of The Temptations (1941), “Legs” Larry Smith of The Bonzo Dog Band (1944), Tom Bailey of The Thompson Twins (1956), Andrew Wood (1966), DJ Quik (1970), Jonathan Davis of Korn (1971), Irish popette Samantha Mumba (1983)
January 19: Don Lange of The Frantic Five (1925), Australia’s first rock star Johnny O’Keefe (1935), Phil Everly of the Everly Brothers (1939), Janis Joplin (1943), Rod Evans of Deep Purple (1945), Dolly Parton (1946), Robert Palmer (1949), Dewey Bunnell of America (1952), Caron Wheeler of Soul II Soul (1963)
January 20: Leadbelly born Huddie William Ledbetter (1889), R&B singer Paul Gayten (1920), Earl Grant (1933), R&B singer Luther Tucker (1936), George Grantham of Poco (1947), Paul Stanley of Kiss (1952), guitarist John Campbell (1952), Ian Hill of Judas Priest (1952)
January 21: Wolfman Jack (1939), Richie Havens (1941), Placido Domingo of The Three Tenors (1941), Billy Ocean born Leslie Sebastian Charles (1950), Jam Master Jay of Run-DMC (1965)
January 22: Sam Cooke (1931), The Shirelles’ Addie Harris (1941), punk impresario Malcolm McLaren (1946), Meatloaf aka Marvin Lee Aday (1946), Steve Perry of Journey (1949), Michael Hutchence of INXS (1960), Steven Adler of Guns ‘N’ Roses (1965), DJ Jazzy Jeff (1965), Willa Ford (1981)
January 23: Django Reinhardt (1910), Jerry Lawson of The Persuasions (1944), Anita Pointer of The Pointer Sisters (1948), Patrick Simmons of the Doobie Brothers (1950), Danny Federici of the E Street Band (1950), Bill Cunningham of The Box Tops (1950), Robin Zander of Cheap Trick (1953), Anita Baker (1958), UB40’s Earl Falconer (1959)
January 24: Doug Kershaw (1936), Ray Stevens (1939), Aaron Neville (1941), Neil Diamond (1941), Warren Zevon (1947), Jools Holland (1958)
Departures:
January 18: Keith Diamond (1997), Mel Appleby (1990), McKinley Mitchell (1986)
January 19: Wilson Pickett (2006), Josh Clayton-Felt of School of Fish (2000), Carl Perkins (1998), Joe Stubbs of The Falcons (1998), leader and sax player for the Mar-Keys Packy Axton (1974)
January 20: Hugh O’Neill Jr. of The Queers (1999), drummer Bill Albaugh (1999), Ron Holden of “Love You So” fame (1997), Stan Szelest of The Hawks which later became The Band (1991), DJ Alan Freed (1965)
January 21: glam-rock star Les Gray (2004), Peggy Lee (2002), blues pianist and singer Charles Brown (1999), Col. Tom Parker (1997), Champion Jack Dupree (1992), mid-’80s rapper Mitch McDowell (1992), Steve Wahrer of The Trashmen (1989), Jackie Wilson (1984)
January 22: bandleader Billy May (2004), songwriter Irwin Levine of “Tie a Yellow Ribbon” fame (1997), Riot’s Rhett Forrester (1994), Tommy Tucker of “High Heel Sneakers” fame (1982)
January 23: Johnny Funches of The Dells (1998), “Louie Louie” composer Richard Berry (1997), gospel songwriter Thomas A. Dorsey (1993), blues guitarist James “Thunderbird” Davis (1992), Lynyrd Skynyrd guitarist Allen Collins (1990), Carl Feaster of The Chords (1981), Terry Kath of Chicago (1978), Vic Ames of the Ames Brothers (1978), jazz trombonist Edward “Kid” Ory (1973), Big Maybelle Smith (1972)
January 24: James “Shep” Sheppard of Shep & the Limelites (1997), The Association founder Brian Cole (1995), producer and half of C&C Music Factory David Cole (1994), film composer Ken Darby (1992), Bill Horton of The Silhouettes (1955)