This is the week that was in matters musical …
1958, Little Richard announces that he is retiring from music at the peak of his popularity to become a minister … the pomaded rocker will flip-flop between his sacred and profane predilections in the coming years …
1959, the world of pop music takes a big hit when a small plane crashes into an Iowa cornfield killing Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and J.P. “The Big Bopper” Richardson … the three pop stars, who were in the midst of a tour dubbed the Winter Dance Party, had chartered the plane to get to their next gig in Fargo, North Dakota, as an alternative to making the long haul in their tour bus with its defective heater …
1961, Bob Dylan cuts his first record, “San Francisco Bay Blues” …
1964, Indiana’s governor declares that the party-favorite single "Louie Louie" by The Kingsmen includes pornographic lyrics … the FCC launches an investigation and finds "the record is unintelligible at any speed we played it" … perhaps his honor’s pornograph is in need of a new cartridge …
1967, British pop producer Joe Meek, who developed many innovative recording techniques, fatally shoots his landlady in the back with a single-barrel shotgun following an argument, then turns the gun on himself with equally deadly results … Meek, an undeniable genius, paranoid, and dabbler in the occult, had predicted Buddy Holly’s death at a séance and warned the musician; Holly shrugged it off … Meek was off by exactly one year … Meek’s own death was on February 3, 1967, the eighth anniversary of Holly’s demise … while browsing in a London antique shop, John Lennon comes across a 19th century circus poster that incorporates most of what will become the lyrics of "Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite" …
1973, working those good old rock ’n’ roll changes, Elton John scores his first #1 hit in the U.S. with the infectiously hook-laden "Crocodile Rock" … not bad for the piano prodigy who won a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music at age 11 … speaking of explosive keyboardists, Keith Emerson’s hands are injured when a piano that’s been rigged with pyrotechnics explodes prematurely during an Emerson, Lake and Palmer concert in San Francisco … NBC debuts TV’s first rock concert series, Midnight Special … DJ Wolfman Jack, whose voice sounds as though he gargles with gravel and washes it down with Liquid Plumr, will be the show’s announcer and occasional host through 1981 …
1977, Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours is released … the LP races to the #1 slot on the album chart where it remains for 31 weeks … it ultimately moves over 17 million platters … ABC-TV’s American Bandstand celebrates its 25th birthday with a TV special hosted by perennial teenager, Dick Clark … playing the song “Roll Over Beethoven” is a strangely constituted all-star band, reminiscent of the thinking that paired Jimi Hendrix and Englebert Humperdinck on the same tour … the band includes Chuck Berry, Gregg Allman, Johnny Rivers, Donald Byrd, Chuck Mangione, Seals & Crofts, Junior Walker, The Pointer Sisters, Charlie Daniels, Doc Severenson, Les McCann, and three-quarters of Booker T and the MGs …
1980, commemorating the first anniversary of Sid Vicious’ death, 1,000 punks stage a march in London … the dead Sex Pistol’s mother, Ann Beverly, had been slated to head the parade, but she’s in the hospital recovering from a drug overdose …
1988, 10 years after the release of their first album, The Cars finally run out of gas … the band, a driving force of the New Wave scene, announces its breakup …
1990, "joining the cast" takes on new meaning for Billy Idol … he fractures an arm and leg in a Hollywood motorcycle wreck … the mishap dashes his plans to play a major role in Oliver Stone’s film, The Doors … MTV’s Unplugged debuts with a performance by Squeeze …
1991, Irish singer Sinead O’Connor is nominated in four Grammy categories and announces that she won’t accept any awards, saying the show reflects “false and destructive, materialistic values” … one can only speculate if she refused her performance royalties as well …
1993, as part of a plea bargain for being busted with a concealed 9mm handgun at Kennedy Airport in New York, gangsta swing artist Harry "the chronic" Connick Jr. agrees to make a public service announcement at his own expense, discouraging folks from packing heat in the Big Apple …
1995, The I-Threes, Bob Marley’s backup singing group that includes his widow Rita, stage a 50th birthday concert for the late reggae star at the Bob Marley Museum in Kingston, Jamaica … son Ziggy Marley also performs …
2000, ABBA rejects an offer of $1 billion to reunite for a world tour … that’s right, one billion dollars … the group refused the offer because they did not want to let fans down … “It is a hell of a lot of money to say no to, but we decided it wasn’t for us,” band member Benny Andersson told the Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet … the offer is believed to have come from an American-British consortium that wanted the Swedish group to get back together for 100 concerts to cash in on the current international ABBA revival … said Andersson, “I know it sounds incredible, but all we could see was a disappointed audience. How could we live up to what we were? The stress wasn’t worth it.” … ABBA was the most commercially successful group of the 1970s, reportedly selling 350 million records around the world …
2003, Courtney Love raises a ruckus on a Virgin Air flight refusing to sit down and her fasten her seatbelt … she is arrested upon touchdown in London … smells like some sort of spirit other than "teen" is involved …
2005, Emmy-winning makeup artist, Kylie M. Bell, files suit against Snoop Dogg, Jimmy Kimmel Live, and ABC-TV owner Walt Disney seeking $25 million in damages stemming from an alleged rape by the rapper and four members of his entourage following the taping of the talk show in 2003 … the case will later be settled "amicably" out of court … it is announced that Guns n’ Roses frontman Axl Rose has entered into a $20 million publishing deal with Sanctuary Music Group … former band members Slash and Duff McKagan argue through their attorneys that Rose had no right to cut the deal … meanwhile there is still no sign of Chinese Democracy, the comeback album Axl has been threatening to release for more than seven years … perhaps Sanctuary paid the $20 mil for Axl not to play …
2006, the management firm representing singer Avril Lavigne provides defense money for an Arlington, TX, man who has been sued by the recording industry for sharing downloaded music … among the songs involved is Lavigne’s own "Sk8er Boi" … Lavigne is one of a number of outspoken artists who believe that nothing good can come of an industry suing its own customers …
2007, Van Halen announces they’ll be touring for the first time since 1984 with David Lee Roth … Prince keeps his costume intact while delivering a well-received halftime show at the Super Bowl … A Los Angeles court grants producer Phil Spector a $900,000 judgment against a former assistant whom he claimed had embezzled the money from his pension fund … this leaves Spector one hundred grand shy of the $1,000,000 bail he’ll need to pay for his freedom as he faces murder charges involving the death of starlet Lana Clarkson … in a convoluted deal between Apple (which recently removed "Computer" from its name) and Apple Corps, the company founded by The Beatles, the computer maker acquires rights to all Apple logos used by both companies and will license the green apple logo back to Apple Corps … no financial details are revealed in press accounts, but it does prove that more often than not, the apple doesn’t fall far from the fee … there is also no word on whether the Beatles catalog, long an iTunes hold-out, will be made available for download … country singer Keith Urban files suit against New Jersey painter Keith D. Urban claiming that the latter’s website, keithurban.net, misleads people into believing the site is related to the performer … the suit does not specify any monetary damages and asks the court to transfer the URL to the country star … SoundScan reports that January 2007 was the worst record sales month reported since it began tracking sales in 1991 … with only 34.1 million records sold, the industry is down 40% compared to a decade earlier …
And that was the week that was.
Arrivals:
January 31: Chuck Willis, R&B and rock singer-songwriter (1928), Paul deLay, Portland-based blues harp player and singer (1952)
February 1: rock music critic Lillian Roxon (1932), Bob Shane of The Kingston Trio (1934), Don Everly of The Everly Brothers (1937), Dr. Hook’s Ray Sawyer (1937), Jimmy Carl Black of The Mothers of Invention (1938), Rick James (1952), Mike Campbell of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers (1954), Lisa Marie Presley (1968), Patrick Wilson of Weezer (1969), Outkast’s Big Boi (1975)
February 2: bluesman Walter Vinson (1901), saxophonist Red Prysock (1926), Stan Getz (1927), Skip Battin of The Byrds (1934), Clarence Quick of the Dell Vikings (1937), Graham Nash (1942), Ronnie Goodson, who became lead singer of Ronnie and the Hi-Lites at age 12 (1945), Howard Bellamy of the Bellamy Brothers (1946), Peter Lucia of Tommy James and The Shondells (1947), Alan McKay of Earth Wind & Fire (1948), Journey’s Ross Valory (1949), jazz bassist Alphonso Johnson (1951), Jeff Healy Band drummer Tom Stephen (1955), Robert DeLeo of Stone Temple Pilots (1966), Ben Mize of Counting Crows (1971), Shakira (1977)
February 3: romantic-era composer Felix Mendelssohn (1809), jazz saxophonist John Handy (1933), Varetta Dillard, a fixture at Harlem’s Apollo Theater, became known for her tribute songs for fallen heroes (1933), Johnny “Guitar” Watson (1935), David Lerchey of the Dell Vikings (1937), Angelo D’Aleo of Dion & The Belmonts (1940), Neil Bogart, singer who founded Casablanca Records (1941), Eric Haydock of the Hollies (1943), Dennis Edwards of The Temptations (1943), Johnny Cymbal (1945), Dave Davies of The Kinks (1947), pop singer Melanie "Look What They’ve Done To My Song" Safka (1947), Lee Renaldo of Sonic Youth (1956), Tony Butler of Big Country (1957), Lol Tolhurst of The Cure (1959)
February 4: Bernie West of the Five Keys (1930), The Animals’ John Steel (1941), Florence LaRue of the Fifth Dimension (1944), sax man John Stubblefield (1945), Alice Cooper aka Vincent Furnier (1948), Phil Ehart of Kansas (1951), Humble Pie’s Jerry Shirley (1952), country music singer-songwriter Clint Black (1962), Natalie Imbruglia (1975), Rick Burch of Jimmy Eat World (1975), Cam’ron (1976)
February 5: Will Shade, rural blues harmonica player (1898), session drummer Samie “Sticks” Evans (1923), rockabilly Jackie Lee Cochran (1934), Alex Harvey (1935), soul singer-songwriter Barrett Strong (1941), country singer Henson Cargill (1941), Cory Wells of Three Dog Night (1942), Chuck Winfield of Blood, Sweat & Tears (1943), Al Kooper (1944), J.R. Cobb of Atlanta Rhythm Section (1944), Dave Denny of the Steve Miller Band (1948), Elton John drummer Nigel Olsson (1949), Duff McKagan of Guns N’ Roses/Velvet Revolver (1964), Chris Barron of Spin Doctors (1968), Bobby Brown (1969)
February 6: songwriter Leon Rene (1902), sax honker Bill Doggett (1916), teen idol Fabiano Forte AKA Fabian (1943), Wilson "Willie Tee" Turbinton, New Orleans funk and soul keyboardist, songwriter, and singer (1944), Bob Marley (1945), Little Feat drummer Richie Hayward (1946), Natalie Cole (1950), Axl Rose born William Bruce Rose (1962), Rick Astley (1966)
Departures:
January 31: Barbara Cowsill, mother of The Cowsills (1985), saxophonist Gregory Herbert, member of the 1978 incarnation of Blood, Sweat & Tears (1978), R&B singer-songwriter Buster Brown (1976), swamp bluesman Slim Harpo (1970)
February 1: songwriter John Jarrad (2001), Julius Wechter of Herb Alpert’s Tijuana Brass and The Baja Marimba Band (1999), Delta slide-guitarist Johnny Littlejohn (1994), Paul Robi, baritone singer with The Platters (1989), Dick James, publisher of Lennon and McCartney and Elton John (1986), Ulysses "Ronnie" Hicks, member of The Five Keys (1955)
February 2: Billy Henderson of the Spinners (2007), Eric von Schmidt, blues and folk singer who influenced Bob Dylan (2007), Joe Hunter, pianist with The Funk Brothers, Motown’s in-house studio band (2007), James Blackwood, known as the "Frank Sinatra of Gospel," released more than 200 albums and won nine Grammys (2002), songwriter Hal Blair (2001), David McComb of The Triffids (1999), jazz drummer and bandleader Mel Lewis (1990), Blue Note Records founder Alfred Lion (1987), bluesman Sam Chatmon (1983), Sex Pistol Sid Vicious (1979)
February 3: saxman Cornelius Bumpus (2004), jazz trombonist James Louis “J.J.” Johnson (2001), R&B legend and dancer Gwen Guthrie (1999), session guitarist “Wild” Jimmy Spruill (1996), Max Yasgur, the dairy farmer who hosted the Woodstock festival (1973), Scottish rock singer Alex Harvey (1982), British pop producer Joe Meek (1967), Buddy Holly (1959), Ritchie Valens of "La Bamba" fame (1959), J.P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson (1959)
February 4: Barbara McNair, pioneering black singer-actress (2007), pioneer of stochastic music, composer Iannis Xenakis (2001), Australian techno-pop star Falco (1998), mandolinist Jethro Burns of Homer and Jethro (1989), leader of Atomic Rooster Vincent Crane (1989), Australian singer-songwriter Trevor Lucas of Fotheringay (1989), flamboyant pianist Liberace (1987), Paul Gardiner, bassist with Gary Numan’s The Tubeway Army (1984), Karen Carpenter of The Carpenters (1983), saxophonist-singer-bandleader Louis Jordan (1975), Cecil Gant, singer-pianist who had a hit with "I Wonder" (1951), saxophone inventor Adolphe Sax (1894)
February 5: guitarist Tim Kelly of Slaughter (1998), Rudy Pompilli, sax player and bandleader of Bill Haley’s Comets (1976)
February 6: Japanese indie scene singer Mitsumi Fukuhara (1999), Carl Wilson, founding member of The Beach Boys (1998), composer-conductor Hugo Montenegro (1981), ’50s R&B balladeer Jesse Belvin (1960)