3 of Sun Records legendary stars started a tour together tonight in 1955 in Abeline Texas. Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins, and Johnny Cash would be joined by Jerry Lee "The Killer" Lewis at a Perkins recording session a little over a year later that would turn into a jam session recorded and later released as "The Million Dollar Quartet" that would be dramatized in a musical stage play that broke box office records at, of all places, the Village Theater in Issaquah.
The Beatles made their first appearance on the British charts today in 1962 with Love Me Do, which would peak at #4 a few weeks later.
The Doors played the gymnasium at Danbury High School in Danbury Connecticut tonight in 1967. The show was opened by a beauty pageant, and before the band came on stage the Principal warned students that if they so much as rose from their seats they would be escorted out of the building.
The Beatles were at Abbey Road today in 1968 working on a song George Harrison had written about his friend Eric Clapton's addiction to chocolates, particularly the "Good News" bar from Scottish chocolatier MacKintosh. George Martin brought in six studio saxophone players, who were said to be quite upset at Harrison's insistence that the horns be distorted in the final mix.
Rock and Roll took a decidedly wimpier turn today in 1974 when a song John Denver had written for his wife on the 10 1/2 minute ride up Ajax mountain at Aspen, Annie's Song went to #1 in England. It was his second #1 in the U.S.,and ushered in the "singer-songwriter" era of "soft rock"on radio stations nationwide.
The third studio album from The Police, Zenyatta Mondatta, went to #1 in England today in 1980. The "M" of their record label A&M, Jerry Moss, made a buttload of money on the record, which included the hits Don't Stand So Close To Me, De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da, and Canary in a Coalmine, and would later name a thoroughbred race horse "Zenyata". It would become the winningest Filly of all time.
The Rolling Stones played the second of two nights at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum tonight in 1981. 95 fans were arrested when a scuffle broke out during the show. Their Tattoo You tour would set records for attendance and gate receipts, many of which still stand and set a precedent when the accepted $1 million in sponsorship money from the manufacturers of the Jóvan Musk fragrance, which seemed to run counter to The Stones' "bad boy" image. The specially sloped stage, with 80's pastel-colored squiggly line designs and a cherry picker that lifted Mick Jagger out over the crowd would be disassembled after the show, loaded onto semi trucks, and hauled up I-5 for two shows in Seattle's Kingdome three days later.
Apple Computer Inc. settled out of court with Apple Corps. Ltd. today in 1981 over use of the name of a fruit. The Beatles record company had filed against the Silicon Valley high tech company in 1978, and the defendants avoided litigation by paying an undisclosed amount (rumored at the time between $50 and $250 million, but later revealed to be only $80,000), and an agreement that The Beatles would not manufacture computers and the computer company would not go into the record business, which they did later with iTunes. With his unveiling of the iPhone in 2007, Steve Jobs would drop the word "computer" from the company's name.
Nirvana had recently fired drummer Chad Channing, and his replacement Dave Grohl made his first appearance with the band tonight in 1990 at the North Shore Surf Club in Olympia.
Sir Elton Hercules John went to #1 on the U.S. singles chart today in 1997 with a re-worked version of his song Candle In The Wind. The lyrics, now a tribute to his friend Diana Spencer, Princess of Wales, who had been killed in a Paris car crash in August, would propel the song to eclipse Tacoma native Bing Crosby's version of White Christmas as the best-selling single of all time.
Jo Karslake Wood, the second wife of The Rolling Stones and Faces guitarist Ron Wood, was granted divorce from her husband today in 2009 on grounds of adultery, specifically with 18 year old London nightclub waitress Ekaterina Ivanova.
Rock and Roll Birthdays
The Steve Miller Band drummer Gary Mallaber, who's also played with or recorded for The Greg Kihn Band, Peter Frampton, Bob Seger, Warren Zevon, and Kermit the Frog to name a few, is 74.
Daryl Hall, half of the singing duo Hall and Oates, is 74.