The Beatles played a radio show recorded at the Royal Albert Hall in London tonight in 1963. Backstage after their performance Paul McCartney was introduced to actress, model, and Telly personality Jane Asher, who wanted to arrange an interview. Paul and Jane were a goldmine for the British tabloids and paparazzi for the next five years, the Brad Pitt and Jennifer Anniston of swingin' 60's London. Eventually they got engaged, but shortly after their return from India and the Maharishi in '68, Jane caught Paul in bed with American scriptwriter Francie Schwartz, and it was over. Jane met illustrator Gerald Scarfe in '71, and they're still together, and Asher is still a major media celebrity in England, at a level Americans would recognize as equal parts Oprah Winfrey and Martha Stewart.
The Beatles were the featured guests on the BBC's Morcambe and Wise show tonight in 1964. They did I Want to Hold Your Hand, All My Loving, This Boy, and had a bit of a laugh doing comedy with hosts Eric Morcambe and Ernie Wise. It wasn't the first time they'd been on the show.
Journey Through The Past debuted tonight in 1973 at the Dallas Film Festival. It was the directorial debut of Neil Young, made up of 16mm footage of The Buffalo Springfield, Crosby Stills Nash and Young, and the sessions from his Harvest album, with backstage antics and art-film sequences. Critics hated it.
ABC TV's prime time lineup tonight in 1975 included a special. Alice Cooper's Welcome to My Nightmare.
Yes announced they were breaking up after 13 years today in 1981. Word got out quickly that bassist Chris Squire and drummer Alan White were starting a new band with Jimmy Page, Robert Plant, and John Paul Jones apparently on keyboards to be called XYZ (ex Yes and Zeppelin), but while the 5 did jam together for a while, nothing ever came of it, and Yes would reform three years later.
One of America's most prominent early rock and roll disc jockeys, later a TV host who put hundreds of bands on the air and "America's Oldest Teenager" Dick Clark died today in 2011 at age 82.
Rock and Roll Birthdays
Paul Rothchild, producer of Classic Rock albums from The Doors, Janis Joplin, Crosby Stills and Nash, Joni Mitchell, Neil Young, The Paul Butterfield Blues Band, The Outlaws, Love, and The Lovin' Spoonful would be 85. He left us in '95, but not before producing the soundtrack for Oliver Stone's film The Doors, and being portrayed in the movie by Canadian actor Michael Wincott.
Glen Hardin, piano player with Buddy Holly's Crickets and Elvis Presley, is 81.
Mike Vickers, guitar, sax, and flute player with Manfred Mann, is 80.
Moby Grape guitarist and the drummer on the first Jefferson Airplane album Skip Spence would be 74 if he hadn't died of cancer at 52.