Cash Inspires … Virgins Intercepted … Kid Rock's Playful Payday
This is the week that was in matters musical …

1936, Billboard magazine, which started publishing news about circuses in 1894,
publishes the first record sales chart … Joe Venuti’s jazz number “Stop!
Look! Listen!” is the first platter to occupy the #1 slot …

1950, the #1 Billboard Pop Hit is "Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer" by Gene
Autry … over 8 million copies of the novelty tune are sold making this far and
away the singing cowboy’s biggest hit …

1957, Fats Domino records “I’m Walkin” in New Orleans … the song will
chart on both the pop and R&B charts at number four and number one respectively
… that same week, Joe Louis, the former heavyweight boxing champion, appears
on TV's Steve Allen Show to introduce Solomon Burke who sings “You Can Run …
But You Can’t Hide,” a song written by the boxer …

1958, Gibson obtains a patent for its Flying V guitar … the instrument
doesn’t sell well at first and is discontinued … it will be revived later
and eventually becomes associated with many great blues and rock players
including Albert King … the futuristic design will be adopted by many other
manufacturers over the years …

1959, Coral Records issues Buddy Holly’s single … "It Doesn’t Matter
Anymore" … it is the last release by the bespectacled rocker before his death,
and unlike most of his self-penned hits, it is written by Paul Anka …

1960, Johnny Cash plays the first of many free shows he will perform at San
Quentin Prison … in the audience is a convict by the name of Merle Haggard …
upon being released he dedicates his life to music instead of crime …

1961, at a New Year’s Eve Ritchie Valens Memorial Concert in Long Beach, CA,
the Beach Boys play for the first time under that name … they previously had
been billed as Kenny and the Cadets, The Pendletons, and Carl and the Passions
…

1963, in a Billboard interview Leonard Chess, co-founder of Chess Records,
observes, "As it stands today, there's virtually no difference between rock &
roll, pop, and rhythm & blues. The music has completely overlapped" …

1964, The Rolling Stones embark on their first British tour as headliners …
the opening act is the American girl group, The Ronettes … this same week
British singer Cleo Sylvestre releases a cover of the 1958 Teddy Bears’ hit
“To Know Him is to Love Him” … though the record sinks without a trace at
the time, it has become highly collectible in recent years … the backing band
is an unruly outfit called The Rolling Stones …

1965, Leo Fender announces he is selling Fender Guitars to CBS for $13 million
… he will continue on as a consultant to CBS for several years before going on
to found MusicMan and G&L …

1966, while goofing around in the studio, the Beach Boys cut a raucous,
practically acapella version of “Barbara Ann,” a minor hit for the Regents
in 1961 … oddly enough, the lead is sung by Dean Torrance of Jan and Dean …
this same day The Beatles are obliged to go back into the studio to re-record
“I Feel Fine” and “Help!” for inclusion on The Beatles Live at Shea
Stadium LP … their voices on the original live recordings are practically
inaudible due to shrieking teenyboppers …

1969, a shipment of John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s album, Two Virgins, is seized
by authorities in New Jersey because the jacket sports a picture of the pair in
the buff showing everything …

1971, to no one's particular surprise, the Beatles officially break up … Paul
files in the London High Court for dissolution of the Beatles Co. partnership
…

1974, “Time in a Bottle” goes gold … it is Jim Croce’s second gold
record in a row following his death in a plane crash months earlier … other
posthumous Top Ten hits will follow including "Operator," "I Got a Name," "I'll
Have to Say I Love You in a Song," and "Workin' at the Car Wash Blues" …

1975, 1,000 ticket-seeking Led Zeppelin fans who have camped out overnight in
the lobby of the Boston Gardens go on a rampage causing $30,000 in damage …
Boston mayor Kevin White promptly pulls the plug on the show …

1977, going against a club ban on punk music, the Roxy opens on the first day of
the year in London’s Covent Garden with The Clash as headliners … it will
soon be the place for punk …

1982, Steve Van Zandt of the E Street Band marries Maureen Santora in Asbury
Park, NJ … Bruce Springsteen is the best man … Percy Sledge and Little
Richard sing “When a Man Loves a Woman” at the reception …

1984, Rick Allen takes a knocking and keeps on rocking … the indomitable Def
Leppard drummer loses his left arm in an English auto accident and his loyal
band mates refuse to replace their fallen comrade … upon recovery, in an
inspiring display of determination and will, Allen adapts his kit and later
rejoins the band …

1985, former TV actor and teen pop star Rick Nelson perishes in a plane crash
along with four members of his backup band … the plane, formerly owned by
Jerry Lee Lewis, had made two emergency landings during the previous six months
… the musicians die from smoke inhalation caused by a faulty gasoline-fueled
heater during a flight to Dallas where they were to perform during the Cotton
Bowl halftime show … the burning aircraft crash lands in a field after
shearing off the top of a telephone pole … both pilots survive …

1992, when Elton John’s “Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me” enters the
charts it marks the twenty-third consecutive year in which he enjoys a Top 40
hit … a mark equaled only by Elvis …

1993, bassist Bill Wyman announces that he has left The Rolling Stones …

1994, at Rio's Copacabana Beach, Rod Stewart performs for three million fans—a
world record …

1997, former Spirit guitarist Randy California is caught in a rip tide while
swimming off Hawaii and is swept out to sea … his body is never found … Jimi
Hendrix gave the talented axe slinger his stage name when they worked together
in Jimmy James and the Blue Flames …

1998, Sonny Bono dies after slamming into a tree while skiing …

1999, Lauryn Hill racks up ten Grammy nominations for her best-selling album …
The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill …

2000, George Harrison is released from the hospital where he was recovering from
stab wounds inflicted by a crazed intruder at his home two days earlier … that
same night, country music legend Kitty Wells along with her husband Johnny
Wright perform a farewell show before a capacity crowd at the Nashville Night
Life Club … Wells is 81, Wright 86 … in the house are such Nashville
notables as Ricky Skaggs, Connie Smith, and Marty Stuart …

2004, Britney Spears marries childhood friend Jason Alexander in Las Vegas&rsquo
Little White Wedding Chapel after a weekend of courtship … 55 hours later the
marriage is annulled … Pollstar reports that Prince was the top concert draw
in 2004 with $87.4 million in ticket sales … Quantegy, the last U.S. company
to make magnetic recording tape, ceases operations. … eBay has a sudden spate
of tape offerings … panicky producers start hoarding the stuff … also this
day, Ray Davies of The Kinks is shot in the thigh after he gives chase to a pair
of muggers who snatched his female companion's purse while they strolled on a
quiet New Orleans street … a headline reads, “You Really Shot Me” …

2005, reissue labels have a field day when European copyrights expire on a
number of classic pop and rock 'n' roll songs recorded in 1954 and earlier …
titles include Bill Haley's "Rock Around the Clock" and "Only You" by The
Platters …

2006, former House of Freaks singer-guitarist Bryan Harvey along with his wife
and two young daughters are found murdered in the basement of their Virginia
home … the house had been set on fire and the family was found bound with
their throats slashed … on January 9 two men are arrested on suspicion of
murder in connection with this case as well as other home invasions. … they
are later convicted … one is sentenced to death and the other receives life in
prison … meanwhile, on a lighter note, at the Lost Wages, NV, club Jet, Kid
Rock gets to play DJ on New Year’s Eve … commenting on the gig, he chortles,
“It was $200,000 to act crazy and go out of my f***ing mind.” …

… and that was the week that was in matters musical.

[Compiled by the Musician’s Friend copywriting staff]


Arrivals:

December 31: composer Jule Styne (1905), folk singer Odetta Holmes (1930), Andy
Summers of The Police (1942), John Denver (1943), Pete Quaife of The Kinks
(1943), Patti Smith (1946), Burton Cummings of The Guess Who (1947), disco queen
Donna Summer, born LaDonna Gaines (1948), Tom Hamilton of Aerosmith (1951),
George Thorogood (1952), innovative guitarist Michael Hedges (1953), Scott Ian
of Anthrax (1963), Joe McIntyre of New Kids on the Block (1972)

January 1: Latin bandleader Xavier Cugat (1900), Al McKibbon, bassist with Dizzy
Gillespie, George Shearing, Monk, and Miles (1919), Country Joe McDonald of
Country Joe and the Fish (1942), Grandmaster Flash (1956)

January 2: baritone jazz and R&B crooner Arthur Prysock (1929), country singer
Roger Miller, whose "King of the Road" was a big crossover hit (1936), Chick
Churchill of Ten Years After (1949), Glenn Goins, guitarist and vocalist with
George Clinton (1954), Douglas Robb of Hoobastank (1975), Little Drummer Boy of
Immature (1981)

January 3: Beatles producer George Martin (1926), Chess Records artist Danny
Overbea (1926), pianist Carl McVoy (1931), Van Dyke Parks (1941), Stephen Stills
(1945), Led Zep's John Paul Jones (1946), Chimaira guitarist Rob Arudd (1980)

January 4: English band manager Don Arden (1926), guitarist John McLaughlin
(1942), Stax soul singer and Otis Redding protégé Arthur Connelly (1946),
Bernard Sumner of New Order (1956), country chirper Patty Loveless (1956),
Michael Stipe of R.E.M. (1960), Robin Guthrie of Cocteau Twins (1962), David
Glasper of Breathe (1965), Beth Gibbons of Portishead (1965), Deana Carter
(1966), The Used bassist Jeff Howard (1979)

January 5: Sun Records’ Sam Phillips (1923), R&B/blues vocalist Johnny Adams
(1932), George Brown of Kool and the Gang (1949), Marilyn Manson (1969), 30
Seconds to Mars bassist Mah Wachter (1976)

January 6: banjo maestro Earl Scruggs (1924), bluesman Wilbert Harrison (1929),
baritone Paul Wilson of The Flamingos (1935), Sandy Denny of Fairport Convention
and "Battle of Evermore" fame (1947), pop singer Nino Tempo (1935), Van "Do The
Hustle" McCoy (1944), that crazy diamond, Roger Keith "Syd" Barrett (1946), Kim
Wilson of The Fabulous Thunderbirds (1951), Malcolm Young (1953), Kathie Sledge
of Sister Sledge (1959), Jazzie B of Soul II Soul (1963), Andrew Wood of Mother
Love Bone (1966)

January 7: flautist Jean-Pierre Rampal (1922), Lefty Baker of Spanky and Our
Gang (1942), Paul Revere Dick of Paul Revere and the Raiders (1942), Kenny
Loggins (1948), Kathy Valentine of The Go-Gos (1959)


Departures:

December 31: bluesman "Weepin'" Willie Robinson (2007), Crosby, Stills & Nash
manager, Gerry Tolman (2005), guitarist Eddie Shaver (2000), Nashville pianist
Floyd Cramer (1997), teen pop star Rick Nelson (1985), Patrick Woodward, Rick
Intveld, Bobby Neal, and Andy Chapin of Rick Nelson’s Stone Canyon Band
(1985), bluesman Robert Pete Williams (1980), R&B writer-producer Bert Berns
(1967)

January 1: Grand Ole Opry star Del Reeves (2007), House of Freaks guitarist
Bryan Harvey (2006), singer-songwriter Townes Van Zandt (1997),
singer-songwriter Ted Hawkins (1995), Buck Ram, R&B manager, composer, and
producer who worked with The Platters (1991), Brit blues pioneer Alexis Korner
(1984), honky-tonk piano player Moon Mullican (1967), bluesman Ed Bell (1960),
country music legend Hank Williams (1953)

January 2: Juan Garcia Esquivel, creator of space-age bachelor-pad music (2002),
jazz trumpeter Nat Adderly, who worked in the shadow of his older brother alto
saxophonist Julian "Cannonball" Adderly (2000), prolific Capitol Records
producer Nik Venet (1998), Spirit's guitarist Randy California (1997),
songwriter Mort Shuman (1991), David Lynch of The Platters (1981), ’50s R&B
singer Larry Williams (1980), Tex Ritter (1974)

January 3: Chess studio drummer Al Duncan (1993), pianist Carl McVoy (1992),
Nashville producer Felton Jarvis (1981), West Coast bluesman Amos Milburn
(1980), Beatles roadie Mal Evans (1976)

January 4: balladeer John Gary (1998), Thin Lizzy singer-bassist Phil Lynott
(1986)

January 5: Salvatore Phillip "Sonny" Bono (1998), show tune writer Burton Lane
(1997), Danny Gatton backing guitarist-vocalist Billy Windsor (1994), masterful
jazz bassist and bandleader Charles Mingus (1979)

January 6: pedal steel master "Sneaky" Pete Kleinow (2007), Laura Webb Childers
of The Bobettes (2001), French jazz pianist Michel Petrucciani (1999), renowned
country fiddler Robert Russell "Chubby" Wise (1996), doo-wop singer Hal Lucas
(1994), jazz legend Dizzie Gillespie (1993), dub-style reggae producer King
Tubby born Osbourne Ruddock (1989), tenor saxman Bobby Fields who worked with
Buddy Clark and Ike Turner (1981), Georgeanna Tillman, founding member of The
Marvelettes (1980), Johnny Moore of The Blazers (1969)

January 7: "Queen of Tin Pan Alley," Bernice Petkere (2000), legendary Nashville
producer Owen Bradley (1998), Larry Williams (1980), British blues pioneer Cyril
Davies (1964)


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