Monday, January 16, 2012

This Date in Rock Music History: January 16

1956:  Tennessee Ernie Ford had the #1 song in the U.K. with "Sixteen Tons".
1957:  Little Richard recorded "Lucille".

1957:  The Cavern Club in Liverpool, England first opened its doors.  It will forever be remembered as the place where the Beatles got their start.










1961:  "Shop Around" by the Miracles was the new #1 on the R&B chart. 












1964:  The Beatles played two shows at the Olympia Theatre in Paris, France.  Even better, they received word from across the ocean that their first single in America--"I Want To Hold Your Hand", was selling 10,000 copies an hour in New York City alone.
1964:  The Dave Clark Five owned the #1 U.K. song with "Glad All Over".
1965:  The Guess Who released their debut album Shakin' All Over.
1965:  Julie Rogers had the top Adult song for the third week--"The Wedding".



    
   The Searchers were in amongst the heavyweights...

1965:  The Supremes achieved their third straight #1 song with "Come See About Me".  That sent "I Feel Fine" by the Beatles to the runner-up spot with the Searchers finding #3 with "Love Potion Number Nine".  "Downtown" from Petula Clark, which had roared from 87 to 41 to 12 to 5 in its chart run was temporarily slowed, only edging up to #4.  The rest of the Top 10:  the Righteous Brothers were going to be a factor with "You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling", Bobby Vinton's big hit "Mr. Lonely" was now sixth, "The Jerk" from the Larks, Little Anthony & the Imperials were at #8 with "Goin' Out Of My Head", Marvin Gaye moved from 15 to 9 with "How Sweet It Is To Be Loved By You" and Del Shannon placed "Keep Searchin'" at 10.







1967:  The Rolling Stones released the single "Ruby Tuesday".
1969:  Here's a great show--Creedence Clearwater Revival and Fleetwood Mac in their early days, both at the Fillmore West in San Francisco, California.









           The instrumental "Born to Move" from Pendulum...

1971:  George Harrison's All Things Must Pass was #1 on the Album chart for a third week.  Abraxas, the former #1 from Santana, was still at #2 and Stephen Stills remained third with his self-titled release.  Sly & the Family Stone checked in with Greatest Hits and The Partridge Family Album was fifth.  The rest of the Top 10:  The Soundtrack to "Jesus Christ Superstar", Pendulum from Creedence Clearwater Revival, Grand Funk Railroad were at #8 with Live Album, John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band, and Led Zeppelin III.







            Santana's first smash "Black Magic Woman"...

1971:  George Harrison had one of The Top 100 Songs of the Rock Era*, as his solo release "My Sweet Lord" remained at #1 for a fourth week.  Dawn was one step away with "Knock Three Times", while there was a logjam at 3, 4 and 5 with "One Less Bell To Answer" from the 5th Dimension, Santana's "Black Magic Woman" and "I Think I Love You" from the Partridge Family.  The rest of the Top 10:  The Bee Gees had their 14th career hit, but first Top 10 in three years with "Lonely Days", King Floyd joined the group with "Groove Me", the Supremes were at 8 with "Stoned Love", Barbra Streisand kept the theme going with "Stoney End" and the former #1 "The Tears Of A Clown" from Smokey Robinson & the Miracles was now at #10.




1972:  Ross Bagdasarian, who went by the name David Seville ("Witch Doctor" from 1958) and created the famous Chipmunks ("The Chipmunk Song" and others), died of a heart attack at the age of 52 in Beverly Hills, California.
1973:  Bruce Springsteen appeared at the University of Villanova in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania before an audience of 25 people.  If he was to be the "future of rock and roll", he'd better get going.






1975:  Paul McCartney & Wings arrived in New Orleans, Louisiana to begin recording the album Venus and Mars.
1976:  Donny and Marie Osmond hosted the television series Donny & Marie, which premiered on this date on ABC.
1977:  David Soul rose to #1 on the U.K. chart with "Don't Give Up On Us".









1978:  Paul Simon, Art Garfunkel and James Taylor combined for a great remake of "(What A) Wonderful World".
1979:  Cher and Gregg Allman divorced.
1980:  Robert Plant of Led Zeppelin and Eric Clapton attended a reception to celebrate the release of The Summit, a Swan Song Records compilation to benefit the International Year of the Child.








1982:  Earth, Wind & Fire had one of The Top 100 R&B Songs of the 80's* as "Let's Groove" spent an eighth week at #1.
1982:  "Yesterday's Songs" by Neil Diamond held on to #1 on the Adult Contemporary chart for a fifth week.
1982:  Juice Newton had the only new Top 10 song with her remake of "The Sweetest Thing (I've Ever Known)".
   
                      "Night Life" from Foreigner...

1982:  Foreigner's album 4 returned to #1 on the chart, making it the sixth week the incredible release was at the top.  Escape from Journey was now #2 with previous #1 For Those About to Rock We Salute You from AC/DC third.  The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra had a major hit with Hooked on Classics, which moved from 13-4, while Raise! by Earth, Wind & Fire was #5.  The rest of a solid Top 10:  Tattoo You from the Rolling Stones, Bella Donna from Ms. Stevie Nicks, the J. Geils Band had their first Top 10 album with Freeze Frame, the Police tumbled with Ghost in the Machine and Barbra Streisand's compilation album Memories was #10.











1984:  The Eurythmics released the single "Here Comes The Rain Again".
1986:  ABBA reunited briefly to record "Tivedshambo" for their former manager Stig Anderson on the Swedish television show This is Your Life.  The show was televised on January 18.








1988:  Tina Turner's concert at Maracana Stadium in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, drew 182,000, the largest audience ever for a solo artist at the time.
1988:  Belinda Carlisle had a worldwide smash and hit #1 in the U.K. with "Heaven Is A Place on Earth".
1988:  Fleetwood Mac reached #1 on the Adult Contemporary chart with "Everywhere".







      
                Tiffany introduced herself with this song...

1988:  George Harrison reached # with "Got My Mind Set On You", knocking Whitney Houston from the top after one week with "So Emotional".  Michael Jackson had his 11th Top 10 song in the last seven years with The Way You Make Me Feel".  Meanwhile, INXS was up to #4 with their great song "Need You Tonight" and Tiffany's breakthrough hit "Could've Been" moved from 14 to 5.  The rest of the Top 10:  The Bangles registered their fifth career hit with their remake of the Simon & Garfunkel hit "Hazy Shade Of Winter", a live version of "Candle In The Wind" by Elton John reached #7, Taylor Dayne was at position #8 with "Tell It To My Heart", "Faith" from George Michael and Whitesnake was at #10 with "Is This Love".
1988:  "The Way You Make Me Feel" by Michael Jackson spent a fourth week at #1 on the R&B chart.



1989:  Debbie Gibson released the single "Lost In Your Eyes".











1989:  The Fine Young Cannibals released the single "She Drives Me Crazy".  (Note:  some websites claim the song was released on January 1--this is impossible, as there is no mail delivery on January 1, much less on a Sunday (which is the day of the week that January 1 fell on in 1989.  Even if there were, there would be no one at the radio station to listen to it on that day.)





 



1989:  Michael Jackson wrapped up the highly successful Bad tour with  the first of five nights at the Memorial Sports Arena in Los Angeles.  Jackson donated more than $1 million to a charitable organization fighting child cruelty.
1990:  Ike Turner was convicted of driving under the influence of cocaine and was sentenced to four years in prison.
1991:  The Byrds and Wilson Pickett were the deserving artists inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame at the Waldorf Astoria in New York City.
1992:  Mick Jagger attended the premiere of Freejack, the movie in which he starred in, at Mann's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood.




1992:  Eric Clapton recorded an "unplugged" session that included his hit "Tears In Heaven" and an acoustic version of "Layla".  The work went on to win six Grammy Awards including Record of the Year.
1993:  Bob Dylan and Quincy Jones & His Orchestra performed at an Inaugural Ball for U.S. President Bill Clinton.
1993:  Whitney Houston collected a seventh week at #1 on the R&B chart with the across-the-board smash "I Will Always Love You".
1993:  Whitney Houston held a grip on #1 on the Adult Contemporary chart for the fifth week with "I Will Always Love You".






1993:  "I Will Always Love You" by Whitney Houston continued its climb up history with an eighth week at #1.  That moved Whitney into a four-way tie and at that time only seven songs had spent more weeks at #1.
1994:  The movie Out of Darkness starring Diana Ross aired on ABC-TV.  (Note:  some websites erroneously say the movie was on CBS.  It was the 'Sunday Night Movie' on ABC, according to the newspaper 'The Seattle Times' and other credible sources.)











1995:  Dionne Farris released the single "I Know".  (Note:  some websites claim the song was released on January 31 and March of 1995.  "I Know" entered the singles charts on January 28, so both of those dates above would have been impossible.  A song cannot enter a singles chart if it has not been released as a single.)
1996:  Acting on a tip that a drug trafficker's team was leaving Montego Bay, Jamaica, authorities mistakenly fired on Jimmy Buffett's seaplane.  Bono of U2 was also in the plane with Buffett and fortunately, no one was hurt.
1996:  Richard Kermode, keyboardist with Janis Joplin's Kozmic Blues Band, died of cancer in Denver, Colorado at the age of 49.
1999:  Brandy had the #1 song with "Have You Ever".
2000:  Will Jones of the Coasters died at the age of 71 from the effects of diabetes in Long Beach, California.




2001:  Bjork won the Outstanding Dramatic Performance award from the National Board of Review for her role in Dancer in the Dark.
2002:  Part of the I-10 freeway in California was named "The Sonny Bono Memorial Freeway".
2004:  Lisa Loeb ("I Miss You") and guitarist boyfriend Dweezil premiered a new show (Dweezil & Lisa) on the Food TV network.
2004:  Oasis fired drummer Alan White.  (Note:  several websites report this took place on January 17, but the members of Oasis confirmed the firing on their official website on January 16.)






2005:  Rekindled interest in Elvis Presley songs fueled some incredible happenings on the U.K. chart.  The re-released "One Night" took over at #1 for "Jailhouse Rock" by Elvis to become the 1000th #1 song in the U.K., as the king accomplished the rare feat of replacing himself at #1, and all this 28 years after his death.
2007:  Bob Dylan and his brother bought Aultmore House, a mansion in the Scottish Cairngorms National Park near Nethybridge, Inverness-shire.
2009:  Boy George was sentenced to 15 months in jail for falsely imprisoning a male escort.  Don't ask.

Born This Day:
1937:  Bob Bogle, guitarist with the Ventures, was born in near Wagoner, Oklahoma; died June 14, 2009 of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. in Vancouver, Washington(Note:  some websites, including 'Allmusic.com', erroneously say Bogle was born in Portland, Oregon.  He was born on a farm near Wagoner, then moved with his family to California and later to Porland, according to the newspaper 'The Washington Post' and other credible sources.)
1939:  Raymond Philips, founding member and co-lead singer of the Nashville Teens ("Tobacco Road" from 1964), was born in Tiger Bay, Cardiff, South Wales.
1942:  Billy Francis, keyboardist with Dr. Hook, was born in Ocean Springs, Mississippi; died November 6, 2006 from a motorcycle accident in San Francisco, California.  (Note:  some websites show Billy born in Los Angeles, but according to reliable information, he was born in Ocean Springs, then later moved to California.)
1942:  Barbara Lynn ("You'll Lose A Good Thing" from 1962) was born in Beaumont, Texas.

1943:  Ronnie Milsap was born in Robbinsville, North Carolina.











1944:  Jim Stafford ("Spiders And Snakes") was born in Eloise, Florida.  (Note:  some websites claim Stafford was born in Winterhaven, Florida, while others list his birthplace as Branson, Missouri.  Stafford performs in Branson, but he was born in Eloise, a town near Winterhaven, according to the book 'Country Music Humorists and Comedians' by Loyal Jones.  






1959:  Sade (real name Helen Folsade Adu) was born in Ibadan, Nigeria.
1962:  Paul Webb, bassist of Talk Talk ("It's My Life") was born in Essex, England.
1965:  Maxine Jones of En Vogue was born in Paterson, New Jersey.







1979:  Aaliyah was born in Brooklyn, New York; died in a plane crash in the Bahamas on August 25, 2001.
1981:  Nick Valensi, guitarist with the Strokes, was born in New York City.

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