Happy Birthday to Billy Sheehan (Mr. Big)!!!
Fun Fact!!!
Queen guitarist Brian May’s first guitar was made from a 19th Century fireplace.
Today’s Rock History Lesson!
1962 - Bob Dylan‘s debut album Bob Dylan was released in the Untied States. Initially poor sales led the record to be known around Columbia Records as ‘Hammond’s Folly’ (John Hammond was producer of Dylan’s early recordings and the man responsible for signing Dylan). The album was praised by the New York City weekly newspaper Village Voice as an ‘explosive country blues debut’, but featured only two Dylan original compositions, ‘Talkin’ New York' and ‘Song To Woody’, the rest being old folk standards.
1965 - The Rolling Stones The Tailor And Cutter Magazine ran an article asking The Rolling Stones to start wearing ties. The current fashion did not include wearing ties with shirts and many tie-makers were facing financial disaster. Mick Jagger said of the appeal, ‘The trouble with a tie is that it could dangle in the soup. It is also something extra to which a fan can hang when you are trying to get in and out of a theatre.’
1966 - “19th Nervous Breakdown” can’t make it to #1 in the U.S. The Rolling Stones song is lodged behind Barry Sandler’s “The Ballad Of The Green Berets.”
1971 - T Rex were at No.1 on the UK singles chart with ‘Hot Love.’ The group’s first of four UK No.1’s spent six weeks at the top of the charts. The two performances of the song in March 1971 on Top of the Pops, which saw Bolan dressed for the first time on television in shiny satin stage wear and glittery make-up were a crucial trigger for the glam rock movement.
1971 - The ‘concept album’ “Aqualung” is released. The title track becomes Jethro Tull’s first Top 10 U.S. hit (#7).
1974 - Jefferson Airplane re-named the group and became Jefferson Starship. The new line-up included Paul Kantner, Grace Slick, drummer Johnny Barbata, David Freiberg, Peter Kaukonen, Cragi Chaquico and Papa John Creach.
1975 - The film version of The Who’s “Tommy” opens. It stars The Who’s Roger Daltrey (Tommy), Elton John (Pinball Wizard), Tina Turner (Acid Queen), Eric Clapton (The Preacher), and Ann-Margret (Nora, Tommy’s mother), whose performance earns a Golden Globe award.
1975 - “Dressed To Kill” is the third album from KISS. Produced by Casablanca Records president Neil Bogart because the label’s financial situation does not permit the hiring of a professional producer. The set subsequently goes gold.
1975 - Led Zeppelin played the first of two sold-out nights at the Pacific Coliseum in Vancouver, Canada. Tickets cost $7.50. The set list included: ‘Rock And Roll’, 'Stairway To Heaven‘, ‘Whole Lotta Love’, ‘Black Dog’ and ‘Heartbreaker’.
1976 - Free guitarist Paul Kossoff dies from undetermined causes at the age of twenty-six on a London-to-New York flight. He had a history of heart disease.
1982 - Ozzy Osbourne guitarist and former Quiet Riot member Randy Rhoads was killed when the plane he was riding in crashed. After driving much of the night, the band had stopped near a small airstrip. The tour bus driver, Andrew Aycock, talked the band’s keyboardist, Don Airey, into taking a test flight in a ’55 Beechcraft Bonanza, the joyride ended, and the plane landed safely. Then Aycock took Rhoads and Rachel Youngblood on another flight and attempts were made to ‘buzz’ the tour bus. The left wing clipped the bus, which sent the plane spiraling into a nearby house and bursting into flames. All three bodies were burned beyond recognition, and were identified by dental records.
1996 - John Lennon The second Beatles Anthology series was released. The album featured ‘Real Love’, a track the remaining members of the Beatles recorded using an old demo track of John Lennon‘s. The song was first recorded by Lennon in 1977 with a handheld tape recorder on his piano at home. It originated as part of an unfinished stage play that Lennon was working on at the time entitled ‘The Ballad of John and Yoko.’
2001 - Keith Richards inducted Johnnie Johnson and James Burton at the 16th annual Rock & Roll Hall of Fame award ceremonies at the Waldorf Astoria in New York City. Richards also took part in the closing jam with Bono, Paul Simon, Kid Rock, Solomon Burke, Robbie Robertson and others.
2001 - Aerosmith, Queen, and Steely Dan are inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall of Fame.
2007 - Director Peter Margolis interviews fans of the late Randy Rhoads at the San Bernardino, CA, cemetery where he is buried. The interviews are for a documentary sanctioned by Rhoads’ family. Rhoads died 25 years earlier, on this day (see above), at age 25.
2010 - The Runaways,” based on the ’70s female Punk band, is in theaters. Directed by Floria Sigismondi, the film stars Twilight’s Kristen Stewart as guitarist Joan Jett, and Dakota Fanning as frontwoman Cherie Currie.
2012 - A graveside memorial marks the 30th anniversary of Randy Rhoads’ death (see above). More than 350 friends, family and fans pay their respects.
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