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5/23/17
1970 – Paul McCartney’s debut solo album, ‘McCartney’, started a three-week run at No.1 on the US album chart. Apart from Linda McCartney’s vocal contributions, McCartney performed (and recorded) the entire album solo. The album featured ‘Maybe I’m Amazed’, which Rod Stewart and The Faces featured on their 1971 album Long Player.
1973 – Jefferson Airplane were prevented from giving a free concert in Golden Gate Park when San Francisco authorities passed a resolution banning electronic instruments.
1979 – Due to a record company dispute, Tom Petty was forced to file for bankruptcy owing $575,000. A long-running battle with his record company followed.
1987 – Twelve former members of the Doobie Brothers reunited for a charity concert at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles. The show raised $350,000 for Vietnam veterans, about two-thousand of whom attended the show for free.
2014 – The parents of a camera assistant who was killed after being hit by a train while shooting footage for a biopic about Gregg Allman were suing the musician and the film’s producers. The case claimed film-makers “selected an unreasonably dangerous site for the filming location” and failed to take actions to adequately protect the crew.
5/22/17
1965 – The Beatles went to No.1 on the US singles chart with ‘Ticket To Ride’, the group’s eighth US No.1. The American single’s label declared that the song was from the United Artists release Eight Arms to Hold You. This was the original title of the Beatles’ second movie; the title changed to Help! after the single was initially released.
1971 – The Rolling Stones album ‘Sticky Fingers’ started a four-week run at No.1 on the US charts, the group’s second US No.1 album. The artwork for Sticky Fingers which, on the original vinyl release, featured a working zipper that opened to reveal cotton briefs, was conceived by American pop artist Andy Warhol. The cover, a photo of Joe Dallesandro’s crotch clad in tight blue jeans, was assumed by many fans to be an image of Mick Jagger. The album also features the first usage of the “Tongue and Lip Design” designed by John Pasche.
2014 – Fleetwood Mac’s Christine McVie was honoured with a lifetime achievement at this year’s Ivor Novello songwriting awards. McVie played with Fleetwood Mac for 28 years and wrote some of their most famous songs, including ‘Don’t Stop’ and ‘Little Lies’. Other winners at the ceremony in London included London Grammar, The Chemical Brothers and Nile Rodgers.
5/21/17
1967 – Jimi Hendrix signed with Reprise Records on the US Warner Brothers label.
1970 – Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young released the protest single Ohio, written and composed by Neil Young in reaction to the Kent State shootings of May 4, 1970, when unarmed college students were shot by the Ohio National Guard. The guardsmen fired 67 rounds over a period of 13 seconds, killing four students and wounding nine others, one of whom suffered permanent paralysis.
1977 – Rod Stewart was at No.1 on the UK singles chart with the double A sided single ‘I Don’t Want To Talk About It / First Cut Is The Deepest.’
1983 – David Bowie went to No.1 on the US singles chart with ‘Let’s Dance’, featuring blues guitarist Stevie Ray Vaughan. It was Bowie’s first single to reach number one on both sides of the Atlantic. The music video was made by David Mallet on location in Australia including a bar in Carinda in New South Wales, featured Bowie playing with his band while impassively watching an Aboriginal couple’s struggles against metaphors of Western cultural imperialism.
5/20/17
1969 – Peter Cetera (Chicago) was beaten up by four men at a Chicago Cubs-Dodgers baseball game. The men objected to the length of Cetera’s hair. Cetera underwent four hours of emergency surgery.
1978 – Paul McCartney went to No.1 on the US singles chart with ‘With A Little Luck’, his sixth solo US No.1.
1978 – The Buddy Holly story film was premiered in Holly’s hometown, of Lubbock, Texas. The film features an Oscar-nominated lead performance by Gary Busey.
1998 – Tommy Lee from Motley Crue was sentenced to six months jail after being found guilty of spousal abuse.
5/19/17
1967 – The Beatles held a press party at manager’s Brian Epstein’s house in London for the launch of the Sgt. Pepper album. Linda Eastman was hired as the press photographer.
1975 – The Eagles released the single “One Of These Nights.”
1976 – Rolling Stone Keith Richards crashed his car near Newport Pagnell, Bucks, after falling asleep at the wheel; marijuana and cocaine were found by the police resulting in another fine for the guitarist.
1978 – Dire Straits released their first major label single ‘Sultans Of Swing’, recorded on a £120 budget. The song was first recorded as a demo at Pathway Studios, North London, in July 1977, and quickly acquired a following after it was put on rotation at Radio London.
1979 – Eric Clapton held a party at his Surrey house celebrating his recent marriage to Patti Boyd. Clapton had set-up a small stage in the garden and as the evening progressed, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr ended up jamming together along with Clapton, Ginger Baker and Mick Jagger. The all-star band ran through old Little Richard and Eddie Cochran songs.
5/18/17
1967 – The Beatles were selected to represent the UK for the first-ever global-wide satellite broadcast. The group agreed to be shown in the studio recording a song written especially for the occasion, scheduled for June 25. John Lennon wrote ‘All You Need is Love’ which was thought to sum up the 1967 ‘summer of love’ and The Beatles’ sympathies. With the satellite broadcast being broadcast to many non-English-speaking countries, the BBC asked The Beatles to ‘keep it simple’.
1978 – “The Buddy Holly Story” had its world premiere in Dallas, TX.
Birthdays for Tuesday, 5/23/17
1934 – Robert Moog, inventor of the synthesiser. He built his first electronic instrument, a theremin – aged 14 and made the MiniMoog, “the first compact, easy-to-use synthesiser” in 1970. He died on 21st Aug 2005 at his North Carolina home aged 71, four months after being diagnosed with brain cancer.
1946 -Danny Klein, Bass (J. Geils Band)
1947 – Bill Hunt, Electric Light Orchestra
