Good Morning, Students! We have a great musical day lined up for you, so let’s dispense with all this knowledge we have here.
Here’s today’s lesson from the College:
December 6, 1965: The Beatles released We Can Work It Out with Day Tripper on the flip side.
Also on this day in 1965, the Beatles released the magnificent album, Rubber Soul.
Smokey Robinson & The Miracles released Going To A Go-Go.
And if all of this wasn’t enough for you on December 6, 1965, The Rolling Stones recorded 19th Nervous Breakdown and Mother’s Little Helper at RCA’s Hollywood Studios in LA.
December 6, 1968: James Taylor released his self-titled first album in the UK.
December 6, 1969: The Rolling Stones released Beggars Banquet (and we told you about the actual pre-release banquet itself yesterday).
Also on this day, Led Zeppelin’s Whole Lotta Love enters the Billboard Pop chart. It peaked at #4 and was the first of six Top 40 hits for Zep.
December 6, 1970: Gimme Shelter, a documentary about The Rolling Stones’ 1969 US tour, opened in theaters.
December 6, 1975: The album Still Crazy After All These Years by Paul Simon hit #1 on the US Album chart. The album resulted in four Top 40 US hits, Gone At Last, My Little Town, 50 Ways To Leave Your Lover (#1), and the title track.
December 6, 1977: Jackson Browne released Running On Empty, a live album of performances at various stops on his summer tour.
December 6, 1988: After spending the day with his sons and his mother, Rob Orbison has a fatal heart attack and dies at the age of 52. During his career, the Caruso of rock n’ roll had 23 Top 40 hits. He had recently regained a huge fan following as a member of The Traveling Wilburys with George Harrison, Tom Petty, Bob Dylan, and Jeff Lynne. Orbison’s new album, Mystery Girl, is completed posthumously and released in January 1989.
December 6, 1994: Tower Records released Live At The BBC, a 69-track compilation of Beatles songs recorded for shows like Top Gear, Easy Beat, the Saturday Club, and Pop Go The Beatles. The double-album set goes straight to #1 in the UK, selling 600,000 copies by the end of the year, and 2,000,000 in the US four weeks later.
Born On This Day
December 6, 1943: Mike Smith, lead singer of Paul Revere & The Raiders, is born in Edmonton, North London, England.
And that is it for this fine Sunday from the College of Rock n’ Roll Knowledge.
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