We almost never sleep here in The College of Rock n’ Roll Knowledge. We have your trivia lesson for this fine Sunday morning. The Beatles continue to dominate and Linda Ronstadt’s career takes off.
Here’s today’s lesson:
January 10, 1956: Elvis Presley recorded music for his new record label, RCA, including Heartbreak Hotel, I Was The One, I’m Counting On You, I Got A Woman, and Money Honey.
January 10, 1963: The Beatles released their second single in the UK called Please Please Me.
January 10, 1964: The Beatles release their first US album, Introducing The Beatles.
Also on this fine day, The Whiskey A Go Go opens its doors on Sunset Strip in West Hollywood. It will play host to the likes of The Doors, Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix, Johnny Rivers and many others.
January 10, 1967: Jimi Hendrix started a recording contract with Track Records and recorded Purple Haze on this day.
Also, The Hollies, one of the greatest British Invasion bands, began recording On A Carousel.
January 10, 1969: The Beatles (aka, The White Album) was unstoppable. After just five weeks of release total, it notched week number three at #1.
Also on this day, Marvin Gaye celebrated five weeks at #1 on the R & B charts with his remake of I Heard It Through The Grapevine.
January 10, 1971: Chicago released Chicago III. They were still innovative and hot at this stage of the game. This was before they went Christian elevator music and dropped off our radar. (Hint: Terry Kath was still alive and Peter Cetera was not in charge.)
January 10 1975: Linda Ronstadt’s brilliant album, Heart Like A Wheel, entered the Top 10 on this day. In spite of the fact that most music outlets treat women as though they were second-class music citizens, we do not. Heart Like A Wheel was Ronstadt’s first #1 album on The Billboard Top 200, and it spent four weeks at #1 on the Billboard Country Album chart in 1975. It spent 51 weeks on the charts, produced two #1 hit songs, sold more than a million copies, and won her a Grammy award. Anything else required here?
And, oh yeah, I forgot that Led Zeppelin’s Kashmir was performed for the first time at The Ahoy, Rotterdam, The Netherlands. I guess this was more newsworthy than Linda Ronstadt’s news (a great deal of snark here).
Born On This Day
January 10, 1917: Jerry Wexler was born on this day in New York City. He will be responsible for the success of greats Aretha Franklin, Led Zeppelin and Wicked Wilson Pickett.
January 10, 1935: Ronnie Hawkins, whose band The Hawks is a precursor to one of my favorites, The Band, was born in Huntsville, Alabama.
January 10, 1939: Scott McKenzie, who performed one of the greatest sixties anthems of all time, San Francisco (Be Sure To Wear Flowers in Your Hair), was born in Jacksonville, Florida.
January 10, 1948: Donald Fagan of the great Steely Dan was born in Passaic, New Jersey.
January 10, 1956: Folk singer Shawn Colvin was born in South Dakota. Her song Sunny Came Home, pretty much about a woman who burns her house down, will win the Grammy for both Record of the Year and Song of the Year in 1998.
And that’s about it from The College because we don’t give a shit about Justin Bieber or Lady Gaga. Have a great day.
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