Good Morning, Music Lovers! We kick off the day with wide Open Stream until early afternoon, when we put Don McLean In the Spotlight!
We kick off today’s programming with Don McLean In the Spotlight!
2:00 p.m. In The Spotlight: The Music of Don McLean NEW!
Who can forget that eight-minute anthem called American Pie? When I was young, we played it over and over again, lamenting the loss of Buddy Holly, Richie Valens, and The Big Bopper. But Don McLean was a singer-songwriter who was so much more than that song. Over his career, he amassed 40 gold and platinum records. Today we put him In the Spotlight for you.
7:00 p.m. Money, Honey: Various Artists
This is a great playlist talking about what appears to be everyone’s favorite topic: MONEY. Ask Elvis Presley, Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac, J. J. Cale, Slim Harpo, The Beatles, King Crimson, Pink Floyd, The Steve Miller Band, Laura Nyro, Joni Mitchell, Barrett Strong, Van Morrison, The Guess Who, and many more!
We’re sitting here in The Mermaid Lounge eagerly awaiting your arrival. What are you waiting for?
Good Morning from The Mermaid Lounge! It is Friday here, and we’ve got some great music coming your way! But first, our lesson.
The Original Supremes, formerly known as The Primettes. That’s Barbara Martin on the left, the only one that was legally ‘of age’ to sign the Motown contract in 1961. Find out more below.
Here’s your lesson!
January 15, 1958: Elvis Presley records Hard Headed Woman, Trouble, New Orleans, King Creole, and Crawfish. All in a day’s work for The King.
January 15, 1961: The Supremes sign on with Motown Records. At this time there are four Supremes (once called The Primettes): Diana Ross, Mary Wilson, Florence Ballard, and Barbara Martin. All but Martin are under 18 and require parental permission before signing. Diana Ross was just sixteen. Martin sings on their first album, but leaves the group after a year and is not replaced.
January 15, 1964: The Beatles play live at Cinema Cyrano in Versailles, France, in front of an audience of 2,000 people. It’s a warm up for a three-week engagement at the Olympia Theatre that would begin the following night.
Meanwhile, back in Chicago, a legal shitshow is taking place between Capitol Records and Vee Jay Records. Capitol filed an injunction that prohibited Vee Jay from manufacturing or distributing any more Beatles records. Vee Jay, in turn, files suit against both Capitol and Swan Records, which owned the rights to She Loves You. Most of the contracts in the early days of rock n’ roll revolved around individual releases. You can read all the details here in The Beatles Bible, which is my personal bible for Beatles information.
January 15, 1965: Bob Dylan recorded Maggie’s Farm at Columbia Recording Studios in New York.
Also on this day, The Who’s first single, I Can’t Explain, is released in the UK. Jimmy Page helps The Who out on guitar on this one.
January 15, 1966: The Supremes song My World Is Empty Without You enters the charts.
January 15, 1967: Before The Rolling Stones appear on The Ed Sullivan Show, Mick Jagger agrees to change the line “let’s spent the night together” to “let’s spend some time together.” He is obviously visibly annoyed when he is sings the altered lyrics.
January 15, 1971: George Harrison released My Sweet Lord in the UK.
January 15, 1972: Don McLean’s epic American Pie hits #1 in the US. It runs 8:36 seconds long, and you have to flip the 45 record over to hear the whole thing. (I remember that.)
January 15, 1977:Hotel California by The Eagles goes to #1 on the Album charts.
Born On This Day
January 15, 1941: Don Van Vliet, also known as Captain Beefheart, was born in Glendale, California.
January 15, 1948: Ronnie Van Zant, vocalist with Lynyrd Skynyrd, was born in Jacksonville, Florida.
January 15, 1952: Melvin Gayle, cellist with Electric Light Orchestra, was born in London.
And that is today’s lesson from the college. We’ll be back shortly with the line-up.
Good Morning, Music Trivialists! We here at the College of Rock n’ Roll Knowledge draw from our own archive of totally useless information and pour over various electronic sources to bring this to you every day. As you may expect, some sites differ from others about locations of events, timing, etc. Needless to say, research, critical thinking and weed is required to complete this task.
The Million Dollar Quartet: Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash, and Jerry Lee Lewis.
Here’s today’s lesson!
December 4, 1956: Elvis Presley stopped by Sun Studios unexpectedly to find Jerry Lee Lewis and Johnny Cash watching Carl Perkins in the studio. The four would tape several songs together on that day, but it would be 25 years before that day would be immortalized on vinyl as The Million Dollar Quartet.
December 4, 1964: The Beatles release their fourth album, Beatles For Sale, which spends 11 weeks as the #1 album in the UK.
December 4, 1965:Turn, Turn, Turn would give The Byrds their second consecutive #1 hit, following up Mr. Tambourine Man.
December 4, 1969: President Richard M. Nixon, Vice President Spiro T. Agnew and forty governors spend the day watching simulated acid trips and listening to rock music to help them understand the “generation gap.” We have been led by idiots for a very long fucking time.
December 4, 1971: Don MacLean’s eight-minute epic, American Pie, enters Billboard’s Hot 100. Before all is said and done, it will sell 3 million copies. To this day, it remains one of the most analyzed and debated songs in music history.
Also on this day, Sly & The Family Stone’s Family Affair begins a three-week run at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100. This will be their third and final #1 and their last song in the top 10 before the band implodes under the weight of personal issues, and falls apart. Too bad. They were a great band.
Led Zeppelin also began a two-week stint at the top of the UK Album chart with the Four Symbols album, which includes Stairway To Heaven. The album will eventually sell 11 million copies and remained on the US charts for nearly five years.
December 4, 1980: Jimmy Page, Robert Plant, and John Paul Jones announce that Led Zeppelin will not continue on after the death of drummer John Bonham.
December 4, 1982: A retrospective album of John Lennon’s solo work called The John Lennon Collection, started a six-week run at #1 on he UK Album chart. The front and back covers were shot by Annie Liebovitz on December 8, 1980, just five hours before John Lennon’s murder.
December 4, 1987: Alison Krauss, just sixteen years old, releases her debut album, Too Late To Cry, with her backing band, Union Station.
December 4, 1988: Roy Orbison (aka, Lefty Wilbury) plays his final gig at The Front Row Theater in Akron, Ohio. Orbison dies of a heart attack two days later.
Born On This Day
December 4, 1942: Chris Hillman, of The Byrds, The Flying Burrito Brothers, and the Desert Rose Band, was born in Los Angeles.
December 4, 1944: Dennis Wilson of The Beach Boys was born in Inglewood, California.
And that, my friends, is as they say — all the news that’s fit to print because there are a lot of singers we simply don’t give a shit about here in The Mermaid Lounge.
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