Good Morning, Students of Music Trivia! It’s always so much less stressful when I get a jump on thing, not always possible, I might add.
Aaron Neville had the first #1 song of 1967 with “Tell It Like It Is.”
Here’s today’s lesson, kids:
January 7, 1954: Muddy Waters recorded Hoochie Coochie Man.
January 7, 1955:Rock Around the Clock by Bill Haley & The Comets debuted on the UK charts.
January 7, 1964: Bluesman Long John Baldry forms The Hoochie Coochie Men.
Also on this day, The Beatles recorded for the BBC program Saturday Club, singing Chuck Berry’s Johnny B. Goode, along with All My Loving, Money, I Want to Hold Your Hand and three other songs. It was their third appearance on the show.
January 7, 1967: The Doors and The Young Rascals played the second of two nights at the Fillmore Auditorium in San Francisco.
Also on this day, Aaron Neville had the first #1 song of the new year with Tell It Like It Is, undoubtedly one of my favorite songs ever.
January 7, 1970: Fleetwood Mac started a five-night stint at The Whiskey A Go Go on Sunset Strip.
January 7, 1978: Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours album, which was already #1 for 29 weeks, returns to #1 after 46 weeks of release.
January 7, 1980: Led Zeppelin’s In Through The Out Door is certified Platinum. It is the final album John Bonham appears on before his death.
January 7, 1981: The Eagles Live is certified Platinum. In spite of that, it will be 13 years before their next album is released.
Born On This Day
January 7, 1948: Kenny Loggins was born on this day in Everett, Washington.
And that is it. We are done here, and will return with today’s line-up shortly. (It really is tomorrow’s line-up today.)
Good Morning from the College of Rock n’ Roll Knowledge where the inhabitants of The Mermaid Lounge rarely sleep. Or so it seems. This is a pretty busy day in rock n’ roll, as you will see.
On this day in 1987, Aretha Franklin became the first woman inducted into the Rock n’ Roll Hall of Fame. It’s ridiculous that it took women this long, and it’s ridiculous that it took Linda Ronstadt until 2014, when she could no longer sing, to be inducted.
Here are the facts, children:
January 3, 1955: 20-year-old Elvis Presley appeared live in Boonesville, Virginia. He was still only a regional success but, by the end of 1956, he would explode into a national sensation.
January 3, 1957: Fats Domino records I’m Walkin’ (one of the greatest songs ever made, in my opinion). He wrote the song after his car broke down and he heard a fan yell, “Hey, look at Fats Domino, he’s walking!” The song would reach #4 on the US Pop chart and #1 on the R & B chart.
January 3, 1963: After placing 30 songs on the Billboard chart with Imperial Records, Rick Nelson signed a $1 million, 20-year contract with Decca (you know, the label that turned the Beatles down). He would generate six more Top 40 hits for Decca before his tragic death.
Speaking of The Beatles, they kicked off a five-day tour of Scotland on this day at the Two Red Shoes Ballroom in Elgin.
January 3, 1964: The Beatles were seen on television for the (first? second?) time (nobody has the definitive answer except them) when a BBC clip from a show called The Mersey Sound showing the band singing She Loves You was released on the Jack Paar Show. Old Jack, of course, made fun of them, particularly their hair cuts. In short order, The Beatles would teach them a lesson and shut them the fuck up.
January 3, 1967: The Beach Boys’ Carl Wilson refused to report to his local draft board after receiving his draft notice. He would eventually win conscious objector status. In the meantime, Good Vibrations was in its fourth week in the #1 slot.
January 3, 1970: The Beatles’ final recording session was held at Abbey Road Studios on this day. The final song they played together was I Me Mine, which would also be the title of George Harrison’s autobiography ten years later.
Also on this day, Raindrops Keep Fallin’ On My Head, from the Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid soundtrack, would become B.J. Thomas’ third US Top 10 hit, and his first #1.
January 3, 1972: Don MacLean’s American Pie receives a Gold record. It reached #1 in both America and the UK, eventually selling three million copies.
January 3, 1974: Bob Dylan & The Band reunite for a US tour. Dylan was promoting his Planet Waves LP, while The Band had just released Moondog Matinee (last week’s Album of The Week) and the single Ain’t Got No Home. The tour was chronicled six months later with the release of the double album set Before The Flood.
January 3, 1976: Bob Dylan’s song about former boxer Rubin ‘Hurricane’ Carter (called Hurricane), which peaked at #33 on the Billboard chart, caused enough negative publicity to eventually get Carter released from prison. The song protested Carter’s innocence and his wrongful conviction on murder charges, as well as the authorities’ failure to even consider another perpetrator because Carter was black.
January 3, 1987: Aretha Franklin becomes the first woman inducted into the Rock n’ Roll Hall of Fame. It seems like ridiculous amount of time for women to get the recognition they deserved in this business, and consider that it would take Linda Ronstadt until 2014 to be inducted, one of the biggest travesties in the music business.
Born On This Day
January 3, 1926: Sir George Martin, British record producer, arranger, composer, conductor, audio engineer and musician who nurtered The Beatles’ creative side and was known appropriately, according to McCartney, as The Fifth Beatle, was born in Highbury, London.
January 3, 1943: Van Dyke Parks, songwriter and producer who worked with Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys on the Smile album (a great album, by the way), played keyboards on The Byrds’ Eight Miles High, and produced Ry Cooder, Randy Newman, and Judy Collins, was born in Hattiesburg, Mississippi.
January 3, 1945: Stephen Stills, singer-songwriter who was a member of Buffalo Springfield, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, Manassas, and who released an album with Neil Young as The Stills-Young Band, was born in Dallas, Texas.
January 3, 1946: John Paul Jones, bassist, keyboardist, and producer with Led Zeppelin, was born in Sidcup, London.
And that is all today from The College. We’ll be back with the line-up in a bit.
Good Morning, Students! It appears that it was a very quiet day in rock n’ roll history. Of course, there’s more than this but, frankly, we dont’ give a shit about them.
The Whiskey a Go Go. The first real discotheque that ever lived.
Here’s your lesson. It’s an easy day:
January 2, 1964: The Rolling Stones perform I Wanna’ Be Your Man, written for them by Lennon & McCartney, on Britain’s Top Of The Pops.
January 2, 1965: The Beatles made it two weeks at #1 with I Feel Fine.
January 2, 1969: The Beatles began filming for the Let It Be documentary at Twickenham Studios in London.
Also on this day, Led Zeppelin and opening act, Alice Cooper, performed at the Whiskey a Go Go in Los Angeles, the first of four nights they would perform there.
January 2, 1971: The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band (a fine band indeed) released a cover of Jerry Jeff Walker’s Mr. Bojangles, and it entered the Billboard Top 40 on this day, where it would peak at #9. The song remained on the charts for an amazing 36 weeks.
January 2, 1978: Jackson Browne released the song Running On Empty.
That is your very easy day from the College. We’ll be back soon with today’s musical line-up!
Good Morning, Musicologists! Here we are with today’s lesson from the college, where nobody ever really sleeps much these days.
Bob Dylan. ‘Nuff said.
Here’s today’s lesson from The Lounge:
December 27, 1958: Buddy Holly makes his first appearance in his home town of Lubbock, Texas, since becoming a major star.
December 27, 1960: The Beatles played to a welcome home crowd at the Litherland Town Hall in Liverpool, after completing a residency in Hamburg, Germany. They played with a sit-in drummer, as Pete Best remained in Germany and would, actually, never return to the group. As a result of the crowd’s reaction to their performance at this event, the Beatles finally believed in themselves. The rest, as they say, is fucking history, people.
December 27, 1963: The Animals performed for the first time on a BBC radio broadcast called Saturday Club. This would lead to a contract with Columbia.
December 27, 1964: The Supremes make their first of 16 appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show.
December 27, 1967: Bob Dylay released the album John Wesley Harding.
December 27, 1969: The Supremes’ final release with Diana Ross, Someday We’ll Be Together, becomes the final #1 hit of the sixties.
Also on this day, Led Zeppelin II, goes to #1 on the Album charts, replacing Abbey Road after eight weeks.
December 27, 1974: Bob Dylan recorded Idiot Wind and You’re a Big Girl Now on this day.
December 27, 1975: Faces announced their break-up (unfortunately). Rod Stewart focuses on his solo career (I have a love-hate with this guy) and Ron Wood joins the Stones.
December 27, 1980: Weeks after his murder, John Lennon’s Just Like Starting Over goes to #1 in both the US and the UK. It was chosen as the release not because Lennon considered it the best song on the album, but because he thought it was appropriate after a five-year hiatus from recording. It was his only #1 solo release.
Born On This Day
December 27, 1944: Mick Jones, great guitarist and songwriter with Spooky Tooth and co-founder of Foreigner, was born in Somerton, Somerset, England.
December 27, 1948: Larry Byrom, guitarist for Steppenwolf, was born in Huntsville, Alabama.
December 27, 1951: Karla Bonoff, singer-songwriter, solo artist, and back-up vocalist for Linda Ronstadt was born in Santa Monica, California. She wrote several songs for Ronstadt’s Hasten Down The Wind album, and also wrote All My Life, the Linda Ronstadt-Aaron Neville duet which won a 1991 Grammy.
And that is it for today, my friends. We will be back with the line-up shortly.
Hell, we’re a global radio station and it’s Boxing Day, the official Christmas, of many of our compadres. So, we wish you a very happy holiday indeed.
The Spencer Davis Group with a very young Steve Winwood on your left.
Here’s today’s rock n’ roll lesson:
December 26, 1960: Elvis Presley’s Are you Lonesome Tonight was at $1 for a fifth week.
December 26, 1963: The Beatles release their first hit single in the US, I Want To Hold Your Hand backed by I Saw Her Standing There. It’s their first single released by Capitol Records; within months Beatlemania will be full-blown in the States.
December 26, 1964: The Beatles score another #1 with I Feel Fine. They finish the year with six #1 songs and own the top spot on the chart for 18 weeks.
December 26, 1966: The Spencer Davis Group release the single Gimme’ Some Lovin‘ which was written by seventeen-year-old Steve Winwood.
Also on this day, Jimi Hendrix wrote the words to Purple Haze in his dressing room between shows at London’s Uppercrust Club.
December 26, 1967: The Beatles’ Magical Mystery Tour film debuts on BBC-TV.
Also on this day, The Doors and Chuck Berry open a weeklong series of concerts at The Fillmore West in San Francisco.
December 26, 1968: Led Zeppelin’s first US tour begins in Denver, Colorado, where they are the opening act for Vanilla Fudge.
Also on this day, D.A. Pennebaker’s documentary, Monterey Pop, which chronicles the 1967 Monterey International Pop Music Festival, opened in theaters. This was the concert where The Who smashed their instruments and Hendrix lit his guitar on fire.
December 26, 1970: George Harrison becomes the first ex-Beatle to top the Hot 100 as a solo act as My Sweel Lord hits #1.
Also on this day, a new singer from Canada named Gordon Lightfoot enters the charts for the first time with If You Could Read My Mind. He will make some great music in his time.
December 26, 1979: Paul McCartney held the first of three concerts at Hammersmith Odeon in London to benefit relief efforts in war-torn Kampuchea. He was joined by The Who, The Clash, Queen, Elvis Costello, and Rockpile.
Born On This Day
December 26, 1935: Duke Fakir of the Four Tops was born Abdul Fakir in Detroit, Michigan.
December 26, 1940: Famed record producer and despicable human being, Phil Spector, was born in The Bronx, New York.
December 26, 1946: Bob Carpenter, keyboardist and accordionist for the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
And that is today’s less here at the College of Rock n’ Roll Knowledge!
Yes, it’s Tuesday Bluesday in The Mermaid Lounge, and the lesson is lighter than usual today. Seems it’s not a very eventful day in music history, unless you’re talking about shit we don’t play.
The Beatles Live at The Empire Theatre, Liverpool, December 22, 1963.
Here’s today’s musical lesson:
December 22, 1956: Elvis Presley finished the year with 17 hit songs, a record that would stand until the year 1964 — when The Beatles had 30. (Yes, I said30.)
December 22, 1962: Bob Dylan played at the Singer’s Club Christmas Party in London.
Also on this day, one of the greatest instrumental songs ever recorded, Telstar by the Tornadoes, went to #1. And yes it was a tribute to the satellite.
December 22, 1963: The Beatles performed at the Empire Theatre in Liverpool.
December 22, 1972: Led Zeppelin performed at Alexandra Palace in London.
December 22, 1973: Elton John moved to #1 on the UK Album chart with Goodbye Yellow Brick Road.
December 22, 1978: Kenney Jones, formerly of Faces, was chosen as the new drummer for The Who. He replaced Keith Moon, who had passed away a couple of months earlier.
December 22, 1979: The Pretenders performed at the Marquee Club in London.
December 22, 1980: Linda Ronstadt debuted on Broadway in the Gilbert & Sullivan production of The Pirates of Penzance at the Uris Theatre.
Also on this date, Pat Benatar’s first hit — Heartbreaker — debuted on the charts.
Born On This Day
December 22, 1939: James Gurley, guitarist for Big Brother & The Holding Company, was born in Detroit.
December 22, 1944: Barry Jenkins, drummer for The Animals, was born in Leicester, England.
And that signals the end of today’s lesson. We’ll be back with the Tuesday Bluesday line-up in just a bit.
Good Morning, Music Lovers! If you’re into the blues, this is your day. We will be airing our four-hour blues playlist starting this morning. It’s like Open Stream Blues. Uninterrupted.
Here’s today’s musical landscape:
10:00 a.m. Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Blues
Our blues playlist built during Blues Week, expanded and improved for your listening pleasure. This is essentially a four-hour uninterrupted Open Stream of the Blues, featuring Albert King, Muddy Waters, Eric Clapton, John Mayall & The Bluesbreakers, James Cotton, Koko Taylor, Slim Harpo, Delbert McClinton, Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, Tedeschi-Trucks Band, Bonnie Raitt, Janis Joplin, The Yardbirdsk, Long John Baldry, The Animals and many more!
4:00 p.m. Album of The Week: Led Zeppelin IV by Led Zeppelin FINAL AIRING!
This is it for Led Zeppelin’s Led Zeppeli IV, the final airing. Tomorrow, we’ll have a brand new Album of The Week when you wake up!
10:00 p.m. Live Dead! The Grateful Dead Live at The Fillmore West, July 2, 1971 NEW!
Another great jam experience with the world’s premier jam band; all new and never-before-heard (at least here from The Mermaid Lounge).
Tune us in. We’re not giving you the whole magilla of why you should this morning. You’re just going to have to give us a shot.
Good Morning, Students! Here’s today’s lesson from the college:
The Rolling Stones.
December 19, 1955: Carl Perkins recorded Blue Suede Shoes two days after writing it. Although it is generally the Elvis Presley version we hear, that version peaked at #20 on Billboard’s Top 100, while Perkins’ original version went to #2 and spent 17 weeks on the charts.
December 19, 1964: The Beatles’ fourth album, Beatles For Sale, begins a seven-week run at the top of the UK album charts by knocking off The Beatles’ A Hard Day’s Night. It stayed in the Top 20 for an amazing 46 weeks.
Also on this day, Come See About Me by the Supremes became their third straight #1 single.
New singer Petula Clark makes her debut on the chart with her single, Downtown.
December 19, 1968: Led Zeppelin performed at the Exeter City Hall in England for 125 pounds. They had to bill themselves as The New Yardbirds to attract an audience.
December 19, 1969: The Rolling Stones moved to #1 in the UK with their album, Let It Bleed.
December 19, 1970: Elton John’s first US hit, Your Song, enters the Billboard Hot 100, where it will peak at #8.
December 19, 1974: Guitarist Ron Woods joined the Rolling Stones.
December 19, 1993: Michael Clarke, original drummer for The Byrds, died of liver failure at the age of 47 after decades of alcohol abuse. After The Byrds, he played for the Flying Burrito Brothers (1969-1973) and Firefall (1974-1981).
Born On This Day
December 19, 1918: Blues singer Henry Roeland “Roy” Byrd, better known as Professor Longhair, was born in Bogalusa, Louisiana.
December 19, 1944: Zalman (Zal) Yanovsky, lead guitarist and found of The Lovin’ Spoonful, was born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Also on December 19 1944: Alvin Lee, great guitarist of Ten Years After and who worked with George Harrison, John Mayall, Steve Winwood, and Bo Diddley (among others), was born in Nottingham, England.
December 19, 1945: John McEuen, founding member of The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, was born in Garden Grove, California.
That is it from the college. We’ll be back with the line-up soon!
Good Morning, Music Lovers! We are getting slammed here outside The Mermaid Lounge, but the music rolls on, my friends!
We’ve got The Legend live at the Santa Barbara County Bowl today.
Here’s today’s line-up:
11:00 a.m. Bob Marley & The Wailers Live at the Santa Barbara County Bowl, November 25, 1979
Bob Marley and The Wailers delivering some great music in support of the Survival album. The Survival Tour in 1979 would be Bob Marley’s second to last tour ever before his passing.
3:00 p.m. Album of The Week: Led Zeppelin IV by Led Zeppelin
We’re winding down on our Album of The Week. We have one more airing after this, so tune this baby in, people! Before you know it, there’ll be a new selection!
7:00 p.m. In the Spotlight: The Music of Fats Domino
There can be no denying this man’s contribution to the birth of rock n’ roll. I’m not sure anybody was playing this stuff before him. I know Bill Haley & The Comets are given the credit for depositing the first rock n’ roll song on the charts, but if you listen back to the black artists, you have to know that is where all of this began and where everyone’s inspiration came from.
Tune us in, people. It’s cold and snowy where I am. I’m sure some of you are sharing the wealth. I have to work. If you don’t, this is where you want to be.
Here we are, Blues Lovers! We’ve got a total blues and blues rock day lined up for you today. It’s amazing when something like this just kind of comes together without much planning!
Johnny Winter. ‘Nuff said.
Here’s today’s Tuesday Bluesday line-up:
11:00 a.m. Johnny Winter Live at The Bottom Line, New York, September 5, 1978
Johnny Winter is an American blues singer and guitarist remembered mostly for his high-energy blues rock style and live performances throughout the sixties and seventies. He also produced three Grammy Award-winning albums for blues great Muddy Waters.
4:00 p.m. Album of The Week: Led Zeppelin IV by Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin has long been known for its hard-driving blues rock style, so it’s only fitting that the Album of the Week falls on Tuesday Bluesday!
7:00 p.m. Wynton Marsalis & Eric Clapton Play the Blues, Live at Lincoln Center, April 7-9, 2011
In 2011, blues guitarist Eric Clapton and jazz trumpeter Wynton Marsalis got together for a night of vintage blues. The songs were chosen by Clapton and arranged by Wynton Marsalis. They played with the orchestra from Jazz at Lincoln Center.
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