Car Wrecks...Super Freaks...and Rotten Rejects
This is the week that was in matters musical...
1957, "American
Bandstand" debuts as the first network rock 'n roll show...appearing
on the show were The Chordettes...
1958, Billboard launches its Hot
100 singles chart....
1960, Chubby Checker performs The Twist for the
first time on U.S. TV on "American Bandstand"...East German newspaper
"Young World" names Elvis Presley as "Public Enemy Number One"...also
in 1960, Aretha Franklin records her first secular work for John
Hammond at CBS...
1961, Jimi Hendrix completes basic training and
becomes Private Hendrix....
1963, The Beatles make their 292nd and
final appearance at The Cavern Club in Liverpool...1965, the top
Billboard hit is "I'm Henry VIII, I Am," performed by Herman's
Hermits...the song is an old one, written in 1911...
1968, "Hey Jude"
tops the Billboard chart for nine weeks, making it the Beatles
biggest hit...
1969, Bob Dylan attends his Hibbing High Class of '60
reunion...
1970, Jim Morrison is arrested for public drunkenness after
falling asleep on an old lady's porch...the movie "Performance,"
starring Mick Jagger has its world premiere...and Jimi Hendrix plays
his last concert in the U.S. at the Honolulu International Center...
1971, Paul McCartney announces the formation of Wings... George
Harrison's Bangladesh benefit concert is held at Madison Square
Garden...
1973, Stevie Wonder is seriously injured when a car he is
travelling in collides with a log truck in North Carolina...he
doesn't regain consciousness for four days...
1974, funeral services
are held for Mama Cass Elliot at Hollywood's Memorial Cemetery...
1975, Stevie Wonder signs a 13 million dollar, seven-year contract
with Motown...Robert Plant and his wife are injured in a car crash...
1976, Keith Richards is charged with possession of pot and cocaine...
the charges result when Richards crashes his car into a field and a
search by police turns up the drugs...
1979, a benefit concert for
the late Lowell George's widow is held at the Los Angeles Forum...
1977, Chrissie Hynde wants to get married to extend her stay in
England...Johnny Rotten agrees to a marriage of convenience but
chickens out...next Sid Vicious is recruited, but neither does this
dream pairing work out because Sid has to go to court...she ultimately finds
another way to extend her stay even after such rotten and vicious
rejections...
1980, John Phillips is arrested by the FBI for cocaine
possession...
1981, the MTV cable channel is launched...
1984, Phil
Collins gets married and Eric Clapton, Peter Garbriel, and Robert
Plant jam at the reception...
1991, Rick James is arrested in Los
Angeles and charged with the sex torture of a 24-year-old woman...
1994, The Rolling Stones start their 12th tour of North America in
Washington, D.C...Michael Jackson and Lisa Marie Presley announce
their marriage which occurred a few weeks earlier...
1995, slain Tejano
singer Selena's first English album, "Dreaming of You," debuts at
No.1 on the Billboard chart, the first top-ranked album for any Latin
artist...
1997, Fugees star Lauryn Hill gives birth to a son, Zion
David...the child's grandfather is said to be Bob Marley...
and that was the week that was.
Birthdays
July 31: Bob Welch of Fleetwood Mac, Karl Green of Herman's Hermits,
and singer Gary Lewis (1946), Bill Berry of R.E.M. (1958)
August 1: Piano Slim (1928), Ramblin' Jack Elliot (1931), Jerry
Garcia (1942), Geoff Britton of Wings (1943), Boz Burrell of Bad
Company (1946), Rick Anderson of The Tubes and Rick Coonce of The
Grass Roots (1947), Tommy Bolin (1951), bluesman Robert Cray (1953),
Joe Elliott of Def Leppard (1960)
August 2: "Big" Walter Price (1917), country singer Hank Walters
(1933), country star Hank Cochran (1935), Edward Patten of Gladys
Knight & The Pips (1939), Doris Coley Kenner of The Shirelles (1941),
guitarist Larry Coryell and Garth Hudson of The Band (1943), steel
guitarist Hank DeVito (1948), Fat Larry (1949), Clive Wright of Cock
Robin (1953), Apollonia born Patricia Kotero (1961)
August 3: guitarist Joseph Spence (1910), Tony Bennett (1926), blues
harmonica player Alex Randall (1934), Gordon Stocker of The
Jordanaires (1935), Roscoe Mitchell of The Art Ensemble of Chicago
(1940), Beverly Lee of The Shirelles (1941), B. B. Dickerson of War
(1949), John Graham of Earth, Wind & Fire (1951), James Hetfield of
Metallica (1963)
August 4: Louis Armstrong (1901), R&B singer Big Dee Irwin (1939),
David Carr of The Fortunes, Frankie Ford, and Timi Yuro (1940), Rick
Derringer (1947), Alan "Blind Owl" Wilson of Canned Heat (1943),
Paul Layton of The New Seekers (1947), Mark O'Connor (1962)
August 5: jazz singer Jeri Southern (1926), Vern Gosdin (1934),
guitarist Lenny Breau and percussionist Airto Moreira (1941), Rick
Huxley of the Dave Clark Five (1942), country star Sammi Smith
(1943), Gregory Leskew of The Guess Who (1947), Philip Bailey (1951),
Edie Ojeda of Twisted Sister (1954), Pat Smear of Foo Fighters and
Pete Burns of Dead Or Alive (1959), Adam Yach of The Beastie Boys
(1964)
August 6: blues guitarist Willie Brown (1900), founder of Verve Records
Norman Granz (1918), bassist Charlie Hayden (1937), Isaac Hayes
(1938), Dennis Alcapone (1947), Pat McDonald of Timbuk 3 (1952),
blues singer Lynn White (1953), Randy DeBarge (1958)
Departures
July 31: Jim Reeves and his pianist/manager Dean Manuel (1964)
August 1: pianist Svyatoslav Richter (1997), Joe Liggins (1987),
Johnny Burnette (1964)
August 2: Afrobeat star Fela Anikulapo-Kuti (1997), Brian Cole of the
Association (1972)
August 3: jazz trombonist and rock singer Don Lang (1992), Pink Floyd
manager Peter Watts (1976)
August 4: jazz singer Jeri Southern (1991), pop impresario Larry
Parnes (1989)
August 5: Jeff Porcaro of Toto (1992), country guitarist Luther
Perkins (1969), The Who's first manager Pete Meadon (1978), bluesman
Isadore Washington (1984), one-man bluesband Joe Hill Louis (1957)
August 6: jazz trumpeter Nat Gonella (1998), blues singer Memphis
Minnie (1973)
