1957 - Jerry Lee Lewis released 'Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On' on Sun Records. Radio stations found all kinds of reasons not to play this song: it was too suggestive, he cursed on it, ("We-e-ll-a" sounded like "We-hella"). It wasn't until Lewis' TV debut on The Steve Allen Show in July that it became a national hit and sold over 6 million copies.
In a 2006 Rolling Stone magazine article, Lewis claimed he never received royalties from this or any of his other work at Sun Records. Lewis recounted that Sun owner Sam Phillips estimated that he owed him about $8 million, but he never bothered to sue because money was not that important to him and he didn't want the hassle.
1964 - After a long day of filming their first movie, Ringo Starr tells the other Beatles it's been "a hard day's night." John Lennon turns the phrase into a song, and the movie title is changed from Beatlemania! to A Hard Day's Night.
1967 - Decca released The Who's "Happy Jack" in the U.S., the band's first single to crack the Top 40 here. Pete Townshend based the "Happy Jack" character on the strange and not-too-intelligent guys who used to hang around English beaches and play with the kids.
Roger Daltrey recalled to Uncut magazine: "I remember when I first heard 'Happy Jack,' I thought, 'What the f--k do I do with this? It's like a German oompah song!' I had a picture in my head that this was the kind of song that Burl Ives would sing, so 'Happy Jack' was my imitation of Burl Ives!"
1967 - Nancy Sinatra and Frank Sinatra started a four-week run at No. 1 on the U.S. singles chart with "Somethin' Stupid." Frank and Nancy Sinatra's hit is the best-known version of the song and they became the only father and daughter act ever to score a No.1 single.
1971 - The Beatles won their only Oscar, taking home Best Original Song Score for their movie Let It Be. None of the band members were in attendance that night, so Quincy Jones accepted on their behalf. Sadly, only John Lennon, Paul McCartney and George Harrison were named as recipients by the Academy because they believed that those three were the sole composers. Ringo Starr's writing credit on the song "Dig It" was mistakenly overlooked.
1974 - Lynyrd Skynyrd release their second album, Second Helping. Though Second Helping isn't as hard a rock record as Pronounced, it's the songs that make the record. "Sweet Home Alabama" became ubiquitous, yet it's joined by such terrific songs as the snide, "Workin' for MCA," the Southern groove of "Don't Ask Me No Questions," the affecting "The Ballad of Curtis Loew," and "The Needle and the Spoon," a drug tale as affecting as Neil Young's "Needle and the Damage Done," but much harder rocking. This is the part of Skynyrd that most people forget -- they were a great band, but with great writing as well. And nowhere was that more evident than on Second Helping.
1996 - The rest of Jerry Garcia's ashes were scattered near the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. A small portion had been scattered in the Ganges River in India 11 days earlier. The Grateful Dead leader had died on 9th Aug 1995.
Birthdays:
Bessie Smith was born on this day in 1894. Nicknamed the "Empress of the Blues", she was the most popular female blues singer of the 1930s. Even on her first records in 1923, her passionate voice overcame the primitive recording quality of the day and still communicates easily to today's listeners. Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1989, she is often regarded as one of the greatest singers of her era and was a major influence on fellow blues singers, as well as jazz vocalists.
Country musician Roy Clark was born today in 1933. Clark was highly regarded and renowned as a guitarist, banjo player, and fiddler. He was skilled in the traditions of many genres, including classical guitar, country music, Latin music, bluegrass, and pop. He had hit songs as a pop vocalist (e.g., "Yesterday, When I Was Young" and "Thank God and Greyhound"), and his instrumental skill had an enormous effect on generations of bluegrass and country musicians. He hosted Hee Haw from 1969 to 1997, and frequently guest-hosted for Johnny Carson on The Tonight Show.
Dave Edmunds is 80. Roots rockers are seldom as purist as Dave Edmunds. Throughout his career, he stayed true to '50s and '60s rock & roll -- for Edmunds, rock & roll history stopped somewhere in 1963. After establishing himself as a hotshot lead guitarist in the blues-rockers Love Sculpture, he launched his solo career scoring a 1970 hit "I Hear You Knocking". In the late '70s, he teamed up with Nick Lowe to form Rockpile. Along side solo albums he would produce the Stray Cays, Everly Brothers, and Fabulous Thunderbirds.
Linda Perry, pop songwriter and frontwoman for 4 Non Blondes, is 59. Wrote the group’s international 1993 hit “What’s Up?” prior to establishing herself as a major songwriter and producer. Her writer/producer credits including such hits as Pink’s “Get The Party Started” and Christina Aguilera’s “Beautiful," both chart-toppers.
Ed O'Brien (E.O.B.) of Radiohead is 56. As guitarist and backing vocalist for pioneering British alt-rock band Radiohead, Ed O'Brien developed a distinctive and deeply textural style that served as a sonic cornerstone of influential albums like OK Computer and Kid A. Although several of his bandmates experimented with solo and side projects over the years, O'Brien's creative energy remained devoted solely to the band and it wasn't until 2020 -- over 30 years into their career -- that he made his first solo effort. Recorded under the name EOB, the album was titled, Earth.
Chris Stapleton is 46. Chris Stapleton's blend of throwback country, classic rock, and soul, along with his ability to craft memorable and meaningful songs -- both as a behind-the-scenes journeyman and as a solo performer -- have made him a well-regarded, highly rewarded part of the country music scene.
After graduating high school as class valedictorian, Stapleton moved to Nashville to study engineering at Vanderbilt University. However, after one year of being immersed in the culture of music city, he dropped out of school to pursue music full-time.
Over the course of his successful career, Stapleton has stepped outside of the country music realm to collaborate with a variety of artists such as Justin Timberlake, John Mayer, Rage Against the Machine, Adele, and Tom Morello.
Patrick Carney of the Black Keys is 44. Along with drumming for the Black Keys, has also produced albums for various artists, including Lana Del Rey, Tennis, and Tobias Jesso Jr.
R.I.P.:
2001 - Joey Ramone, singer-songwriter and lead vocalist of punk-rock band the Ramones, died at age 49. As a front man, Mr. Ramone was a revelation. Leaning his 6-foot-3 frame slightly backward, strangling the microphone, he delivered songs like ''Blitzkrieg Bop'' and ''Teenage Lobotomy'' in a raw yet perfectly modulated tone, like the world's most unlikely yell king.
The band's frenetic three-chord songs, with lyrics that equally reflected Mr. Ramone's love of comic books and horror films and his extensive musical knowledge, especially of the girl groups, were elegant enough to become the model for several generations of rockers.(Photo by David Klein/Getty Images)
On This Day In Music History was sourced, curated, copied, pasted, edited, and occasionally woven together with my own crude prose, from This Day in Music, Music This Day, Songwriters Hall Of Fame, Country Now, New York Times, Allmusic, Song Facts and Wikipedia.
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