jezsmith

United Kingdom

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Albums

Favourite albums will appear here when this feature is available.

September 17 September 18 September 19

1931 RCA-Victor demonstrated a 33⅓-rpm long-playing record at New York’s Savoy Plaza. Players costing about $95 during the Depression doomed the launch; Columbia successfully revived the format in 1948.
1955 James Dean filmed a teen driving-safety message and improvised a warning that the life saved might be his. Thirteen days later, the twenty-four-year-old died in a California road crash.
1955 After stations complained “Magic Melody” stopped before “two bits,” Capitol sent broadcasters Les Paul and Mary Ford’s one-second “Magic Melody Part II,” often called history’s shortest record.
1956 The BBC banned Bill Haley’s Scottish-folk adaptation “Rockin’ Through the Rye” for offending traditional standards. Already No. 5, it rose to No. 3 after the prohibition.
1960 Sam Phillips opened a modern studio at 639 Madison Avenue in Memphis before about 200 guests. It replaced the original Sun facility until the catalogue and studio were sold to Shelby Singleton in 1969.
1962 Arthur Alexander released self-written “Anna (Go to Him),” inspired by girlfriend Ann and later No. 68 pop and No. 10 R&B. They eventually married and divorced; his other compositions included “You Better Move On.”
1964 Kansas City Athletics owner Charlie Finley paid the Beatles a record $150,000—six times their normal fee—to surrender a day off and play Municipal Stadium, but only 20,280 attended the half-empty venue.
1967 Jim Morrison ignored Ed Sullivan’s requested lyric change and sang “couldn’t get much higher.” Sullivan barred the Doors from returning; Morrison replied that they had already done the show.
1968 Diana Ross recorded “Love Child” without touring Supremes Mary Wilson and Cindy Birdsong; the Andantes supplied backgrounds. It topped Billboard, sold 500,000 its first week, and two million by year’s end.
1968 The 5th Dimension received a second Gold record for Laura Nyro’s “Stoned Soul Picnic,” No. 3 pop and No. 2 R&B.
1969 Drake University student editor Tim Harper published an early “Paul is dead” article claiming a 1966 crash and replacement double. Paul, actually vacationing in Kenya at the supposed time, later told Life he was fit.
1977 Diana Ross and the Supremes’ 20 Golden Greats began seven weeks atop Britain’s album chart, despite including two songs never issued as UK hits.

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1956 Three days after a Navy–Marine brawl at a Fats Domino show, Newport’s naval base banned rock and roll. Domino jokingly suggested the services’ rivalry, not his music, caused the trouble.
1957 Patti Page hosted the color CBS record-hop series The Big Record with Sal Mineo, Billy Ward and His Dominoes, and Tony Bennett; it lasted until June 1958.
1960 On turning twenty-one, Frankie Avalon received $600,000 earned as a minor after eleven Top 40 hits, including 1959 No. 1s “Venus” and “Why.”
1960 NBC premiered The Tab Hunter Show about a cartoonist’s romances. Competition from Ed Sullivan ended the sitcom in April 1961.
1961 Bobby Vee earned his only U.S. No. 1 with Goffin-King’s “Take Good Care of My Baby,” his third Top 10 and a No. 3 UK hit.
1961 Fifteen-year-old Hayley Mills’s “Let’s Get Together” entered the Top 40 and reached No. 8; film remained her focus and only one more single charted.
1967 The Beach Boys released Smiley Smile to poor reviews and No. 41 U.S., though it reached No. 9 UK and contained hits “Good Vibrations” and “Heroes and Villains.”
1968 Paul McCartney devised “Birthday” during a White Album session; the band arranged and recorded it that night, though John Lennon later dismissed it.
1970 Jimi Hendrix died at 27 in London from barbiturate toxicity and asphyxiation after sleeping pills. The coroner returned an open verdict, and a 1993 police review found no new evidence.
1971 ABC premiered Bobby Sherman’s Partridge Family spin-off Getting Together opposite All in the Family; the unfavorable slot helped limit it to fourteen episodes.
1976 Wild Cherry’s “Play That Funky Music” topped Billboard, the first of five Hot 100 entries by the band named for cough drops.
1976 Boston released “More Than a Feeling,” later No. 5 U.S. and No. 22 UK and included on major Rock Hall and Rolling Stone song lists.

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1957 Sixteen-year-old Harry Webb, later Cliff Richard, joined the Dick Teague Skiffle Group while working days at Atlas Lighting; the group began playing around Hertfordshire.
1960 Chubby Checker’s “The Twist” topped Billboard for one week and returned to No. 1 in January 1962, the first single to lead the chart in two separate runs.
1964 Chad and Jeremy’s “A Summer Song” entered the Top 40 and reached No. 7, their only U.S. Top 10 among seven Top 40 hits.
1966 Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass performed for Princess Grace at Monaco’s palace after already placing nine songs in America’s Top 40.
1968 Steppenwolf received Gold for million-selling No. 2 “Born to Be Wild,” also No. 18 UK. Mars Bonfire originally wrote it as a slow ballad, and its lyrics never explicitly mention motorcycles.
1969 Tiny Tim announced his engagement to seventeen-year-old Victoria Budinger on The Tonight Show. Their televised wedding drew more than forty million viewers; daughter Tulip followed, but divorce proceedings began in 1972 and ended in 1977.
1969 ATV won 54 percent control of the Beatles’ Northern Songs after defeating Lennon and McCartney’s counterbid. The pair then sold their remaining shares for £3.5 million.
1970 Freda Payne’s initially unwanted “Band of Gold” began six weeks at No. 1 UK, reached No. 3 U.S., and sold more than a million.
1970 After twelve Supremes chart-toppers, Diana Ross earned her first solo U.S. No. 1 with “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough,” also No. 6 UK.
1971 ABC aired the Jackson 5’s Goin’ Back to Indiana special with Tommy Smothers, Bill Cosby, Bobby Darin, and Diana Ross; its soundtrack included “I Want You Back.”
1972 Police seized five cannabis plants from Paul McCartney’s Scottish farm after a Swedish drug case. He pleaded guilty in 1973, paid £100, and encountered U.S. visa trouble.
1973 Gram Parsons died from an overdose at 26. Manager Phil Kaufman and roadie Michael Martin stole and burned his coffin in Joshua Tree to honor his wishes, receiving suspended terms and $300 fines for casket theft.

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Albums

September 17 September 18 September 19

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