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January 1, 1950 - Sam Phillips opens Memphis Recording Service at 706 Union
Avenue.
January 1, 1953 - Hank Williams, Sr., Country & Western music icon, dies of heart falure.
January 2, 1997 - Randy California, guitarist, vocalist and co-founder of Spirit,
drowns in the California surf.
January 3, 1926 - Legendary Beatles producer George Martin, born.
January 3, 1945 - Stephen Stills; singer / songwriter / guitarist & founding member of Buffalo Springfield
& Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, born.
January 3, 1946 - Led Zeppelin bassist & keyboardist John Paul Jones, born.
January 4, 1946 - Arthur Conley R&B vocalist ("Sweet Soul Music"), born.
January 4, 1986 - Phil Lynott, founder, guitarist & vocalist of Thin Lizzy ("The Boys
Are Back In Town") dies of drug & alchol abuse at age of 36.
January 5, 1923 - Sam Phillips born in Florence, AL. Phillips founded Sun
Records in Memphis, Tennessee. The label began the recording careers of Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, Charlie Rich, Carl Mann and others. Sun was also one of the first studios to
record the blues and R&B artists in the south.
January 5, 1998 - Sonny Bono, song-writer, singer (Sonny & Cher), TV Star and
U.S. Congressman, dies in skiing accident.
January 5, 2010 - Willie Mitchell, legendary Memphis musician and producer, dies of a heart
attack. Producer of many, but most notibly the amazing Al Green.
January 6, 2006 - Lou Rawls, legendary jazz / soul / R&B / pop vocalist, dies of cancer.
January 8, 1935 - Elvis Aron Presley, Tupelo, Mississippi, born.
January 8, 2010 - Art Clokey,
the creator of the whimsical clay figure Gumby, died in his sleep at his home in Los Osos, California, after battling repeated bladder infections. He was 88.
January 8, 1940 - Little Anthony (Little Anthony & The Imperials), born.
January 8, 1946 - Robbie Krieger, guitarist for The Doors, born.
January 8, 1947 - Singer, songwriter, producer, David Bowie,
born.
January 9, 1944 - Jimmy Page, guitarist & songwriter born. Famous for being one of three legendary rock guitarists (E. Clapton & J. Beck being the other two) to
play with the Yardbirds and a founding member of Led Zepplin.
January 10, 1942 - Jim Croce, pop singer / songwriter, born.
January 10, 1945 - Rod Stewart, born. The rock / pop vocalist was at one time a member of The Jeff Beck Group and The Faces as
was long-time Rolling Stone, Ron Wood.
January 10, 1976 - Blues icon Howlin' Wolf dies at age 65.
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| Elmore James |
January 11, 2005 - Spencer Dryden, drummer for Jefferson Airplane &
James (Jimmy) Griffin of Bread, die of cancer.
January 12, 2003 - Maurice Gibb of the Bee Gees, dies at 53 after sufferiing
a heart attack during surgery for an intestinal blockage.
January 13, 2010 - Teddy
Pendergrass dies after a "difficult recovery" from colon cancer at the age of 59. He was the lead vocalist for Harold Melvin
& The Blue Notes ("If You Don't Know Me By Now" & "The Love I Lost" among others) prior to having a very succesful
solo career ("Love TKO", "Turn Off The Lights" and others).
January 17, 1706 - Benjamin Franklin, born.
January 19, 2000 - Hedy Lamarr, actress & scientist
(yes, brains & beauty) dies in Altamonte Springs, FL.
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| Hedy Lamarr |
January 22, 1931 - Sam Cooke, born
January 24, 1941 - Aaron Neville, solo artist ("Tell It Like It Is") and member of
The Neville Bros., born in New Orleans, LA.
January 24, 1941 - Neil Diamond, singer / songwriter, born
on this date.
January 24, 1947 - Warren Zevon, California based singer, songwriter, born.
January 27, 1918 - Elmore James, "King Of The Slide Guitar", born Elmore
Brooks in Richland, MS
January 27, 1930 - Bobby "Blue" Bland, blues and R&B vocalist, born in Rosemark,
Tennessee
February 3, 1959 - "The Day The Music Died" ...Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens & J.P. Richardson
(The Big Bopper) die in a plane crash after a performance at the Surf Ballroom
in Clear Lake, Iowa the night before.
February 6, 1961 - Carla Thomas' song "Gee Wiz" becomes Satellite Records (soon to be STAX
Records) first hit.
February 9, 1942 - Songwiter / performer Carole King born in New York.
February 26, 1932 - Country music legend Johnny Cash born in Kingsland, Arkansas.
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| Johnny Cash |
February 26, 1977 - Delta blues legend Buka White dies.
March 12, 1969 - Paul McCartney marries Eastman-Kodak heiriss, Linda Eastman.
March 20, 1969 - John Lennon marries "artist", Yoko Ono.
March 16, 1968 - Otis Redding's "Sitting On The Dock of the Bay" hits #1 on Billboard, posthumously. It was his first & only #1 pop record.
April 4, 1964 - On this date, The Beatles held the Top 5 positions on Billboard's Top 100 Chart. The songs were...#1, "Can't Buy Me Love"; #2, "Twist &
Shout"; #3, "She Loves You"; #4, "I Want To Hold Your Hand"; #5, "Please, Please Me". Beatle tunes also held down 6 other slots in the Top 100 that week
...#44, #49, #69, #74, #84
& #89. WHEW!
April 23, 1936 - Roy Orbison, rock & roll song-writer, vocalist & guitarist born.
April 29, 1899 - Duke Ellington, legendary composer, pianist & band leader, born.
April 29, 1947 - Tommy James (of & The Shondels fame), born.
April 30, 1933 - Country music icon Willie Nelson, born.
May 2, 1965 - The Rolling Stones change the words / title of the song "Let's
Spend The Night Together" to"Let's Spend Some Time Together" for their performance on the Ed Sullivan Show.
editor's note: My, oh my...how times have changed.
May 4, 1937 - Dave Prater (Sam & Dave) born.
May 5, 1938 - Johnnie Taylor, R&B vocalist, born.
May 8, 1911 - Robert Johnson, the ledgendary blues guitarist, song writer &
vocalist, born in Hazelhurst, MS.
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| Robert Johnson |
May 9, 2009 - Stephen Bruton, 60, noted guitarist and songwriter, May
9, dies in Los Angeles.
May 24, 1963 - Elmore James, blues & slide-guitar legend, dies.
May 29, 1997 - Jeff Buckley, pop /rock singer-song-writer, and son of folk music legend
Tim Buckley, drowns in the Mississippi River at age 30.
June 1, 1955 - Johnny Cash's 1st single, "Cry, Cry Cry" b/w "Hey Porter", released on the Memphis based Sun Records.
June 1, 1967 - The Beatles release Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.
June 10, 2009 - Barry Beckett, 66, esteemed studio musician, member
of the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section and producer of such acts as Dire Straits, Bob Dylan, Bob Seger & Lorrie Morgan, dies
in Hendersonville, Tenn.
June 13, 1942 - James Carr, the much over-looked R&B vocalist born.
June 25, 2009 - Michael Jackson, the "King of
Pop" dies of heart failure at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles.
July 3, 1968 - The Rolling Stones guitarist Brian Jones found dead in the swimming
pool of his country home.
July 3, 1971 - The Doors, Jim Morrison found dead in a Paris, France hotel.
July 3, 1972 - Delta bluesman Mississippi Fred McDowell dies.
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| Mississippi Fred McDowell |
July 7, 1954 - WHBQ's Dewey Phillips is the first DJ in America to play an Elvis Presley song...The King's first record was,"That's Alright Mama"
July 9, 1947 - Mitch Mitchell, original drummer for the Jimi Hendrix Experience, born.
July 9, 1956 - The first rock ‘n’
roll song to hit number 1 is "(We’re Gonna) Rock Around the Clock" by Bill Haley and His Comets, hanging
in there for 8 weeks.
July 28, 1930 - Bluesman Junior Kimbrough born, Hudsonville, MS.
July 29, 1930 - STAX Records co-founder Jim Stewart is born in Middletown, Tennessee.
July 29, 1974 - Cass Elliot of the Mamas & Papas dies.
July 31, 1995 - Charlie Rich, award winning country vocalist & former Sun Records artist dies at age 62.
August 1, 2003 - Sun Records founder Sam Phillips dies at age 80.
August 2, 2009 - Billy Lee Riley, 75, rockabilly pioneer and Sun Records artist, dies in
Jonesboro, Ark.
August 6, 1973 - Memphis Minnie, ground-breaking vocalist and influential
guitarist dies.
August 10, 1909 - Fender guitar founder, Leo Fender born in Anaheim, California.
August 12, 1898 - Thomas Edison invents the
phonograph for playing back stored sounds. The first recording he makes is "Mary Had a Little Lamb"
August 13, 2009 - Les Paul, the pioneer in electric
guitar sounds who was responsible for developing and lending his name to what many consider rock 'n' roll's definitive guitar.
His career spanned from the jazz age through the new millennium. Every Monday for decades, he played two sets at a jazz club
in New York. Died from complications of pneumonia at White Plains Hospital in New York at the age of 94.
August 14, 1964 - Rockabilly hero Johnny Burnette dies in a California boating
accident.
August 16, 1938 - Blues & guitar legend Robert Johnson dies near Greenwood, Mississippi.
August 16, 1977 - Elvis Aron Presley dies at Graceland in Memphis, TN.
August 19, 1972 - NBC's long-runing music program Midnight Special debuts. The first host ... John Denver.
August 20, 1942 - Issac Hayes, R&B song-writer / performer, born.
August 20, 2009 - Larry Knechtel, 69, keyboard player for acts ranging
from the Beach Boys to the Dixie Chicks and Grammy-winning arranger (for Simon & Garfunkel's "Bridge Over Troubled
Waters"), dies in Yakima, Wash.
August 29, 1998 - Rockabilly legend Charlie Feathers dies at age 66.
September 7, 1978 - Keith Moon, manic drummer for The Who dies.
September 9, 1941 - Otis Redding born, Dawson, Georgia.
September 11, 2001 - Approximately 3000 Americans and other citizens of the world are murdered by
Islmo-Fascists in the World Trade Center, The Pentagon and aboard American Airlines Flight 93 in Pennsylvania.
NEVER FORGET.
September 12, 2003 - Music legend Johnny Cash dies.
September 14, 1981 - Delta-country-bluesman Furry Lewis dies.
September 16, 1925 - Blues guitarist / vocalist B.B. King, born, Itta Bena, Mississippi.
September 16, 2009 - Mary Travers, 72, of the Peter, Paul & Mary folk trio, dies in
Danbury, Conn.
September 18, 1970 - Rock guitar icon, Jimi Hendrix dies at the Samarkand Hotel in London, England at the age of 27.
September 23, 1967 - The Box Tops "The Letter" hits #1 in Billboard.
September 26, 1947 - Pop vocalist / actress Olivia Newton-John & country singer Lynn Anderson born.
September 28, 1968 - Dewey Phillips, ground-breaking radio DJ and promoter of Memphis music dies at age 42.
September 29, 1935 - "The Killer", Jerry Lee Lewis born on this day in Ferriday,
Louisiana.
September 30, 1967 - The BBC's Radio One (the first official radio station in England to play Rock & Roll in England) debuts. The first song
they played was, "Flowers In The Rain" by The Move who's members included
Jeff Lynn & Roy Wood.
October 7, 2009 - Shelby Singleton, 77, record producer, music publisher and owner of the
Sun Records catalog, dies in Nashville. It was on his Plantation label that Jeannie C. Riley scored her 1968 No. 1 country
and pop hit, "Harper Valley P.T.A." Singleton was also pivotal in expanding the careers of Roger Miller, Ray Stevens &
Jerry Lee Lewis, and others.
October 9, 2009 - Rusty Wier, 65, singer and songwriter, dies in Driftwood, Texas.
October 27, 1975 - Bruce Springsteen is simultaneously pictured on the cover
of both Time and Newsweek.
October 29, 1971 - Duane Allman, guitarist & founder of the Allman Brother's
Band dies in a motorcycle accident in Georgia.
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| The Allman Brothers Band |
November 11, 1972 - Barry Oakley, co-founding member & bassist of the
Allman Brother's Band dies in a motorcycle accident in Georgia.
November 24, 1976 - The Band (featuring the original members Robbie
Robertson, Levon Helm, Rick Danko, Richard Manual & Garth Hudson) play
their final concert at San Francisco's Winterland Ballroom. The concert which
included guest performances from many of their musician friends (including Neil Young, Eric Clapton, Joni Mitchell, Neil Diamond, Van Morrison, Dr. John, etc) was filmed by Martin Scorsese and released as The Last Waltz in 1978. The final song of the concert was a former Marvin
Gaye hit, "Don't Do It".
| Rick Danko & Robbie Robertson |
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November 26, 1969 - Cream, the first rock "supergroup", featuring Eric Clapton,
Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker give their final performance as an active band at the Royal Albert Hall in London.
November 27, 1942 - Seminal rock guitarist / singer Jimi Hendrix (James Marshall Hendrix)
born in Seattle, Washington.
December 4, 1977 - Tommy Bolin, solo artist and guitarist for Zypher
and Deep Purple dies.
December 10, 1964 - Sam Cooke, the ground-breaking Gospel / R&B / Pop star shot to death at a Los Angeles, California motel.
December 23, 1924 - Lee
Dorsey (Working In A Coal Mine) born.
December 25, 1945 - Noel Redding, bassist for the Jimi Hendrix Experience
and founder / guitarist of Fat Mattress, born.
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