Welcome back to the latest edition of On This Day, this week we kick off in 1957 with Singer Songwriter Paul Anka along with the usual suspects including The Beatles.
On This Day…
1957
🎙 Canadian singer, songwriter Paul Anka was at No.1 on the UK singles chart with ‘Diana‘ (written about his brother’s baby-sitter). His only UK No.1 as an artist, Anka was the first teenage solo act to reach No.1.
1958
🎙 Staten Island, New York doo wop group The Elegants went to No.1 on the US singles chart with their re-worked version of the Mozart lullaby, “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star” re-titled “Little Star“. The Elegants would be around in one form or another untill the 1980s, but never had another hit record.
1960
🎙 The Shadows were at No.1 on the UK singles chart with ‘Apache‘. The first of five UK No.1’s for Cliff Richard’s backing group.
1961
🎙 After playing a lunchtime gig at The Cavern Club Liverpool, The Beatles played aboard the Merseyside riverboat, M.V. Royal Iris supporting Acker Bilk and his Paramount Jazz Band.
1962
🎙 Little Eva went to No.1 on the US singles chart with ‘The Loco-motion‘. The Carole King and Gerry Goffin song was offered to Dee Dee Sharp (Mashed Potatoes), who turned it down. The writers had their babysitter record it who took it to No.1.
1965
🎙 Two female Beatles fans hired a helicopter to fly over the house The Beatles were renting in Beverly Hills, California and jumped from the helicopter into the swimming pool.
1966
🎙 During their last US tour, The Beatles played two shows at the Coliseum in Seattle, Washington. The first show at 3pm was attended by only 8,000 fans (the arena seated 15,000), but the evening show was a sell-out.
1967
🎙 Bobbie Gentry started a four-week run at No.1 on the US singles chart with ‘Ode To Billy Joe‘, a No. 13 hit in the UK. The song generated eight Grammy nominations, resulting in three wins for Gentry and one win for arranger Jimmie Haskell.
🎙 Brian Wilson returned to performing live with The Beach Boys in Honolulu after a 2 year hiatus. The group had just released ‘Heroes and Villains‘ in the US.
1970
🎙 A party was held to celebrate the official opening of ‘Electric Ladyland‘ studio in New York City, New York. Artists who went on to record at the studio include: Jimi Hendrix, John Lennon, AC/DC, David Bowie, Stevie Wonder, Frank Zappa and Guns N’ Roses.
🎙 Elton John made his US live debut when he kicked off a 17-date tour at the Troubadour in Los Angeles. In the audience that night were Don Henley, Quincy Jones and Leon Russel. Elton’s latest single ‘Border Song‘ had just debuted at number 92 on the US chart.
1973
🎙 Donny Osmond was at No.1 on the UK singles chart with ‘Young Love‘ his third and last No.1. Tab Hunter also had a hit with the song in 1957.
🎙 One Hit Wonders Stories started a two-week run at No.1 on the US singles chart with ‘Brother Louie‘. Hot Chocolate who had a No.7 hit with the song in the UK , actually wrote the song.
1979
🎙 25 years after his first UK No.1 single Cliff Richard had his 10th chart topper with ‘We Don’t Talk Anymore‘ his first No.1 for eleven years.
🎙 The Knack started a five-week run at No.1 on the US singles chart with ‘My Sharona‘, the group’s only US chart topper, a No.6 hit in the UK. Lead singer Doug Fieger said he was inspired to write the tune by Sharrona Alperin, a 17-year-old senior at Los Angeles’ Fairfax High.
1981
🎙 R.E.M. appeared at The Scorpio, Charlotte, North Carolina. This show was billed as “Charlotte’s First Gay New Wave Disco and Costume Party”, with the $3 tickets benefitting various gay-lesbian charities.
1990
🎙 ‘Itsy Bitsy Teeny Weeny Yellow Polka Dot Bikini‘ by Bombalurina was the UK No.1 single. Bombalurina was children’s TV presenter Timmy Mallett with a remake of Brian Hyland’s 1960 hit.
1993
🎙 Snoop Doggy Dogg was released on $1 million bail after being accused of being involved with the murder of a member of the By Yerself gang during a shooting in Los Angeles. He was acquitted of the charges in 1996.
1994
🎙 Jimmy Page and Robert Plant recorded their MTV unplugged set at London’s Television Centre.
🎙 Jimmy Buffett crashed his Grumman G-44 Widgeon Seaplane on take-off in Nantucket, Massachusetts. Buffett swam away from the wreckage.
1995
🎙 Bassist and singer Doug Stegmeyer shot himself, killing him. He’d worked with many artists including Billy Joel, Hall and Oates and The Carpenters.
1997
🎙 A deranged man who had escaped from a mental institution near Helsinki Finland was arrested. The man had planned to set fire to the stage that Michael Jackson was performing from, he was arrested before he was able to light the gasoline he had put on the stage.
1999
🎙 Robert Fisher from New Romantic duo Naked Eyes and Climie Fisher died of cancer aged 39. With Climie Fisher he scored the 1900 UK No.2 single ‘Love Changes Everything‘ and he wrote songs for Rod Stewart, Milli Vanilli, Fleetwood Mac and Jermaine Jackson. Fisher also worked as a producer, working with various acts including Eric Clapton.
🎙 Oasis bass player Paul McGuigan announced he had quit the band just a few days after guitarist Bonehead had left the band.
2000
🎙 Academy Award-winning film score composer and record producer Jack Nitzsche died of a heart attack. He produced The Rolling Stones, Neil Young, Buffalo Springfield and The Walker Brothers. Musical scores including The Exorcist, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, co-wrote ‘Up Where We Belong‘ with Buffy Sainte-Marie from 1982 film An Officer and a Gentleman.
2001
🎙 American singer and actress Aaliyah was killed in a plane crash in the Bahamas she was 22. The small Cessna plane crashed a few minutes after take off, killing everyone on board with the exception of four passengers who were pulled from the wreckage but sadly they later died. Aaliyah had been filming a video for her latest release ‘Rock The Boat‘ on the island.
2005
🎙 Two former members of Guns N’ Roses were suing singer Axl Rose for allegedly naming himself sole administrator of the US rock bands’ copyrights. Slash and Duff – otherwise known as Saul Hudson and Michael McKagan, accused Rose of “arrogance and ego”. The legal action claimed the singer “was no longer willing to acknowledge the contributions of his former partners”.
2006
🎙 Aerosmith bassist Tom Hamilton was undergoing treatment for throat cancer causing him to sit out of the first half of the band’s All Evil Tour, the first time he would miss any shows in the band’s history. Longtime band friend David Hull filled in for Hamilton until his return.
2009
🎙 Bob Dylan revealed during his weekly radio show broadcast on 6 Music, that he was speaking to a number of car companies about becoming the voice of their satellite navigation systems. The 68 year-old said he thought it would be good for drivers to hear him saying things such as: “Take a left at the next street. No, a right. You know what, just go straight”.
2010
🎙 A selection of previously unseen photographs of The Beatles went on display in Liverpool at the Victoria Gallery and Museum. The images were taken by Astrid Kirchherr the former girlfriend of original bass player Stuart Sutcliffe, who too pictures of the band’s early years after meeting them in Hamburg in 1960. The exhibition included images of the Beatles on holiday in Tenerife and of the making of their film A Hard Day’s Night in 1964 in Liverpool.
2014
🎙 Led Zeppelin’s ‘Whole Lotta Love’ was voted the greatest guitar riff of all time by listeners of BBC Radio 2 in the UK. The rock classic came out top from a list of 100 riffs drawn up by panel of Radio 2 and 6 Music DJs, critics and record producers. ‘Sweet Child O’ Mine’ by Guns N’ Roses was second in the poll, with ‘Back In Black‘ (AC/DC) and ‘Smoke On The Water‘ (Deep Purple) the next most popular.
Well that a wrap for another week of OTD, make sure you check out the spotify OTD playlist this week, its a cracker!
https://open.spotify.com/user/1289837564/playlist/7bOk31A93jnXHy5PBtePPC
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