Happy St. Patrick’s Day! Have a great and safe day all!
Its that time again friends, so lets take a stroll down memory lane and see what happed inmusic industry today.
Our first stop on memory lane is at
1957 and it was the year The King of Rock’n’Roll Elvis Presley brought the Graceland mansion from Mrs Ruth Brown-Moore for $102,500 USD. (For my English friends out there it’s £60,295) That was so much money back then but compared to now he picked it up cheap! The 23 room, 10,000 square foot home, on 13.8 acres would be expanded to 17,552 square feet of living space before the king moved in a few weeks later.
Our second stop is at 1967 where The Beatles were working at Abby Road studios in London, they finished the recording of ‘She’s Leaving Home’ after adding backing vocals to the track. Harpest Shelia Bromberg who was part of the string section on the track thus making her the first women to play on a Beatles recording.
Our third stop is in 1968 and is just a quick stop. The Bee Gees made their US television debut when they appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show.
We’re entering our forth stop on memory lane tour, 1973 Dr Hooks’s single ‘On The Cover Of Rolling Stone’ peaked at No.6 on the US charts. Did you know the single was banned in the UK by BBC due to the reference of the magazine.
Ok off to another quick stop number five which is 1978, U2 won £500 ($850)and a chance to audition for CBS Ireland in a talent contest held in Dublin.
1979 is our sixth stop, Gloria Gaynor started a four-week run at No.1 on the UK singles chart with ‘I Will Survive’. The song was originally released as the B-side to a song first recorded by The Righteous Brothers called ‘Substitute’. Also in 1979, The Bee Gees went to No.1 on the UK album after their fifteenth studio album release ‘Spirits Have Flown’. It was the group’s first album after their collaboration on the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack. The albums first three tracks were released as singles and impressively they all reached No.1 in the US, giving the Bee Gees an unbroken run of six US chart-toppers and tying a record set by The Beatles.
Please make sure your seat belts are fastened, were headed to 1984, stop number seven on this tour. Van Halen’s ‘Jump’ peaked at No.1 in the US and its definitely on my all time favorite list. David Lee Roth has given various accounts of the meaning behind the lyrics over the years, but most often says they are about a TV news story he saw where a man was about to kill himself by jumping off a building.
1997 brings us to the eighth stop. US singer Jermaine Stewart died of cancer, in 1986 her single ‘We Don’t Have To …. Take Our Clothes Off’ reached No.2 in the UK. Jermaine worked with Shalamar, The Temptations and Boy George.
Sit down shut up and hold on, we are entering the 2000’s, stop nine. In 2004 The Kinks singer Ray Davies received his CBE medal from the Queen at Buckingham Palace for services to the music industry.
We are almost at the end of this weeks tour just 3 stops left. Stop ten brings us to 2006, The Smiths turned down a $5m (£2.8m) offer to reform for a music festival. The band who split acrimoniously in 1987, rejected the bid to get back together for the Coachella US festival.
Stop eleven is 2008, The former drummer with ABBA Ola Brunkert, was found dead with his throat cut at his home in Majorca, Spain. Brunkert died after he hit his head against a glass door in the dining room at his home. He was found dead in his garden after trying to seek help. The 62 year old musician had played on every Abba album and toured with the group, its it just me or dose this sound a little suspicious?
Ok the second last stop number twelve, in 2010 Alex Chilton singer and guitarist with Big Star died in hospital of heart problems in New Orleans he was 59, as a teenager Chilton had been a member of The Box Tops, who had the 1967 hit ‘The Letter’.
Last but not least stop thirteen, lucky for some not so lucky for others. In 2013 John Lennon and George Harrison were honored with a blue plaque at the site of the former Apple Boutique in a ceremony in London held at 94 Baker Street. The new plaque reads “John Lennon, M.B.E., 1940-1980, and George Harrison, M.B.E., 1943-2001, worked here”.
Well kids that concludes this weeks magical memory lane tour. Be sure to check back next week for more adventures down memory lane.
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