Music History: March 16
2016 Frank Sinatra Jr., the only son of Frank Sinatra, dies of a heart attack at age 72 while on tour in Daytona Beach, Florida.
2013 Bobbie Smith (The Spinners)
2011 Megadeth frontman Dave Mustaine collapses backstage at a concert in Russia. He was in extreme pain from kidney stones but insisted on perfroming six songs for the crowd before going to the hospital 30 minutes later.
2009 Songwriter Jack Lawrence dies at age 96 after he falls at his home in Redding, Connecticut. He co-wrote Frank Sinatra's first solo hit, "All or Nothing at All."
2008 Daniel MacMaster (Bonham)
2008 Ola Brunkert (ABBA's drummer)
2007 Tupper Saucy
2002 Liza Minnelli takes her fourth trip down the aisle when she marries promoter David Gest in New York. Michael Jackson serves as best man and Elizabeth Taylor is matron of honor.
1999 Stone Temple Pilots play in impromptu gig at the Viper Room in Los Angeles. It's the first time the band has performed in two years.
1996 For the 16th (and final) consecutive week, Mariah Carey and Boyz II Men's "One Sweet Day" is #1 in the US.
1995 Eazy-E releases a statement announcing that he has AIDS, and also that he has fathered seven children with six different women. He dies 10 days later.
1993 Johnny Cymbal
1979 CBS airs the Wings Over the World documentary, chronicling the adventures of Paul McCartney's band Wings on their 1975-1976 tour.
1975 T-Bone Walker, born Aaron Thibeaux Walker, dies of bronchial pneumonia after a series of strokes at age 64.
1970 Motown singer Tammi Terrell, known for a string of hit duets with Marvin Gaye, dies of a brain tumor at age 24.
1965 "The Last Time" becomes The Rolling Stones' third #1 single in the UK.
1964 The Beatles set a US record when advance sales of the "Can't Buy Me Love" single top two million.
1963 Stewart Kerr (Texas)
1959 Flavor Flav is born William Jonathan Drayton, Jr. He would become a rapper with Public Enemy and also a reality TV star.
1954 Nancy Wilson (of Heart) is born in San Francisco, California, to a family that includes older sister (and future bandmate) Ann.
1948 Michael Bruce (Alice Cooper band)
1945 The #1 song in America is "Rum and Coca-Cola" by The Andrews Sisters. It's a sanitized cover of a calypso song about American servicemen in Trinidad who get drunk and solicit prostitutes.
1932 Betty Johnson
1823 Hymn composer William Henry Monk is born in London.
Months after his death, Otis Redding's "(Sittin' On) The Dock Of The Bay" goes to #1 in the US.
Redding really was sitting on the dock of the (San Francisco) Bay when he came up with the line, "I watch the ships come in and I watch them roll away again." He took the idea to Steve Cropper, his producer at Stax Records, who wrote the rest of the song with him. Cropper made it about Redding's life, how he went from a small town in Georgia to headlining the famous Fillmore West in San Francisco ("I left my home in Georgia, headed for the 'Frisco bay"). Cropper was also the guitarist in Booker T. & the MG's, the house band at Stax, which backed Redding on the track.
Redding was a rising star at the label, poised for a breakthrough when he died at age 26. Cropper was on the road with Booker T. & the MG's when he found out. He returned to the studio and mixed the track, completing the song even before Redding's body was found. Released on January 8, 1968, it becomes Redding's sole Hot 100 chart-topper, and surprisingly, his only R&B #1.
With civil unrest at home and the Vietnam War raging overseas, the song is a tranquil oasis in troubled times. A very mindful hit, it's an inaction anthem of sorts, with Redding just sitting there with his thoughts, impervious to the world at large.
Near the end of the song, Redding runs out of words and starts whistling. The plan was to fill in this section with lyrics, but he died before he could.
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