Today in Music History...July 16, 2017 (Now with more info & links)

Music History: July 16th

 

2014 Blues rocker Johnny Winter dies at age 70. His last performance was two days earlier at the Cahors Blues Festival in France.

2012 Jon Lord, a founding member of Deep Purple, dies at age 71 of a pulmonary embolism while suffering from pancreatic cancer.

2009 At the Latitude Festival, held every year in Henham Park in Suffolk, England, Noah and the Whale debut their feature-length film The First Days of Spring. The film accompanies their new record of the same name due out in August. Written and directed by lead singer Charlie Fink, the film stars model Daisy Lowe, the daughter of fashion designer Pearl Lowe and Gavin Rossdale, lead singer for the alt-rock band Bush.

2008 Jo Stafford, whose "You Belong To Me" made her the first female artist to hit #1 on the UK Chart, dies of congestive heart failure at age 90.

2005 The Vocal Group Hall of Fame inducts its seventh annual group of honorees in Wildwood, New Jersey: The Angels, Brooklyn Bridge, The Chiffons, The Chi-Lites, the Del-Vikings, Fleetwood Mac, The Hilltoppers, the Mel-Tones, The Neville Brothers, The Pointer Sisters, The Rascals, The Righteous Brothers, the Sons of the Pioneers, and The Tymes.

2003 Cuban singer Celia Cruz dies of brain cancer at age 77.

1996 Styx drummer John Panozzo dies at age 47 when his liver fails after years of drinking.

1996 Sultan of Brunei, who is a big fan of Michael Jackson, pays the singer about $15 million to perform at his birthday party.

1995 At North Carolina's Duke University Medical Center, Wayne Osmond of The Osmonds undergoes an operation to remove a brain tumor.

1990 Trial begins for Judas Priest after they are accused of implanting subliminal messages in their song "Better By You, Better Than Me." The suit alleges that the messages caused two teenage boys to enter a suicide pact (one of the boys killed himself instantly; the other died three years later from complications related to the suicide attempt). The case is dismissed August 24 after the judge determines that the supposed subliminal message is just an accidental recording oddity.

1984 Billy Williams dies of a heart attack at age 74. His group the Billy Williams Quartet was a fixture on Sid Caesar and Imogene Coca's "Your Show of Shows" in the '50s.

1981 Harry Chapin dies in a car crash at age 38.

1980 Donna Summer marries Bruce Sudano, former member of Brooklyn Dreams, who appeared on her 1979 hit "Heaven Knows." Within the next two years, they welcome two daughters: Brooklyn and Amanda Sudano.

1977 Shaun Cassidy's "Da Doo Ron Ron" hits #1.

1977 Barry Manilow's Barry Manilow Live hits #1.

1976 Due to the bi-coastal distance (and increasing differences) between Gregg Allman and the other band members, The Allman Brothers call it quits (they will reunite two years later).

1972 Smokey Robinson performs his final show with The Miracles at the Carter Barron Amphitheater in Washington, DC. At the end of the show, Smokey introduces his replacement, 20-year-old Billy Griffin.

1971 Ed Kowalczyk (lead singer of Live) is born in York, Pennsylvania.

1969 The Beatles record "Here Comes The Sun" and "Something."

1969 The Beatles' "The Ballad Of John And Yoko" is certified gold.

1968 The Beatles record "Cry Baby Cry."

1966 Tommy James and the Shondells' "Hanky Panky" hits #1 for the first of two weeks.

1963 The Beach Boys record "In My Room."

1962 The Beach Boys sign to Capitol Records following the success of their independently released 45, "Surfin'," and a four-song demo recorded the previous month, featuring work versions of "Surfer Girl," "409," and "Surfin' Safari."

1959 The Coasters record "Poison Ivy."

1955 Elvis Presley makes his first appearance on the national charts as "Baby, Let's Play House" enters the Cash Box country charts at #15.

1952 Stewart Copeland is born in Alexandria, Virginia. He spends his youth in Lebanon and then England. After moving back to the States to attend college, he returns to the UK to play drums for Curved Air and then The Police.

1944 Thomas Boggs (drummer for The Box Tops) is born in Wynne, Arkansas, but is raised mostly in Memphis, Tennessee.

1941 Desmond Dekker (leader of The Aces) is born in Saint Andrew Parish, Jamaica.

1939 Blues/R&B singer Denise LaSalle is born in Mississippi. Her first hit is "Trapped By A Thing Called Love," which tops the R&B chart and lands at #13 on the Hot 100 in 1971.

1938 Tony Jackson (bass guitarist for The Searchers) is born in Dingle, Liverpool, England.

1927 '40s and '50s pop vocalist Mindy Carson is born in New York City. She catches her big break when she wins an audition to the radio program Stairway to the Stars, landing her an eight-month gig with Paul Whiteman's orchestra.

1925 Latin jazz musician Cal Tjader is born in St. Louis, Missouri. His parents are Swedish American vaudevillians who eventually settle in San Mateo, California, when Cal is 2 years old. At 16, he wins a Gene Krupa drum solo contest with "Drum Boogie."

1925 Nat Pierce, pianist and arranger for the Woody Herman band in the '50s, is born Somerville, Massachusetts.

1911 Ginger Rogers is born Virginia Katherine McMath in Independence, Missouri. She begins her partnership with Fred Astaire in the 1933 RKO musical Flying Down to Rio.

 

Party Rock Is In the House

 

2011"Party Rock Anthem" by LMFAO hits #1 after first appearing on the Hot 100 on February 12 at #78. Thanks to a captivating video, the song starts the "shufflin'" dance craze and spends a staggering 68 weeks on the chart (six at #1), which is longer than any other chart-topper.
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Featured Events

2008 Billy Joel bids goodbye to Flushing, New York's iconic Shea Stadium with the first of two star-studded concerts. Sadly, this is the highlight of the Mets' season.

1976 After six years, Kenny Loggins and Jim Messina decide to split up their partnership, which had three big hits in "Thinking Of You," "My Music," and "Your Mama Don't Dance."

1967 Arlo Guthrie debuts "Alice's Restaurant Massacree" at the 1967 Newport Folk Festival. The song runs 18 minutes long and tells a true (but greatly exaggerated) story about how he was arrested one Thanksgiving morning for illegal dumping. The ticket later made him ineligible for the draft, keeping him out of the Vietnam War.

Joni Mitchell, Leonard Cohen, Judy Collins, Janis Ian, and Tom Paxton also play the festival this day.

1966 A supergroup is born. Former Yardbirds guitarist Eric Clapton teams up with bassist Jack Bruce and drummer Ginger Baker of the Graham Bond Organization to form Cream.