InternetFM.com

Hand Curated Radio

You are here: Home / Archives for Tom Jones

Tom Jones

Today in Rock History – August 10

by

1968, The lineup for day two of the National Jazz & Blues Festival was Alan Haven, Deep Purple, Ginger Baker, Jeff Beck Group, Joe Cocker, Mike Westbrook, Ronnie Scott, T. Rex, Ten Years After, The Crazy World of Arthur Brown, The Don Rendell & Ian Carr Quintet, and The Nice. The festival was held at Kempton Park Racecourse, Sunbury On Thames, England.

1968, Jimi Hendrix played at the Auditorium Theatre in Chicago.

1968, Tom Jones went to number one on the album chart with Delilah.

1969, During a North American tour, Led Zeppelin appeared at the San Diego Sports Arena. Jethro Tull and The Surprise Package, a Seattle band, were the supporting acts.

1970, Elvis Presley played the first night of a four-week engagement, playing two shows most nights, at The International Hotel in Las Vegas.

1970, Simon and Garfunkel’s album Bridge Over Troubled Water was at number one on the album chart, The Beatles were second with Let It Be and Bob Dylan was at number three with Self Portrait.

1971, The Who play at Mellon Arena in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

1972, Paul and Linda McCartney were arrested and fined £800 ($1200)for possession of cannabis in a drug bust after a concert in Gothenburg, Sweden.

1972, Emerson, Lake & Palmer play the Hollywood Sportatorium in Hollywood, Florida.

1973, KISS perform at the Hotel Diplomat, New York.

1973, a promotional film for Roger Daltrey’s performance of “I’m Free” with the London Symphony Orchestra airs on Top Of The Pops. It was shot at Roger’s farm.

1974, Roberta Flack went to number one on the US singles chart with “Feel Like Makin’ Love,” the singer’s third US chart topper.

1974, The Allman Brothers Band performed at August Jam at the Charlotte Motor Speedway, Charlotte, North Carolina. Also on the bill were Emerson Lake & Palmer, Foghat, Black Oak Arkansas, and the Marshall Tucker Band.

1974, John Denver went to number one on the US album chart with Back Home Again.

1976, Elton John played the first of ten nights sold out nights at Madison Square Garden in New York City. The $1.25 million (£833,000) generated from the shows broke the record set by The Rolling Stones in 1975.

1976, Eric Clapton appeared at The Apollo, Glasgow, Scotland.

1976, Neil Diamond performed at the Capital Centre, Landover, Maryland.

1977, Yes played the Springfield Civic Center, Springfield, Massachusetts.

1978, Thin Lizzy appeared at the Mid-South Coliseum, Memphis, Tennessee.

1978, Roger Daltrey, Pete Townshend, and Keith Moon arrive separately at Universal Studios, Hollywood for the press launch of their new album Who Are You. The party takes place on the set of the TV show Battlestar Galactica.

1979, Van Halen played at the Cumberland County Civic Center, Portland, Maine.

1980, Black Sabbath appeared at the Civic Center, Hartford,Connecticut.

1981, Kansas performed at  Pine Knob Music Theatre, Clarkston, Michigan.

1982, During a North American, tour Queen appeared at the Coliseum in New Haven, Connecticut.

1982, The Grateful Dead’s only performance on this date took place at the University of Iowa Fieldhouse in Iowa City.

1984, Aerosmith appeared at the Cumberland County Civic Center, Portland, Maine.

1985,”Money for Nothing” by Dire Straits peaked at number four on the UK singles chart. Notable for its groundbreaking music video and a cameo appearance by Sting, who also co-wrote the song with Mark Knopfler, and sings the song’s falsetto introduction and backing chorus, “I want my MTV,”  The video was also the first to be aired on MTV Europe when the network started on August 1st, 1987.

1985, Simon Le Bon from Duran Duran was air lifted to safety when his boat Drum overturned while racing off the English coast. Le Bon was trapped under the hull with five other crew members for twenty minutes, until being rescued by the Royal Navy.

1992, Def Leppard kicked off the North American leg on their 248-date Seven Day Weekend world Tour at Madison Square Garden in New York City.

1993, The Dave Matthews Band played at The Flood Zone in Richmond, Virginia, the gig was recorded with some of songs ending up on the band’s first album Remember Two Things.

2002, Lisa Marie Presley married actor Nicolas Cage at a resort in Hawaii. The marriage was Presley’s third. She was married previously to musician Danny Keough and pop star Michael Jackson. Cage filed for divorce four months later.

2002, Michael Houser, a founding member and lead guitarist of the band Widespread Panic, died at age 40 from complications due to pancreatic cancer, diagnosed earlier in the year.

2007, Anthony Wilson, the UK music mogul behind some of Manchester’s most successful bands, died at age 57, after suffering from kidney cancer. The TV presenter and entrepreneur founded Factory records, the label behind New Order and the Happy Mondays. He was also known for setting up the Hacienda nightclub in Manchester, England.

2008, Singer-songwriter Isaac Hayes died at his home in Memphis, Tennessee, at the age of 65. Police were called to his home after his wife found him unconscious. He was taken to hospital where he was pronounced dead. Hayes won an Oscar for the 1971 hit “Theme From Shaft” and was also known as the voice of Chef from the hit cartoon show, South Park. He was married four times and had 12 children.

Born on August 10: Clarence Leonidas “Leo” Fender, inventor of the Fender Telecaster (1909); Jimmy Dean (1928); Eddie Fisher (1929); Bobby Hatfield, singer, The Righteous Brothers (1940); Jimmy Griffin, singer, guitarist Bread, The Remingtons (1943); Ian Anderson, Jethro Tull (1947); Ronnie Spector, The Ronettes (1947); Mark Price, English drummer, All About Eve, Del Amitri (1959); Jon Farriss drummer, INXS (1961)

Get more Today in Rock History

Song Of The Day – “Just Dropped In” by Tom Jones

by

TomJonesSpiritTom Jones just released his 40th album this week called Spirit In The Room. It was released last May in England and has finally gained a release stateside. It is also the second “mortality” album he’s released in a row.

The “mortality album” occurs when a rapidly aging heritage artist is matched with a hip (younger) producer, who in this case is Ethan Johns. (Johns was also at the helm for his last “mortality album” Praise And Blame.) The producer acts as a mentor to the artist and curates the record by choosing the songs that not only will give the artist credibility with the young in-tune hipsters, but will also connect with the original fan base who are also getting older and can totally relate to, you guessed it, a “mortality” album.

Johnny Cash practically invented the genre with the series of late career American Recordings records he made with producer/Svengali Rick Rubin. With each release, his voice became weaker and weaker, while he just became cooler and cooler. Glen Campbell has released several “mortality” records also under the tutelage of producers Julian Raymond and Howard Willing. Both records have given him the kind of credibility he can happily retire on. In the case of Tom Jones, he still has all of his faculties, and still has one of the most thrilling and powerful voices ever.

Crucially, a “mortality” album must have a list of songs by “hipster approved” songwriters like Leonard Cohen, whose “Tower Of Song” kicks off this album, Tom Waits who provides the title track from his latest album “Bad As Me,” Bob Dylan’s Modern Times track “When The Deal Goes Down” (which is arranged here like a Tom Waits recording), the Richard and Linda Thompson classic “Dimming Of The Day,” Paul McCartney’s “(I Want To) Come Home” which he wrote for the 2009 film Everybody’s Fine and Today’s Song Of The Day “Just Dropped In.”

“Just Dropped In” is also known as “Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Is In).” It was written by the late, great Mickey Newbury and it put Kenny Rogers on the map by providing his band The First Edition with their biggest hit in the late 1960s. It is also, by far the standout track on this album. Jones makes this classic his own, in spite of Ethan Johns doing his best Mark Ribot imitation on the guitar on an arrangement that sounds like it’s fallen off of a Tom Waits album.

I don’t think the whole “mortality” route is the way to go for Tom Jones. It’s too austere, and he’s much too vital to be giving us an end of career/end of life album. I also don’t think it’s going to get him the late career renaissance he’s probably looking for either. But if you are a fan of Tom Jones, there are several highlights to be found on Spirit In The Room, like today’s Song Of The Day “Just Dropped In,” the Blind Willie Johnson classic “Soul Of A Man” and the self-penned Traveling Shoes, with only a few real clinkers in the bunch. And, most importantly, they are all sung with passion and soul to burn.

Today in Rock History – April 11

by

1964, The Beatles set a new chart record when they had 14 songs on the Billboard Hot 100. The songs ranged from “Can’t Buy Me Love” at number one to “Love Me Do” at number 81.

1965, Performing at the New Musical Express poll winners concert, at London’s Wembley Empire Pool, England, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Tom Jones, Freddie and the Dreamers, The Animals, The Kinks, Herman’s Hermits, Moody Blues, Them, Cilla Black, The Seekers and Donovan.

1966, Buffalo Springfield made their live debut at The Troubadour in Hollywood, California. The folk rock band are renowned both for their music and as a springboard for the careers of Neil Young, Stephen Stills, Richie Furay and Jim Messina. Buffalo Springfield were among the first wave of North American bands to become popular in the wake of the British invasion.

1967, During a 18-date European tour The Rolling Stones played two shows at the Olympia Theatre in Paris, France

1968, Janis Joplin and Big Brother & the Holding Company perform on ABC’s Hollywood Palace.

1970, Peter Green quit Fleetwood Mac while on tour in Germany, to avoid breach of contract he agreed to finish the current tour.

1970, The Beatles started a two week run at No.1 on the singles chart with ‘Let It Be’. It became the group’s 19th No.1 in 6 years.

1973, The Beach Boys appeared at the Omni Coliseum in Atlanta, Georgia. The Beach Boys were at a very low ebb in popularity in America and this show proved a financial disaster for the promoter, with less than 3,000 tickets sold for the 16,000 capacity venue. Opening act was Mothers Finest and middle of the bill was Bruce Springsteen who played a 60-minute set.

1974, David Bowie Arrives in New York on the SS France. Checks into the Sherry Netherlands Hotel on 5th Avenue. During his stay in New York Bowie spent time putting together a new tour band and seeing live music, particularly black artists such as The Temptations, The Spinners and Marvin Gaye at venues in Harlem such as the Apollo Theatre.

1976, During a tour of Australia, Queen appeared at the Entertainments Centre in Perth.

1977, Alice Cooper played to an audience of 40,000 in Sydney, Australia, the largest crowd to attend a rock concert in the country’s history. After the show Cooper was placed under house arrest at his hotel until he posted a bond for $59,632. That amount was the sum that a promoter claimed to have paid Cooper for a 1975 Australia tour he never made. The two settled when it was found that the promoter did not fulfill his part of the agreement either.

1981, Eddie Van Halen married actress Valerie Bertinelli, co-star of the 1980’s television hit, One Day at a Time. The two had met eight months earlier when Bertinelli’s brother took her to a Van Halen concert in Shreveport, Louisiana.

1992, Def Leppard scored their second UK chart topping album with Adrenalize, the follow-up to the multi million selling Hysteria album.

1994, Oasis released their first single “Supersonic,” which peaked at  number 31 on the UK charts. However, over time it has amassed sales of over 215,000, making it their 13th biggest selling single ever in the UK. “Supersonic” was also the band’s first single to chart in the United States, where it peaked at number eleven on the US Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart.

2006, June Pointer, the youngest of the four Pointer Sisters who went from teenage Gospel singers to the top of the Pop charts with such hits as “Fire,” “Slow Hand,” and “I’m So Excited,” died of cancer at the age of 52.

2014, Nirvana were enshrined to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, alongside the likes of KISS and Beatles manager Brian Epstein. REM’s Michael Stipe inducted the group, saying, “Nirvana tapped into a voice that was yearning to be heard. Nirvana were kicking against the mainstream. They spoke truth and a lot of people listened.”

Born on April 11: Neville Staples, The Specials (1956); Stuart Adamson, Big Country (1958); Nigel Pulsford, Bush (1965); Joss Stone, singer (1987)

Get more Today in Rock History

Today in Rock History – March 11

by

1965, Tom Jones was at number one on the singles chart with “It’s Not Unusual.”

1965, The Who go into IBC Studios, London to record their first album. Songs known to be recorded on this date are Pete Townshend’s “You’re Gonna Know Me” (later retitled “Out In The Street”), plus covers of James Brown’s “Please Please Please” and “I Don’t Mind,” Bo Diddley’s “I’m A Man,” Martha and the Vandella’s “Motoring” and “Heat Wave,” and Paul Revere and the Raiders’ “Louie Go Home” as “Lubie (Come Back Home.)” On the 16th, they meet again with producer Shel Talmy for “L.P. routining” and have another studio session at IBC on the 19th. The album is eventually rejected and some of the tracks are not released for over twenty years.

1966, This week’s ITV music show Ready Steady Go in the UK, was entirely devoted to the music of James Brown.

1966, Marianne Faithfull, Coltrane Union, The Swinging Blue Jeans, Rick & Us, plus Pink Floyd performed for the first of two nights billed as “The Tea Set.” The shows took place at the Rag Ball, on the Concourse Area of the University of Essex, Wivenhoe Park, Colchester, England. It was the first time a film was played on a screen behind the band as Pink Floyd performed their set.

1967, The Supremes had their ninth number one single with “Love Is Here And Now Your Gone.”

1967, Jimi Hendrix appears at the International Club in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England.

1967, music publisher, Dick James, announced that 446 different versions of the Paul McCartney song “Yesterday” had been recorded so far.

1968, The Otis Redding single “Dock Of The Bay,” went gold in the US three months after the singer was killed in a plane crash.

1969, The Jackson 5 sign with Motown.

1970, Winners at the 12th annual Grammy awards included Joe South for song of the year with “Games People Play.” Crosby Stills and Nash won best new artist, and The Fifth Dimension won Record of the year with “Aquarius / Let The Sun Shine In.” Album of the Year went to producer James William Guercio and Blood, Sweat & Tears for Blood, Sweat & Tears.

ticket courtesy LedZeppelin.com

1970, Led Zeppelin perform at the Musikhalle, Hamburg, Germany. The set list: We’re Gonna Groove, I Can’t Quit You Baby, Dazed and Confused, Heartbreaker, White Summer / Black Mountainside, Since I’ve Been Loving You, Organ solo / Thank You, Moby Dick, How Many More Times (medley incl. Let That Boy Boogie, Bottle Up ‘n Go, Long Distance Call, Shake ’em On Down), Whole Lotta Love.

1970, The world’s greatest rock ‘n’ roll movie, Jean-Luc Godard’s One Plus One, starring the Rolling Stones, opens in the US. The obtuse film features Godard’s trademark Marxist lecturing interspersed with scenes of the Stones composing “Sympathy for the Devil.” The producers later recut the footage to include more Mick and redub the movie Sympathy for the Devil. Critics remained baffled.

1970, Deja Vu, the first Crosby, Stills, Nash album to also feature Neil Young, was released. It topped the pop album chart for one week and spawned three US Top 40 singles, “Teach Your Children,” “Our House,” and “Woodstock.”

1971, Jim Morrison of The Doors arrived in Paris, where he checked  into The Hotel George’s.  The following week he moved into an apartment at 17 Rue Beautreillis. Morrison lived in Paris until his death on July 3rd 1971.

Harvest Young1972, Neil Young went to number one on the album chart with Harvest. The album featured the hit single “Heart Of Gold.”

1972, Harry Nilsson was at number one on the singles chart with his version of The Peter Ham and Tom Evans song “Without You.” It was first recorded by Badfinger in 1970. The song was also a number one for Mariah Carey in 1994.

1973,  Pink Floyd played at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto, Canada on the North American leg of the Dark Side of the Moon tour.

1974, Deep Purple performed at the Omni Coliseum, Atlanta, Geor

1975,  Mick Jagger stops by Record Plant studios in Los Angeles, and ends up getting involved in a jam session with Wings and Ron Wood.

1976, The Who appeared at Madison Square Garden in New York.

1976, David Bowie performed at the Civic Arena, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

1977, The Clash appeared at The Roxy Club, London, supported by The Slits, the first all-female punk group who were making their live debut.

1978, Meat Loaf’s Bat Out Of Hell, album began a 416-week run on the chart, going on to sell over 2 million copies.

1978, The debut single from Kate Bush, “Wuthering Heights,” a song inspired by the Emily Bronte novel, started a four-week run at number one on the UK singles chart. The record company, EMI, had originally chosen another track, “James and the Cold Gun” as the lead single, but Bush was determined that “Wuthering Heights” would be the first release from the album.

1979, Roxy Music played at the Olympia in Paris.

1981, Rush played at Market Square Arena, Indianapolis, Indiana.

1983, Blue Oyster Cult performed at the Holiday Star Theatre, Merrillville, Indiana.

1986, Aerosmith appeared at the Centrum in Worcester, Massachusetts.

1992, The Grateful Dead performed at the Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale, New York.

1993, Oasis recorded their first demos at The Real People’s studio in Liverpool. The set included “Rock ‘n’ Roll Star,” “Columbia,” and “Fade Away.”

1995, Van Halen kicked off their 131-date Balance World Tour, at the Pensacola Civic Center, Pensacola Civic Center, Florida. It was dubbed the “Ambulance” Tour by Eddie Van Halen, due to his hip surgery, and his brother, drummer Alex Van Halen, wearing a neck brace for most of the tour.

2006, The Disney Channel Original Movie, High School Musical was at number one on the US album chart. The album went on to break all records for a soundtrack selling over 7 million copies worldwide. A number one album in Australia, New Zealand, Brazil, Argentina and Mexico.

2008, Madonna was inducted into the US Rock and Roll Hall of Fame at a star-studded ceremony in New York City.  John Mellencamp, Leonard Cohen, The Ventures, and The Dave Clark Five were also among the inductees.

2015, Jimmy Greenspoon, keyboardist with Three Dog Night, died in Potomac, Maryland after a year-long battle with metastatic melanoma at the age of 67. During the course of their career, Three Dog Knight had 21 top 40 hits, including three chart topping singles.

2015, A jury in the United States ruled that the writers of “Blurred Lines” copied a Marvin Gaye track. Jurors in Los Angeles decided that the 2013 single by Pharrell Williams and Robin Thicke breached the copyright of Gaye’s 1977 hit “Got To Give It Up.” The family of the late soul singer were awarded $7.3 million (£4.8m) in damages.

Born on March 11: Harvey Mandel, American guitarist, Pure Food and Drug Act, Canned Heat (1945); Mark Stein, Vanilla Fudge (1947); George Kooymans, Dutch singer-songwriter, guitarist, Golden Earring (1948); Jan Schelhaas, keyboardist Caravan, Camel (1948); Bobby McFerrin (1950); Jimmy Iovine,  record producer,  co-founder Interscope Records (1953); Jimmy Fortune, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, The Statler Brothers (1955); Nina Hagen, German singer, actress (1955); Bruce Watson, guitar, Big Country (1961); Vinnie Paul,  drummer, songwriter, producer Pantera, Damageplan, Hellyeah, Gasoline (1964); Andy Sturmer, American singer-songwriter, drummer, producer, Beatnik Beatch, Jellyfish (1965); Benji and Joel Madden, singer-songwriters, Good Charlotte (1979)

Get more Today in Rock History

Today in Rock History – December 1

by

The Who, 1964 – from THE MARK AND COLLEEN HAYWARD COLLECTION (http://rockmusicprints.com/)

1964, The Who played the first of 22 consecutive Tuesday night gigs at The Marquee Club in London, the band were paid £50 ($80) for each gig.

1965, during a North America tour The Rolling Stones appeared at the Vancouver Auditorium, Vancouver, British Columbia.

1966, Tom Jones was atop on the singles chart with his version of “Green Green Grass Of Home.” It stayed at number one for seven weeks giving Decca records its first million selling single by a British artist.

1966, Jimi Hendrix signs a management deal with Yameta, a firm started by Who managers Kit Lambert and Chris Stamp.

1967, During a 16-date UK package tour with Jimi Hendrix, Pink Floyd, The Move, Nice, Outer Limits, and Amen Corner, the shows took place at the Central Hall, Chatham. The Chatham Standard later reported, “Hendrix opened his act with the Beatles’ number “Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band,” and the three-piece group made as much of an impression as a studio full of musicians. Once upon a time this sort of noise could not be reproduced outside a studio. He did several of his own numbers, including unfaultable versions of “Hey Joe” and “Purple Haze,” and The Troggs’ “Wild Thing.”

1967, The Who end their first headlining tour of the US, playing the Long Island Arena in Commack, New York. Vanilla Fudge is the supporting act.

1968, The Beatles White Album started a seven-week run at number one on the UK chart. The double set was the first on the Apple label,

1968, Janis Joplin played her last concert with Big Brother and the Holding Company, a Family Dog show in San Francisco.

1969, George Harrison and Ringo Starr turn up at London’s Royal Albert Hall to watch Delaney & Bonnie perform with Eric Clapton.

1971, Yes appeared at the Palace Theater, Waterbury, Connecticut.

1972, Pink Floyd performs at the Centre Sportif, in Ile Des Vannes, St. Ouen, Paris. The show was broadcast live by RTL Radio.

1973, The Carpenters went to number one on the singles chart with “Top Of The World,” their second US chart topper.

1974, Genesis performed at the Lyric Theater, Baltimore, Maryland.

1975, The Allman Brothers Band played at the Civic Center in Springfield, Massachusetts.

1976, The Sex Pistols appeared on ITV’s live early evening Today show, in place of Queen, who had pulled out following a trip to the dentist by Freddie Mercury. Taunted by interviewer Bill Grundy, who asked the band to say something outrageous, guitarist Steve Jones says, “You dirty bastard…you dirty fucker…what a fucking rotter!”

1977, during a North American tour Queen appeared at Madison Square Garden in New York City.

1977, Rush played at the Montreal Forum, Montreal, Quebec.

1978, Punk rocker Ian Dury releases his single “Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick” in the UK. He fails to chart in the US, but the epochal single sells two million copies worldwide.

1979, The Grateful Dead performed at Stanley Hall in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

1980, Talking Heads, supported by U2, appeared at the Hammersmith Palais, London, England.

1981, King Crimson appeared at The Commodore Ballroom, Vancouver, British Columbia.

1982, Aerosmith played at Hara Arena, Dayton, Ohio.

1982, The final month of The Who’s 1982 concert tour begins at the Biloxi Gulf Coast Coliseum in Biloxi, Mississippi. “Love Ain’t For Keeping” is added to the set list for the first time since 1971.

1983, Neil Young was sued by Geffen Records because his new music for the label was “not commercial in nature and musically uncharacteristic of his previous albums.” His latest album Everybody’s Rockin’ featured a selection of rockabilly songs, both covers and original material, which ran for just 25 minutes, Young’s shortest album.

1990, Vanilla Ice started a four-week run at number one in the UK with the single “Ice Ice Baby.” The track sampled the bass intro to the Queen and David Bowie chart topping “Under Pressure.”  “Ice Ice Baby” was initially released as the B-side to the rapper’s cover of “Play That Funky Music,” and became the A-side after US DJ’s started playing it.

1997, Kenny G set a new world record when he held a note on his saxophone for 45 minutes and 47 seconds. The record was later broken by Geovanny Escalante, who held a note for 1 hour, 30 minutes and 45 seconds, using a technique that allows him to blow and breathe at the same time.

2006, An Oasis fan enjoyed “the best day of his life” when Noel Gallagher popped round to his house in Poynton, Cheshire to play an intimate gig. Lucky listener Ben Hayes won a BBC Radio 1 competition to have the star play in his front room as part of a week of gigs compered by DJ Jo Whiley. 15 people packed into his lounge for the tiny gig, with his mother on hand making cups of tea for the crew.

Born on December 1: Billy Paul (1934); Lou Rawls (1936); John Densmore, The Doors (1944); Bette Midler (1944); Eric Bloom, Blue Oyster Cult (1944); Gilbert O’ Sullivan (1946); Jaco Pastorius, Weather Report (1951); Isaiah “Ikey” Owens, keyboardist, The Mars Volta, Jack White (1974); Brad Delson, guitar, Linkin Park (1977)

Link to Today in Rock History archive

Today in Rock History – November 11

by

beatles-rubber-soul1965, The final recording session for The Beatles Rubber Soul album took place, at Abbey Road, London. They needed four new songs to finish the album so an old song “Wait” is pulled off the shelf and work is completed on “I’m Looking Through You.” The band recorded two new songs from start to finish. Paul’s “You Won’t See Me,” about his relationship with Jane Asher, and John’s “Girl, his response to Paul’s “Michelle.”   The session began at 6 pm and ended at 7 o’clock the following morning. Rubber Soul was completed, and finished copies of the album were in the shops by December 3rd in the UK and December 6th in the US.

1966, The Who’s first UK EP, Ready Steady WHO is released. It is supposed to be live tracks from The Who’s recent television special but is, in fact, studio tracks recorded between February and August 1966. It goes all the way to number one on the UK. EP charts but isn’t released in the US.

1966, Pink Floyd played a concert for the London Free School at All Saints Church, Powlis Gardens, London.

1967, Jimi Hendrix performs at the Big Apple Club in Munich, Germany.

1969, The FBI in Phoenix, Arizona arrested Jim Morrison for drunk and disorderly conduct aboard a plane. The Doors singer, who was on his way to a Rolling Stones concert with actor Tom Baker, had been drinking and annoying the stewardesses. The pair spent the night in jail and were released on $2,500 bail.

1969, The Who played the first of two nights at The Tea Party in Boston  with Tony William’s Lifetime as support.

1970, Elvis Presley appears at Memorial Coliseum in Portland, Oregon.

1971, King Crimson appeared at Massey Hall, Toronto, Ontario.

1971, BBC TV’s Top Of The Pops celebrated its 400th show. The UK chart show was presented by Tony Blackburn with guests Tom Jones, Dana, John Kongos, Cher, Slade, Cilla Black, The Piglets, Clodagh Rodgers and The Newbeats.

1971, Led Zeppelin played the first date of a 16-night UK tour at City Hall, Newcastle, England.

1971, Pink Floyd performed at Music Hall in Boston, Massachusetts.  Top ticket price was $6.00.

1972, Allman Brothers bass player Berry Oakley was killed when his motorcycle hit a bus at the same intersection where band member Duane Allman had died a year earlier. Oakley was 24 years old.

1972, David Bowie appears at the Majestic Theatre, Dallas, Texas.

1972, Gilbert O’Sullivan was at number one on the UK singles chart with “Clair,” the singer’s first of two UK chart toppers. The Irish singer songwriter would dress as a 1920s worker in flat cap, braces and baggy trousers.

1973, Thirty US radio stations broadcasted a “live” Mott The Hoople concert. In reality it was the band recorded in the studio with the applause dubbed in.

1973, Roxy Music performs at the Rainbow Theatre, London.

1974, David Bowie played at the Capital Centre, Landover, Maryland. The show includes a live video projection, an innovation first used in the Rolling Stones 1972 US Tour, directed by John Dove, who was documenting some of Bowie’s rehearsals and shows.

1976, US singer Linda Ronstadt made her live UK debut when she appeared at the Birmingham Odeon.

1976, Eric Clapton played at the Louisiana State University Assembly Center, in Baton Rouge.

1977, During an Australian tour, Fleetwood Mac appeared at the RAS Sydney Showgrounds. Also on the bill, Santana, Little River Band and The Kevin Borich Express.

1978, David Bowie played the first night of his 8-date Low / Heroes tour of Australia and New Zealand at The Oval in Adelaide. This was Bowie’s first ever show in Australia.

1978, Donna Summer started a three-week run at number one on the US singles chart with her version of Jimmy Webb’s “MacArthur Park.” The song was also a hit for actor Richard Harris in 1968, and made it to number five in the UK. Also on this day Summer went to number one on the US album chart with Live And More.

1978, The Cars released “My Best Friend’s Girl” the first picture-disc single commercially available, which went on to be a number three hit on the UK charts.

 1979, The Who play the Conference Centre in Brighton, England.

1980, Bob Dylan performs at the Fox Warfield Theatre, San Fransisco.

1980, U2 appeared in the Junior Common Room of Rutherford College at Kent University, Canterbury, England. Tickets are £0.50 ($0.80) and all 150 sell out before the show.

1981, Rush performed at Concert Centrum, in Hamburg, Germany.

1982, Prince kicked off his 87-date 1999 North American tour at the Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Auditorium in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

1983, The Police appear at the Mississippi Coast Coliseum in Biloxi.

1986, Pink Floyd issued a press statement stating that they intend to continue using the band name without Roger Waters and were recording their next album.

1989, Chris Rea started a three-week run at number one on the UK album chart with The Road To Hell. The iconic album cover features art by the English artist, Adrian Chesterman, who was also responsible for creating cover art for, Motörhead’s 1979 Bomber album.

1995, The Smashing Pumpkins double album Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness went to number one on the US charts.

2004, Robbie Williams, The Rolling Stones and Queen were inducted into the UK’s first music Hall of Fame at a ceremony in London. One act had been chosen by TV viewers of a Channel 4 program to represent each decade since the 1950s. Williams represented the 1990s, Michael Jackson the 1980s, Queen the 1970s, the Rolling Stones the 1960s, and Cliff Richard the 1950s.

2011, The four original band members of Black Sabbath announced that they were reuniting and recording a new album followed by a world tour in 2012.

2014, Big Bank Hank (Henry Lee Jackson), from The Sugarhill Gang died aged 58 from kidney complications due to cancer. The Sugarhill Gang were the first hip hop act to have a hit with the cross-over single “Rapper’s Delight” in the pop charts in 1979.

Born on November 11: Kurt Vonnegut (1922); Lavern Baker, R&B singer (1929); Jessie Colin Young, The Youngbloods (1944); Vince Martell,  singer, guitar, Vanilla Fudge (1945); Chris Dreja, The Yardbirds (1946); Jim Peterik, Ides of March, Survivor (1950); Paul Cowsill, The Cowsills (1952); Andy Partridge, XTC (1953); Dave Alvin,  singer-songwriter, guitar The Blasters, The Knitters,  X (1955); Ian Craig Marsh, keyboards, Heaven 17 (1956); Mic Michaeli, keyboards, Europe, (1962); Jason White, guitar, Green Day (1973)

Link to Today in Rock History archives.

Today in Rock History – November 2

by

who-1965-marquee1965, The Who perform at The Marquee in London where they break box office records for the venue.

1966, “Mississippi” John Hurt, country blues singer and guitarist, died of a heart attack in his home state of Mississippi. Material recorded by him has been re-released by many record labels over the years and his songs have been recorded by Bob Dylan, Jerry Garcia, Beck, Doc Watson, John McCutcheon, Taj Mahal, Bruce Cockburn, and David Johansen, among other notable musicians.

1967, The Beatles completed recording their next single “Hello Goodbye” at Abbey Road studios London with a second Paul McCartney bass line. The McCartney song had been selected for the A-side for The Beatles next single, the flip side to be Lennon’s “I Am the Walrus.”

1967, Tom Jones kicked off a 22-date UK tour at Finsbury Park, Astoria with Kathy Kirby and The Ted Heath Orchestra.

1968, The Doors played two shows at the Veterans Memorial Hall, Columbus, Ohio.

1968, The Jeff Beck Group appeared at the Grande Ballroom, Detroit, Michigan.

1969, “Sugar Sugar” by The Archies was at number one on the singles chart. The single became the longest running one hit wonder in the UK with eight week’s at the top of the charts.

1969, The Who play McDonough Gymnasium at Georgetown University in Washington D.C. 800 people crash the gate and there is much brawling between the audience and security. Pete screams at them “We know our job and we do our job and we do it right so why don’t you fucking sit down?”  The Washington Post reviewer calls The Who’s show the most electrifying performance he had ever seen. It later appears as the bootleg Higher Education.

1970, Grand Funk Railroad and Black Sabbath appeared at the San Diego Sports Arena, San Diego, California.

1971, Pink Floyd performed at McCarter Theater, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey.

1972, The Allman Brothers Band appeared at Hofstra University, Hempstead, New York.

1973, Queen played at Imperial College, London.

1974, Crosby Stills Nash & Young went to number one on the album chart with So Far, the group’s third US chart topper.  It included material from CSN’s debut, Deja Vu, and the single release “Ohio.”

1974, George Harrison became the first Beatle to undertake a solo world tour when he played the first show of a 30-night tour in Vancouver, Canada.

1974, Stevie Wonder went to number one on the US singles chart with “You Haven’t Done Nothin,” the singers fourth US char topper. It featured The Jackson Five on backing vocals.

1975, The Who’s European Continental tour continues with two nights at the Messehalle in Sindelfingen, Germany.

1975, Bob Dylan appeared at Technical University, Lowell, Massachusetts.

1976, Black Sabbath played at Swing Auditorium, San Bernardino, California.

1977, Yes performed at New Bingley Hall, Stafford, England.

1978, Aerosmith appeared at the Civic Arena, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

1979, AC/DC played the second of three sold out nights at the Hammersmith Odeon, London, England, with Def Leppard supporting.

1979, Grateful Dead performed at the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum, Uniondale, New York.

1981, Rush played at Brighton Centre, Brighton, England.

1984, The Reverend Marvin Gaye Sr. was sentenced to five years in prison for the manslaughter of his son, Marvin Gaye.

1991, U2 scored their second number one single with “The Fly,” taken from their album Achtung Baby. The song was also a showcase for a persona Bono had invented called “The Fly.”

1996, Counting Crows went to number one on the US album chart with Recovering From Satellites. The album peaked at number four in the UK.

1999, Foo Fighters released their third studio album There Is Nothing Left to Lose, the album marks the first appearance of drummer Taylor Hawkins. Early pressings of the disc included a temporary tattoo, similar to the one featured on the album cover.

2004, Guitarist Eric Clapton collected his CBE from Buckingham Palace for his services to music.

2007, Led Zeppelin’s eagerly-awaited reunion concert in London was postponed for two weeks after guitarist Jimmy Page broke a finger. The tribute concert in honor of late Atlantic Records founder Ahmet Ertegun scheduled for November 26th would now take place on December 10th. More than a million fans applied for the 20,000 tickets available, which cost £125 ($200) each. Profits from the show would go towards scholarships in Ertegun’s name in the UK, USA, and the country of his birth, Turkey.

Born on November 2: Jay Black, singer, Jay and the Americans (1938); Keith Emerson (1944); JD Souther (1945); Dave Pegg, Fairport Convention (1947); Carter Beauford, drummer, Dave Matthews Band (1957); kd Lang (1961); Ron McGovney, bass, Metallica (1963); Reginald Arvizu, bass, Korn (1969); Chris Walla, guitarist, Death Cab for Cutie (1975)

Link to Today in Rock History archive

Song Of The Day by Eric Berman – “Evil” by Tom Jones

by

Some folks just get hipper when they get older. Case in point there is me…and then there is Tom Jones, whose new 7” single recorded at Third Man Records with Jack White on guitar and in the production chair, bears some of the most stripped down virile sounds to emanate from the Welshman in some time. The A-side is a rip-roaring Howlin’ Wolf cover that gives the Wolfman a run for his money, while the B-side finds him covering Frankie Lane’s “Jezebel.” Gone is the resignation over old age that dragged down Jones’ last American release, “Praise & Blame.” Jones’ latest album, “Spirit In The Room,” was released overseas last May. It has yet to receive a domestic release here. If it sounds anything like this Jack White collaboration, I say bring it on!