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The Kinks

1965, The Kinks were at number one on the singles chart with “Tired Of Waiting For You,” the group’s second chart topper.

1965, Working at Abbey Road studios in London, The Beatles recorded two new songs. John Lennon’s “You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away” was recorded in nine takes, and a new Paul McCartney song “Tell Me What You See” was laid down in four takes.

1966, Beach Boy Brian Wilson recorded the future classic song “Good Vibrations,” which went on to become the band’s third US number-one hit. As a child, his mother told him that dogs could pick up “vibrations” from people, so that the dog would bark at “bad vibrations” Wilson turned this into the general idea for the song.

1966, News breaks in Melody Maker that The Who are leaving Brunswick and U.S. Decca for the new Reaction label in Europe and Atco in the U.S. Former producer Shel Talmy threatens the group with payback that he soon delivers, launching a lawsuit against the band and its managers. “Substitute” was to have been released on the 18th but is stopped because of the lawsuit. That night The Who are  in Scotland, performing at the Volunteer Hall in Galashiels.

1966, The Rolling Stones kicked off an 11-date tour of Australia and New Zealand at the Commemorative Auditorium, Sydney, supported by The Searchers.

1967, The Buckinghams started a two week run at number one on the singles chart with “Kind Of A Drag,” the Chicago-based group’s only chart topper.

1968, The Byrds performed at the Grande Ballroom in Detroit, Michigan.

1968, David Gilmour makes his film debut as a member of Pink Floyd as Belgian TV recorded several promotional clips over two days including filmed versions of “Astronomy Domine,” “Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun,” “Apples and Oranges,” “Corporal Clegg,” Paintbox,” “Scarecrow,” and “See Emily Play.”

1969, The Jimi Hendrix Experience appeared at the Royal Albert Hall, London.

1969, Pink Floyd and Fairport Convention appeared at the Manchester & Salford Students’ Shrove Rag Ball, held at the Main Debating Hall at Manchester University, in Manchester, England.

1971, Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band made their New York debut at Unganos.

1972, On their first Australian tour, Led Zeppelin rescheduled to the following night their concert at the Memorial Drive, Adelaide, after heavy rain left the stage and equipment unsafe. Zeppelin had brought to Adelaide the largest PA system seen in Australia to produce what was expected to be the loudest rock show ever heard.

1972, David Bowie performed at Sheffield University in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England.

1972, Pink Floyd played at the Rainbow Theatre in London.

1973, The Rolling Stones appeared at the Kooyong Tennis Stadium, Melbourne, Australia.

1974, Yes headlined at Madison Square Garden, New York.

1977, Pink Floyd played at Oude Ahoy Hallen, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.

1978, winners at the Grammy Awards included Fleetwood Mac, Album of the year for Rumours, The Eagles, Record of the year for “Hotel California,” and Best pop vocal performance, The Bee Gees for “How Deep Is Your Love.”

1978, Parliament Funkadelic performed at the Capital Centre, Landover, Maryland.

1980, During an interview Rolling Stone Bill Wyman said that he intended to leave the band in 1982, on the group’s 20th anniversary. Wyman quit the band in 1993.

1983, Neil Young appeared Maple Leaf Gardens, Toronto.

1987, Bon Jovi were at number one on the singles chart with “Livin’ On A Prayer.”

1989, Fine Young Cannibals scored their only UK number one album with The Raw And The Cooked.

1990, Freddie Mercury made his final public appearance on stage when he joined the rest of Queen to collect the Brit Award for Outstanding Contribution to Music, held at the Dominion Theatre, London, England.

1995, Guitarist Bob Stinson from The Replacements died from a drug overdose, his body was found in his Uptown, Minneapolis apartment. Stinson was a founding member of The Replacements, was also a member of Static Taxi.

1998, Robert Smith of The Cure does battle with the forces of musical evil as embodied by a monstrous Barbra Streisand on the animated television show South Park.

2000, An American court ordered the release of FBI files relating to John Lennon’s interests and activities including his support for the Irish Republican cause, and the Workers Revolutionary Party. The British Government told the US that it wanted the files to remain secret. MI5 also had files on Lennon, which they had passed on the FBI during the ’70s.

2004, On his official Web site, Billy Corgan blames the 2000 split of the Smashing Pumpkins on guitarist James Iha. “James Iha broke up the Smashing Pumpkins, not me,” he writes. “I would have gone on forever, the Smashing Pumpkins were essentially my entire life.”

2007,  Norah Jones scored her third US number one album with Not Too Late, also a number one in the UK and over 20 other countries.

2011,  Radiohead released their 8th album The King of Limbs as a download.

2013,  Soul and R&B singer Otis Damon Harris, who was a member of The Temptations, died at the age of 62 after a 14-year battle with prostate cancer. Harris was a member of The Temptations from 1971 to 1975, joining shortly after the departure of Eddie Kendricks.

Born on February 18: Yoko Ono (1933); Skip Battin, The Byrds (1934); Bobby Hart, singer, songwriter (1939); Herman Santigo, singer, Frankie Lymon And The Teenagers (1941);Dennis DeYoung, Styx (1947); Robbie Bachmann, drummer, BTO (1953); Derek Pellicci, Australian drummer, Little River Band, Mississippi (1953); John Trevolta (1954); Andre Young, aka Dr. Dre, rapper, producer, entrepreneur (1965)

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When they formed in 1965, The Shadows Of The Knight described their mission as such: “The Stones, Animals and Yardbirds took the Chicago Blues and gave it an English interpretation. We’ve taken the English version of the Blues and re-added a Chicago touch.” And bringing the British Invasion’s version of Chicago Blues back home was exactly what they did by way of several seminal garage rock classics.

The Shadows Of The Knight’s classic lineup included Jim Sohns on vocals, Warren Rogers  on bass, Jerry McGeorge on rhythm guitar, Joe Kelly on lead guitar and Tom Schiffour on drums.

The group cut its teeth playing at a small club in the northern suburbs of Chicago (Arlington Heights for you local readers) called The Cellar, drawing hundreds of fans each weekend for six months. You can hear one of the group’s earth shattering 1966 shows from The Cellar on an album called Raw ‘n Alive At The Cellar that was subsequently released by Sundazed Records years later. The Cellar gigs got them a coveted opening slot for The Byrds, which led to a recording contract with the tiny Chicago Dunwich record label.

One of the highlights of the band’s set was their version of Van Morrison and Them’s single “Gloria.” Dunwich producers Bill Traut and George Badonski urged the group to record the song as their first single, however the group changed Van Morrison’s original lyric from “she comes to my room, then she made me feel alright” to “she called out my name, that made me feel alright,” thereby alluding the AM Radio censors who had banned Them’s version. As a result, “Gloria” climbed to #10 on the charts and sold over one million copies.

Their first album, also titled Gloria, contained credible covers of John Lee Hooker’s “Boom Boom,” Muddy Waters’ “I Got My Mojo Working,” Willie Dixon’s “You Can’t Judge A Book By It’s Cover,” “(I’m Your) Hoochie Coochie Man” and “I Just Want To Make Love With You,” Chuck Berry’s “Let It Rock” and Bo Diddley’s “Oh Yeah,” which is today’s Song Of The Day. They adapted their version of “Oh Yeah” not from Bo Diddley’s recording but from a British garage rock band called The Others. It was their second biggest single climbing to #39 on the charts and probably provided the blueprint for David Bowie’s “Jene Genie.”

The group released a second equally excellent Dunwich album called Back Door Men; however they were not able to follow “Gloria” with another smash single so the rest of the band bailed on Sohns leaving him with the rights to the name of the band which proved mighty lucrative years later. Meanwhile, Dunwich sold the Shadows master tapes to Atlantic Records (who was their distributor) for one dollar figuring nothing would ever come from them!

Sohns’ version of The Shadows signed to Buddah Records subsidiary Super K, where he was paired with studio musicians to make a bubblegum album called Shadows Of The Knight.  At the same time, Dunwich released an updated version of “Gloria” called “Gloria ‘69” featuring new bass and guitar tracks overdubbed by Jim Donlinger and none other than Peter Cetera, who would go on to be a founding member of Chicago.

Over the years, Sohns fronted many different permutations of The Shadows Of The Knight, sporadically recording singles and playing gigs on the oldies circuit. He briefly managed punk legends Skafish between 1978 and 1980, and would often join them on stage for their encore of “Gloria.” In 1980, Sohns was arrested on drug charges for which he served three years in prison.

Upon returning from prison, Sohns reformed The Shadows and opened for the likes of Cheap Trick and The Romantics exposing their music to a whole new audience. After a Sohns-led reformed version of the group headlined Little Steven’s Underground Garage tour, the group released an album of new material in 2007 called A Knight To Remember which was followed by another album the following year called Rock ‘n’ Roll Survivors.

Today, The Shadows Of The Knight can still be seen performing shows on the oldies circuit.

1966, Nancy Sinatra was at number one on the singles chart with “These Boots Are Made For Walking,” her first chart topper.

1967, The Beatles started recording a new John Lennon song “Being For the Benefit of Mr. Kite” at Abbey Road studio’s, London. John’s lyrics for the song came almost entirely from an antique poster advertising a circus performance scheduled to take place in Rochdale, Lancashire, in February 1843. John had purchased the poster in Sevenoaks on January 31st while The Beatles were on location for the filming of the “Strawberry Fields Forever” promotional film.

1967, The Electric Prunes, The Left Banke, and The Beach Boys performed at Robertson Memorial Fieldhouseon the campus of Bradley University, in Peoria, Illinois.

1968, Diana Ross And The Supremes’ Greatest Hits started a three-week run at number one on the album chart.

1968, Following their first New York performance at the Anderson Theatre, Big Brother & the Holding Company are signed by Columbia Records.

1968, Canned Heat appeared at the Grande Ballroom in Detroit, Michigan.

1969, Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash recorded “Girl From The North Country” together in Nashville at CBS Studios. The track appeared on Dylan’s Nashville Skyline album.

1970, Joni Mitchell announced she was retiring from live performances during a concert at London’s Royal Albert Hall. Joni was on stage again by the end of the year.

1970, Led Zeppelin performed at Usher Hall in Edinburgh, Scotland.

1971, James Taylor made his TV debut on The Johnny Cash Show. Other guests included Neil Young, Linda Ronstadt and Tony Joe White.

1972, The (Perth) West Australian wrote about the previous night’s concert by Led Zeppelin, “Perth has probably never seen a concert quite like it. Certainly, a Festival of Perth attraction has never been so “heavy”. That Led Zeppelin rock group’s only concert at Subiaco Oval last night at the beginning of an Australian Tour was unique. The pelting rhythm and distinctive brackets of the group – consisting of electric guitarist Jimmy Page, organist John Paul Jones, drummer John Bonham and lead vocalist Robert Plant – were different from any rock group that has appeared in Perth. And the 80000 people who went enjoyed every minute of the two and a half hour performance.”

1972, At the end of a 14 date UK tour, Pink Floyd started a four night run at London’s Rainbow Theatre.

1972, Los Angeles radio station KDAY played two new Rolling Stones tracks non-stop for a day after obtaining stolen tapes from a producer’s home.

1973, War started a two-week run at number one on the album chart with The World Is A Ghetto.

1973, The Grateful Dead played at St. Paul Auditorium in St. Paul, Minnesota.

1974, KISS appeared at the Long Beach Civic Arena, Long Beach, California.

1975, John Lennon’s Rock ‘n’ Roll album was released in the US.

1975, AC/DC released their debut album High Voltage. The album featured a cover of “Baby, Please Don’t Go” a blues song first recorded by Big Joe Williams and “She’s Got Balls” which was written about singer Bon Scott’s ex-wife Irene – the first AC/DC song for which he wrote lyrics.

1976, David Bowie performed at McNichols Sports Arena, Denver, Colorado.

1977, Pink Floyd played the first of three nights at the Sportpaleis Ahoy, in Rotterdam, The Netherlands.  The set list for each show was: Sheep / Pigs on the Wing, Part 1/ Dogs / Pigs On the Wing Part 2 / Pigs (Three Different Ones) // second set: Shine On You Crazy Diamond , Parts 1-5 / Welcome to the Machine / Have A Cigar / Wish You Were Here / Shine On You Crazy Diamond, Parts 6-9 / encore: Money.

1978, Rush appeared at the Apollo Theatre, Glasgow, Scotland.

1979, Blondie scored their first number one album when Parallel Lines started a four-week run at the top of the charts, featuring the singles “Heart Of Glass,” “Hanging On The Telephone” and “Sunday Girl.”

1979, The Clash opened the US leg of their ‘Pearl Harbour ’79’, North American tour at New York’s Palladium.

1989, R.E.M., Hoodoo Gurus, and The Go-Betweens all appeared at the Hordern Pavilion, Sydney, Australia.

2000, John Lennon’s Steinway piano, on which he composed “Imagine,” went on display at the Beatles Story Museum in Liverpool, England. The piano was set to be auctioned on the Internet later in the year and was expected to fetch more than £1 million ($1.7 million).

2005, A 1965 Fender Stratocaster guitar belonging to Jimi Hendrix sold for £100,000 ($150,000) at an auction in London. Other Hendrix items sold included a poem written two weeks after his appearance at the Monterrey Pop Festival which went for £10,000 ($15,000,) and the first Jimi Hendrix Experience’s single “Hey Joe,” signed by all the band sold for £2,000 ($3000.)

Born on February 17: Orville “Hoppy” Jones, The Ink Spots (1905); Tommy Edwards, singer (1922); Gene Pitney (1941); Karl Jenkins, Soft Machine (1944); Rickey Medlocke, Blackfoot, Lynryd Skynyrd (1950); Taylor Hawkins, Foo Fighters; Billy Joe Armstrong, Green Day (1972); Ed Sheeran, British singer, songwriter (1991)

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“I Had Too Much To Dream Last Night” by The Electric Prunes, “Dirty Water” by The Standells, “Pushin’ Too Hard” by The Seeds, “Hey Joe” by The Leaves, “Farmer John” by The Premiers – these are some of the greatest garage rock classics of all time. But, perhaps the gnarliest rave up of them all is today’s Song Of The Day, “Psychotic Reaction” by The Count Five.

The Count Five formed in San Jose, California in the early 1960s and consisted of John “Mouse” Michalski on guitar, Roy Chaney on bass, John “Sean” Byrne on vocals and rhythm guitar, and Craig “Butch” Atkinson on drums.

Byrne came up with the group’s signature song while attending a Health Education class at San Jose City College in California. During a discussion about psychosis, a classmate suggested that “Psychotic Reaction” would make a great song title. By the end of the day, a garage rock classic was born.

“Psychotic Reaction” quickly became the centerpiece of the group’s stage act where it was heard by a local DJ named Brian Lord who shopped the song around to nearly every local record label. The single was ultimately released on the tiny Double Shot record label, after the group was rejected by everyone else they approached.

Even though the song was a brazen rip off of The Yardbirds’ sound, it climbed all the way up to the #5 spot on the singles charts in 1966. Part of the song’s popularity had to do with The Count Five’s shtick of dressing up in Count Dracula capes on stage.

The group’s sole album was also called Psychotic Reaction.  It featured original tunes like “Pretty Big Mouth,” “They’re Gonna Get You” and “Double Decker Bus” that repeated the same formula of their signature hit to no avail. And while credit must be given to the band for covering two songs by The Who (who were relatively unknown in America), their ill-conceived versions of “My Generation” and “Out In The Street” are as amateurish as the rest of the platter.

After the single dropped off of the charts and the album failed to even make a dent, each member of the group decided to pursue college bringing the legend of The Count Five to a close.

The song was subsequently rescued from obscurity by Lenny Kaye and Jac Holzman, who picked the song for the landmark 1972 compilation album Nuggets: Original Artyfacts from the First Psychedelic Era, 1965–1968.

Today, the song is regarded as a bona-fide classic and is regularly covered by bands all over the world. Just this past weekend, Wilco included a version of the song in their Solid Sound Festival all-request show.

1964, The Beatles made their second live appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show, exactly one week after the first. Before an audience of 3,500 at the Deauville Hotel in Miami Beach, Florida.

1965, The Who perform at the Marquee Club where they are filmed for French television performing “Heatwave,” “Tell Me More,” “Shout and Shimmy,” and “Smokestack Lightning.” The footage is later broadcast on the ORTF TV 2 program Seize Millions De Jeunes on March 18th. Pete and manager Kit Lambert are both interviewed, the latter in French. Sticking to English, Pete expresses his doubts about marriage and mocks religious belief.

1967, Pink Floyd played at Guildhall in Southampton, Hampshire, England.

1967, Petula Clark was at number one on the singles chart with the Charlie Chaplin penned “This Is My Song,” the singers second and last chart topper.

1968, Jimi Hendrix played back to back shows during his US tour at the Music Hall at Fair Park, as well as at McFarlin Memorial Auditorium in Dallas, Texas.

1972, Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watt’s wife Shirley was arrested after an incident at Nice Airport for swearing and hitting customs officials.

1972, Genesis played at Greens Playhouse, Glasgow, Scotland.

1972, Led Zeppelin made their Australian live debut when they kicked off a six-date tour at the Subiaco Oval, Perth. Police battled with over 500 fans who rammed locked gates trying to get into the concert. Over 4,000 fans stood outside the venue without tickets and local residents jammed police phone lines to complain about the noise.

1973, Grand Funk Railroad played at the Mid-South Coliseum in Memphis, Tennessee.

1974, Bob Dylan started a four week run at number one on the album chart with Planet Waves. The album was originally set to be titled Ceremonies Of The Horsemen, a reference to the song “Love Minus Zero / No Limit,” from the 1965 album Bringing It All Back Home. When Dylan decided to change the title at the last minute, the release was delayed for two weeks.

1974, During a tour of America the members of Emerson, Lake & Palmer were arrested in Salt Lake City after swimming naked in the hotel pool.

1974, Winners in the UK music weekly Disc Readers Awards Poll included: Slade for Top UK group. Top musician, Roy Wood; David Bowie won UK and World male singer, as well as Top single with “Jean Genie,” and album with Aladdin Sane. Top female singer was Lynsey De Paul, and Brightest hope was won by David Essex.

1975, Cher started her own weekly hour of a music and comedy show on CBS-TV. The singer had co-hosted The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour with her former husband. Cher’s new show featured a female guest each week.

1976, David Bowie appeared at the  Civic Auditorium, Albuquerque, New Mexico.

1977, ZZ Top performed at the Dane County Coliseum, Madison, Wisconsin.

1978, Santana played at  Maple Leaf Gardens, Toronto.

1980, Rush appeared at the University Of Dayton Arena, Dayton, Ohio.

1982, The Grateful Dead performed at the Warfield Theater in San Francisco.

1985, Bruce Springsteen went to number one on the album chart with Born In The USA, The singer’s seventh studio album. It was the best-selling album of 1985 in the United States, and Springsteen’s most successful album ever. The album produced a record-tying string of seven top ten singles.

 1991, The Simpsons were at number one on the UK singles chart with “Do The Bartman.” The song was written by Michael Jackson and Bryan Lorenand. The Simpsons became the first cartoon characters to reach number one since the Archies hit “Sugar Sugar” in 1969. Jackson was a massive fan of The Simpsons and had called the producers one night offering to write Bart a number one single and do a guest spot on the show.

2004, Singer Doris Troy died. She had been a session singer with Dionne Warwick, sang on Pink Floyd’s Dark Side Of The Moon, and released an album on The Beatles’ Apple label. She had also had a 1964 UK  number 37 single with “Whatcha Gonna Do About It” and a 1963 US number ten hit “Just One Look.”

2005, Yusuf Islam, the former Cat Stevens, was awarded substantial damages from The Sunday Times and The Sun, after they had printed articles alleging he was involved in terrorism. Both newspapers apologized to the 56 year-old musician for the “false and highly defamatory allegations.” The papers also paid his legal bills and pledged not to repeat the allegations. The money awarded was given to Tsunami relief projects.

Born on this day: Otis Blackwell,  songwriter (1932); Sony Bono (1935); Lynn Paul, singer, The New Seekers (1949); Tracy Morrow, aka Ice-T, rapper, actor (1959); Andy Taylor, Duran, Duran (1961)

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