Tag Archives: drummer

December 15 ~ On This Day in Music

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Christmas Music: The First Noel

• 1892 ~ David Guion, American composer

• 1910 ~ John Hammond, American jazz critic

• 1921 ~ Alan Freed, American disc jockey, who became internationally known as the man who coined the name “Rock and Roll” for the new style of African-American rhythm and blues music on the radio in the United States and Europe in the Fifties. He was also one of the guest Disc Jockeys on the European Radio Station “Radio Luxembourg” the show which he recorded in New York was the weekly half-hour segment of the Radio Luxembourg called Jamboree and was aired on Saturday nights at 9:30 PM and gained massive European following and a wider audience for the American rock and rollers Little Richard and Chuck Berry.

• 1939 ~ One of the most celebrated motion pictures of all time, Gone with the Wind, starring Vivien Leigh and Clark Gable was premiered in Atlanta to critical acclaim. The picture ran for close to four hours.

• 1941 ~ A musical standard was recorded this day on Victor Records. Lena Horne sang the torch classic that became her signature: Stormy Weather. “Don’t know why there’s no sun up in the sky. Stormy weather…”

• 1942 ~ Dave Clark, British rock drummer and singer

• 1943 ~ Fats (Thomas Wright) Waller died at the age of 39 from pneumonia.  He was an American jazz pianist, organist, composer, singer, and comedic entertainer, whose innovations to the Harlem stride style laid the groundwork for modern jazz piano.

• 1944 ~ Glenn Miller passed away when his plane disappeared over the English Channel. Major Glenn Miller was on his way to lead his Air Force Band in a Christmas concert.

• 1954 ~ Davy Crockett, Indian Fighter was featured on Walt Disney’s TV series for the first time. Crockett was played by Fess Parker. It wasn’t long before the Davy Crockett craze brought a new number one song to the pop music charts. “Davy, Davy Crockett, king of the wild frontier.”

• 1962 ~ The first record album to poke fun at a U.S. President became the #1 LP in the country. Vaughn Meader’s The First Family made the humorist a household word. The album stayed at #1 for three months.

• 1984 ~ Jan Peerce passed away

• 1986 ~ Violinist Isaac Stern arrived in a horse-drawn carriage to cut the ribbon for the renovated Carnegie Hall in New York City.

• 1986 ~ Kenny Rogers cut himself a deal with the Dole Food Company. The singer became the highest-paid celebrity pitchman, ‘doling’ out nice words about pineapple and other Dole products for 17 million dollars.

• 2000 ~ Revered conjunto musician Valerio Longoria, who taught accordion to children in San Antonio for many years, died at the age of 76. Musicians and friends remembered the master accordionist as an innovator and influential stylist of conjunto music, a Texas-based rhythm fueled by the accordion and the bajo sexto, a 12-string Spanish bass guitar. As a teenager, Longoria played weddings and parties in Harlingen. In 1942, he was drafted into the U.S. Army and at the end of World War II was stationed in Germany, where he managed to get an accordion and play in nightclubs. In 1945, he moved to San Antonio, where he began recording for Corona Records. Longoria was among the first inductees into the Tejano Conjunto Music Hall of Fame in 1982, and in 1986 he received the National Heritage Award, the nation’s highest honor for folk artists.

• 2001 ~ Rufus Thomas, a musician whose Bear Cat helped Sun Records get its start and whose Funky Chicken gave a boost to the Stax Label, died at the age of 84. Rufus Thomas was best known for novelty dance recordings like Walking the Dog, Do the Funky Chicken and Push and Pull. He began tap dancing on the streets of Memphis for tips and performed in amateur shows in high school. In the 1940s, Thomas ran his own Beale Street amateur show that attracted B.B. King, Bobby “Blue” Bland and many other performers who went on to become famous. In his declining years, Thomas took on the title of Beale Street ambassador and liked to refer to himself as the world’s oldest teenager. In 1953, Thomas recorded Bear Cat, an answer to Big Mama Thornton’s Hound Dog, and it became Sun Record’s first hit. That was before Elvis Presley arrived on the scene to become Sun’s undisputed star. Thomas complained in later years that Sun’s black artists were pushed aside after Presley’s success. In the 1960s, Thomas became one of the founding performers for Stax Records, which created what came to be known as “the Memphis sound,” with performers like Isaac Hayes, Otis Redding and Sam and Dave.

• 2002 ~ John Crosby, founder and longtime former general director of the Santa Fe Opera, died in Rancho Mirage, Calif., after a brief illness. He was 76. Crosby founded the Santa Fe Opera in 1957 and was its general director until his retirement at the end of the 2000 season. After his military service during World War II, Crosby majored in music theory at Yale and studied under composer Paul Hindemith, whom Crosby later brought to Santa Fe for the 1961 U.S. premiere of Hindemith’s opera News of the Day. Crosby also had worked as a Broadway arranger and studied at Columbia University in New York before making his move to found an opera company in Santa Fe. With $200,000 in financing from his father, Crosby purchased a ranch seven miles north of Santa Fe and oversaw construction of a 480-seat, open-air theater. The inaugural performance July 3, 1957, was Puccini’s Madama Butterfly. With the participation of Igor Stravinsky, early Santa Fe seasons gained world attention. Stravinsky brought music to the 1957 through 1963 seasons. His last night as both conductor and general director was Aug. 24, 2000, when he led Richard Strauss’ Elektra. Former President Bush presented Crosby a National Medal of Arts in 1991. He also received an Officer’s Cross of the Federal German Order of Merit in 1992 for his service to German music.

• 2002 ~ Rick Chase, a morning radio personality for KWIN-FM of Stockton, was found dead in his apartment. He was 45. Chase was best known for his work at KMEL-FM in San Francisco from 1986 to 1998. He also worked at KFRC-FM and KITS-FM in the Bay Area, KNVQ-FM in Reno and KZZO-FM in Sacramento. Chase, a 20-year radio veteran known to his listeners for his bombastic on-air personality, had worked at KWIN for two years.

• 2002 ~ Washington, DC Area: The storied history and sweeping skyline of US Airways Arena ended in a billowing cloud of dust Sunday morning as technicians reduced it to rubble with hundreds of pounds of dynamite. Almost 200 people, some of whom grew up watching sports and cultural events at the arena, gathered hundreds of yards away in the chill morning to say goodbye to the piece of 20th-century Washington’s history just outside the Capital Beltway. A shopping center will replace it. The arena began life in 1973 as the Capital Centre, a state-of-the-art architectural gem. In the ensuing decades, it housed the Washington Bullets basketball team and the Washington Capitals hockey team and held concerts by Elvis Presley, Michael Jackson, Frank Sinatra, the Rolling Stones, Luciano Pavarotti. “I remember seeing the Washington Bullets when they were really good and the Caps when they were really bad, as well as Prince and Tina Turner,” said Stewart Small, who grew up near the arena and now lives in Alexandria, Va. “I know it’s not Ebbets Field, but it had a lot of memories for me.” Crews used about 400 pounds of dynamite at 500 locations to do the job. In just over 15 seconds, the stadium that took 15 months to build caved into a cloud of light brown dust. Some in the crowd cheered, but most were silent. A few were teary-eyed as dust soared above where the 18,000-seat arena had stood. The arena opened Dec. 2, 1973, to a sellout crowd that watched the Bullets beat the Seattle SuperSonics 98-96. It has had no regular clients since the NBA Bullets, now Wizards, and the NHL Capitals moved to the MCI Center downtown.

December 2 ~ On This Day in Music

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Christmas Countdown: Joy To The World

• 1774 ~ Johann Friedrich Agricola, German composer, organist, singer, pedagogue, and writer on music.

• 1856 ~ Robert Kajanus, Finnish conductor and composer

• 1899 ~ Sir John Barbirolli, British conductor and cellist

• 1914 ~ Eddie Sauter, Drummer, trumpeter, composer, orchestra leader of the Sauter- Finegan Orchestra, arranger for Benny Goodman and Artie Shaw

• 1916 ~ Charlie Ventura, Tenor sax, played with Gene Krupa, Stan Kenton, Charlie Parker, Count Basie, band leader

• 1917 ~ Sylvia Syms, Singer, ‘world’s greatest saloon singer’

• 1918 ~ Milton DeLugg, Bandleader on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson; Milton DeLugg and His Orchestra: Abe Burrows’ Almanac, The Chuck Barris Rah Rah Show, Dagmar’s Canteen, Doodles Weaver, The Gong Show, Judge for Yourself, Your Hit Parade; played accordion in The Milton DeLugg Quartet and songwriter

• 1928 ~ Jörg Demus, Austrian pianist

• 1934 ~ Billy Paul (Paul Williams), Singer

• 1941 ~ Tom McGuinness, Bass, guitar with Manfred Mann; McGuinness Flint; and Blues Band

• 1942 ~ Ted Bluechel, Jr., Singer, drummer with The Association

• 1944 ~ Eric Bloom, Singer, guitarist

• 1945 ~ John Densmore, Musician with The Doors

• 1950 ~ Dino Lipatti, classical pianist and composer whose career was cut short from causes related to Hodgkin’s disease, died at the age of 33

• 1952 ~ Michael McDonald, Singer, songwriter, keyboard with The Doobie Brothers

• 1960 ~ Rick Savage, Bass with Def Leppard

• 1972 ~ Motown’s Temptations reached the #1 spot on the top 40 charts with Papa Was a Rollin’ Stone. It was the fourth #1 hit for the Temptations, joining My Girl, I Can’t Get Next to You and Just My Imagination.

• 1981 Hershy Kay, composer, died at the age of 62. Union Jack is a ballet made by New York City Ballet co-founder and founding choreographer George Balanchine to traditional British tunes, hornpipe melodies and music-hall songs, ca. 1890–1914, adapted by Hershy Kay. The premiere took place on 13 May 1976, at the New York State Theater, Lincoln Center, to honor British heritage in the United States its bicentennial with costumes by Rouben Ter-Arutunian, original lighting by Ronald Bates and current lighting by Mark Stanley. At the finale, the ensemble spells out “God Save the Queen” in semaphore code and the Union Jack unfurls. Principal dancer Jock Soto included an excerpt from Union Jack in his farewell performance in June 2005.

November 20 ~ On This Day in Music

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•  1894 ~ Anton Rubinstein, Russian composer and pianist, died at the age of 64.

•  1925 ~ June Christy (Shirley Luster), Singer, sang with Stan Kenton band

•  1929 ~ Leo Reisman and his orchestra recorded Happy Days are Here Again for Victor Records. The classic was recorded just three weeks after the stock market crash that plunged the nation into the Great Depression.

• 1937 ~ Ruth Laredo, American pianist

• 1940 ~ Tony Butala, Singer with The Lettermen

•  1942 ~ Norman Greenbaum, Singer

• 1943 ~ Meredith Monk, American composer, dancer, choreographer and singer

• 1946 ~ Duane Allman, Guitarist with The Allman Brothers Band

• 1946 ~ Ray Stiles, Bass, singer with Mud

• 1947 ~ George Grantham, Drummer, singer with Poco

• 1947 ~ Joe Walsh, Guitarist, singer with the Eagles; James Gang

• 1948 ~ Barbara Hendricks, American soprano

• 1957 ~ Jimmy Brown, Drummer with UB40

• 1959 ~ One of America’s great rock jocks was fired from WABC radio in New York. The ‘Moondoggy’ himself, Alan Freed, was axed in the midst of the payola music scandal.

• 1966 ~ Cabaret opened on Broadway for the first of 1,166 stellar performances. Joel Gray starred in the hugely successful musical that is an adaptation of both the play, “I Am a Camera”, and the novel, “Goodbye to Berlin”.

• 1971 ~ Isaac Hayes of Memphis, TN got his first #1 hit as the Theme from Shaft began a two-week stay at the top of the charts.

• 1973 ~ Allan Sherman, American parody singer and songwriter (Hello Muddah, Hello Faddah), died from emphysema at the age of 48

• 1984 ~ The largest crowd to see the unveiling of a Hollywood Walk-of-Fame star turned out as Michael Jackson got his piece of the sidewalk right in front of Mann’s Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles. ‘The Gloved One’ became star number 1,793 on the famed walk.

• 2003 ~ Katherine Bidwell, who supported performing arts programs and held positions at the Metropolitan Opera Guild and Lincoln Center, died. She was 66. A musician herself, Bidwell joined the St. Louis Municipal Opera when she was 18. She became a trustee at Sarah Lawrence College, her alma mater, and sponsored performing arts programs there. In 1966, Bidwell joined the board of the Metropolitan Opera Guild. She was its president and chief executive from 1979 to 1986, and for the next 10 years, she was director of special projects for Lincoln Center. Bidwell founded the Katherine Bidwell Foundation for Young Singers and the patrons’ program of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. She was a trustee of several other organizations, including Westminster Choir College and the London School of Music and Dramatic Arts.

November 14 ~ On This Day in Music

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.1778 ~ Johann Nepomuk Hummel, German pianist and composer

.1805 ~ Fanny Cacilia Mendelssohn Hensel, German pianist and composer. She composed over 460 pieces of music. Her compositions include a piano trio and several books of solo piano pieces and songs. A number of her songs were originally published under her brother, Felix Mendelssohn’s, name in his opus 8 and 9 collections. Her piano works are often in the manner of songs, and many carry the name Lieder für das Pianoforte (Songs for the piano, a parallel to Felix’s Songs without Words).

.1831 ~ Ignaz Joseph Pleyel, Austrian composer/piano builder, died at the age of 74

.1900 ~ Aaron Copland, American composer and conductor
Read quotes by and about Copland
More information about Copland

.1904 ~ Art Hodes, Russian-born American jazz pianist

.1915 ~ Martha Tilton, Singer, actress in The Benny Goodman Story, Sunny

.1915 ~ Theodor Leschetizky, composer, died at the age of 85

.1920 ~ Johnny Desmond (Giovanni DeSimone), Singer with the Bob-O-Links, the Bob Crosby Band, Glenn Miller AAF band, Don McNeill’s Breakfast Club, Your Hit Parade, Face the Music and an actor

.1921 ~ KYW radio, Chicago, IL broadcast the first opera by a professional company. Listeners heard Samson Et Dalila as it was being performed at the Chicago Auditorium.

.1940 ~ Freddie Garrity, Singer with Freddie and the Dreamers

.1944 ~ An outstanding array of musicians gathered in Hollywood to record a classic. Tommy Dorsey and orchestra made Opus No. 1, Victor record number 20-1608. Buddy Rich was the drummer in the session, Al Klink and Buddy DeFranco blew sax and Nelson Riddle played trombone on the Sy Oliver arrangement.

.1946 ~ Manuel de Falla, Spanish composer died at the age of 70. Along with Isaac Albéniz and Enrique Granados, he was one of Spain’s most important musicians of the first half of the 20th century.

.1948 ~ James Young, Guitarist with Styx

.1951 ~ Stephen Bishop, Singer, guitarist, songwriter

.1953 ~ Alexander O’Neal, Songwriter, singer

.1954 ~ Yanni (Chrysomallis), Pianist, music used on broadcasts of Tour de France, Olympic Games, World Series; swimmer on the Greek National Swim Team

.1955 ~ Frankie Banali, Musician with Quiet Riot

.1956 ~ Alec Such, Bass with Bon Jovi

.1967 ~ The Monkees received a gold record for Daydream Believer.

.1975 ~ They Just Can’t Stop It (The Games People Play) became a gold record for the Spinners. Their other hits include Then Came You (with Dionne Warwick), Could It Be I’m Falling in Love, The Rubberband Man, Working My Way Back to You, Cupid, It’s a Shame and I’ll Be Around, for Motown.

.1977 ~ Richard Addinsell, English composer (Alice in Wonderland), died at the age of 73

.1981 ~ For the second week in a row, Daryl Hall and John Oates owned the top spot on the pop music charts with Private Eyes.

.2000 ~ David Wilson, drummer and backup vocalist for The Cascades, died at the age of 63. The Cascades were best known for their No. 1 1963 hit Rhythm of the Rain, as well as Second Chance and Shy Girl. Wilson was born in 1936 in Scotland and moved to the United States with his family six years later. After he joined the Navy, Wilson formed a band with songwriter John Gummoe and some friends in San Diego. They first called themselves the Thunder Notes, but later took the name The Cascades when they recorded Rhythm of the Rain. The single earned the group a gold record.

November 8 ~ On This Day in Music

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today

1793 ~ The Louvre Museum opened in Paris.

.1880 ~ Sarah Bernhardt made her American stage debut. Bernhardt appeared in Adrienne Lecouvreur in New York City.

.1890 ~ Caesar-Auguste Franck, Belgian organist/composer died in Paris

.1921 ~ Jerome Hines, American bass

.1924 ~ Sergei Mikhailovich Lyapunov, Russian pianist and composer

.1927 ~ Patti Page, American singer of popular music

.1927 ~ Chris Conner, Singer

.1932 ~ The team of Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II debuted with their show, Make Mine Music. The Broadway production continued for 342 performances.

.1939 ~ This day marked Frank Sinatra’s last recording session with the Harry James Band. Sides recorded were Every Day of My Life and Ciribiribin.

.1939 ~ “Life With Father” premiered on Broadway in New York City. Eight years later, the show broke the existing record for longest-running stage production.

.1941 ~ Rodney Slater, Saxophone, trumpet with The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band

.1944 ~ Bonnie Bramlett, Songwriter, singer with Delaney and Bonnie and Friends

.1946 ~ Roy Wood (Ulysses Adrian Wood), Singer, songwriter, formed Electric Light Orchestra

.1947 ~ Minnie (Julia) Riperton, Singer

.1949 ~ Alan Berger, Bass with Southside Johnny & The Asbury Jukes

.1949 ~ Bonnie Raitt, American blues-rock singer and guitarist, won the Grammy Award in 1990, daughter of actor, John Raitt

.1954 ~ Ricki Lee Jones, Singer

.1958 ~ Terry Lee Miall, Drummer with Adam & The Ants

.1964 ~ Judy Garland and her daughter, Liza Minnelli, appeared together at the London Palladium. The program was shown on U.S. TV; and the LP, Live at the London Palladium became a classic on Capitol Records.

.1967 ~ The first solo movie by a Beatle opened in the U.S. It was John Lennon’s How I Won the War.

.2003 ~ Henry Phace Roberts, a tap dancer who performed with the Copasetics, the Five Blazers and the Three Rockets, died. He was 92. Roberts performed on television on “The Tonight Show” and “The Ed Sullivan S Show” and was in the films “Cabin in the Sky,” “Stormy Weather” and “The Cotton Club.” Born in Savannah, Ga., he was trained to tap dance on the streets as a child. Roberts began dancing professionally at 14, and performed for the last time at 87 with the Copasetics on a European tour.

October 20 ~ On This Day in Music

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• 1874 ~ Charles Ives, American composer
More information on Ives

• 1890 ~ Ferdinand “Jelly Roll” Morton, jazz pianist/composer

• 1913 ~ Grandpa (Louis Marshall) Jones, Country Music Hall of Famer, Grand Ole Opry, singer

• 1914 ~ Fayard Nicholas, American tap dancer, one-half of The Nicholas Brothers and actor (The Five Heartbeats)

• 1923 ~ Robert Craft, American conductor and writer

• 1935 ~ Jerry Orbach, American singer and actor for the musical theater

• 1937 ~ Wanda Jackson, Singer, songwriter

• 1939 ~ Jay Siegel, Singer with The Tokens

• 1939 ~ All the Things You Are was recorded by the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra on the Victor label. Jack Leonard was the featured vocalist.

• 1945 ~ Ric Lee, Drummer with Ten Years After

• 1950 ~ Tom Petty, Singer with The Traveling Wilburys

• 1951 ~ Al Greenwood, Keyboards with Foreigner

• 1955 ~ “Day-O. Day-ay-ay-ay-o!” One of the most popular of the Harry Belafonte hits was recorded for RCA Victor. Day-O didn’t make it to the pop charts for over a year, until January of 1957, after its name had been changed to The Banana Boat Song (Day-O).

• 1958 ~ Mark King, Bass, singer with Level 42

• 1958 ~ Ivo Pogorelić, Croatian pianist (1978 Casagrande winner)

• 1962 ~ With Halloween just around the corner, we remember that Bobby “Boris” Picket and the Crypt Kickers reached the top of the charts this day (for two weeks) with The Monster Mash. And someone, somewhere, has resurrected it every Halloween since.

This piece is now in Piano Maestro in the Halloween section and there is sheet music, if you are interested.

• 1962 ~ The musical, Mr. President, written by Irving Berlin, opened on Broadway. Mr. President ran for 265 performances.

• 1965 ~ The Beatles received a gold record for the single, Yesterday. This song marked the first time a cello was used in a pop hit.

• 2000 ~ Li Yundi, an 18-year-old virtuoso from China, has won Poland’s Frederic Chopin piano competition, becoming one of the youngest players to capture the prestigious international prize. Read the whole story

October 18 ~ On This Day in Music

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• 1545 ~ John Taverner, English composer (Western Wynde), died at about the age of 55

• 1893 ~ Charles F Gounod, French composer (La reine the Saba), died at the age of 75

• 1898 ~ Lotte Lenya (Karoline Blamauer), Austrian actress and Tony Award-winning singer

•  ~ Shin’ichi Suzuki, Japanese educator and violin teacher
More information about Suzuki

• 1918 ~ Bobby Troup, American jazz pianist and actor (Emergency, Acapulco)

• 1926 ~ Chuck (Charles Edward Anderson) Berry, Rock and Roll Hall of Famer inducted in 1986, Lifetime Achievement Grammy (1985)
Washington Honored Eastwood, Baryshnikov, Berry (2000)

• 1935 ~ Victor record #25236 was recorded by Tommy Dorsey and orchestra. It would become one of the most familiar big band themes of all time, I’m Getting Sentimental Over You.

• 1943 ~ Russ Giguere, Guitarist, singer with The Association

• 1947 ~ Laura Nyro, Singer

• 1952 ~ Keith Knudsen, Drummer singer with The Doobie Brothers

• 1961 ~ Wynton Marsalis, American jazz trumpeter, composer
More information about the Marsalis family
 Grammy winner

• 1979 ~ Following extensive renovation to return Radio City Music Hall to the look and feel of its 1931 art deco glory, the venerable New York City theatre reopened. “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” was the first live presentation.

• 1983 ~ Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton received a gold record to add to their collections for their smash, Islands in the Stream.

• 2000 ~ Julie London, American singer and actress (Nurse McCall-Emergency), died at the age of 74

• 2000 ~ Gwyneth “Gwen” Verdon, American actress, singer and dancer (Cotton Club, Sweet Charity), died at the age of 75

• 2006 ~ Anna Russell, English music satirist and composer, died at the age of 94

October 17 ~ On This Day in Music

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• 1810 ~ Giovanni Matteo Mario, Italian tenor

• 1849 ~ Frederic Chopin died at the age of 39. Chopin was a Polish composer and virtuoso pianist of the Romantic era who wrote primarily for solo piano. He has maintained worldwide renown as a leading musician of his era, one whose “poetic genius was based on a professional technique that was without equal in his generation.

• 1892 ~ Herbert Howells, British composer

• 1909 ~ Cozy (William Randolph) Cole, Drummer. He played with Cab Calloway, Louis Armstrong, in films – Make Mine Music, The Glenn Miller Story and started a drummers’ school with Gene Krupa

• 1938 ~ This was a big day in Tinseltown. NBC moved to the corner of Sunset and Vine, the ‘Crossroads of the World’. The new Hollywood Radio City drew thousands of visitors ready to fill studio-audience seats for popular radio programs.

• 1940 ~ James Seals, Singer, guitar, saxophone, fiddle with Seals and Crofts

• 1940 ~ One year before recording that memorable song, Fry Me Cookie, with a Can of Lard, Will Bradley’s orchestra recorded Five O’Clock Whistle, also on Columbia Records.

• 1941 ~ Alan Howard, Bass with Brian Poole & The Tremeloes

• 1942 ~ Gary Puckett, Singer with The Union Gap

• 1945 ~ Actress Ava Gardner made news. She married bandleader Artie Shaw.

• 1946 ~ Jim Tucker, Guitarist with The Turtles until 1965

• 1949 ~ Bill Hudson, Comedian, singer with The Hudson Brothers, was married to actress Goldie Hawn

• 1953 ~ The first concert of contemporary Canadian music presented in the U.S. was performed by conductor Leopold Stokowski at Carnegie Hall in New York City.

• 1955 ~ Jose Ferrer and Claire Bloom starred on NBC’s Producer’s Showcase. They performed in “Cyrano De Bergerac”. Ferrer also won an Oscar for his performance in the film version.

• 1958 ~ Alan Jackson, Singer

• 1962 ~ Though the ‘Fab Four’ would appear on both radio and television, on what they would call ‘Auntie Beeb’ (the BBC), The Beatles made their first appearance this day on Great Britain’s Grenada TV Network.

• 1967 ~ A controversial rock musical “Hair”, opened on this day at the Anspacher Theatre in New York City. It ran for 1,742 performances and then became a movie.

• 1983 ~ Actor Anthony Quinn lit up the Great White Way in the revival of the 1968 musical, “Zorba”, that reunited Quinn with Lila Kedrova, who played Madame Hortense. They both had appeared in the film portrayal, “Zorba the Greek”, which won Quinn a nomination for Best Actor, and an Oscar for Kedrova as Best Supporting Actress. This was one of the few films that came before the Broadway show, rather than the reverse.

• 2003 ~ Bernard Schwartz, who produced “Coal Miner’s Daughter,” the Academy Award-nominated biopic of country singer Loretta Lynn, died of complications following a stroke. He was 85. Schwartz was a one-time Broadway child actor who got into television and film production in the 1950s, working on the popular paranormal suspense show “Alcoa Presents: One Step Beyond” and the hit science fiction film “Journey to the Center of the Earth.” Schwartz’ best known and most lauded production was “Coal Miner’s Daughter,” the 1980 film inspired by Lynn’s song of the same name. Sissy Spacek won an Oscar for her portrayal of Lynn and the film won the Golden Globe award for best musical or comedy. It also was nominated for an Oscar for best picture. In 1985, Schwartz featured Patsy Cline’s life in “Sweet Dreams,” which was named for one of her songs and starred Jessica Lange as the music legend killed in a plane crash. He also produced country singer Amy Grant’s 1986 TV special “Headin’ Home for the Holidays” and worked with Priscilla Presley on the 1988 miniseries “Elvis and Me.” Another of his best-known productions was 1983’s “Psycho II,” the darkly humorous but far bloodier sequel to Hitchcock’s 1960 thriller about troubled motel operator Norman Bates. Other feature films included “The Wackiest Ship in the Army,” “Global Affair,” which starred Bob Hope, and “Rage,” which starred Glenn Ford. Schwartz also produced “That Man Bolt” and “Bucktown,” both vehicles for former football star Fred Williamson, and the thriller “Roadgames” starring Stacey Keach and Jamie Lee Curtis.

October 16 ~ On This Day in Music

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• 1855 ~ William Barclay Squire, British musicologist

• 1893 ~ On this day a song called “Goodmorning to All” was copyrighted by two teachers who wrote it for their kindergarten pupils. The title was later changed to “Happy Birthday to You”.  The copyright was claimed illegal in September, 2015.

• 1923 ~ Bert Kaempfert, Musician

• 1941 ~ Fry Me Cookie, with a Can of Lard was recorded by the Will Bradley Orchestra on Columbia. Ray McKinley was featured.

• 1942 ~ Dave Lovelady, Drummer with The Fourmost

• 1943 ~ C.F. (Fred) Turner, Musician with Bachman~Turner Overdrive

• 1947 ~ Bob Weir (Hall), American rock guitarist and singer with The Grateful Dead

• 1953 ~ Tony Carey, Keyboards with Rainbow

• 1959 ~ Gary Kemp, Guitarist with Spandau Ballet, brother of musician Martin Kemp

• 1969 ~ Wendy Wilson, Singer with Wilson Phillips, daughter of Beach Boys singer, Brian Wilson

• 1972 ~ John C. Fogerty and Creedence Clearwater Revival called it a career … and the group disbanded. Fogerty continued in a solo career with big hits including, Centerfield and The Old Man Down the Road.

• 1976 ~ Memphis, TN disc jockey Rick Dees and his ‘Cast of Idiots’ made it all the way to number one on the Billboard Hot 100 with the immortal Disco Duck (Part 1). Dees is still around, but not as a recording artist. He’s a DJ in Los Angeles and is hosting several varieties of the Weekly Top 40 show, syndicated around the world.

• 1983 ~ George Liberace passed away.  He was an American musician and television performer. Born in Menasha, Wisconsin, he was the elder brother and business partner of famed U.S. pianist Liberace.

• 1990 ~ Art Blakey passed away.  He was an American jazz drummer and bandleader.

• 2000 ~ David Golub, American pianist and chamber music conductor, passed away at the age of 50. Born in Chicago, Golub grew up in Dallas, where he began learning the piano. In 1969 he moved to New York and spent his student years honing his technique at New York’s Juilliard School of Music. He also began conducting during summer breaks at Vermont’s Marlboro festival. In 1979, he accompanied violinist Isaac Stern on a tour of China. A film about the tour, “From Mao to Mozart,” won the 1980 Academy Award for Best Documentary. As a performer, Golub was perhaps best known for his work with violinist Mark Kaplan and cellist Colin Carr in the trio they formed in 1982. In the late 1990s, Golub began cultivating his interest in opera. Under his leadership, the Padua Chamber Orchestra recorded some of Haydn’s least-known work for opera. An acclaimed chamber ensemble performer – most notably with the Golub-Kaplan-Carr Trio – Golub led the Padua Chamber Orchestra during the 1994-95 season and took it on tour in the United States in 1999. He is survived by his wife, Maria Majno.

• 2001 ~ Oscar-winning composer and lyricist Jay Livingston, whose collaboration with Ray Evans led to such hits as Silver Bells, Que Sera, Sera and Mona Lisa, died of pneumonia. He was 86. Livingston’s songwriting partnership with Evans spanned 64 years. Often called the last of the great songwriters, Livingston and Evans had seven Academy Award nominations and won three – in 1948 for Buttons and Bows in the film The Paleface, in 1950 for Mona Lisa in Captain Carey, USA, and in 1956 for Que Sera, Sera in The Man Who Knew Too Much. They wrote the television theme songs for Bonanza and Mr. Ed, and were honored by the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers for the most performed music for film and TV for 1996. Livingston was born on March 28, 1915, in the Pittsburgh suburb of McDonald. He met Evans in 1937 at the University of Pennsylvania, where they were both students. The team’s final project was the recording, Michael Feinstein Sings the Livingston and Evans Song Book, due for 2002 release.

October 11 ~ On This Day in Music

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• 1894 ~ Albert Stoessel, American conductor and composer

• 1918 ~ Jerome Robbins (Rabinowitz), Academy Award-winning director of “West Side Story” in 1961, Tony Award-winning choreographer of “Fiddler on the Roof” in 1965, West Side Story in 1958, “High Button Shoes” in 1948, Tony Award-winning director of “Fiddler on the Roof” in 1965, Jerome Robbins’ Broadway in 1989.

• 1919 ~ Art Blakely, American jazz drummer, bandleader, composer

• 1932 ~ Dottie West (Dorothy Marie Marsh), Grammy Award-winning singer

• 1939 ~ One of the classics was recorded this day. Body and Soul, by jazz great Coleman Hawkins, was waxed on Bluebird Records. It’s still around on CD compilations.

• 1940 ~ Glenn Miller recorded Make Believe Ballroom Time for Bluebird Records at the Victor studios in New York City. It would become the theme song for Make Believe Ballroom on WNEW, New York, with host Martin Block. Block created the aura of doing a ‘live’ radio program, complete with performers (on records) like Harry James or Frank Sinatra, from the ‘Crystal Studios’ at WNEW. His daily program was known to everyone who grew up in the NYC/NJ/Philadelphia area in the 1940s and 1950s. Miller had been so taken with the show’s concept that he actually paid for the Make Believe Ballroom Time recording session himself and hired the Modernaires to join in.

• 1943 ~ Gene Watson, Singer

• 1946 ~ Viktor Tretyakov, Russian violinist

• 1948 ~ Starting this night and for 792 performances, the musical, “Where’s Charley?”, played on Broadway. It included the show-stopping hit song: Once in Love with Amy.

• 1949 ~ Daryl Hall (Hohl), Singer

• 1950 ~ Andre Woolfolk, Reeds with Earth, Wind and Fire

• 1955 ~ Lindy (Linda) Boone, Singer with The Boone Family, singer Pat Boone’s daughter

• 1967 ~ The Doors appeared at Danbury High School, Danbury, Connecticut. Before the group came on stage an announcer told the audience not to leave their seats during the performance or they would be escorted out of the venue. There was also a beauty pageant just prior to The Doors coming on stage.

• 1969 ~ One hit wonders Jane Birkin and Serge Gainsbourg were at No.1 on the UK singles chart with ‘Je t’aime… Moi non plus.’ Banned by many radio stations for its sexual content and sounds and for first time in the history of the show, the BBC’s Top Of The Pops producers refused to air the No. 1 song.

• 1985 ~ Tex (Sol) Williams, American country-western singer, passed away

• 1996 ~ Johnny Costa, jazz pianist (Mr. Rogers), died at the age of 74

• 2001 ~ Beni Montresor, a Tony award-winning set and costume designer who was also known for his plays and children’s books, died at age 75. Montresor worked as a set designer at Rome’s Cinecitta Studios. In 1960, he moved to New York, where he designed sets and costumes for both Italian and New York theatrical and operatic productions and began to write and illustrate children’s books. In 1986, he won a Tony, Broadway’s highest award, for scenic design in The Marriage of Figaro.