• 1825 ~ Johann Strauss, Jr. (1825) Austrian composer, “The Waltz King”
<• 1838 ~ Georges Bizet, French composer
More information about Bizet
• 1875 ~ The first performance of the Piano Concerto No. 1 by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky was given in Boston, Massachusetts with Hans von Bülow as soloist
• 1912 ~ Minnie Pearl (Sarah Ophelia Colley), Grand Ole Opry singer, CMA Hall of Fame, comedienne
• 1924 ~ Billy Barty, Comedian on The Spike Jones Show
• 1926 ~ Jimmy Heath, Musician, reeds with the Heath Brothers, bandleader
• 1927 ~ Barbara Cook, Tony Award-winning actress, singer in “The Music Man” in 1957, “Flahooley”, “Oklahoma”, “Carousel”, “Plain and Fancy”, “Candide”, “The Gay Life”, “She Loves Me”, “Any Wednesday”, “Funny Girl”, “The Gershwin Years”
• 1937 ~ Jeanne (Gloria) Black, Singer
• 1940 ~ “Cabin in the Sky” opened for the first of 256 shows. Taking a Chance on Love is the one big hit that came from the musical.
• 1941 ~ Helen Reddy, Singer
• 1943 ~ Benny Carter and his orchestra recorded Poinciana on the Capitol label. The real title, incidentally, is Poinciana (Song of the Tree).
• 1944 ~ Jon Anderson, Singer, solo and duo called Jon and Vangelis
• 1944 ~ Taffy Danoff (Nivert), Singer with Starland Vocal Band
• 1948 ~ Glenn Tipton, Guitarist with Judas Priest
• 1951 ~ Ransom Wilson, American flutist and conductor
• 1956 ~ Mathias Jabs, Guitarist with Scorpions
• 1964 ~ “And now, rrrrright here on this stage….” The Rolling Stones were introduced to American audiences on The Ed Sullivan Show on CBS-TV.
• 1969 ~ Canada’s The Guess Who got a gold record for the single, Laughing.
• 1971 ~ Midori (Goto), Japanese violinist
More information on Midori
• 1974 ~ The single, Skin Tight, by The Ohio Players, went gold on this day.
• 1984 ~ John Cougar Mellencamp reached the two-million-dollar sales mark with his album, “Uh-Huh”.
• 1984 ~ Country group Alabama went to the three-million-dollar mark with two albums this day with Feels So Right and Mountain Music.
• 2000 ~ Don Brooks, a studio musician who played the harmonica with Harry Belafonte, Ringo Starr, the Bee Gees and Yoko Ono’s band, died of leukemia at the age of 53. Brooks, who was raised in Texas, first picked up the harmonica after hearing an album by bluesman Sonny Terry. He played in Dallas coffee shops in the 1960s and moved to New York in 1967, joining a Greenwich Village folk scene that included David Bromberg and John Hammond Jr. In 1973, he joined singer Waylon Jennings’s band and helped create the sound known as outlaw country music. Brooks recorded with Belafonte, Starr, Billy Joel, Cyndi Lauper, Carly Simon, Diana Ross and Bette Midler, among others. He also played with groups such as the Bee Gees, the Talking Heads and Yoko Ono and the Plastic Ono Band. He was a musician on Broadway in “Big River” (1985) and “The Gospel at Colonus” (1988), and he worked on the soundtrack for the television documentary “The Civil War.”
• 1878 ~ The opera Carmen, by Bizet, had its first American performance but it was sung in Italian. It took another fifteen years before audiences could hear it in French, the language in which it was written.
• 1891 ~ Albert Lortzing, German composer
• 1906 ~ Miriam Gideon, American composer
• 1923 ~ Ned Rorem, American composer and writer Read quotes by and about Ned Rorem More information about Rorem
• 1941 ~ Clarinet a la King was recorded by Benny Goodman and his orchestra on Okeh Records.
• 1947 ~ Greg Ridley, Bass with Spooky Tooth
• 1950 ~ Al Jolson passed away
• 1956 ~ Dwight Yoakam, Songwriter, singer
• 1959 ~ ‘Weird’ Al Yankovic, Singer, comedian, parodies
• 1970 ~ ‘Lady Soul’, Aretha Franklin, won a gold record for Don’t Play that Song.
• 1975 ~ Elton John’s Los Angeles concert was sold out at Dodger Stadium. It was the finale to his concert tour of the western U.S.
• 1978 ~ Mother Maybelle Carter (Addington) passed away
• 1978 ~ CBS Records hiked prices of many vinyl albums by one dollar to $8.98. Other labels soon joined in.
• 1982 ~ Jacques Klein, Brazilian pianist and composer, died at the age of 52
• 2001 ~ Russell “Rusty” Kershaw, a guitarist and recording artist, died of a heart attack at the age of 63. Over the course of a long career, Kershaw, the younger brother of Cajun recording star Doug Kershaw, performed with Neil Young, Chet Atkins, J.J. Cale and Charlie Daniels. Kershaw’s musical career began with a small family band, Pee Wee Kershaw and the Continental Playboys. The band joined the Louisiana Hayride in Shreveport in 1955 and moved on the following year to the Wheeling Jamboree on a West Virginia radio station. Doug and Rusty Kershaw went on to perform as a duo and joined the Grand Ole Opry in 1957. In 1964, Rusty Kershaw started performing on his own, and worked on numerous albums with other artists. Kershaw had lived in New Orleans since 1980 when then-Gov. Edwin Edwards asked him to join the Louisiana Music Commission.
• 2003 ~ Nico Snel, conductor of the Port Angeles Symphony for 18 years, died after a battle with cancer. He was 69. Port Angeles, with a population of about 19,000, is one of the smallest cities in the nation to support a full orchestra. A search committee will spend the next two seasons looking for a new permanent conductor to succeed him. Born in Alkmaar, Holland, Snel began studying music with his father, an accomplished musician and conductor. He started with piano and then moved on to violin, and began performing when he was about 8. The family immigrated to the United States after World War II, when Snel was 15. An accomplished violinist, he went to Germany as a young man and served with the Seventh Army Symphony, becoming the organization’s conductor in 1958. In the 1960s and early ’70s, he worked as a conductor for the Oakland, Calif., Light Opera and the Diablo Light Opera and as director of the Oakland Temple Pageant chorus and orchestra. He moved to the Northwest in the late 1970s and conducted the Everett Youth Symphony for three years. He was named conductor of the Seattle Philharmonic in 1980, a position he held until 1995. He became conductor of the Port Angeles Symphony in 1985, for a time serving both orchestras.
• 2004 ~ Robert Merrill [Moishe Miller], American operatic baritone and actor (NY Metropolitan Opera), died at the age of 87
• 1930 ~ Dory Previn, Songwriter with André Previn
• 1939 ~ Ray Jones, Bass with Billy J. Kramer & The Dakotas
• 1943 ~ Paul Zukofsky, American violinist
• 1943 ~ Bobby Fuller, Singer, guitarist with Bobby Fuller Four
• 1945 ~ Leslie West (Weinstein), Singer, musician, guitarist with Mountain
• 1945 ~ Eddie Brigati, Singer, a musician with The (Young) Rascals
• 1959 ~ “Take Me Along” opened on Broadway and quickly became an American classic. Walter Pidgeon starred along with Jackie Gleason.
• 1966 ~ The Supremes rocketed to the top of the pop album charts with “Supremes A’ Go-Go”. They were the first all-female vocal group to hit the top of the LP chart.
• 1969 ~ Giovanni Martinelli passed away on his birthday
• 1969 ~ Michael Tilson Thomas, the 25-year-old assistant conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, took over for ailing conductor William Steinberg in the symphony’s appearance in New York City.
• 1971 ~ Folk singer Joan Baez received a gold record for her hit, The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down. It turned out to be her biggest hit, peaking at #3 on the charts on October 2, 1971.
• 1979 ~ Nadia Boulanger, French composer and conductor (1st woman to conduct Boston Symphony), died at the age of 92
• 1983 ~ Celebrating its 100th anniversary, New York’s Metropolitan Opera featured a daylong concert with some of the world’s greatest opera stars. On stage at the Met were Dame Joan Sutherland, Placido Domingo and Luciano Pavarotti.
• 2001 ~ Tom Baker, one of Australia’s most respected jazz musicians, died of a heart attack while touring in the Netherlands. He was 49. Baker, a native of California, took up residence in Australia 30 years ago. He was a regular at Sydney’s famous jazz club, The Basement. Willie Qua, drummer and co-founder of one of Australia’s best-known jazz bands, Galapagos Duck, said Baker had often played as “a part-time member” of the band and was an icon of the Sydney jazz scene. Baker formed his first band, Tom Baker’s San Francisco Jazz Band, in 1975, earning himself a reputation as one of Australia’s very best jazz musicians. Recently he toured extensively through Europe and America.
• 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
• 1911 ~ George Cates, Musician, worked with Steve Allen, musical director of the Lawrence Welk Show for 25 years
• 1916 ~ Karl-Birger Blomdahl, Swedish opera composer
• 1916 ~ Emil Gilels, Russian pianist
• 1938 ~ The Bob Crosby Orchestra recorded I’m Free for Decca. Billy Butterfield was featured on trumpet. A few years later, the song would be retitled, What’s New.
• 1939 ~ Benita Valiente, American soprano
• 1944 ~ Peter Tosh (Winston McIntosh), Singer, baritone and musician. He uses homemade instruments and performed reggae with Bob Marley
• 1944 ~ An actor who would become legend in scores of tough guy roles made his stage debut in New York. Marlon Brando appeared in the Broadway hit, “I Remember Mama”.
• 1945 ~ Jeannie C. Riley (Stephenson), Grammy Award-winning singer
• 1953 ~ Julius LaRosa, popular singer of the time, was unceremoniously fired on the air by Arthur Godfrey. “Julie lacks humility,” Godfrey told the stunned audience, while putting his arm around LaRosa. He said, “So, Julie, to teach you a lesson, you’re fired!”
• 1956 ~ Nino DeFranco, Singer with The DeFranco Family
• 1957 ~ Karl Wallinger, Musician, keyboards, guitarist with World Party
• 1959 ~ Twelve-year-old Patty Duke made her first Broadway appearance, in “The Miracle Worker”. The play would last for 700 performances and become a classic motion picture, launching Patty to fame and fortune.
• 1973 ~ Elvis and Priscilla Presley were divorced after six years and one child (Lisa Marie).
• 1987 ~ Jacqueline du Pre, British cellist, died at the age of 42
• 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
• 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
• 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.
• 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.
• 1906 ~ American premièr of Puccini’s opera, “Madama Butterfly”, Washington, D.C.
• 1913 ~ David Carroll, Conductor, arranger, record producer for The Diamonds and The Platters
• 1925 ~ Mickey (McHouston) Baker, Guitarist, singer in the duo, Mickey and Sylvia
• 1925 ~ Grand Ole Opry started on radio in Nashville, Tennessee (where it still originates). It was first heard on network radio in 1939. The show finally made it to TV on this day in 1955.
• 1926 ~ Karl Richter, German organist and conductor
• 1931 ~ The production of “Cat and the Fiddle” opened in New York. It played for 395 performances.
• 1932 ~ The first city-owned opera house, the War Memorial Opera House of San Francisco, opened this day. “Tosca” was the first opera presented.
• 1937 ~ Barry McGuire, Singer, songwriter with The New Christy Minstrels
• 1942 ~ Don Stevenson, Drummer, singer with Moby Grape
• 1946 ~ Richard Carpenter, Composer, singer, Grammy Award-winning group, the Carpenters
• 1948 ~ Chris De Burgh (Davidson), Singer, songwriter
• 1951 ~ I Love Lucy debuted on CBS-TV. For the next 20 years, Lucille Ball would be a TV regular. She did take 1956 off. Why? No, having little Ricky had nothing to do with it. She starred in “Damn Yankees” on Broadway that year.
• 1953 ~ Tito (Toriano) Jackson, Singer with The Jackson Five, brother of Michael,Janet, Jermaine, LaToya
• 1953 ~ “Teahouse of the August Moon” opened on Broadway to begin a long and successful run of 1,027 performances.
• 1964 ~ An American treasure passed away. Cole Porter, renowned lyricist and composer, died at age 73. I’ve Got You Under My Skin and hundreds of other classics crossed all musical style and format boundaries throughout his long and rich career.
• 2001 ~ Etta James, the prolific jazz vocalist whose soulful, blues-influenced recordings over more than a half century won her acclaim and two Grammy nominations, died of complications from a bout with cancer. She was 72. Jones’ style was described as a cross between Billie Holiday, her idol, and Dinah Washington. She died the same day her last recording, Etta Jones SingsLady Day, hit music stores. Born in Aiken, S.C., Jones was a teen-ager when she was discovered while competing in a contest at the famed Apollo Theater in Harlem. Jones collaborated with such greats as Oliver Nelson, Earl “Fatha” Hines, Kenny Burrell and Cedar Walton, both in concert and on recordings. She recorded prolifically for RCA, Prestige, Muse and more recently Highnote Records. Jones earned a gold record for her 1960 recording Don’t Go to Strangers, and received a Grammy nomination in 1981 for Save Your Love For Me. She got a second Grammy nomination in 1999 for a collection of songs: My Buddy – Etta Jones Sings the Songs of Buddy Johnson. Jones was the recipient of many awards, including the prestigious Eubie Blake Jazz Award and the Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Women in Jazz Foundation.
• 1930 ~ I Got Rhythm, by George Gershwin, sung by Ethel Merman, was a show-stopper in the production of “Girl Crazy” on Broadway. It was Merman’s debut on the Great White Way as she captivated audiences and launched her stellar career. “Girl Crazy” went on for 272 performances.
• 1931 ~ Rafael Puyana, Colombian harpsichordist
• 1938 ~ Melba Montgomery, Singer
• 1938 ~ One of the great songs of the big band era was recorded by Bob Crosby (Bing’s brother) and The Bob Cats. Big Noise from Winnetka on Decca Records featured Bob Haggart and Ray Bauduc. Haggart whistled and played bass, while Bauduc played the skins.
• 1939 ~ Broadcast Music, Inc. (BMI) was organized on this day to compete with ASCAP (American Society of Composers and Publishers). The two music licensing organizations’ goal is to ensure that composers, artists and publishers are properly paid for the use of their works.
• 1940 ~ Cliff Richard (Harry Webb), Singer
• 1946 ~ Justin Hayward, Guitarist, singer with The Moody Blues
• 1961 ~ The Broadway production “How to Succeed in Business without Really Trying” opened.
• 1971 ~ It was John and Yoko Day on The Dick Cavett Show on ABC. The couple promoted Lennon’s new LP (Imagine) and film (Imagine) and Yoko’s book, two films and a fine arts show.
• 1996 ~ Eighteen years after its creation, The Rolling Stones’ Rock & Roll Circus was finally released. The 1968 event put together by The Stones comprised two concerts on a circus stage and included performances by The Who, Taj Mahal, Marianne Faithfull and Jethro Tull. John Lennon and Yoko Ono performed as part of a supergroup called The Dirty Mac, along with Eric Clapton, Mitch Mitchell and Keith Richards. It was originally planned to be aired on BBC TV.
• 2001 ~ Willam Farr Christensen, a Utah dancer who started on the vaudeville stage and went on to become one of the most important figures in American ballet, died at the age of 99. Founder of the San Francisco Ballet and Utah’s Ballet West, Christensen was the first person in the United States to choreograph full-length versions of several ballet classics, including “The Nutcracker”, “Coppelia” and “Swan Lake”. With his brothers Lew and Harold, he toured the famous Orpheum vaudeville circuit in the 1920s, performing a ballet act at a time when few Americans were familiar with the art. By 1934, Christensen had quit the circuit to found the first ballet company in Portland, Ore., then left three years later to join the San Francisco Opera Ballet as a principal soloist. Within a year he was named ballet master of the company. In 1941 he founded the San Francisco Ballet, the first major ballet company in the West. Christensen choreographed the country’s first full-length production of “The Nutcracker” in 1944, and today it is a Christmas tradition for nearly every ballet company in the nation.
• 1903 ~ Beginning this night, and for 192 performances, “Babes in Toyland” entertained youngsters of all ages in New York City. Toyland is just one of Victor Herbert’s timeless operettas.
• 1939 ~ Harry James and his band recorded On a Little Street in Singapore for Columbia Records. A kid singer named Frank Sinatra was the featured vocalist on what was his seventh recording.
• 1941 ~ Paul Simon, American folk-rock singer, songwriter and guitarist, duo called Simon and Garfunkel, Rock and Roll Hall of Famer
• 1944 ~ Robert Lamm, Singer, keyboards, songwriter with The Big Thing; Chicago Transit Authority; Chicago
• 1945 ~ Karen Akers, Singer
• 1947 ~ Sammy Hagar, Singer, guitarist with Van Halen
• 1948 ~ Leona Mitchell, American soprano
• 1948 ~ Lacy J. Dalton (Jill Byrem), Songwriter, singer
• 1957 ~ Two superstars introduced a new car on ABC-TV. Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra joined forces in an hourlong special that turned out to be a big ratings hit. Too bad the Edsel, the car that Ford Motor Company was introducing, didn’t fare as well.
• 1958 ~ This day was musically memorable as Warren Covington conducted the TommyDorsey Orchestra for what would be the last big band tune to climb the pop charts. Tea for Two Cha Cha, made it into the Top 10, peaking at #7. And that was the end of the Big Band Era. Rock ’n’ roll was here to stay.
• 1959 ~ Marie (Olive) Osmond, Singer, TV host on Donny and Marie
• 1963 ~ Beatlemania hit the London Palladium. The Beatles made their first appearance on a major TV show for the BBC. Thousands of delirious fans jammed the streets outside the theatre to voice their support of the Fab Four. A few months later, Beatlemania would sweep the U.S. as well.
• 1965 ~The Who recorded ‘My Generation’ at Pye studios, London. When released as a single it reached No.2 on the UK chart, held off the No.1 position by The Seekers ‘The Carnival Is Over’. Roger Daltrey would later say that he stuttered the lyrics to try to fit them to the music. The BBC initially refused to play the song because it did not want to offend people who stutter.
• 1971 ~ ‘Little’ Donny Osmond received a shiny gold record for his rendition of the Steve Lawrence hit, Go Away Little Girl. He went on to garner million-seller success with Hey Girl and Puppy Love too. Donny was quite popular with the bubblegum set, as well he should have been. Donny was only 13 years old.
• 1974 ~ Ed Sullivan died. Edward Vincent Sullivan (September 28, 1901 – October 13, 1974) died at the age of 73. He is principally remembered as the creator and host of the television variety program The Toast of the Town, later popularly—and, eventually, officially—renamed The Ed Sullivan Show. Broadcast for 23 years from 1948 to 1971, it set a record as the longest-running variety show in US broadcast history. “It was, by almost any measure, the last great TV show,” proclaimed television critic David Hinckley. “It’s one of our fondest, dearest pop culture memories.”
Sullivan was a broadcasting pioneer at many levels during television’s infancy. As TV critic David Bianculli wrote, “Before MTV, Sullivan presented rock acts. Before Bravo, he presented jazz and classical music and theater. Before the Comedy Channel, even before there was the Tonight Show, Sullivan discovered, anointed and popularized young comedians. Before there were 500 channels, before there was cable, Ed Sullivan was where the choice was. From the start, he was indeed ‘the Toast of the Town’.” In 1996, Sullivan was ranked number 50 on TV Guide’s “50 Greatest TV Stars of All Time”
• 1979 ~ Michael Jackson went to #1 … 1 … 1 for the second time with Don’t Stop’Til You Get Enough. His first number one (Oct. 14, 1972 at age 14) was a ratty little number about Ben.
• 1979 ~’Reggatta De Blanc’ the second album from The Police started a four-week run at No.1 in the UK. The album which features the band’s first two No.1 hits, ‘Message in a Bottle’ and ‘Walking on the Moon’, cost only £6,000 to record. Do you have a favorite track from this album?
• 2000 ~ Britt Woodman, a versatile jazz musician best known for his work as a trombonist with Duke Ellington’s Orchestra in the 1950s, died. He was 80 and had been suffering from respiratory problems. Woodman was featured in Ellington numbers including Sonnet To Hank V (from “Such Sweet Thunder”) and Red Garter(from “Toot Suite”). He worked with greats including Miles Davis, Charles Mingus and John Coltrane, and played in many big bands, including the Lincoln CenterJazz Orchestra. Piano was Woodman’s first instrument, but soon he was playing trombone, saxophone and clarinet as well. By the time he was 15, he was playing professionally with his older brothers, William Jr. and Coney, in the Woodman Brothers Biggest Little Band in the World. The band became known in Los Angeles’ flourishingjazz scene of the 1930s because Britt and William – who played saxophone, clarinet and trumpet – often traded instruments in the middle of a set. William would go on to a professional career as a saxophonist. Britt Woodman played in such swing-oriented ensembles as the Les Hite Band in the late 1930s, and later played with the iconoclastic Boyd Raeburn Band.
• 2001 ~ Raoul Kraushaar, who scored or supplied music for classic television series like Lassie and Bonanza, and films including Cabaret and Invaders From Mars, died at the age of 93. Kraushaar’s contributions spanned film, cartoons and television dating back to the 1930s. Kraushaar is credited with composing hundreds of music cues – the bits of background music used to augment the action and emotion in a scene on film – during his 55-year career, according to The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP). Born in Paris, Kraushaar stowed away as a teen-ager aboard a ship bound for New York, where he went on to study at Columbia University. He moved to Los Angeles in the 1930s, and got his first music credit on the 1937 film, Round-Up Time In Texas, with Gene Autry. Kraushaar scored music for Hopalong Cassidy films, among other Westerns, musicals like “Cabaret”, and the 1953 film “Blue Gardenia”. Over the years, he supplied or scored music for such television shows as My Three Sons, The Donna Reed Show, Dennis The Menace and Father Knows Best.
1811 ~ Franz Liszt, Hungarian composer and pianist
Grammy winner
MaryO'Studio 