1964 - The Beatles held the top five places on the U.S. singles chart, at No. 5 "Please Please Me," No. 4 "I Want To Hold Your Hand," No. 3, "Roll Over Beethoven," No. 2 "Love Me Do," and at No. 1 "Can't Buy Me Love." They also had another nine singles on the chart, bringing their total to fourteen singles on the Hot 100.
1968 - US civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr. is killed after being shot on a Memphis motel balcony. King's life inspires a number of songs, including U2's "Pride (In The Name Of Love)." Another song, "MLK" joins it on The Unforgettable Fire.
Three days after King's assassination, Nina Simone performs a song written in tribute, "Why? (The King of Love Is Dead)."
Later in the year Dion has a hit with "Abraham, Martin and John," a song about King, Kennedy and Abraham Lincoln. Even Elvis gets in on it, with a King/Kennedy song called "If I Can Dream."
1979 - Squeeze release Cool For Cats. Pass on their debut, UK Squeeze, Cool For Cats captures the popcraft of Chris Difford and Glenn Tilbrook, while also sketching out a unique musical territory for the band, something that draws deeply on '60s pop, the stripped-down propulsive energy of pop/rock, and the nervy style of new wave. It's wild and weird, angular and odd in a way only a new wave album from 1979 could possibly be. Highlights included Up The Junction and the title track.
1996 - Grateful Dead leader Jerry Garcia's ashes are scattered in the Ganges river in India by Dead guitarist Bob Weir and Garcia's widow, Deborah.
The idea originated with Weir. "It came to me in a flash," he said, "in between being awake and asleep." Weir took the plan to a band meeting, where it was approved unanimously. Deborah Garcia concurred and, within days, they went off to India.
But family members weren't too thrilled by this. Garcia's ex-wife, Carolyn (better known to longtime fans as Mountain Girl), was also shocked and surprised by this decision. "There was no reason on Earth to take Jerry's ashes to India, a country he'd never been to, and dump them into the most polluted river on the face of the Earth," she told the Gate.
According to the article, none of Garcia's four daughters, or his surviving brother Cliff, were consulted or even notified of the plan to take the ashes to India. The remaining half of Garcia's ashes were later sprinkled under the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco Bay, "in accordance with his expressed wishes," as Annabelle stated.
Birthdays:
Blues man Muddy Waters, born McKinley Morganfield, was born today in 1913.
Muddy Waters was the single most important artist to emerge in post-war American blues. A peerless singer, a gifted songwriter, an able guitarist, and leader of one of the strongest bands in the genre (which became a proving ground for a number of musicians who would become legends in their own right), Waters absorbed the influences of rural blues from the Deep South and moved them uptown, injecting his music with a fierce, electric energy and helping pioneer the Chicago Blues style that would come to dominate the music through the 1950s, ‘60s, and '70s. The depth of Waters' influence on rock as well as blues is almost incalculable.(Photo by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images)
Hugh Masekela was born today in 1939. Though South African trumpeter and bandleader Hugh Masekela possessed an extensive jazz background and credentials, he enjoyed major popular success as one of the earliest innovators in the world fusion genre. Masekela's vibrant trumpet and flügelhorn mixed jazz with South African styles and music from across the African continent. His cover of "Grazin' in the Grass" topped the charts in 1968.
Berry Oakley, bassist for The Allman Brothers Band, was born today in 1948. Berry Oakley was an instrumental part of the early Allman Brothers sound, with his bass chords defining some of the band’s most popular songs like “Whipping Post”, ” “Mountain Jam”, “Les Brers”, and countless others.
Oakley's life ended eerily the same way band member Duane Allman's did. Duane died in a motorcycle crash in October of 1971 in the band’s hometown of Macon, GA. On November 11, 1972, a little over a year after Duane’s death, Berry Oakley crashed his motorcycle just three blocks away from where Duane had crashed his, at the intersection of Napier Avenue and Iverness in Macon. He would die due to injuries sustained in the crash. Both were only 24.
Gary Moore was born today in 1952. One of rock's more underrated guitarists, Gary Moore's eclectic career traversed blues, heavy metal, progressive rock, and jazz fusion and, in addition to finding success as a solo act, he was associated with numerous different bands, most notably Thin Lizzy. 1990's Still Got the Blues, was the most renowned and best-selling release of his career, and featured such special guests as Albert Collins, Albert King, and George Harrison. The title track received some airplay in the states.
On This Day In Music History was sourced, curated, copied, pasted, edited and occasionally woven together with my own crude prose, from This Day in Music, Allmusic, SF Gate, Live For Live Music, Song Facts and Wikipedia.
KBCO