April 20th – April 26th – This Week in Rock
April 20th – April 26th – Answer To This Week’s Trivia Question:
4/20/1968 – Deep Purple make their stage debut at the Vestpoppen, in Kastrup, Denmark.
April 20th – April 26th – Born This Week in Rock
4/20/1948 – Craig Frost (keyboards, Grand Funk Railroad & Bob Seger’s Silver Bullet Band
4/21/1947 – Iggy Pop (Vocals, Iggy and the Stooges)
4/22/1950 – Peter Frampton (guitar, Humble Pie)
4/23/1936 – Roy Orbison (rock and roll singer-songwriter)
4/23/1947 – Glenn Cornick (bass, Jethro Tull)
4/24/1945 – Doug Clifford (drums, Creedence Clearwater Revival)
4/25/1917 – Ella Fitzgerald (jazz vocalist)
4/25/1923 – Albert King (blues vocalist & guitarist)
4/25/1945 – Stu Cook (bass, Creedence Clearwater Revival)
4/26/1886 – Ma Rainey (blues vocalist)
4/26/1915 – Johnny Shines (blues vocalist& guitarist)
Died This Week in Rock History
4/20/1991 – Steve Marriott (guitar & vocals, Humble Pie & The Small Faces)
4/21/1970 – Earl Hooker (blues guitarist)
4/22/2013 – Richie Havens (folk singer-songwriter, guitarist)
4/24/1970 – Otis Spann (blues vocalist & pianist)
4/26/1984 – William James “Count” Basie (jazz pianist & bandleader)
Music Releases and Top of the Charts:
4/21/1973 – Alice Cooper’s LP Billion Dollar Babies hits #1
4/22/1972 – Deep Purple’s Machine Head hits #1 in the U.K.
4/23/1969 – The Beatles With Billy Preston’s “Get Back” hits #1 in the U.K.
4/23/1971 – The Rolling Stones’ Sticky Fingers is released
4/23/1976 – The Ramones release “The Ramones”
4/23/1979 – Blondie’s “Heart of Glass” hits #1
Pink Floyd Tops The Charts
4/23/1994 – Pink Floyd’s The Division Bell tops the charts
4/24/1971 – Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young’s LP 4 Way Street hits #1
4/24/1976 – Wings’ LP At The Speed Of Sound hits #1
4/24/1989 – Tom Petty releases Full Moon Fever
4/24/2006 – Bruce Springsteen releases “We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions”
4/25/1978 – Queen’s “We Are The Champions” is certified gold
4/25/2005 – Bruce Springsteen releases Devils & Dust
4/26/1969 – The Original Broadway Cast Soundtrack of Hair hits #1
This Week in Rock History:
4/20/1968 – Deep Purple make their stage debut at the Vestpoppen, in Kastrup, Denmark.
4/21/1960 – While testifying before the US Congressional committee on “payola,” DJ and TV host Dick Clark admits to having taken money and gifts to play songs on the radio, going so far as to declare 27 percent of his playlist as containing some sort of financial interest for him.
For his penitence, Clark is ordered to sell off some of his conflicting interests, but has his name cleared. Unlike DJ Alan Freed, who refuses to admit that payola was an illegal or immoral practice.
4/21/1961 – The Beatles debut at the Cavern Club in London.
4/21/1969 – Janis Joplin makes her stage debut in London when she and her Kozmic Blues Band perform a legendary concert at the Royal Albert Hall.
4/21/1970 – Elton John makes his stage debut as a solo act when he opens for T. Rex, Spooky Tooth, and Jackie Lomax at the Roundhouse in London.
4/22/1969 – John Lennon very publicly changes his middle name from “Winston” to “Ono.”
4/22/1978 – Bob Marley and the Wailers perform their first show, and Marley makes his first public appearance in Jamaica, after being wounded in an assassination attempt a year and a half earlier. We love Bob Marley and very much hate the would-be assassin.
The Blues Brothers Arrive
4/22/1978 – On tonight’s Saturday Night Live, John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd team up to debut two new characters called “The Blues Brothers,” who perform a cover of Sam and Dave’s “Soul Man.”
4/23/1963 – During a Rolling Stones performance at the Crawdaddy Club, the band meets another band, called The Beatles for the very first time. We can’t decide who should have been more starstruck.
4/23/1981 – Jerry Lee Lewis and Carl Perkins join Johnny Cash onstage at his show in Stuttgart, West Germany, performing their hits and some mutual country, blues, and gospel favorites. The concert is later released as the LP The Survivors.
4/24/1968 – The newly-formed Apple Records decides not to sign a young talent named David Bowie.
4/24/1976 – John Lennon, Paul McCartney, and Linda McCartney spent an evening together at Lennon’s NYC apartment kicking back and watching some Saturday Night Live. The show’s producer, Lorne Michaels, went on the air and invited The Beatles to show up at SNL and perform three songs.
While, Lennon and McCartney seriously consider taking a cab down to the studio, ultimately decided they were too tired to make it down. This was the last time the two Beatles ever spent together.
4/24/1990 – While Roger Waters’ road crew is working on construction of the set for “The Wall” in Potsdamer Platz, Germany, they discover an undetonated explosive from World War II.
4/25/1974 – According to the new issue of Rolling Stone, “streaking” has become so popular that Yes and Gregg Allman concerts have been interrupted by the fad. At a recent Beach Boys concert, the magazine says, the band was streaked by its own crew.
4/25/1979 – The Police made their television debut on the BBC TV’s Top of the Pops, playing their catchy hit “Roxanne.”
4/26/1977 – The disco boom gets rolling in earnest with the opening of Steve Rubell’s new glitzy and ultra-exclusive club, Studio 54. Among the guests invited opening night: Cher, Mick Jagger and wife Bianca, Debbie Harry, Donald and Ivana Trump, Liza Minnelli, Jerry Hall, Halston, Margaux Hemingway, Mikhail Baryshnikov. Along with Salvador Dali, Brooke Shields, Martha Graham, and Robin Leach.
Check out the other blog posts we have on: https://jbonamassa.com/category/blog/