Friday, April 22, 2011

April 22


Birthdays
1922: Charles Mingus (Jazz Bass Player)
1927: Laurel Aitken (Ska Singer)
1936: Glen Campbell (Country Singer)
1943: Mel Carter (Singer)
1948: Larry Groce (Singer-Songwriter)
1950: Peter Frampton (Singer & Guitarist)
1951: Paul Carrack (Keyboards, Guitar& Vocals for Ace & Squeeze)
1956: Kenny Lyons (Bass for .38 Special & The Lemonheads)
1974: Shavo Odadjian (Bassist for System of a Down)
1979: Daniel Johns (Singer & Guitar for Silverchair)

Events
1956: Elvis Presley made his Las Vegas debut at the Frontier Hotel.
1957: Elvis Presley had his custom built ‘Music Gates’ installed at Gracelands. The gates were designed by Abe Saucer and custom built by John Dillars Jr, of Memphis Doors inc.
1959: The Alan Freed "rock and roll movie" Go, Johnny, Go premieres in New York, featuring Chuck Berry, Jackie Wilson, Ritchie Valens, Eddie Cochran, The Cadillacs, and the Flamingos.

1962: Jerry Lee Lewis loses his first son, Steve Allen (named after the TV host and good friend), in a tragic drowning accident at the age of three.

1964: The President of England's National Federation of Hairdressers makes headlines when he offers a free haircut to the next rock group to reach Number One.

1966: A young Bruce Springsteen gets a boost when his band The Castiles wins a battle of the bands contest at a roller rink in Matawan, NJ. The first prize? Opening for the Crystals and the Ad-Libs at next week's show.

1966: 'Wild Thing' by The Troggs (who were originally called The Troglodytes) was released in the U.S. on both the Atco and Fontana labels. The song went on to reach No.1. Fronted by Reg Presley, 'Wild Thing' became a major influence on garage rock and punk rock.
1967: Elvis' 23rd film, Easy Come, Easy Go, premieres in Hollywood.

1968: Herb Alpert sings a Burt Bacharach composition, "This Guy's In Love With You," to his wife on the Tijuana Brass' CBS special Beat Of The Brass, sparking a national demand for the song, which results in it being released a few weeks later. It goes on to sell a million records.

1969: A&M signs the Carpenters.

1969: On the roof of Apple headquarters at 3 Savile Row, London, John Winston Lennon has his name legally changed to John Ono Lennon.

1969: Today is Tommy Day. The Who perform their new rock opera Tommy for the first time on stage in its entirety at a concert in Dolton, England; five years later to the day, the group begins filming the movie version (with Tina Turner's turn as the Acid Queen being filmed first), and, on the same date in 1993, the Broadway play based on the album opens.

1976: Johnnie Taylor's "Disco Lady" became the first single to sell over 2 million copies.

1978: Bob Marley headlines the historic One Love Peace Concert in Jamaica, the singer's first appearance in his home country since an assassination attempt two years before. At the concert, Marley manages to unite Jamaican Prime Minister Michael Manley with rival Edward Seaga, who had both been using local warlords to battle for power.

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."

1979: The Rolling Stones play two concerts in Oshawa, Ontario for the Canadian National Institute for the Blind, a result of court-ordered community service for guitarist Keith Richards, busted two years earlier in Toronto for heroin possession.

1981: Eric Clapton is involved in a car crash near Seattle and is hospitalized with bruised ribs and lacerations, a mere two days after being released from hospitalization for ulcer treatment in St. Paul, MN.

1991: The Dave Matthews Band played their first ever-live show when they appeared at The Earth Day festival in Charlottesville, Virginia.

1998: It was announced that Faith No More was breaking up.

2001: Destiny's Child went to No.1 on the UK singles chart with 'Survivor.' Their second chart topper, they were the first US female band to have more than one UK No.1. The song won the trio a Grammy Award for Best R&B Performance by a Group.

2008: Singer Paul Davis died of a heart attack at the Rush Foundation Hospital in Meridian, Mississippi.

2010: Bret Michaels (Poison) was rushed to the hospital. It was discovered that he had suffered from a brain hemmorage. Two weeks earlier Michaels had been taken to the hospital and underwent an emergency appendectomy.