1941 - Could you possibly get two bigger legends than Glenn Miller and Peggy Lee? The two music legendary music innovators got together today, and recorded Elmer's Tune. Peggy Lee had just come down from her home state of North Dakota to join Benny Goodman's band in Chicago, as a replacement for Helen Forrest. Lee was young, frightened, and had to sing the band's songs in Forrest's keys, and she had not yet narrowed her range nor had she begun to phrase behind the beat, a singing style trait preceded by Billie Holiday. After only six months with the band, Lee was flying. Her hit cover of Lil Green's Why Don't You Do Right follows, and by then Ms. Lee was on her own pathway, the Holiday influence fully assimilated, her smoky, vibrato-less voice assured and distinct and silky, silky smooth. A wink of the eye from Ms. Lee remains sexier than any half-naked femme singer - of yesterday or today.
1952 - Despite his addiction to alcohol, Hank Williams had 34 consecutive hit singles during from 1949 to 1953, and amazing set of statistics - 32 hitting the top ten and 11 of them going to #1. It was on this day 59 years ago, though, that Hank was fired from the country music showcase, Grand Ole Opry, and he was told not to return until he was sober. His ban from Grand Old Opry coincided with drunkenness following his split from wife Dorothy. His songs of "drinking, living, and praying" were never before heard-of-themes in popular music, and one of the reasons why Williams was so popular to his generation, was because his troubled and turbulent life was intimately reflected in his music. Hank was only 29 when he died but his legacy as the king of country music lives on.
1962 - In the summer of 1962, 17-year-old keyboardist Booker T. Jones, 21-year-old Steve Cropper, bass player Lewie Steinberg, and Al Jackson Jr. - a drummer making his debut with the band - were in the Memphis studio to back up former Sun Records star Billy Lee Riley. During a break, the four started playing around with a bluesy little organ ditty reminiscent of Ray Charles. Jim Stewart, the president of Stax Records, liked what he heard and hit the "record" button. He liked the finished product enough to want to release it, hence Booker T. and the MG's instrumental song, Green Onions, was released 49 years ago today. In 1965 Steinberg was replaced by Donald "Duck" Dunn, who has played with the group ever since. Al Jackson, Jr. was murdered in 1975, and since then the trio of Dunn, Cropper and Jones have reunited on numerous occasions using various drummers. Booker T. & the M.G.'s were influential in shaping the sound of Southern Soul and Memphis Soul. In the 1960s, as members of the house band of Stax Records, they played on hundreds of recordings by artists such as Wilson Pickett, Otis Redding, Sam & Dave, Carla and Rufus Thomas and Johnnie Taylor. As originators of the unique Stax sound, the group was one of the most prolific, respected, and imitated of their era. By the mid-1960s, bands on both sides of the Atlantic were trying to sound like Booker T. & the M.G.'s. Check out the go-go girls in this authentic, original video.
1965 - This was the day The Beatles' second movie Help! premiered in the New York, and here we have some rare footage of the band on location with their song The Night Before as the soundtrack. For more Beatles info, and for more videos from Help, or their first movie A Hard Days' Night, or just beatles info and videos, please go to our archive search engine.
1966 - Same day, August 11, a year later, and The Beatles arrived at Chicago's O'Hare Airport to start their final American tour, and the Beatles must really love this day, August 11, because two years later, in 1968, the group's first single record on their own Apple Records was released; Hey Jude b/w Revolution. While we're at it, on the same day in 1969, Diana Ross invited 350 guests to a Beverly Hills club to see the newest Motown act, The Jackson 5. This is from the same year, with Ross introducing a perky Jackson...then the Jackson 5 on her TV show a couple of years later.
1972 - Elvis Presley and Pricilla Presley filed for divorce. They had married in May of 1967. Thanks to youtuber publicmusiccity here's an image montage of the couple's marriage,m disintegration, and divorce.
1973 - After seeing KISS play at a New York hotel, today, producer Bill Aucoin offered to become their manager and promised a record deal, and on the same day and year, The Edgar Winter Group's Free Ride was released. Here are a couple of Winter classics, first up Frankenstein, followed by Winter and Rick Derrenger with one of rock's forgotten greats.
1993 - At a U2 concert in London, today, the band was joined onstage by author Salman Rushdie, who had hidden in a cottage in lead singer Bono's back garden after receiving death threats for publishing The Satanic Verses. Also on August 11 in 1996, drummer for the most successful instrumental group of all time died. Ventures drummer, Mel Taylor, who supplied the drum rolls in their smash world hit, Walk Don’t Run, died, today, of lung cancer at age 62. The Ventures were one of the many pre-rock instrumental bands that existed around the world, especially in USA, Australia and the UK. The Ventures were from America, formed in 1958 in Tacoma, Washington, and in its several incarnations the group had long-standing key impact and influence on the development of pop music. Their instrumental virtuosity, experimentation with guitar effects, and unique sound laid the groundwork for innumerable groups, earning them the moniker "The Band that Launched a Thousand Bands". With more than 100 million records sold, The Ventures remain the best-selling instrumental band of all time, and were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame during 1958.
2005 - It's only six years since Mariah Carey sat on top of world music charts, and began on this day, its staggering 11th week at #1 in the USA. The song? We Belong Together. On the surface of it, the song seems an ordinary modern love ballad, but it was on top for almost three months. What was it, do you think, that made this song such a hugely popular song with the public for so long?
1952 - Despite his addiction to alcohol, Hank Williams had 34 consecutive hit singles during from 1949 to 1953, and amazing set of statistics - 32 hitting the top ten and 11 of them going to #1. It was on this day 59 years ago, though, that Hank was fired from the country music showcase, Grand Ole Opry, and he was told not to return until he was sober. His ban from Grand Old Opry coincided with drunkenness following his split from wife Dorothy. His songs of "drinking, living, and praying" were never before heard-of-themes in popular music, and one of the reasons why Williams was so popular to his generation, was because his troubled and turbulent life was intimately reflected in his music. Hank was only 29 when he died but his legacy as the king of country music lives on.
1962 - In the summer of 1962, 17-year-old keyboardist Booker T. Jones, 21-year-old Steve Cropper, bass player Lewie Steinberg, and Al Jackson Jr. - a drummer making his debut with the band - were in the Memphis studio to back up former Sun Records star Billy Lee Riley. During a break, the four started playing around with a bluesy little organ ditty reminiscent of Ray Charles. Jim Stewart, the president of Stax Records, liked what he heard and hit the "record" button. He liked the finished product enough to want to release it, hence Booker T. and the MG's instrumental song, Green Onions, was released 49 years ago today. In 1965 Steinberg was replaced by Donald "Duck" Dunn, who has played with the group ever since. Al Jackson, Jr. was murdered in 1975, and since then the trio of Dunn, Cropper and Jones have reunited on numerous occasions using various drummers. Booker T. & the M.G.'s were influential in shaping the sound of Southern Soul and Memphis Soul. In the 1960s, as members of the house band of Stax Records, they played on hundreds of recordings by artists such as Wilson Pickett, Otis Redding, Sam & Dave, Carla and Rufus Thomas and Johnnie Taylor. As originators of the unique Stax sound, the group was one of the most prolific, respected, and imitated of their era. By the mid-1960s, bands on both sides of the Atlantic were trying to sound like Booker T. & the M.G.'s. Check out the go-go girls in this authentic, original video.
1965 - This was the day The Beatles' second movie Help! premiered in the New York, and here we have some rare footage of the band on location with their song The Night Before as the soundtrack. For more Beatles info, and for more videos from Help, or their first movie A Hard Days' Night, or just beatles info and videos, please go to our archive search engine.
1966 - Same day, August 11, a year later, and The Beatles arrived at Chicago's O'Hare Airport to start their final American tour, and the Beatles must really love this day, August 11, because two years later, in 1968, the group's first single record on their own Apple Records was released; Hey Jude b/w Revolution. While we're at it, on the same day in 1969, Diana Ross invited 350 guests to a Beverly Hills club to see the newest Motown act, The Jackson 5. This is from the same year, with Ross introducing a perky Jackson...then the Jackson 5 on her TV show a couple of years later.
1972 - Elvis Presley and Pricilla Presley filed for divorce. They had married in May of 1967. Thanks to youtuber publicmusiccity here's an image montage of the couple's marriage,m disintegration, and divorce.
1973 - After seeing KISS play at a New York hotel, today, producer Bill Aucoin offered to become their manager and promised a record deal, and on the same day and year, The Edgar Winter Group's Free Ride was released. Here are a couple of Winter classics, first up Frankenstein, followed by Winter and Rick Derrenger with one of rock's forgotten greats.
1993 - At a U2 concert in London, today, the band was joined onstage by author Salman Rushdie, who had hidden in a cottage in lead singer Bono's back garden after receiving death threats for publishing The Satanic Verses. Also on August 11 in 1996, drummer for the most successful instrumental group of all time died. Ventures drummer, Mel Taylor, who supplied the drum rolls in their smash world hit, Walk Don’t Run, died, today, of lung cancer at age 62. The Ventures were one of the many pre-rock instrumental bands that existed around the world, especially in USA, Australia and the UK. The Ventures were from America, formed in 1958 in Tacoma, Washington, and in its several incarnations the group had long-standing key impact and influence on the development of pop music. Their instrumental virtuosity, experimentation with guitar effects, and unique sound laid the groundwork for innumerable groups, earning them the moniker "The Band that Launched a Thousand Bands". With more than 100 million records sold, The Ventures remain the best-selling instrumental band of all time, and were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame during 1958.
2005 - It's only six years since Mariah Carey sat on top of world music charts, and began on this day, its staggering 11th week at #1 in the USA. The song? We Belong Together. On the surface of it, the song seems an ordinary modern love ballad, but it was on top for almost three months. What was it, do you think, that made this song such a hugely popular song with the public for so long?
