1946 - This is the day the great, Ella Fitzgerald, 29yo at the time, joined forces with vocal group The Delta Rhythm Boys and recorded a song called It's A Pity to Say Goodnight. I have searched many sources, and have been unsuccessful finding a video of this song, so the best I can do for you is to showcase a video of Ella doing one of her earliest hits, and the Delta Rhythm Boys performing one of their best. Ms. Fitzgerald, during her 59-year-recording career, won 13 Grammy Awards, and was awarded the National Medal of Arts by Ronald Reagan, and Presidential Medal of Freedom by George H. W. Bush. Known as the first 'lady of song, she had a vocal range spanning three octaves (Db3 to Db6), and was particularly known for her tone purity, diction, phrasing and intonation, and a an extraordinary improvisational ability, particularly in her scat singing. She was a strong influence on Amy Winehouse's vocal style. Here we have her singing a classic, from the same era, A Tiskit A Tasket. The Delta Rhythm Boys were an American vocal group, first formed at Langston University in Langston, Oklahoma in 1934 by Elmaurice Miller, Traverse Crawford, Essie Joseph Adkins and Otha Lee Gaines. In 1936 they moved to Dillard University in New Orleans, where they worked under Frederick Hall undethe names New Orleans Quintet and Frederick Hall Quintet. The group appeared during the 1940s on radio programs such as Amos and Andy and The Joan Davis Show, and performed on Broadway in the shows such as Sing Out the News and Hot Mikado. They also appeared extensively in film, and were background vocalists for Charlie Barnet, Mildred Bailey, Ella Fitzgerald, and Ruth Brown. As their popularity began to wane in their home country, In the 1950s they began to amass a large fan base in Europe, particularly in Scandinavia. In 1956, the group relocated to Europe and performed there up until 1978, when Gaines and Bryant died. They reformed, basing themselves in Paris. All are now deceased. RIP, Ella & The Boys. For more Ella, go to our *MUSICBACKTRACK* archive search engine.
1958 - Alan Freed was the big boss man disc jockey, who was integral in bringing together black and white styles of music, and therefore audiences in the beginning of the rock'n'roll revolution. He was one of the main instigators of the rock'n'roll revolution of the fifties, and it was also Freed who popularised the term rock'n'roll. He didn't coin the phrase, as is often reported, but in fact, took the term, which originated in the African American population, where it was used as a term for fucking. This is the day, 53 years ago, when Freed's regular live shows, Big Beat Show, opened at the Fox Theatre in Brooklyn, New York. strangely there doesn't appear to be any footage of these, so here is an excerpt from a Freed movie, The Big Beat, featuring the Alan Freed Orchestra, with Rock'n'Roll Boogie - he's the so-called band leader clapping his hands and speaking the title of the tune in a moronic tone, by the way.
1958 - This is the day a 15yo George Harrison joined the band Quarrymen, two members of whom were 18yo John Lennon, and 16 yo Paul McCartney. Just six years later, as Beatlemania began its hysterical short but unbelievable influence, Roy Orbison released s single Oh, Pretty Woman, a song which defied all previous pop song structures, heralding his own sound. The song was Orbison's second #1 hit. A classic song, a classic performance from a very young Orbison.
1966 - This was the day, too, that he Beatles ended their fourth American tour at Candlestick Park in San Francisco, California, and as fate would have it, the show was their last public concert. for more details and video and information on the Beatles, go to our archive search engine. We shoot forward to 1970 and one rock's greatest bands, The Kinks, who today released their song, Lola, a record that was banned by some radio stations around the world, because of its lyrical content. So funny when you think about it, but the song went on to become a world wide hit. Are there any other groups as quirky as the Kinks? Ray Davies one of rock's finest song writers, and for more info and videos on he and The Kinks, check out our archive search engine. Here's the Kinks' performance from Britain's iconic Top Of The Pops, in 1970, of Lola.
1977 - It's 34 years ago, Elvis is dead, and this is the day that three people were arrested in Memphis, after unsuccessfully trying to steal Elvis' body. Just seven years later on the same day, released his song, Let's Go Crazy, and on the same day in 1986, the former American Bandstand television studio, Philadelphia, America, was placed on the National Register of Historic Places.
1990 - After struggling with drug and alcohol problems for decades, Elton John checked into a rehab center in Chicago, today, for bulimia, drinking and drugs. I think Elton John's going public in this year set the standard, and the chic, for public figures to announce their addictions and that they were addressing them. Or not. It has become almost a passage of rites of music and movie stars. on the same day five years later, while shooting the music video for Meat Loaf's I'd Lie for You, a pilot and cameraman were killed in a helicopter crash in the Sequoia National Forest, about 150 miles north of Los Angeles. Clearly a rock music veteran, multi-talented, survivor, great songs, and the erst of it - you cannot take it away from Meatloaf.
1996 - Isaac Hayes, who co-wrote the Stax classic Soul Man, sent a protest letter to presidential candidate Bob Dole, today, requesting Dole to stop using his song, which his supporters had changed to I'm A Dole Man. Soul Man is the 1967 iconic soul song written by Isaac Hayes and David Porter. The song first became successful as a hit single by Atlantic Records' soul duo, Sam & Dave. Hayes has since stated he found the inspiration for Soul Man in the turmoil of the African-American Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. In July 1967, the 12th Street Riot in Detroit, Michigan occurred. Watching a television newscast of the aftermath of the riots, Hayes noted that black Detroit residents had marked the buildings that had not been destroyed during the riots - most African-American owned and operated institutions - with the word 'soul'. Relating this occurrence to the biblical story of the Passover, Hayes and songwriting partner David Porter, came up with the idea, in Hayes' words, of "a story about one's struggle to rise above his present conditions. It's almost a tune where it's kind of like boasting 'I'm a soul man'. It's a pride thing." The Soul men Sam and Dave - in this video - are in the Helsinki Culture House in Finland, 1967. What a tight band. What a dynamic duo!
2001 - It is now 10 years since Aussie rocker Graeme 'Shirley' Strachan, died in a helicopter crash. Strachan was the lead singer of Australian 1970s rock group Skyhooks. Born in the Melbourne suburb of Malvern, he was an avid surfer, and his nickname 'Shirley' was given to him by his surfer friends because of his long, sunbleached and very curly hair, with a reference nod to Shirley Temple. He had been a fixed wing pilot for many years and undergoing training for a helicopter pilot's licence, with a view to buying a helicopter and taking friends and family on surfing safaris. On a solo flight near Maroochydore in clear weather and inexplicably off the course planned by his instructor, Strachan encountered mountain turbulence which caused the rotor of his Bell 47G to sever the tailboom, crashing the helicopter onto a mountain slope. His band, Skyhooks, made a huge enormous on Australian teenage social life at the time, heralding in, as they did, the seventies. Skyhooks had #1 albums on the Australian Kent Music Report with their 1974 debut, Living in the 70's (for 16 weeks), and its 1975 follow-up, Ego Is Not a Dirty Word (11 weeks). Their #1 songs were Horror Movie, January 1975; Ego Is Not a Dirty Word, April 1975, and Jukebox in Siberia, (November 1990). So here's Horror Movie.
