November 11, 1938 - ONE of the greatest song writers of all time, Irving Berlin, wrote the song in 1918, and 20 years later, America's radio queen and singer of the day, Kate Smith sang the patriotic God Bless America today, Armistice Day, on national radio. Berlin originally wrote the song in 1918, while serving in the U.S. Army at Camp Upton in Yaphank, New York. With the rise of Hitler in 1938, Berlin, who was Jewish, and a first-generation European immigrant, felt it was time to revive it as a peace song, hence it was introduced on an Armistice Day broadcast in 1938, sung by Kate on her radio show.
1954 - BILL Haley scored his first worldwide hit today, starting in America's top 10, with Shake Rattle And Roll. He had dropped his cowboy image about a year and a half earlier, renaming his group the Saddlemen, to Bill Haley and His Comets. The song was originally made popular by Big Joe Turner. This first video is Haley's, from the Mexican picture Young's and Rebel's. Haley's version also became the theme song for the Springfield Indians of the American Hockey League. Here are both versions of the song, Haley's a more laid back groove version than was his hit version.
1955 - ELVIS Presley was today voted the most promising new country & western artist by Billboard magazine, and on the same day seven years later, Aussie Frank Ifield was on top of Brit charts with the old Hank Williams tune, Lovesick Blues, the singer's second UK #1. his debut hit was I Remember You, the underlay song on this following clip, where Ifield was inducted into the Hall of fame in Australia.
1958 - HANK Ballard was one of the unsung heroes of soul/rythm and blues/rock music. Ultra suggestive lyrics in his self-penned songs garnered him a huge and fanatical following, selling millions of records. This was the day that he and his band, the Midnighters, recorded their self-penned song, The Twist, made famous all over the world two years later. No video appears to have survived of Ballard's version, but here's something else from the master, in a revival concert, and following that he appears on an early American game show.
1965 - LOU Reed's band, Velvet Underground, nurtured and mentored by Andy Warhol had its performance debut at a high school dance in Summit, New Jersey on this day 46 years ago. Two years later they recorded this absolute gem, White Light/White Heat, and this is authentic footage from Warhol's Factory.
1967 - THIS is the day The Supremes released their penultimate single, In And Out Of Love, written and produced by legendary Motown team Holland, Dozier & Holland. It was the second single issued with the group's new billing of Diana Ross & the Supremes, and the final single to feature the vocals of original member, Florence Ballard. This video performance is from a Spanish television show in '67.
1969 - FORTY two years ago, Jim Morrison of the Doors was jailed for "interfering with the flight of an intercontinental aircraft and public drunkenness." A year later on the same day, and John Lennon's Plastic Ono Band released Instant Karma, featuring Yoko Ono with blindfold on.
1970 - HARD to believe, but it is now four decades since Bob Dylan's book Tarantula was published by Bantam Books. Here's some of its prose read out loud by performance poet, Randy Brook, and it refers to the section of the book that pays tribute to the great comedian, Lenny Bruce...oops, sorry, I had to pick myself up off the floor, this weird bolt of lightning just came through the window sideways. Where was I? Oh, yes, well, let's just say that Lenny Bruce paid the price for the freedom of speech enjoyed by EVERY stand-up comic who followed him. When Dylan was coming up through the Greenwich Village coffee-houses, he sometimes hung out with Lenny, who was already an established underground comic. In this homage from Dylan's Tarantula extract, "Guitars Kissing, And The Contemporary Fix", he paints a picture of those times, including a word snapshot of the perennial post-beatnik bohemian coffee-house table and of Bruce himself, including a hair-raising Ferlinghetti-esque free-association depiction of his death.
1976 - HERE'S a black and white bootleg piece of film showing Kiss singing Detroit Rock City during a rehearsal, on this day, when their Rock and Roll Over album was released 35 years ago.
1977 - DURING an Australian tour by Fleetwood Mac at the RAS Sydney Showgrounds, the bill also included Santana, Little River Band, and the great Kevin Borich Express. Borich first came to Australia from New Zealand, in his band, the La De Das, also featuring the late Phil Key. Borich has gone on to become his own self-supporting industry in Australia, being one of the hardest-working musicians, and a guitar legion icon.
1954 - BILL Haley scored his first worldwide hit today, starting in America's top 10, with Shake Rattle And Roll. He had dropped his cowboy image about a year and a half earlier, renaming his group the Saddlemen, to Bill Haley and His Comets. The song was originally made popular by Big Joe Turner. This first video is Haley's, from the Mexican picture Young's and Rebel's. Haley's version also became the theme song for the Springfield Indians of the American Hockey League. Here are both versions of the song, Haley's a more laid back groove version than was his hit version.
1955 - ELVIS Presley was today voted the most promising new country & western artist by Billboard magazine, and on the same day seven years later, Aussie Frank Ifield was on top of Brit charts with the old Hank Williams tune, Lovesick Blues, the singer's second UK #1. his debut hit was I Remember You, the underlay song on this following clip, where Ifield was inducted into the Hall of fame in Australia.
1958 - HANK Ballard was one of the unsung heroes of soul/rythm and blues/rock music. Ultra suggestive lyrics in his self-penned songs garnered him a huge and fanatical following, selling millions of records. This was the day that he and his band, the Midnighters, recorded their self-penned song, The Twist, made famous all over the world two years later. No video appears to have survived of Ballard's version, but here's something else from the master, in a revival concert, and following that he appears on an early American game show.
1965 - LOU Reed's band, Velvet Underground, nurtured and mentored by Andy Warhol had its performance debut at a high school dance in Summit, New Jersey on this day 46 years ago. Two years later they recorded this absolute gem, White Light/White Heat, and this is authentic footage from Warhol's Factory.
1967 - THIS is the day The Supremes released their penultimate single, In And Out Of Love, written and produced by legendary Motown team Holland, Dozier & Holland. It was the second single issued with the group's new billing of Diana Ross & the Supremes, and the final single to feature the vocals of original member, Florence Ballard. This video performance is from a Spanish television show in '67.
1969 - FORTY two years ago, Jim Morrison of the Doors was jailed for "interfering with the flight of an intercontinental aircraft and public drunkenness." A year later on the same day, and John Lennon's Plastic Ono Band released Instant Karma, featuring Yoko Ono with blindfold on.
1970 - HARD to believe, but it is now four decades since Bob Dylan's book Tarantula was published by Bantam Books. Here's some of its prose read out loud by performance poet, Randy Brook, and it refers to the section of the book that pays tribute to the great comedian, Lenny Bruce...oops, sorry, I had to pick myself up off the floor, this weird bolt of lightning just came through the window sideways. Where was I? Oh, yes, well, let's just say that Lenny Bruce paid the price for the freedom of speech enjoyed by EVERY stand-up comic who followed him. When Dylan was coming up through the Greenwich Village coffee-houses, he sometimes hung out with Lenny, who was already an established underground comic. In this homage from Dylan's Tarantula extract, "Guitars Kissing, And The Contemporary Fix", he paints a picture of those times, including a word snapshot of the perennial post-beatnik bohemian coffee-house table and of Bruce himself, including a hair-raising Ferlinghetti-esque free-association depiction of his death.
1976 - HERE'S a black and white bootleg piece of film showing Kiss singing Detroit Rock City during a rehearsal, on this day, when their Rock and Roll Over album was released 35 years ago.
1977 - DURING an Australian tour by Fleetwood Mac at the RAS Sydney Showgrounds, the bill also included Santana, Little River Band, and the great Kevin Borich Express. Borich first came to Australia from New Zealand, in his band, the La De Das, also featuring the late Phil Key. Borich has gone on to become his own self-supporting industry in Australia, being one of the hardest-working musicians, and a guitar legion icon.
