March 13, 1977 - IGGY POP AND DAVID BOWIE kicked off a North American tour at Le Plateau Theatre, Montreal, Canada, tonight, with New York new wave band, Blondie, as the opening act. This is the pair featured on middle-of-the-road night time American TV programme, the Dinah Shore Show. Following that, Iggy Pop live at Manchester Apollo, in the same year.
1960 - JOHNNY PRESTON was at #1 on the UK singles chart with Running Bear, and it spread around the world to hit top of the charts in many countries. From the 51st Anniversary of Buddy, Ritchie and the Big Boppers final show at the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, Iowa, Johnny preston performs the song one more time. He dedicated his performance to JP 'Big Bopper' Richardson, the man who 50 years earlier helped launch Preston's career by writing the hit song.
1965 - TOM JONES made his first major TV appearance on BBC TVs Billy Cotton Band Show tonight. Since the mid 1960s, Jones has sung many styles of popular music, viz pop, rock, R&B, show tunes, country, dance, techno, soul and gospel, selling more than 100 million records in the process. Jones began singing at an early age, regularly singing at family gatherings, weddings & in his school choir. At 12 he was diagnosed with tuberculosis, & not long after his career took off he said: "I spent two years in bed recovering. It was the worst time of my life." During convalescence he could do little else but listen to music and draw.
1966 - ROD STEWART was a pro-active singer in the sixties, in many guises, and this was the day he left the group Steampacket to work as a solo artist. In this video, Rod & Julie Driscoll become the back up singers for Steampacket's front man, Long john Baldry, with Brian Auger on Hammond B3 organ. With his distinctive raspy singing voice, Stewart then came to prominence in the late 1960s and early 1970s with The Jeff Beck Group and then Faces. He launched his solo career in 1969 with his debut album An Old Raincoat Won't Ever Let You Down.
1971 - BREWER & SHIPLEY entered American singles chart with One Toke Over The Line. The song, which featured The Grateful Dead's Jerry Garcia on steel guitar, peaked at #10 despite being banned by radio stations for its drug references. Brewer and Shipley maintained that the word 'toke' meant 'token' as in ticket, hence the line, "waitin' downtown at the railway station, one toke over the line." This following video in no way condones or condemns the smoking of herb.
1977 - MANHATTAN TRANSFER were at #1 on the charts of several countries around the world with this classic song, Chanson D'amour. The retro Jazz vocal harmony group had been working in New York gay bars, singing 40s and 50s swing classics before they had world chart success.
1993 - LENNY KRAVITZ enjoyed chart success around the world, as of today, with his song Are You Gonna Go My Way hitting #1 in the UK. The American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, record producer, actor and arranger, whose retro style incorporates elements of rock, soul, R&B, funk, reggae, hard rock, psychedelic, folk and ballads. In addition to singing lead and backing vocals, Kravitz often plays all the guitar, bass, drums, keyboards and percussion himself when recording. He is known for his elaborate stage performances and music videos. He won the Grammy Award for Best Male Rock Vocal Performance four years in a row from 1999 to 2002, breaking the record for most wins in that category and most consecutive wins in one category for a male.
2002 - WALL OF VOODOO guitarist Marc Moreland died in Paris, France, today, of kidney failure, aged 44. The band scored big time in 1983 with the song, Mexican Radio. Wall of Voodoo had its roots in Acme Soundtracks, a film score business started by Stan Ridgway, later the vocalist and harmonica player for Wall of Voodoo. Acme Soundtracks office was across the street from the Hollywood punk club The Masque and Ridgway was soon drawn into the emerging punk/new wave scene.Wall of Voodoo was an American New Wave group from Los Angeles best known for the 1983 hit Mexican Radio. The band had a sound that was a fusion of synthesizer-based New Wave music with the spaghetti western soundtrack style of Ennio Morricone.
1960 - JOHNNY PRESTON was at #1 on the UK singles chart with Running Bear, and it spread around the world to hit top of the charts in many countries. From the 51st Anniversary of Buddy, Ritchie and the Big Boppers final show at the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, Iowa, Johnny preston performs the song one more time. He dedicated his performance to JP 'Big Bopper' Richardson, the man who 50 years earlier helped launch Preston's career by writing the hit song.
1965 - TOM JONES made his first major TV appearance on BBC TVs Billy Cotton Band Show tonight. Since the mid 1960s, Jones has sung many styles of popular music, viz pop, rock, R&B, show tunes, country, dance, techno, soul and gospel, selling more than 100 million records in the process. Jones began singing at an early age, regularly singing at family gatherings, weddings & in his school choir. At 12 he was diagnosed with tuberculosis, & not long after his career took off he said: "I spent two years in bed recovering. It was the worst time of my life." During convalescence he could do little else but listen to music and draw.
1966 - ROD STEWART was a pro-active singer in the sixties, in many guises, and this was the day he left the group Steampacket to work as a solo artist. In this video, Rod & Julie Driscoll become the back up singers for Steampacket's front man, Long john Baldry, with Brian Auger on Hammond B3 organ. With his distinctive raspy singing voice, Stewart then came to prominence in the late 1960s and early 1970s with The Jeff Beck Group and then Faces. He launched his solo career in 1969 with his debut album An Old Raincoat Won't Ever Let You Down.
1971 - BREWER & SHIPLEY entered American singles chart with One Toke Over The Line. The song, which featured The Grateful Dead's Jerry Garcia on steel guitar, peaked at #10 despite being banned by radio stations for its drug references. Brewer and Shipley maintained that the word 'toke' meant 'token' as in ticket, hence the line, "waitin' downtown at the railway station, one toke over the line." This following video in no way condones or condemns the smoking of herb.
1977 - MANHATTAN TRANSFER were at #1 on the charts of several countries around the world with this classic song, Chanson D'amour. The retro Jazz vocal harmony group had been working in New York gay bars, singing 40s and 50s swing classics before they had world chart success.
1993 - LENNY KRAVITZ enjoyed chart success around the world, as of today, with his song Are You Gonna Go My Way hitting #1 in the UK. The American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, record producer, actor and arranger, whose retro style incorporates elements of rock, soul, R&B, funk, reggae, hard rock, psychedelic, folk and ballads. In addition to singing lead and backing vocals, Kravitz often plays all the guitar, bass, drums, keyboards and percussion himself when recording. He is known for his elaborate stage performances and music videos. He won the Grammy Award for Best Male Rock Vocal Performance four years in a row from 1999 to 2002, breaking the record for most wins in that category and most consecutive wins in one category for a male.
2002 - WALL OF VOODOO guitarist Marc Moreland died in Paris, France, today, of kidney failure, aged 44. The band scored big time in 1983 with the song, Mexican Radio. Wall of Voodoo had its roots in Acme Soundtracks, a film score business started by Stan Ridgway, later the vocalist and harmonica player for Wall of Voodoo. Acme Soundtracks office was across the street from the Hollywood punk club The Masque and Ridgway was soon drawn into the emerging punk/new wave scene.Wall of Voodoo was an American New Wave group from Los Angeles best known for the 1983 hit Mexican Radio. The band had a sound that was a fusion of synthesizer-based New Wave music with the spaghetti western soundtrack style of Ennio Morricone.
