Saturday 10 August 2013

August 10th

Musical birthdays today include Ronnie Spector (70), Jethro Tull frontman Ian Anderson (66), jazz singer Patti Austin (63), INXS drummer Jon Farriss (52) and Malian kora player Toumani Diabate (52)... 

Shoutout to the Great Beyond for Leo Fender, founder of Fender Musical Instruments, inc., born on this date in 1909... Bobby Hatfield of the Righteous Brothers, who would have been 73 today... for Anthony Wilson, the Manchester impresario who signed Joy Division and The Happy Mondays to his Factory Records label and who died on this day in 2006... and for Isaac Hayes, who left us 5 years go today. 

Also on August 10: Mozart completes the Eine kleine Nachtmusik (1787)...  Mamie Smith records 'Crazy Blues', often considered to be the first hit record to establish the blues as a form (1920)... Four members of the Platters are arrested after a gig in Cincinnati, OH after being found with four women (three of them white) in various stages of undress. The scandal results in the group's records disappearing from the playlists of numerous US radio stations (1959)... 13-year-old Little Stevie Wonder becomes the youngest artist ever to have a Billboard no. 1 single, when his Fingertips part II tops the chart (1963)... The top 3 albums on the UK charts today are 1) Bridge over Troubled Water, 2) Let It Be, and 3) Bob Dylan's 'Self Portrait' (1970)... During the Wings over Europe Tour, Paul and Linda McCartney are arrested and fined 8000 SEK [$1,230 US] for possession of cannabis in a bust after a concert in Gothenburg, Sweden. McCartney jokes that the arrest will make good publicity for the tour  (1972)... Duran Duran's Simon Le Bon is airlifted to safety when his boat overturns while racing off the English coast. Le Bon was trapped under the hull for 20 minutes with 5 crew members until Royal Navy rescuers arrived (1985)... Michael Jackson outbids Paul McCartney and Yoko to buy ATV Music Publishing [which includes the entire Beatles song catalogue] for $47 million (1985). 

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