Monday 28 October 2013

October 28

Musical birthdays today include avant-garde composer Gershon Kingsley (91), jazz & pop singer Dame Cleo Laine (86), Charlie Daniels (77), R&B singer Curtis Lee (74), Shadows guitarist Hank Marvin (74), Wayne Fontana (68), ex-Tony Orlando & Dawn vocalist Telma Hopkins (65), Joy Division/New Order drummer Stephen Morris (56), Jesus & Mary Chain guitarist William Reid (55), alt-country fiddler Caitlin Cary (45), Ben Harper (44), Brad Paisley (41), Joaquin Phoenix (39), and rapper Frank Ocean (26). 

Shoutout to the Great Beyond for Cajun accordion virtuoso Iry Lejeune, who would have been 85 today... for ex-Soft Machine saxophonist Elton Dean, who would have been 68... for big band leader Woody Herman, who died today in 1987... and for Porter Waggoner, who left us today in 2007. 

Also on October 28: Tchaikovsky's Symphony no. 6 in B Minor, the 'Pathétique', receives its première performance in St. Petersburg only nine days before the composer's death (1893)... After a show at the Pan Pacific Auditorium in Los Angeles, police tell Elvis Presley that he is not allowed to wiggle his hips onstage. The local press also run editorials saying Elvis would have to clean up his act. The next night, the LAPD vice squad film his entire concert, in order to study his performance for illegalities (1957)... Buddy Holly makes his final US national TV appearance on Dick Clark's American Bandstand, where he lip-synchs 'It's So Easy' and 'Heartbeat' (1958)...  A Liverpool electrician named Raymond Jones goes into the NEMS Record store trying to buy discs released in Germany by a local group called the Beatles who are currently resident in Hamburg. Shop manager Brian Epstein promises to investigate further (1961)... The no. 1 album in the US today is Diana Ross and the Supremes' Greatest Hits (1967)... Nick Gilder goes to no. 1 in the US with 'Hot Child in the City'. Released in the singer's native Britain, the single will fail to chart (1978)... Bob Dylan releases the 3 LP career retrospective Biograph (1985)... R.E.M. drummer Bill Berry announces that he is  leaving the group after 17 years to become a farmer (1997)... Joseph 'Afroman' Foreman starts a two-week run at No. 1 on the UK singles chart with 'Because I Got High.' The song about how cannabis use was degrading his quality of life rose from obscurity after it went viral on the Internet (2001).
     


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