January 29th

 

Musical birthdays today include jazz guitarist Franco Cerri (95), classical pianist Malcom Binns (85), original Rolling Stones manager Andrew Loog Oldham (77), soul singer Bettye LaVette (75), Grand Funk Railroad lead singer Max Carl (71), Tangerine Dream keyboardist Peter Baumann (68), Los Lobos drummer Louie Pérez (68), Dictators lead singer Richard Manitoba (67), former Aztec Camera frontman Roddy Frame (57), singer-songwriter Chris Castle (45), and blues guitarist Jonny Lang (40). 

Shoutout to the Great Beyond for French chansonnier Sacha Distel, who would have been 88 today... for Motown session bassist James Jamerson, who would have been 85... for jazz pianist Bobby Scott, who would have been 84... for Uriah Heep lead singer David Byron, who would have been 74... for Tommy Ramone, who would have been 69... for Jimmy Durante, who died on this date in 1980... for bluesman Willie Dixon, who passed away in 1992... for singer-songwriter John Martyn, who died in 2009... for jazz cornetist and composer Butch Morris, died in 2013... and for original Animals guitarist Hilton Valentine, who left us today.

Also on January 29th: John Gay's The Beggar's Opera premieres at the Lincoln's Inn Fields Theatre in London (1728)... Mozart's opera Ideomeneo premieres in Munich with the composer himself conducting the orchestra (1781)... BBC radio airs a new program 'Desert Island Discs', presented by Roy Plomley ~ the show, which is still running, is the oldest in the history of British radio (1942)... Bob Dylan meets his idol Woody Guthrie again when the 'This Land Is Your Land' author is on weekend release from Greystone hospital staying with friends in Montclair, NJ. Guthrie is in good enough form to scrawl the message ‘I ain't dead yet’ on a card which he gives to his young admirer (1961)... The Beatles spend the day at Pathé Marconi Studios in Paris for their only studio recording session for EMI held outside the UK. They record new German language vocals for ‘She Loves You’, ‘I Want to Hold Your Hand’ and ‘Can't Buy Me Love’, after EMI's West German branch persuaded Brian Epstein that they would be unable to sell large quantities of records in their country unless they were recorded in the local language. A translator is there to coach John, Paul, and George, although their acquaintance with German from their Hamburg days makes things much easier (1964)...The Mantra Rock Dance, a fundraiser concert for the International Society of Krishna Consciousness, takes place at the Avalon Ballroom in San Francisco. On the bill are Janis Joplin, the Grateful Dead and Moby Grape, with Alan Ginsberg reading (1967)... Jimi Hendrix and The Who appear on a double bill at The Saville Theatre in London. 20 year-old future Queen guitarist Brian May is in the audience... The day after being bailed out of jail in Las Vegas following his arrest for public drunkenness, Jim Morrison is hauled in again by local law enforcement after a scuffle with security following the Doors' show at the Pussy Cat A Go Go Club. The rambunctious singer taunts a bouncer in the parking lot by pretending to smoke a joint, resulting in a fight. The police arrest Morrison and charge him with vagrancy, public drunkenness, and failure to possess sufficient identification (1968)... Fleetwood Mac have their only UK № 1 single with the instrumental 'Albatross', which was composed by guitarist Peter Green. The tune is the only Fleetwood Mac composition with the distinction of having inspired a Beatles song, 'Sun King' from Abbey Road (1969)... The triple album The Concert For Bangladesh goes to № 1 on both the UK and US album charts (1972)... The Buzzcocks issue their debut release, the EP ' Spiral Scratch'. It is also the first punk record ever to be self-released (1977)... In San Diego, CA, 16-year-old Brenda Spencer kills two people and wounds nine others when she fires from her house at the entrance to Grover Cleveland Elementary School across the street. Spencer used the .22-caliber rifle her father had given her for Christmas. When asked why she did it, she answered 'I don't like Mondays.' Bob Geldof and the Boomtown Rats go on to write and record a song based on the phrase (1979)... Flying his own jet back from the French Riviera, Gary Numan makes a forced landing at an RAF base outside Southampton after running low on fuel (1982)... Men At Work go to № 1 on the British and American singles and album charts simultaneously with 'The Land Down Under' and Business As Usual. The last artist to achieve this was Rod Stewart in 1971 (1983)... La Fenice, the opera house of Venice, is destroyed by fire (1996)... A New York based data company issues a chart listing sales of posthumous albums. The idea came about after several DJs said they wanted to be able to distinguish between proper recordings when the artists were alive and compilations released after their deaths. SoundScan CEO Mike Shallet said the only problem would be what to call such a chart. The Top 5 had The Doors at № 5, Eva Cassidy at 4, Jimi Hendrix at 3, Bob Marley at 2 and 2Pac at № 1 (2001)... Arctic Monkeys go to № 1 on the UK album chart with their debut Whatever People Say I Am That's What I'm Not. The Sheffield-based band's album becomes the fastest-selling debut in chart history after shifting more than 360,000 copies in its first week of release. The album's title was taken from a line from the novel Saturday Night and Sunday Morning by Alan Sillitoe (2006)... Former American Idol winner Kelly Clarkson makes the largest ever leap to number one in US chart history, rising 96 places in one week. Her single, 'My Life Would Suck Without You' rose from 97 to the top of the Billboard chart after selling 280,000 downloads in its first week of release (2009).