1959 – Guitar Slim
New Orleans blues guitarist Guitar Slim died of pneumonia aged 32. Born Eddie Jones he is best known for the million-selling song ‘The Things That I Used to Do’. Slim had a major impact on rock and roll and experimented with distorted overtones on the electric guitar a full decade before Jimi Hendrix. He became known for his wild stage act and had an assistant who followed him around the audience with up to 350 feet of cord between his guitar and his amplifier, and occasionally rode on his assistant’s shoulders or even took his guitar outside the club, bringing traffic to a stop.
1963 – The Beatles
The first Beatles single ‘Please Please Me’ was released in the US on the Vee Jay label. Capitol Records, EMI’s United States label, were offered the right to release the single in the US, but turned it down. Dick Biondi, a disc jockey on WLS in Chicago and a friend of Vee-Jay executive Ewart Abner, played the song on the radio from February 1963, thus becoming the first DJ to play a Beatles record in the United States.
1969 – The Who
The Who recorded ‘Pinball Wizard’ at Morgan Studio’s, London, England. The song is one of the band’s most famous live songs, being played at almost every Who concert since its debut live performance on 2 May 1969. The track which featured on their 1969 rock opera album Tommy was released as a single in 1969 and reached No. 4 in the UK charts and No. 19 in the US.
1976 – Paul Simon
Paul Simon started a three week run at No.1 on the US singles chart with ’50 Ways To Leave Your Lover’, the singers first solo US No.1.
1979 – Stephen Stills
Stephen Stills became the first rock performer to record on digital equipment in the Los Angeles’ Record Plant Studio.
1981 – Kool & The Gang
Kool & The Gang started a two week run at No.1 on the US singles chart with ‘Celebration’ the group’s first No.1 and 8th top 40 hit, a No.7 hit in the UK.
1987 – George Michael
George Michael and Aretha Franklin were at No.1 on the UK singles chart with ‘I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me)’. Written by Simon Climie it gave Aretha her first UK No.1 almost 20 years after her first hit.
1994 – Blind Melon
Blind Melon’s lead singer Shannon Hoon was forced to leave the American Music Awards ceremony for his loud and disruptive behaviour. Hoon was later charged with battery, assault, resisting arrest, and destroying a police station phone.
2004 – Queen
Queen‘s single ‘We Will Rock You’ topped a poll of music fans to find the greatest rock anthem of all time. The 1977 song beat the band’s classic ‘Bohemian Rhapsody‘ into second place in a survey of 1,000 people carried out for the UCI cinema chain. The poll was carried out to mark the release of new Jack Black comedy ‘School of Rock.’
2008 – Amy Winehouse
Amy Winehouse was told she could not perform at this year’s Grammy awards ceremony because her US visa application has been rejected by the embassy in London. The singer was arrested for marijuana possession in Norway last year. Winehouse has been nominated for six Grammy awards ahead of the ceremony in Los Angeles on Sunday.
2015 – Joe B. Mauldin
American bass player, songwriter, Joe B. Mauldin died aged 74. He was best known as the bassist for the early rock and roll group The Crickets and later became a recording engineer at Gold Star Studios, the Los Angeles studio which became the “hit factory” for Phil Spector, Brian Wilson and other major 1960s rock performers.
2021 – Elliot Mazer
Producer Elliot Mazer died at the age of 79. He is most famous for his work with Neil Young, working on a string of releases including Harvest, Journey Through The Past, Times Fades Away, Tonight’s The Night, American Stars & Bars, Hawks & Doves, Everybody’s Rockin’, Old Ways, Lucky 13 and the recently released “lost” album Homegrown. He also worked with The Band, Janis Joplin, Rory Gallagher and many more.
