On This Day in Rock & Roll History: January 26

After more than six weeks, I thought this would be a good time for another installment in my longest-running, irregular, and seemingly never-ending recurring music history feature, which looks at happenings in the music world on a specific date throughout the decades. While I started this series all the way back in June 2016, it’s amazing how many dates I’ve yet to cover. January 26 is one of them.

As always, these posts reflect my music taste and aren’t meant to give a full accounting of events. There are plenty of music history calendars out there, which take a more comprehensive look at the topic. With that reminder out of the way, let’s get to it. And, yes, everything music-related starts with The Beatles! 🙂

1964: The Beatles performed two concerts at The Olympia Theatre in Paris, France, according to The Beatles Bible. That bible may not be quite as popular as Jesus, but it does a meticulous job of documenting nearly every day in Fab Four history. The great resource tells us their set included eight songs: From Me To You, Roll Over Beethoven, She Loves You, This Boy, Boys, I Want To Hold Your Hand, Twist And Shout and Long Tall Sally. Doing some math here, I suppose this was the equivalent of one Grateful Dead jam or a ’70s prog rock track! The gig was part of a residency at the Paris venue, which began on January 16 and ended on February 4 that year and involved two shows each day. Here are some snippets from another gig during that residency.

1970: Simon & Garfunkel released their fifth and final studio album Bridge Over Troubled Water. While the album was well received and topped the charts in the U.S., UK and numerous other countries, the duo called it quits later that year. They did come back together for a number of reunion concerts, most notably a free gig in New York City’s Central Park in 1981 in front of half a million people. Here’s The Boxer, which like most of the other tracks on the album was penned by Paul Simon – what a timeless gem!

1973: Elton John’s sixth studio album Don’t Shoot Me I’m Only the Piano Player dropped in the U.S., four days after it had appeared in the UK. It was John’s first of three chart-topping records in a row in the UK and his second of six(!) straight no. 1 albums in the U.S. Yes, Sir Elton truly ruled the music world! The lead single Crocodile Rock also gave him his first no. 1 song in the U.S. and Canada. Notably, in the UK it would take John three more years to reach the top of the Official Singles Chart, with Don’t Go Breaking My Heart, his duet with Kiki Dee. Don’t Shoot Me I’m Only the Piano Player was the first of two albums the British artist released in 1973. The second, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, followed in October. Here’s Daniel, the lead single from John’s first 1973 album.

1980: Prince made his debut on U.S. national television with an appearance on American Bandstand. While he already was a musical genius, clearly, the then-19-year-old didn’t seem to be comfortable being interviewed, presenting a challenge to host Dick Clark to engage in a conversation. When Clark asked him whether it was accurate that he played all instruments on “this album” (his second self-titled release), Prince answered “maybe”. Subsequently prompted by Clark to reveal how many instruments he plays, Prince paused for a few awkward seconds before answering “a thousand.” Perhaps it was a combination of his sense of humor and being shy. Once it was time to perform Why You Wanna Treat Me So Bad?, a tune off his sophomore album, Prince definitely looked much more comfortable. Also, check out Dez Dickerson’s killer guitar solo.

1997: The Blues Brothers, James Brown and ZZ Top performed at the Super Bowl XXXI halftime show in New Orleans. Titled “Blues Brothers Bash”, the show was pretty dynamic, as you might expect, based on the artists. The Blues Brothers kicked it off with Everybody Needs Somebody to Love and Soul Man before the hardest-working man in show business took the stage with a medley of I Got You (I Feel Good) and Get Up (I Feel Like Being a) Sex Machine. This was followed by the Texan trio playing Tush and Legs. For the finale, all artists came together for a great rendition of Spencer Davis Group classic Gimme Some Lovin’. Now, that’s what I call a sizzling halftime show!

Sources: Wikipedia; The Beatles Bible; Songsfacts Music History Calendar; YouTube

James Brown, Live Performer Extraordinaire

Splitting his legs, bouncing his knees, shaking his body, profusely sweating and at times seemingly screaming off the top of his lungs – they didn’t call James Brown Mr. Dynamite or The Hardest Working Man In Show Biz for nothing. I was reminded of his incredible performances recently, when my music streaming platform served up one of Brown’s great live albums at the storied Apollo Theater in New York’s Harlem. And voila, an idea for a new blog was triggered!

Brown was born James Joseph Brown on May 3rd, 1933 in Barnwell, S.C. to a 16-year-old mother and a 22-year-old father. The family lived in extreme poverty, and from a young age, Brown essentially took care of himself with hustling to get by. He dropped out of school after sixth grade and began singing at talent shows as a nine-year old. In 1954, Brown joined a gospel group that had been founded by singer Bobby Byrd, which evolved into The Famous Flames. By 1957, they called themselves James Brown and the Famous Flames.

James Brown live in 1980

In 1956, The Famous Flames signed a deal with Federal, a Cincinnati-based subsidiary of King Records. In March that year, they released Please Please Please, which eventually became their first hit single reaching no. 6 on the Billboard R&B charts. Co-written by Brown and Flames backing vocalist Johnny Terry, it also was the title track of their debut album from December 1958. A series of follow-up singles went nowhere, and it wasn’t until October 1958 that Brown and his band stroke again with the ballad Try Me – the first of 17 singles topping the R&B chart. According to Wikipedia, Brown has the distinction to be the artist with the most singles on the Billboard Hot 100 without hitting no. 1 – not only do I wonder who comes up with these stats, but I also find this hard to believe, given all the music Brown prolifically released over his 50-year recording career, including so many well-known tunes!

During the late ’60s, Brown started to move away from gospel and soul and became instrumental in shaping funk music. Often referred to as The Godfather of Soul, perhaps a more appropriate title would be “The Godfather of Funk.” In fact, some music critics consider his 1967 tune Cold Sweat to be the first real funk song. Brown continued to record and perform through the 70s, 80s, 90s and early 2000s. He passed away on December 25, 2006 at age 73 from congestive heart failure, resulting from complications of pneumonia.

James Brown in 1986

Let’s hit it with footage from some of Brown’s legendary performances. This clip of Please Please Please is from the T.A.M.I. Show, a concert held in Santa Monica, Calif. on October 28 and 29, 1964. It featured top artists from the U.S. and the U.K., who in addition to James Brown and the Famous Flames included The Beach Boys, Chuck Berry, Gerry & the Pacemakers and The Rolling Stones, among others. The concert was captured in a movie that appeared in December 1964. It’s just mind-boggling to watch Brown in action, repeatedly dropping on his knees and being lifted up by his band mates while seemingly singing himself into a trance-like state.

I Got You (I Feel Good) is one of Brown’s signature tunes. Written by him and first recorded for his 10th studio record Out Of Sight released in September 1964, it also became Brown’s highest charting single on the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at no. 3. The following clip apparently is from a concert in Paris, France in 1966.

Another incredible performance happened in Boston on April 5, 1968. Brown’s show at the Boston Garden took place just one day after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. Apparently, the mayor had planned to cancel all public events including Brown’s concert, but in the end the local authorities were more concerned a cancellation could trigger unrest and allowed the event to go ahead. Here’s the above noted Try Me, a beautiful soulful tune written by Brown, which like Please Please Please appeared on the debut album. Check out Brown’s moves at around 1:30 minutes into the song. You can literally picture him starting to launch into the moonwalk at any moment!

Next up: A great medley of Cold Sweat and Ride The Pony (Mother Popcorn) from the same 1968 gig in Boston. Cold Sweat was co-written by Brown and the leader of his backing band Alfred “Pee Wee” Ellis. It also became the title track to his 21st studio album released in August 1967. It’s simply impossible to listen to this tune without starting to groove, especially when watching Brown’s dance moves.

A post about James Brown’s live performances wouldn’t be complete without one of his biggest concert staples: Get Up (I Feel Like Being A) Sex Machine. It’s perhaps the ultimate funk tune. First released in July 1970 as a two-part single, Sex Machine was co-written by him; Bobby Byrd, who by then had become the keyboarder of Brown’s new band The J.B.s; and Brown’s recording engineer Ron Lenhoff. The guitar part is performed by Phelps “Catfish” Collins and one of the coolest funk riffs in my book. It’s also propelled by the terrific rhythm section of Phelps’ brother William “Bootsy” Collins on bass and drummer John “Jabo” Starks. The following footage apparently was captured sometime in 1971.

To me James Brown is in the same group of extraordinary artists like Elvis Presley and Michael Jackson who pushed stage performances to a new level. Brown has received many honors, including inductions into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Songwriters Hall of Fame. He’s included at no. 7 in Rolling Stone’s list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time. According to the music magazine, Brown is also the most sampled music artist of all time.

Sources: Wikipedia, YouTube