On This Day in Rock & Roll History: December 1

Time for another installment of my oldest and most infrequent recurrent feature on the blog, which looks at events that happened on a specific date throughout music history. Not sure why the series keeps falling by the wayside, given how enjoyable I find it to see what comes up. Today’s date is, well, today’s date: December 1. As always, these posts reflect my music taste and, as such, aren’t meant to be a full accounting of events on a specific date.

1957: Let’s start with one of the great early classic rock & roll stars: Buddy Holly. On this date 65 years ago, Holly and The Crickets appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show to perform their first two big hits, That’ll Be the Day and Peggy Sue, which had been released as singles in May 1957 and September 1957, respectively. The former tune was penned by Holly and Crickets drummer Jerry Allison, while the latter was a co-write by Allison and producer Norman Petty. The songs also appeared on the albums The “Chirping” Crickets (November 1957) and Buddy Holly (February 1958), respectively. Here’s Peggy Sue. Texas boys, do it! Man, I love that song!

1964: The Who performed their first of 22 Tuesday night shows at The Marquee Club in London. Each gig earned them £50 (approximately $1,065 today). Other artists and bands who played the prominent music venue in the ’60s included Jimi Hendrix, David Bowie, Cream, Jethro Tull, Yes and Pink Floyd, among many others.

1969: The final edition of The Beatles Book, a fan magazine aka Beatles Monthly, was published. From The Beatles Bible: The Beatles Book had been published each month since August 1963 until this, the 77th and final issue. Published on 1 December 1969, the last edition included a leader column from editor Sean O’Mahoney, writing as Johnny Dean, in which he criticised The Beatles for encouraging drug experimentation among their fans. O’Mahoney took the decision to cease publication after it became obvious that The Beatles were unlikely to continue recording. However, it was revived in May 1976 with reissues of the original 77 editions, along with new content. The second run ended with issue 321 in January 2003. The image below shows the cover of edition no. 34 from May 1966.

1971: John Lennon released his Christmas and Vietnam war protest song Happy Xmas (War Is Over) in the U.S. Billed as John & Yoko/Plastic Ono Band, the tune featured the Harlem Community Choir. It followed more than two years of peace activism Lennon and Yoko Ono had started with their bed-ins in March and May 1969. The song’s release was preceded by an international multimedia campaign that looked ahead of its time. It primarily included rented billboard space in 12 major cities around the world, displaying black & white posters declaring WAR IS OVER! If You Want It – Happy Christmas from John & Yoko. Unlike in the U.S. where the single enjoyed moderate chart success, it peaked at no. 4 in the UK on the Official Singles Chart after its release there in November 1972. Between December 1972 and February 1973, the song also entered the top 10 in Australia, Belgium, Denmark, France, Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway and Singapore.

1973: Carpenters were on top of the world and mainstream charts in the U.S., Canada and Australia with a tune appropriately titled Top of the World. Co-written by Richard Carpenter and John Bettis, the song first appeared on their fourth studio album A Song for You from June 1972. Initially, Carpenters intended the track to be an album cut only but changed their mind after country singer Lynn Anderson had released a cover that reached no. 2 on the country chart. It turned out to be a smart decision. Top of the World became the duo’s second of three no. 1 singles, following (They Long to Be) Close to You and preceding Please Mr. Postman.

Sources: Wikipedia; This Day In Music; The Beatles Bible; Songfacts Music History Calendar; YouTube

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The Sunday Six

It’s Sunday again and a new mini music excursion is upon us. This time, we start in April 1993 with some jazzy blues, move on to rock from 1975, soul from 1965, pop rock from 2002 and blues rock from 2011, before finishing with classic rock & roll from 1957. Let’s go!

Chris Isaak/5:15

I’d like to begin today’s journey with Chris Isaak, a name I feel I hadn’t heard in ages – until the other day when I stumbled across this great tune: 5:15. Isaak recorded it for his fourth studio album San Francisco Days that was released in April 1993. It’s the follow-on to Heart Shaped World from June 1989, which became Isaak’s breakthrough record, thanks to Wicked Game, his biggest hit. Coming back to 5:15, I just love the jazzy blues vibe of this tune. It would have made a good single. Check it out!

Little River Band/It’s a Long Way There

Next, let’s go down under and 18 years back: It’s a Long Way There by Australian rockers Little River Band. I’ve dug this tune from the first time I heard it in Germany on the radio sometime in the late ’70s. In those days, I taped songs from the radio like a maniac to create one mixed music cassette after the other. This tune, off Little River Band’s eponymous debut album from October 1975, ended up on one of those mixed MCs. It was written by the group’s lead vocalist and guitarist Graham Goble. Yes, with its orchestration, the tune doesn’t exactly suffer from underproduction, but this guitar sound the harmony vocals are just sweet!

Four Tops/I Can’t Help Myself (Sugar Pie Honey Bunch)

On Thursday night, I saw The Temptations and Four Tops at a midsize theatre on Staten Island, N.Y. Watch for a forthcoming separate post on this show, but in a nutshell, I had a great time listening to some old-school Motown soul. So I just couldn’t help myself to feature one of my favorites by the Detroit quartet that helped shape the Motown sound. Co-written by the songwriting and production power trio of Brian Holland, Lamont Dozier and Eddie Holland, I Can’t Help Myself (Sugar Pie Honey Bunch) became the Four Tops’ first no. 1 U.S. single on the Billboard Hot 100 in June 1965, about six weeks after it had been released as a single. It was also their first charting single in the UK where it climbed to no. 23. In addition, the song was included on the group’s sophomore album ingeniously titled Four Tops Second Album. Okay, feel free to snip and move to that great bassline by James Jamerson!

Coldplay/Clocks

I trust this next song doesn’t need much of an introduction. After it had come out in March 2003 and many months thereafter, it was pretty much impossible to listen to mainstream radio without hearing Clocks by Coldplay. I never explored the British pop rock band but always liked this track, credited to all four members, Chris Martin (lead vocals, piano, guitar), Jonny Buckland (lead guitar, backing vocals), Guy Berryman (bass) and Will Champion (drums, percussion, backing vocals) – the same lineup that exists to this day. Clocks was also included on Coldplay’s sophomore album A Rush of Blood to the Head that had been released in August 2002. It became one of the top 10 selling albums in the U.S. in 2003.

Gregg Allman/Just Another Rider

For this next tune, let’s stay in the current century but jump to the next decade. Just Another Rider is a track from Gregg Allman’s seventh solo album Low Country Blues, a late-career gem from January 2011, and sadly his final solo album released during his lifetime. The song was co-written by Allman and his Allman Brothers bandmate Warren Haynes. Low Country Blues, produced by T Bone Burnett, became Allman’s highest-charting solo record, reaching no. 5 on the Billboard 200 and topping the Top Blues Albums chart. It was also nominated for a 2011 Grammy Award for Best Blues Album.

The Crickets/That’ll Be the Day

For the sixth and final tune of this music excursion, I like to go back to 1957. Every time I listen to a collection of Buddy Holly tunes, which I did the other day, I’m blown away by how many great songs he wrote during his short career. The bespectacled, somewhat geeky appearing young Texan may not have had the looks and moves of Elvis Presley, but in my book, he sure as heck was just as cool. Not only did Holly write or co-write an impressive amount of great songs, but he also was a pretty talented guitarist. That’ll Be the Day was written by Holly together with Jerry Allison, the drummer of his backing band The Crickets. Initially, Holly had recorded it in 1956 with The Three Tunes. He re-recorded the song with The Crickets, which was released in May 1957 and topped the mainstream charts in the U.S. and UK. That’ll Be the Day was also included on the band’s debut album The “Chirping” Crickets that came out in November of the same year.

Sources: Wikipedia; YouTube

The Venues: Beacon Theatre

In July 2017, I introduced The Venues, a category featuring famous concert halls, such as The Apollo Theatre and well known TV music programs like The Ed Sullivan Show. For some reason, the category fell off the bandwagon after the third post in November that year – not quite sure why. In any case, I felt the time was right for another installment. One of the venues that came to my mind immediately is the Beacon Theatre in New York City, in part because the beautiful historic theater on Manhattan’s Upper West Side is associated with two of my favorite bands: The Allman Brothers Band and Steely Dan, which both had frequent annual residencies there. The Dan still does! But first things first – a bit of history.

The Beacon Theatre opened as the Warner’s Beacon Theatre on December 24, 1929. It was designed by Chicago architect Walter W. Ahlschlager as a venue for silent films. But when the original owners financially collapsed, Warner Theatres acquired the theater to be a first-run showcase for Warner Bros. films on the Upper West Side. By that time, the movie genre of silent films had already become obsolete. The Beacon, which subsequently was operated by Brandt Theaters, remained a movie theater over next few decades. It would take until 1974, when Steven Singer became the first owner who turned the Beacon into a venue for live music.

Fortunately, an effort in 1987 to convert the theater into a night club was blocked in court, given its historic and protected architecture. In 1982, it had been added to the National Register of Historic Places. Through the ’80s and ’90s, the Beacon Theatre continued to fill a spot in the midsize category venue in New York between the larger Radio City Music Hall and various smaller clubs and ballrooms. In 2006, sports and entertainment holding company The Madison Square Garden Company started operating the Beacon. In November that same year, the theater began a 20-year lease by Cablevision, which also leases Radio City Music Hall and owns Madison Square Garden.

Between the second half of 2008 and early 2009, the theater underwent a complete renovation. As reported by The New York Times, the work involved about 1,000 workers, lasted seven months and cost $16 million. The result can be seen in the above photo and is certainly stunning. I was fortunate to experience the mighty venue myself when I saw Steely Dan there in October 2018.

In addition to pop and rock concerts, the Beacon Theatre has hosted political debates, gospel choirs, comedians and many dramatic productions. The 2008 Martin Scorsese picture Shine a Light, which captured The Rolling Stones live in concert, was filmed there. In January 2016, Joan Baez celebrated her 75th birthday with a show at the Beacon. She also played the venue in May this year as part of her now completed 2018/2019 Fare Thee Well Tour. Time for some music that was performed at the Beacon.

Let’s kick things off with the Grateful Dead, who performed two shows at the theater on June 14 and 15, 1976. Apparently, the following footage of Not Fade Away was captured during a soundcheck there, not one of the actual concerts but, hey, close enough! Plus, it’s a fun clip to watch. Not Fade Away was written by Charles Hardin, a.k.a. Buddy Holly. His producer Norman Petty received a co-credit. The tune was first released as a single in October 1957. It was also included on Holly’s debut album The “Chirping” Crickets, released in November of the same year.

Next up: The Black Crowes and Remedy. Co-written by lead vocalist Chris Robinson and his brother and rhythm guitarist Rich Robinson, the tune appeared on the band’s sophomore album The Southern Harmony and Musical Companion from May 1992. The footage is from late August 1992 when The Black Crowes played a series of four shows at the Beacon.

James Taylor is one of my favorite singer-songwriters. One tune I dig in particular is Fire And Rain.  He recorded it for his second studio album Sweet Baby James, which was released in February 1970. The song also came out separately as a single and became Taylor’s first hit, peaking at no. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100. This clip was captured during a show on May 30, 1998.

Here are The Rolling Stones with Jumpin’ Jack Flash from the aforementioned Martin Scorsese concert film. Credited to Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, the tune was released as a single in May 1968. The film includes footage from two shows the Stones played at the Beacon. This performance is from their second night there on November 1, 2006.

Starting from 1998, The Allman Brothers Band played spring residencies at the Beacon for 19 years in a row except for 2010 when the theater wasn’t available. This performance of Dreams is from their March 2013 series of gigs. The Gregg Allman song first appeared on the band’s eponymous debut album from November 1969.

On April 1 and 2, 2016, Bonnie Raitt played the Beacon Theatre as part of her extended Dig In Deep Tour, named after her most recent studio album from February 2016. I caught her during that tour in August 2016, which thus far was the first only time. Her gig at New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark remains one of the best shows I’ve seen. Co-written by Gordon Kennedy  and Wayne Kirkpatrick, Gypsy In Me is one of the tracks from Dig In Deep. Not only is Raitt a superb guitarist and great vocalist, but she also is as genuine as it can get. There is no BS with this lady. What you get is what you see!

From The Allman Brothers Band it wasn’t a big leap to former member Derek Trucks, his wife Susan Tedeschi and the group they formed in 2010: Tedeschi Trucks Band. My knowledge of their music is fairly limited, and I definitely want to explore them more closely. Here’s their take of Ain’t Wastin’ Time No More, another great tune written by Gregg Allman. It first appeared on the Allmans’ third studio album Eat A Peach from February 1972, long before Trucks joined them in 1999. The song was also released separately as a single in April that year. This clip was captured on October 11, 2017 during what looks like a six-date residency the band did at the Beacon that year.

The last and most recent clip I’d like to feature is footage of Steely Dan from their 2018 U.S. tour, which ended with a seven-date residency at the Beacon. Of course, I couldn’t leave out the Dan! This performance of Pretzel Logic was from their final gig on October 30. Co-written by Walter Becker and Donald Fagen, Pretzel Logic is the title track of Steely Dan’s third studio album that appeared in February 1974.

Until last year when I saw them twice, which included the Beacon for an October 20 show dedicated to my favorite album Aja, I had never seen Steely Dan. Both concerts were fantastic. Fagen and co are currently touring again, which will bring them back to the Beacon in October. While the thought of returning to this beautiful venue is tempting, I can’t justify it to myself, given I saw them twice last year and other shows I’ve been to or still consider for this year.

Sources: Wikipedia, The New York Times, setlist.fm, YouTube