Today in Oldies Music History: April 10

Today In Oldies Music History: April 10

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Births

1911: Martin Denny
1921: Sheb Wooley
1932: Nate Nelson (The Flamingos)
1936: Bobbie Smith (The Spinners)
1947: Karl Russell (The Hues Corporation)
1947: Bunny Wailer (The Wailers)
1950: Eddie Hazel (Funkadelic)

Deaths

1958: Chuck Willis
1962: Stuart Sutcliffe
1979: Nino Rota
1984: Nate Nelson (The Flamingoes)
2003: Noel Fox (Oak Ridge Boys)
2003: Little Eva

Events

1953: Eddie Fisher is discharged from the US Army, having sold seven million records during his stint in the service.
1956: Leo Fender patents the successor to his popular "Telecaster" model of electric guitar, this time called the "Stratocaster."
1956: While performing at the Municipal Auditorium in Birmingham, AL, Nat King Cole is assaulted by five segregationists and tackled on stage, although local police quickly arrest the perpetrators, who had originally planned to kidnap the singer. Cole bravely performs a second show later that night.
1957: Ricky Nelson, then all of sixteen, performs his recently-recorded version of Fats Domino's "I'm Walkin'" -- done to impress a date -- on his family's TV sitcom, ABC's The Adventures Of Ozzie And Harriet. The record sells half a million copies in the next week alone.
1961: Del Shannon is the guest on ABC-TV's American Bandstand, singing his recent breakthrough hit, "Runaway."
1965: A public school in Wrexham, North Wales, asks parents to make sure children attend in school uniforms after Rolling Stones fans at the school begin showing up in "corduroy trousers" like their heroes.
1968: Bill Kreutzmann invites Mickey Hart to join the Grateful Dead as its second drummer.
1970: Paul McCartney makes the Beatles' secret breakup public by issuing a press release to announce that he has left the group, done in the form of a fake interview: "Q: Is your break with the Beatles temporary or permanent, due to personal differences or musical ones? PAUL: Personal differences, business differences, musical differences, but most of all because I have a better time with my family. Temporary or permanent? I don't really know." John Lennon is furious, especially since the breakup, already agreed upon by the group, was announced just one week prior to the British release of McCartney's first solo album. When a reporter tracks down Lennon for his thoughts, he replies, "Paul hasn't left. I sacked him."
1970: Keith Emerson of the Nice, Greg Lake of King Crimson, and Carl Palmer of Atomic Rooster join forces to form Emerson, Lake and Palmer.
1970: At one of the band's last concerts, in Boston, Doors frontman Jim Morrison asks the audience if they'd like to see something of his "that rhymes with 'sock,'" and then, more bluntly, screaming "Would you like to see my genitals?" The power in the stadium is switched off, and keyboardist Ray Manzarek pulls the singer, already facing similar charges from a Miami gig, off the stage.
1976: Stevie Wonder is featured in an ad in today's edition of Down Beat Magazine, edorsing the Mu-Tron III effects pedal, which uses synthesizer envelopes to create a wah effect for guitar. Wonder had used the pedal on his 1973 smash "Higher Ground."
1978: Aretha Franklin marries her second husband, actor Glynn Turman, in New York City. The Four Tops sing Stevie Wonder's "Isn't She Lovely" at the ceremony.
1991: Peter Noone guest stars as a rock star on tonight's "Glitter Rock - April 12, 1974" episode of NBC-TV's Quantum Leap.
1999: The all-star tribute concert Here There and Everywhere: A Concert For Linda is held at London's Royal Albert Hall, where Paul McCartney, George Michael, Chrissie Hynde, Elvis Costello and Sinead O'Connor raise money for animal charities while remembering Paul's wife Linda, who has recently succumbed to breast cancer.
2002: South Carolina Governor James Hodges makes it official by declaring James Brown the state's "Godfather Of Soul."
2007: Johnny Cash's last residence, a 14,000-square-foot house in Hendersonville, TN, burns to the ground. It had been purchased after Cash's death by Barry Gibb of the Bee Gees, and planned for renovation.

Releases

none

Recording

1958: Bobby Darin: "Splish Splash," "Queen Of The Hop"

Charts

1954: Perry Como's "Wanted" hits #1
1965: Freddie and the Dreamers' "I'm Telling You Now" hits #1
1971: John Denver's "(Take Me Home) Country Roads" enters the charts
1976: Peter Frampton's LP Frampton Comes Alive! hits #1

Certifications

1973: Led Zeppelin's LP Houses Of The Holy is certified gold