Today In Oldies Music History: April 3
--Births
1924: Doris Day1928: Don Gibson
1938: Jeff Barry
1941: Jan Berry (Jan and Dean)
1941: Phillippe Wynne (The Spinners)
1942: Wayne Newton
1943: Richard Manuel (The Band)
1944: Tony Orlando
1944: Barry Pritchard (The Fortunes)
1945: Billy Joe Royal
1949: Richard Thompson
1951: Mel Schacher (Grand Funk Railroad)
Deaths
1990: Sarah Vaughan1999: Lionel Bart
2003: Homer Banks
Events
1956: Elvis Presley makes the first of what would be two appearances on NBC-TV's Milton Berle Show, performing "Heartbreak Hotel," "Money Honey" and "Blue Suede Shoes" via live remote on the flight deck of the USS Hancock docked in San Diego. The show is seen by 40 million people around the US, approximately one-fourth of all TV sets. (Later in the show, Elvis plays "Blue Suede Shoes" again, this time with "Uncle Miltie" joining in as the King's "brother Melvin."1959: The BBC, objecting to the concept of "spitballs," bans the Coasters' hit "Charlie Brown." They will reconsider two weeks later.
1960: The Everly Brothers make their UK stage debut in London.
1961: Paul Anka guest stars as himself on tonight's "" episode of CBS-TV's Make Room For Daddy.
1964: Bob Dylan has his first chart hit as "The Times They Are A-Changin'" enters the UK charts. One year later to the day, the single "Subterranean Homesick Blues" is his first to dent the US Top 40.
1966: Folksinger Peter Tork, who's auditioned for but not yet been accepted into The Monkees, opens a solo stint at the Troubadour in Hollywood.
1969: Having technically become a fugitive due to leaving Florida after his infamous stage antics in Miami, the Doors' Jim Morrison turns himself into the FBI in Los Angeles. He's released on $2000 bail, but not before being charged with six counts of lewd behavior and one of interstate flight. The case is eventually reduced to two misdemeanors and still pending appeal when Morrison dies in 1971.
1975: At his home, Steve Miller is arrested for an altercation with his party guest, Benita Diorio, when the veteran rocker sets fire to her clothes and personal effects. When the cops arrive Miller digs himself deeper by resisting arrest. Charges are dropped the next day.
1978: Cher's first solo TV special, appropriately titled Cher... Special, airs on CBS, featuring guest stars Dolly Parton, Rod Stewart, and The Tubes.
1984: Producer Jack Douglas is awarded $3 million in royalties owed him by the John Lennon estate for his work on the Lennon/Ono album Double Fantasy.
1987: While playing the opening night of their latest tour, onstage in Arizona, U2's "Bono introduces a version of "Helter Skelter" by announcing "This is a song Charles Manson stole from the Beatles. We're stealing it back."
1988: After working on each other's solo projects, George Harrison, Jeff Lynne, Tom Petty, and Roy Orbison gather in Malibu, FL, to record an all-star single called "Handle With Care." The session goes so well that the group, calling itself the Traveling Wilburys, goes on to record two whole albums together.
1991: Paul McCartney tapes his episode of MTV's acoustic showcase Unplugged.
1993: When his version of Leon Russell's "A Song For You" enters the Billboard singles chart, Ray Charles becomes the first performer to chart in six decades. (He'd first made the R&B charts in 1949 with the Maxin Trio's "Confession Blues."
1998: Michael Jackson and someone are the proud parents of Jackson's second child, daughter Paris-Michael Katherine Jackson.
2007: Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones denies to MTV his own earlier claim, made in an interview with the New Musical Express, that he once snorted the ashes of his late father.
2008: Mariah Carey's latest single, "Touch My Body," goes to #1, beating Elvis Presley's old record of 17 chart toppers. Only the Beatles have more with 20.
Releases
1965: Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs, "Wooly Bully"Recording
1952: Harry Belafonte: "A-Roving," "Chimney Smoke"1960: Elvis Presley: "Fever," "Like A Baby," "It's Now Or Never"
1967: The Beatles, "Within You Without You"
1970: Bob Dylan, "Alberta"
Charts
1961: The Marcels' "Blue Moon" hits #11965: The Sir Douglas Quintet's "She's About A Mover" enters the charts
1965: Solomon Burke's "Got To Get You Off My Mind" hits #1 R&B
1971: The Temptations' "Just My Imagination (Running Away With Me)" hits #1
1976: Johnnie Taylor's "Disco Lady" hits #1
1976: Henry Gross' "Shannon" enters the charts
