Today In Oldies Music History: March 12
--Births
1917: Leonard Chess1938: Lew Dewitt (The Statler Brothers)
1940: Al Jarreau
1942: Brian O’Hara (The Fourmost)
1946: Liza Minnelli
1948: James Taylor
1949: Mike Gibbins (Badfinger)
1949: Bill Payne (Little Feat)
1957: Marlon Jackson (The Jackson 5)
Deaths
1955: Charlie Parker1998: Judge Dread
Events
1953: Popular WDIA disc jockey Rufus Thomas signs with an upstart Memphis label called Sun Records in order to release a song called "Bear Cat," an answer record to Big Mama Thornton's hit "Hound Dog."1955: Jazz gets a huge boost into the mainstream of American society -- again -- when Dave Brubeck and his group perform a triumphant concenrt at New York's Carnegie Hall.
1958: A Philadelphia court sentences Billie Holiday to one year probation for pleading guilty to heroin possession two years earlier.
1959: Fabian is named "Most Promising New Talent" in an American Bandstand viewers poll.
1965: In the Bahamas, the Beatles wrap up filming on their second movie, Help!.
1965: Singer James Darren guest stars on the "Surfin' Fred" episode of ABC-TV's The Flintstones, playing a singer named, naturally, James Darrock.
1969: Elvis begins filming his thirty-first and last fictional film, Change Of Habit, in which, as a ghetto doctor, he accidentally seduces a nun played by Mary Tyler Moore. Only four songs appear in the film, one of which is a Memphis session recording, "Rubberneckin'."
1969: Infamous London police officer Det. Sgt. Norman Pilcher, well-known for singling out and busting rock stars, enters George Harrison's house in Esher, Surrey, England and arrests the Beatle and his wife Pattie for possession of marijuana (specifically, cannabis resin). That same morning, Paul McCartney maaries girlfriend Linda Eastman at the register office in Marylebone, London and again at the Anglican church in St. John's Wood. No other Beatles attend.
1969: At tonight's Grammy Awards ceremonies, the big winners are Simon and Garfunkel, who win Record of the Year for "Mrs. Robinson," and Glen Campbell, who wins Album of the Year for By The Time I Get To Phoenix.
1971: Paul MCCartney's lawsuit dissolving the Beatles is upheld when a London court grants his request to appoint a nonbiased reciever to handle the group's business affairs in the wake of the band's management dispute.
1974: During his infamous "Lost Weekend," John Lennon attends the Smothers Brothers comedy show at the Troubadour in Los Angeles with singer/songwriter Harry Nilsson. A drunk Nilsson begins to heckle the brothers, thinking he's helping the show, and a drunken John helps him do it. Both are thrown out.
1996: Nancy Sinatra gives her famous white go-go boots, the ones that were made for walkin', to the Beverly Hills Hard Rock Cafe.
2003: On the eve of the Rolling Stones' first tour of China, teh Chinese government provides the group with a list of provocative songs the group is prohibited from playing, including "Brown Sugar," "Honky Tonk Women," and "Let's Spend The Night Together."
2007: The Ronettes are inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in New York City.
2007: Disappointed with his share of the profits from a cell phone commercial that was authorized to use the group's famous 1968 hit "The Weight," The Band's Levon Helm sues Cingular, the commercial's creator.
2008: An all-Beatles-song epsiode of FOX-TV's American Idol, seven years in the making, draws an esitmated 31 million viewers.
Releases
1967: The Velvet Underground And NicoRecording
1939: Artie Shaw, "Deep Purple"1957: Buddy Holly, "Maybe Baby"
1961: Elvis Presley: "I'm Coming Home," "Gently," "In Your Arms," "Give Me The Right," "I Feel So Bad," "It's A Sin," "I Want You With Me," "There's Always Me"
1971: The Allman Brothers, Live At The Fillmore East
1975: Elvis Presley: "Bringing It Back," "Pieces of My Life"
