Today in Oldies Music History: March 20

Today In Oldies Music History: March 20

--

Births

1906: Ozzie Nelson
1918: Marian McPartland
1922: Larry Elgart
1937: Jerry Reed
1937: Joe Rivers (Johnnie and Joe)
1941: Vito Picone (The Elegants)
1950: Carl Palmer (Emerson, Lake and Palmer)
1951: Jimmie Vaughan (The Fabulous Thunderbirds)

Deaths

1988: Gil Evans

Events

1959: Dick Clark protege and teen idol Bobby Rydell makes his first television appearance, naturally enough, on ABC-TV's American Bandstand.
1961: Elvis begins filming his ninth movie, Blue Hawaii, on location.
1964: The Beatles make their first appearance on the British television show Ready Steady Go!, miming along, as was the custom, to "Can't Buy Me Love," "It Won't Be Long," and "You Can't Do That."
1965: After a celebratory formal street parade, Motown's first UK package tour begins at Finsbury Park Astoria, in London, featuring The Supremes, The Temptations, Stevie Wonder, Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, and Martha & the Vandellas.
1968: In Los Angeles, Eric Clapton and three members of Buffalo Springfield -- Neil Young, Jim Messina, and Richie Furay -- are arrested for suspicion of marijuana use. The band members are eventually found guilty and fined, while Clapton beats the charges.
1969: After days of looking for a suitable and legal place, John Lennon finally gets to marry Yoko Ono at the Rock of Gibraltar in Spain, a piece of land still owned by the English and described by Lennon as being necessarily "quiet, friendly, and British." Later, in the Beatles song "The Ballad Of John And Yoko," he describes the site as "Gibraltar, near Spain," unintentionally setting off an international furor, as England and Spain were currently at odds over ownership of the area.
1976: Alice Cooper marries his first and only wife, Sheryl Goddard, a 19-year-old dancer on his Welcome To My Nightmare tour.
1977: T. Rex plays what is to be their last concert before the untimely death of leader Marc Bolan in a car accident, a gig at Portsmouth, England club The Locarno.
1980: Joseph Riviera, 28, a truck driver from New York, breaks into the offices of record label Asylum, takes the office manager hostage, and demands to see label artists Jackson Browne and/or The Eagles so that they can help finance his trucking business. After he realizes the artists in question aren't actually in the building, he surrenders to police.
1989: After 37 years on the air, Dick Clark announces he will discontinue hosting his creation, ABC-TV's highly influential American Bandstand. The show continues with another host, but folds for good soon after.
1991: Eric Clapton's son Conor, all of four years old, dies after falling from the 53rd story window of his mother's apartment in New York. (The guitarist was staying at a hotel not far away, having taken Conor to the circus the night before.) A shaken Clapton later writes the hit song "Tears In Heaven" as a way to help him through the grief.
1991: Michael Jackson signs the largest contract renewal in history to that time, inking a $65 million deal with Sony.
2003: On the day the Iraq war begins, Bruce Springsteen opens his Melbourne, Australia show with a quiet, acoustic version of his hit "Born In The U.S.A." and follows it, pointedly, with a cover of Edwin Starr's "War."
2004: The University of Washington presents Quincy Jones with an honorary doctorate in Music.

Releases

none

Recording

1960: Elvis Presley: "Make Me Know It," "Soldier Boy"
1961: Ricky Nelson, "Hello Mary Lou"
1963: George Hamilton IV, "Abilene"
1967: The Beatles, "She's Leaving Home"
1971: Elvis Presley: "I'm Leavin'," "We Can Make The Morning," "I Shall Be Released," "It's Only Love," "I Will Be True"
1972: Ringo Starr, "Back Off, Boogaloo"

Charts

1957: Bobby Helms' "Fraulein" enters the country and western charts
1961: Elvis Presley's "Surrender" hits #1
1971: Janis Joplin's "Me And Bobby McGee" hits #1
1976: Boz Scaggs' LP Silk Degrees enters the charts

Certifications

1967: The Beatles' "Penny Lane" b/w "Strawberry Fields Forever" is certified gold