Today In Oldies Music History: March 8
--Births
1927: Dick Hyman1942: Ralph Ellis (The Swinging Blue Jeans)
1943: Andrew Semple (The Fortunes)
1944: Keef Hartley
1945: Micky Dolenz (The Monkees)
1946: Carole Bayer Sager
1946: Randy Meisner (The Eagles)
1947: Michael Allsup (Three Dog Night)
1948: Little Peggy March
1949: Dave Lambert (The Strawbs)
Deaths
1973: Ronald "Pigpen" McKernan1993: Billy Eckstein
2003: Adam Faith
Events
1963: The Four Tops sign with the Motown label -- as a jazz-pop act -- for the princely sum of $400.1964: The Dave Clark Five appear for the first time on CBS-TV's Ed Sulli9van Show, performing "Do You Love Me" and "Can’t You See That She’s Mine." It will be the first of eighteen appearances for the group.
1968: Elvis Presley's 26th movie, Stay Away, Joe, premieres in New York City. The comedy features Elvis as a Native American rodeo champion.
1968: Promoter Bill Graham's East Coast version of the Fillmore, his legendary San Francisco rock ballroom, opens in the East Village section of New York City. Dubbed, appropriately enough, the Fillmore East, its first show features Big Brother and the Holding Company, Albert King, and Tim Buckley.
1969: The Small Faces break up following the departure of lead singer Steve Marriott. Marriott goes on to form Humble Pie, while the Small Faces eventually regroup with new lead singer Rod Stewart and become simply Faces.
1970: Diana Ross gives her first solo concert performance, appearing at a show in Framingham, MA.
1971: After activist Abbie Hoffman sends them a tape of the song, Radio Hanoi plays Jimi Hendrix' version of the Star-Spangled Banner.
1973: Paul McCartney is fined 240 pounds for growing cannabis on his Scotland farm, claiming that while the plants are his, they were grown from seeds given him by a friend, and he wasn't sure what sort of seeds they were. Right.
1974: Rising from the ashes of Free and Mott The Hoople, the newly-formed Bad Company play their first live gig, at Newcastle City Hall in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, England.
1975: The English music mag New Musical Express reports, erroneously, that Wayne Perkins will replace Mick Taylor as the new guitarist for the Rolling Stones. In reality, the band are auditioning three guitarists for the job, all of whom will be featured on the band's next LP, the notoriously sloppy and dull Black And Blue. Ron Wood is eventually given the nod when Perkins is judged to sound a little too much like the departed Taylor.
1979: Rolling Stone reports that inflation has ballooned the cost of making and promoting a major label LP to between $350,000 and $500,000.
1990: Rolling Stone dubs Jefferson Airplane's disastrous new comeback album Most Unwanted Comeback of the Year.
Releases
noneRecording
1966: Bob Dylan: "Pledging My Time," "Just Like A Woman"1974: John Denver: "Annie's Song," "Thank God I'm A Country Boy"
