Today In Oldies Music History: May 9
--Births
1914: Hank Snow1937: Dave Prater (Sam and Dave)
1937: Sonny Curtis (The Crickets)
1939: Nokie Edwards (The Ventures)
1941: Pete Birrell (Freddie and the Dreamers)
1941: Danny Rapp (Danny and the Juniors)
1942: Tommy Roe
1942: Mike Millward (The Fourmost)
1943: Bruce Milner (Every Mother's Son)
1944: Don Dannemann (The Cyrkle)
1944: Richie Furay (Poco)
1945: Steve Katz (Blood Sweat and Tears)
1946: Clint Holmes
1949: Billy Joel
1949: Bob Margolin
1950: Tom Petersson (Cheap Trick)
1953: John Edwards (Status Quo)
Deaths
1968: George Dewey Hay1979: Eddie Jefferson
Events
1958: Still angry that his employers refuse to back him in his defense of recent charges of inciting a riot at a Boston show, DJ Alan Freed quits New York radio station WINS, claiming they refused to "stand by my policies and principles." The same day, Freed debuts his new package tour in Hershey, PA, starring Chuck Berry, Buddy Holly, Jerry Lee Lewis, Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers, Danny and the Juniors, Screamin' Jay Hawkins, Larry Williams, and the Chantels.1959: A sixteen-year-old singer named Wayne Newton, long ridiculed for his girlish voice, begins a two-week engagement at Vegas' Freemont Hotel, and proves so popular that he would headline at the location for over three years. He would go on to earn $20 million annually.
1963: The Rolling Stones sign their first management contract with Andrew Loog Oldham's management company Impact, agreeing to license their UK output to Decca.
1964: Chuck Berry makes his UK stage debut at London's Astoria Theatre, with The Animals, The Nashville Teens, and The Swinging Blue Jeans opening for him.
1965: Bob Dylan gives his first major performance in the UK, opening at London's Royal Albert Hall for an audience that includes the Beatles, the Stones, Donovan, and Marianne Faithfull.
1973: Mick Jagger adds $150,000 to the Rolling Stones' contribution of $350,000 for victims of a recent Nicaraguan earthquake. (Jagger's then-wife Bianca was born in Nicaragua.)
1974: A folk supergroup performs at New York's Felt Forum when Bob Dylan, Phil Ochs, Pete Seeger, and Arlo Guthrie perform "Blowin' In The Wind" and the standard "Spanish Is The Loving Tongue" for a Chilean benefit group. Unfortunately, a reportedly inebriated Dylan does not give his best performance.
1974: Bruce Springsteen gives the most important performance of his career, opening for Bonnie Raitt at her Boston Arena show. Playing his full two-hour set at Raitt's insistence, Bruce delivers a show so impressive that Rolling Stone's Jon Landau later wrote in Boston's The Real Paper, "I saw rock and roll future, and its name is Bruce Springsteen. And on a night when I needed to feel young, he made me feel like I was hearing music for the very first time." Landau would later become Springsteen's manager and producer.
1979: Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr attend Eric Clapton's marriage to George's ex-wife, Patti (whom a lovestruck Clapton wrote "Layla" for), with the "Threetles" performing some old rock and roll songs at Clapton's country manor. Mick Jagger, Elton John, Denny Laine, David Bowie, and Lonnie Donegan also attend. The couple would divorce in 1988.
1992: Bruce Springsteen finally makes his debut on US television, performing "Lucky Town" on NBC's Saturday Night Live.
1998: The Beach Boys' Brian Wilson performs his first-ever solo concert in St. Charles, IL.
Releases
noneRecording
1939: Glenn Miller, "Stairway To The Stars"1966: The Beatles, "For No One"
Charts
1964: Louis Armstrong's "Hello, Dolly!" hits #11970: The Guess Who's "American Woman" hits #1
