January 13th, 2018

1962, Chubby Checker went back to No.1 on the US singles chart with ‘The Twist’. The song first went to No.1 in Sept 1960 and became the only record in American chart history to top the charts on two separate occasions.

1963, The Beatles recorded a TV appearance on the ABC Television program “Thank Your Lucky Stars” in Birmingham playing their new single, ‘Please Please Me’ The show was broadcast on January 19.

1965, The first day of recording sessions for Bob Dylan’s Bringing It All Back Home album were held at Studio A, Columbia Recording Studios in New York City. Dylan recorded Subterranean Homesick Blues and ‘It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue’.

1967, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr both went to the Bag O’Nails Club, London, England to see the Jimi Hendrix Experience.

1968, Johnny Cash played a show, which was recorded, for his forthcoming live album at Folsom Prison, near Sacramento, California in front of 2,000 inmates. When released, the lead single, ‘Folsom Prison Blues’ (an update of his 1956 hit) became one of the most famous recordings of his career.

1969, Elvis Presley began a ten day recording session that would produce his final US number one record, ‘Suspicious Minds’. The tracks were laid down at American Sound Studios in Memphis and marked the first time Presley had recorded in his hometown since his Sun Records days in 1956.

1970, Steel Mill, (featuring Bruce Springsteen) played at The Matrix in San Francisco, California. Boz Scaggs was the scheduled headliner but he cancelled at that last minute due to illness. Rock critic Philip Elwood, who turned up intending to review Scaggs ended up writing a highly favorable review of Steel Mill for The San Francisco Examiner.

1973, Eric Clapton made his stage comeback at the Rainbow Theatre, London, with Pete Townsend, Ronnie Wood, Stevie Winwood, Rebop, Jim Capaldi and support from The Average White Band. The night’s two shows were recorded for the ‘Rainbow Concert’ album. Pete Townshend from The Who had organised the concert to help Clapton kick his heroin addiction.

1978, With a budget of only £1,500 borrowed from Stewart Copeland’s brother Miles Copeland III, The Police started recording their debut album at Surrey Sound Studios, Surrey, England with producer Nigel Gray. The album ‘Outlandos d’Amour’ which was released in November of this year featured the hits ‘So Lonely’, ‘Roxanne’ and ‘Can’t Stand Losing You’.

1979, American soul and gospel singer, songwriter Donny Hathaway committed suicide falling from a 15th floor New York hotel window. At the height of his career Hathaway was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia and was known to not take his prescribed medication regularly enough to properly control his symptoms. He scored the 1972 UK No.29 single with Roberta Flack ‘Where Is The Love’, (which won the Grammy Award for Best Pop Performance by a Duo in 1973) and the 1978 US No.2 single ‘The Closer I Get’, also with Roberta Flack.

1984, BBC Radio 1 announced a ban on ‘Relax’ by Frankie Goes To Hollywood, after DJ Mike Read called it ‘obscene’, a BBC TV ban also followed. The song went on to become a UK No.1 and spent a total of 48 weeks on the UK chart.

1986, Sex Pistols members John Lydon, Steve Jones and Paul Cook, as well as the mother of Sid Vicious, sued former manager Malcom McClaren for £1 million ($1.7 million). They later settled out of court.

1990, New Kids On The Block had their second and last No.1 UK single with ‘Hangin’ Tough.’ They had a further 7 Top 10 hits by the end of 1991. They broke up after that, but set the scene for numerous boy bands throughout the 90s.

2003, Diana Ross appeared in a US court charged with driving while twice over the drink driving limit. Police in Tucson reported that Miss Ross could not walk in a straight line, touch her nose or count to 30 after she had been stopped for swerving across the road.

2003, Who guitarist Pete Townshend was arrested on suspicion of child porn offences. Police officers impounded seven computers from his £15 million ($25.5 million) home in Richmond, Surrey.

2005, A report showed that more songs had been written about Elvis Presley than any other artist. It listed over 220 songs including: ‘Graceland’ by Paul Simon, ‘A Room At The Heartbreakhotel’ by U2, ‘Calling Elvis’, Dire Straits, ‘Happy Birthday Elvis’, Loudon Wainwright III, ‘There’s A Guy Works Down The Chip Shop Swears He’s Elvis’, Kirsty MacColl, ‘I Saw Elvis in a UFO’, Ray Stevens. ‘Elvis Has Left the Building’ by Frank Zappa and ‘My Dog Thinks I’m Elvis’ by Ray Herndon.

2010, Soul singer Teddy Pendergrass died at the age of 59 following a difficult recovery from colon cancer surgery. Pendergrass enjoyed early success with Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes, whose hits included If You Don’t Know Me By Now, before going solo in 1976. He was the first black male singer to record five consecutive multi-platinum albums in the US.

2010, Beyonce and Jay-Z were named Hollywood’s top-earning couple by Forbes magazine. The pair earned an estimated $122m between June 2008 and June 2009 – more than any other couple married or unmarried.

2010, A plaque of The Beatles iconic yellow submarine, which was stolen six months ago from Liverpool’s Albert Dock, was set to be replaced by a new creation. The 5ft design featured the faces of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr and George Harrison peering through its portholes. The new submarine would hang outside the museum dedicated to the band, The Beatles Story.

2016, The Rolling Stones first manager, Giorgio Gomelsky, passed away at the age of 82. He owned the Crawdaddy Club in London where The Rolling Stones were the house band. After he was replaced by Andrew Loog Oldham in May, 1963, Gomelsky went on to manage The Yardbirds, Julie Driscoll and Brian Auger before moving to New York in 1978 and opening The Green Door nightclub.

2016, Ed Sheeran’s new singles ‘Shape of You’ and ‘Castle On The Hill’ entered the UK singles chart at No.1 and No.2 respectively. The Official Charts Company said it was the first time in history an artist had taken the top two chart positions with brand new songs.

2017, Magic Alex (Alexis Mardas) a Greek electronics engineer died aged 74. He is best known for his close association with the Beatles. His nickname was given to him by John Lennon when he was involved with the group between 1965 and 1969, during which time he became head of Apple Electronics. Mardas often said that the Abbey Road studio was “no good”, much to producer George Martin’s annoyance. He allegedly said that he could build a 72-track tape machine and was then given the job of designing the new Apple Studio in Savile Row, London. His schemes lost Apple at least £300,000 (£3 million in 2017 pounds).

(This Day in Music)