1968, Working at Abbey Road studios on new songs for their forthcoming album, The Beatles recorded 20 takes of ‘Birthday.’ Roadie Mal Evans added handclaps, and Yoko Ono and Pattie Harrison contributed backing vocals on the track.
1931, The first long-playing record, a 33 1/3 rpm recording, was demonstrated at the Savoy Plaza Hotel in New York by RCA-Victor. The venture was doomed to fail however due to the high price of the record players, which started around $95 (about $1140 in today’s dollars) and wasn’t revived until 1948.
1956, Anne Shelton was at No.1 on the UK singles chart with ‘Lay Down Your Arms.’ Shelton was a British vocal star of the 40s & 50s and one time singer with the Glenn Miller Orchestra.
1956, Elvis Presley started a five-week run at No.1 on the US charts with ‘Don’t Be Cruel’. The track went on to become Presley’s biggest selling single, with sales over six million by 1961. This “double-sided hit” which had ‘Hound Dog’ on the B side, became the most successful on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart. One side reached No.1 on the chart, the other No.2. The two titles spent a combined 55 weeks in the Top 100 in 1956-1957.
1955, Little Richard entered a New Orleans recording studio to begin two days of recording. Things were not going well and during a break, Richard and his producer; Bumps Blackwell went to the Dew Drop Inn for lunch. Richard started playing the piano in the bar like crazy, singing a loud and lewd version of ‘Tutti Frutti.’ With only fifteen minutes left in the session, Richard recorded the song and coined the phrase, ‘a-wop-bop-a-loo-bop-a-lop-bam-boom.’
