It Happened This Month – Brief Article
Byline: Barry Cleveland
September
RCA Victor demonstrated the first 33a LP or “long-playing” record (14 minutes per side) on 9/17/1931 at New York’s Savoy Plaza Hotel. Unfortunately, the LPs were pressed on a flimsy material that quickly wore out, and they could be played only on RCA’s proprietary radio-phonographs, which sold for the princely sum of $250. The format failed at the time but was successfully revived by Columbia Records in 1948. … Responding to complaints from DJs that Les Paul and Mary Ford’s “Magic Melody” was missing a couple of notes, Capitol Records released “Magic Melody, Part Two” on 9/17/1955. The record, billed as the shortest record ever released, contained only the two missing notes…. The longest song ever released on a 45 rpm record was the Beatles’ 7:11-long “Hey Jude,” which topped the charts on 9/23/1968. There are no drums during the first part of the song, as Ringo Starr, unnoticed by Paul McCartney, had gone to the bathroom. Starr tiptoed back to his drum kit afterward and began playing at just the right moment. … On 9/22/1999 Diana Ross was detained for nearly five hours at London’s Heathrow Airport. After setting off a metal detector during a routine security check, Ross was frisked by a female officer, who allegedly touched her breast. When the outraged former Supreme retaliated by “frisking” the officer in return, the officer complained that she had been assaulted. Ross was eventually released with a warning.
October
On 10/12/1956 Johnnie Ray had a massive hit with “Just Walkin’ in the Rain,” a song originally recorded in 1953 by R&B group the Prisonaires. Sam Philips had discovered that five-man vocal group at the Tennessee State Penitentiary, where three of its members were serving 99-year sentences. The Prisonaires had been transported to Philip’s Sun Studios under armed guard and were later allowed to tour after their version of the song sold 50,000 copies. … Jeff Beck departed from the Yardbirds on 10/14/1966, during a bus tour of the United States, because of a serious case of tonsillitis. Beck had replaced the Yardbirds’ original guitarist, Eric Clapton, and was himself later replaced by Jimmy Page. Beck went on to form the Jeff Beck Group with Ronnie Wood and the then little-known vocalist Rod Stewart. … Rolling Stones vocalist Mick Jagger apologized to the Reverend Jesse Jackson on 10/6/1978 after Jackson complained about the lyrics to “Some Girls.” Jackson was particularly upset by the line “Black girls just love to get fucked all night,” which he denounced as being “degrading to blacks and women.” The apology notwithstanding, Jagger refused to drop the line from the song. … Members of Faith No More ran naked across the stage during a Billy Idol performance in Seattle on 10/29/1990, in retaliation for Idol’s having had someone dump hundreds of fish on them earlier in the evening. According to FNM’s Billy Gould, “They did some high jinks where the fish fell down on us as we played, and then we went into our dressing room, and there were all these farm animals.” The group felt that the macho Idol would be upset by having naked guys join him onstage.
COPYRIGHT 2002 PRIMEDIA Business Magazines & Media Inc. All rights reserved.
COPYRIGHT 2003 Gale Group
