This day in 'Musical' history

Nov 26th
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1988 - Pink Floyd
Russian cosmonauts aboard Soyuz 7 took into space a cassette copy (minus the cassette box for weight reasons) of the latest Pink Floyd album Delicate Sound Of Thunder and played it in orbit, making Pink Floyd the first rock band to be played in space.
  • David Gilmour and Nick Mason both attended the launch of the spacecraft.
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1991 - Garth Brooks
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US Country singer Garth Brooks asked fans to bring 10 cans of food to a grocery store in exchange for a lottery envelope, some of which contained tickets to see Garth at a forthcoming show. Over 10,000 cans were donated to charity.
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Nov 27th
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1961
Neil Christian and the Crusaders, featuring a young Jimmy Page on guitar, played a concert at Holloway Women’s Prison in London, England.

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The inmates were all dressed in washed out yellow, green, blue and red faded floral print dresses and wore homemade mascara, using the charcoal from burnt matches.

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1964
Mick Jagger was fined £16 for driving offences by a court in Tettenhall, Staffs.
His solicitor told the court: "The Duke of Marlborough had longer hair than my client and he won some famous battles.
His hair was powdered, I think because of fleas. --- My client has no fleas."
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1970
George Harrison releases All Things Must Pass, his first solo album since the breakup of The Beatles.
The first single, "My Sweet Lord," becomes the first ex-Beatle solo #1 in the UK and also in the US.

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Nov 28th
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1954 - Winifred Atwell

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Winifred Atwell was at No.1 on the UK singles chart with 'Let's Have Another Party.'
Atwell was the first Black artist to reach No.1 in the UK and the first black artist to sell a million records.
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1964 - The Shangri-Las
The Shangri-Las went to No.1 on the US singles chart with the 'teen death song', 'Leader Of The Pack'. When released in the UK the song was refused airplay by the BBC, (probably due to its death theme), where it went on to chart three times:
  • No.11 in 1965; No.3 in 1972 (by which time the BBC ban had been lifted);
  • and once again at No.7 in 1976.

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Nov 29th
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1959
At the 2nd Annual Grammy Awards, Bobby Darin wins for Best New Artist and also takes the award for Record of the Year for "Mack The Knife," which is still at #1 on the Hot 100.
This is the first time the event is televised, and also the only time the ceremony is held at the end of the year instead of early the following year, meaning nothing in December 1959 is Grammy eligible.
  • This faux pas is rectified with awards for 1960 given out in early 1961.
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1976 - Sex Pistols
Lancaster local council cancelled the Sex Pistols gig at Lancaster Poly, England.
The reason was given in a statement by the council saying:
'We don't want that sort of filth (The Sex Pistols) in the town limits.'
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1983 - Now That's What I Call Music
Now That's What I Call Music was launched in the UK with a mission to anthologise the biggest chart hits of the day.
The first track on the first album was You Can't Hurry Love by Phil Collins and also contained hits like 'Karma Chameleon', 'Red Red Wine' and 'Total Eclipse Of The Heart'. The series took its name from a 1930s advertising poster for Danish bacon, featuring a pig saying. "Now, That's What I Call Music" as it listened to a chicken singing
  • The most successful volume to date is 1999's Now That's What I Call Music 44, which sold 2.3 million copies and is the biggest-selling compilation album ever.
  • - It opened with Britney Spears' ...Baby One More Time.
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Nov 29th
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1997 - Whitney Houston
Whitney Houston pulled out of a concert sponsored by the Moonies two hours before she was due on stage after finding out the event was a mass wedding for over 1,000 Moonie couple's.
The religious group said they had no intention of suing providing the singer returned the $1m fee she had received.

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1997 - Lou Reed
'Perfect Day' performed by various artists including Elton John, Bono, Tom Jones and David Bowie went to No.1 on the UK singles chart.
Originally written and recorded in 1973 by Lou Reed, this new collaboration of 29 major artists was a fundraiser for the BBC Children In Need charity.

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Nov 30th
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1966
The brilliant but erratic guitarist Jeff Beck officially leaves The Yardbirds after a year and a half in the band. He later forms the Jeff Beck Group.

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1968
Glen Campbell started a five-week run at No.1 on the US album chart with 'Wichita Lineman.'
Jimmy Webb's inspiration for the lyrics came while driving through Washita County in northern Oklahoma. Webb was driving through an endless litany of telephone poles, each looking exactly the same as the last. Then, in the distance, he noticed the silhouette of a solitary lineman atop a pole.
Webb then "put himself atop that pole and put that phone in his hand" as he considered what the lineman was saying into the receiver.
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1969
Neil Diamond makes his only appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show, where he performs "Sweet Caroline" and "Holly Holy."
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Nov 30th
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1977
Bing Crosby's last Christmas special airs. The program was recorded in September, and Crosby died that October.
The show is remembered for Crosby's unusual duet with David Bowie, where they sing a modified version of "Little Drummer Boy," with Bowie singing the new "Peace On Earth" lyrics composed by the show's writers.

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1982
Michael Jackson's Thriller album was released. It spent 190 weeks on the UK album chart became the biggest selling pop album of all time, with sales over 66 million copies. Seven singles were released from the album, including 'Beat It', which featured guitarists Eddie Van Halen and Steve Lukather on 'Billie Jean'.
  • Along with a guest appearance from Horror King Vincent Price
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1991
Michael Jackson scored his fourth UK No.1 album with his eighth studio album Dangerous.
The album has sold over 32 million copies worldwide making it one of the best selling albums of all time.


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Nov 30th
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1996 - Tiny Tim
American singer and ukulele player Tiny Tim (Herbert Khaury) died from a heart attack on stage while playing his hit ‘Tiptoe Through the Tulips’ at a club in Minneapolis.
- On 17 December 1969, he married Victoria Mae Budinger on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, a publicity stunt that attracted over 40 million viewers. (they had a daughter, Tulip Victoria).

........................................................................................................................................... He performed at the 1970 Isle Of Wight Festival in front of a crowd of 600,000 people.

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2001
The first Top Of The Pops UK Awards were held in Manchester, --- with categories voted by viewers of the BBC show.
Winners included:
  • Best pop act: Westlife,
  • Best R&B Act: Destiny's Child,
  • Best Rock Act: U2, Best Dance Act: Fatboy Slim,
  • Best Newcomer: Nelly Furtado,
  • Best Single: Kylie Minogue, 'Can't Get You Out Of My Head',
  • Best Album: Travis, 'The Invisible Band',
  • Artist on top of the world: Jennifer Lopez,
  • Hall of Fame Award went to Paul McCartney.
 
DEC 1st:
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1956
One of the first Rock n Roll movies, The Girl Can't Help It, opens in America.
Featuring performances by Little Richard, Eddie Cochran, Gene Vincent, The Platters and Fats Domino,
- the film stars Jayne Mansfield as an aspiring singer.

The Girl Can't Help It - Wikipedia
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1958.
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Life magazine becomes the first major publication to print the phrase "teen idol" when they use it to describe their cover subject, Ricky Nelson.

Nelson, whose claim to fame was starring in his parents' long-running radio and television series The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet, released his debut album, the chart-topping Ricky, the previous year.
By the summer of 1958, his single "Poor Little Fool" was the first #1 hit on newly minted Billboard Hot 100 chart.
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1964 - The Who
The Who played the first of 22 consecutive Tuesday night gigs at The Marquee Club in London, the band were paid £50 for each gig.
The Marquee Club saw the rise of some of the most important British artists in the 60s such as
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DEC 1st:
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1976 - Bill Grundy
The Sex Pistols appeared on ITV's live early evening 'Today' show (in place of Queen who had pulled out following a trip to the dentists by Freddie Mercury).
Taunted by interviewer Bill Grundy who asked the band to say something outrageous, guitarist Steve Jones says: 'You dirty bastard...you dirty ****er...what a ****ing rotter!'


Grundy died of a heart attack aged 69 on 9th Feb 1993.
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1983 - Neil Young
Neil Young was sued by Geffen Records because his new music for the label was ‘not commercial in nature and musically uncharacteristic of his previous albums’.
- His latest album Everybody's Rockin' featured a selection of rockabilly songs (both covers and original material)

  • which ran for just 25 minutes, Young's shortest album.
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1984 - Jim Diamond
Jim Diamond was at No.1 in the UK singles chart with 'I Should Have Known Better.'


The song was displaced after one week by Band Aid's charity single 'Do They Know It's Christmas’'.
Diamond publicly requested that people not buy his single, but instead buy Do They Know It's Christmas?
 
DEC 1st:
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1997 - Kenny G
Kenny G set a new world record when he held a note on his saxophone for 45 minutes and 47 seconds.
Using a technique called circular breathing where a player inhales through the nose while simultaneously pushing air out through the cheeks.
He sustained a flawless E flat the entire time.

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(The record has since been broken by Geovanny Escalante,

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..... who held a note for 1 hour, 30 minutes and 45 seconds, using a technique that allows him to blow and breathe at the same time).
 
DEC 2nd:
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1966 - David Bowie
David Bowie released 'Rubber Band', his first single on the Deram label.


It was part of a three-track audition tape Bowie's new manager Kenneth Pitt used to persuade the label to sign him.
Despite some good reviews in the music press, the single was a flop, once more failing to break into the UK charts.
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1969 - The Supremes
Cindy Birdsong of The Supremes was kidnapped at knifepoint by a maintenance man who worked in the building she lived in.

While returning to her Los Angeles apartment with then–boyfriend Hewlett and their friend, Howard Meek the intruder forced Birdsong to tie up the two, then forced her downstairs into her car at knifepoint.
Birdsong managed to unlock the car door while Collier was driving and jumped out of the vehicle onto the Long Beach Freeway to safety.

She was 'hospitalised with cuts, bruises and knife wounds.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cindy_Birdsong#cite_note-28
Days later, Charles Collier, a maintenance man at Birdsong's apartment, surrendered himself in to Las Vegas police
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cindy_Birdsong#cite_note-Newspapers-27
In April the following year Collier was sentenced to five years to life in the (California) State Prison. Collier claimed he 'did not know why' he kidnapped Birdsong
  • The kidnapper was arrested in Las Vegas four days later.
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DEC 2nd:
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1983
Michael Jackson's 14-minute "Thriller" video debuts on MTV. Directed by John Landis, the short film shows Michael Jackson turning into a werewolf and leading a dance routine with various undead creatures.

Who knew Michael Jackson could be scary? In the video, when he tells his date, "I'm not like other guys" and makes his gruesome transformation, it's genuinely terrifying.
We learn it's just a movie, but get another scare when he joins the ranks of the undead after getting a little too close to a haunted graveyard.
But these zombies can dance: the combination of costumes and choreography is stunning, with every detail on point.

Those 14 minutes cost about $500,000 to make and are financed through deals with Showtime and MTV, which get the rights to air it.
The Thriller album has been out for over a year but its sixth single, "P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing)" is still climbing the charts, as is Jackson's Paul McCartney duet "Say Say Say."

This is where Michael Jackson fatigue should be setting in, but the "Thriller" video keeps his remarkable run going.
After airing the full version of the video, MTV usually runs a 5-minute edit, but the longform version is sold on VHS and Beta with a "making of" feature.

A bargain at $24.95, it becomes a popular stocking stuffer and goes on to sell nearly 10 million copies. It also sends the album back to #1, where it hasn't been since September 10. This time, it stays at the top for 17 weeks straight, giving it a total of 37 weeks at the top, making it the best-selling album of both 1983 and 1984

.The "Thriller" single isn't released until January 23, 1984, two weeks after "P.Y.T." falls out of the chart.
Like the previous six Thriller singles, it cracks the Top 10, reaching #4 in March. When the song drops out of the countdown on May 19, it ends a spectacular run of hits from the album that started when "The Girl Is Mine" entered on November 6, 1982.Group dance scenes were already popular in music videos, but you probably don't know the moves to Lionel Richie's "All Night Long (All Night)" or Donna Summer's "She Works Hard For The Money."


Everyone knows at least the basics of the "Thriller dance" though, and in the age of viral videos, it becomes more popular than ever, with Guinness introducing a record for "Largest Thriller Dance" in 2006 that is blown away in 2009 following Jackson's death when 13,597 people in Mexico City, most dressed as zombies, perform it in tribute.
 
DEC 3rd:
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1964 - The Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones had their second UK No.1 single with their version of 'Little Red Rooster'.
- The Stones had recorded the song at Chess Studios in Chicago, the same studios where Howlin' Wolf, Muddy Waters and Little Walter had recorded their blues classics.

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1965 - Keith Richards
Rolling Stone Keith Richards was knocked unconscious by an electric shock on stage at the Memorial Hall In Sacramento, California, - when his guitar made contact with his microphone.

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2009 - Ronnie Wood
Rolling Stone Ronnie Wood was arrested in Esher, Surrey on suspicion of assault, after a passer-by dialled 999 as a violent argument took place between Wood and his 21-year-old on-off girlfriend Ekaterina Ivanova. -----He was later cautioned by police.

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DEC 4th:
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1954
The Chordettes' harmony-driven hit "Mr. Sandman" goes to #1 in America and stays for seven weeks.
- It's one of the last big hits before the start of the Rock Era.

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1956
At Sun Studio in Memphis, Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins and Jerry Lee Lewis jam together on a few tunes. Johnny Cash shows up later to get in the picture and complete what becomes known as the "Million Dollar Quartet."

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DEC 4th:
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1971
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1971
During a Frank Zappa concert, the Montreux Casino in Switzerland catches fire when someone fires a flare gun, inspiring Deep Purple's "Smoke On The Water." Deep Purple are there to record their album Machine Head the following day, but end up using the Grand Hotel and including the song as a last-minute addition.


The group arrived in Montreux, a resort city on the Lake Geneva shore, with plans to record Machine Head, their seventh album, in the casino using the Rolling Stones' mobile recording unit, which is parked outside. The idea is to capture the live ambiance of the hall, which has great acoustics.Frank Zappa and the Mothers Of Invention have a show at the casino that night, so Deep Purple plans to take in the concert and start working when he clears the stage.

The plan is foiled when during the show someone shoots a flare gun into the ceiling, igniting a fire. At first, most assume the pyro is part of the show, but it soon becomes clear that the casino will burn to the ground.
-- Zappa figures it out right away: he stops the show and directs people to the exits. Still, there is panic as audience members flee for their lives.Everyone makes it to safety, thanks in part to Claude Nobs, who runs the Montreux Jazz Festival and is familiar with the venue.

He gets everyone out of the basement and helps maintain order.Deep Purple are relocated to a disco called the Pavilion, where they record the track to "Smoke On The Water" before getting booted due to noise complaints.

They finish the album using the Grand Hotel as a studio, recording it with the Stones' mobile unit as planned. On the last day of recording, engineer Martin Birch breaks the news that they need another song to fill out the album, so lead singer Ian Gillan and bass player Roger Glover write some lyrics about their adventure - complete with a cast of characters that includes "Frank Zappa and the Mothers" and "Funky Claude" Nobs - and add a vocal to the track they recorded at the Pavilion.When it's in the can, they aren't impressed.

The song barely makes the album, and they rarely play it live. A year goes by before it's released as a single in America (it isn't issued as a single in their native UK until 1977, when a live version is released). That's when the song, powered by Ritchie Blackmore's historic guitar riff, finds its groove. It climbs to #4, sells 500,000 copies in two months and becomes a rock classic.

 
DEC 5th:
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1964
Lorne Greene star of the NBC TV show 'Bonanza' was at No.1 on the US singles chart with 'Ringo', making him the second Canadian (after Paul Anka) to have a US No.1 single. The song was a No.22 hit in the UK.

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1976
Two days after he is shot in an assassination attempt, Bob Marley performs at the Smile Jamaica concert, which he organized in an effort to promote peace in the country.
The concert becomes more of a political event after the shooting, which was carried out by a political party who saw Marley as a threat.
About 80,000 Jamaicans attend the concert, where Marley takes the stage for 90 minutes.
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DEC 6th:
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1964
The Gerry & the Pacemakers film Ferry Cross The Mersey, a document of the Merseybeat scene, premieres in London.
It features Cilla Black and other Liverpool acts.
It was written by Tony Warren, creator of the UK's longest running TV soap 'Coronation Street'.
The hit title track was written specifically for the movie.

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1969
Led Zeppelin made their debut on the US singles chart with 'Whole Lotta Love', it went on to make No.4 on the chart and was the first of six Top 40 singles for the group in the US. During the bands career, Zeppelin never released any singles in the UK.

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Dec7 th
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1957
The movie Jamboree, featuring a scene where Jerry Lee Lewis performs "Great Balls of Fire," debuts in theaters.
Also appearing in the film are Fats Domino, Carl Perkins, Frankie Avalon and Connie Francis.

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1962
At a pub in Chelsea, The Rolling Stones hold auditions for a bass player.
They decide that Bill Wyman will do, as he has a nice amp.
Wyman doesn't tell them that he has a wife and young son.

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DEC 7th
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1963 - Jeanine Deckers
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The Singing Nun started a four week run at No.1 on the US singles chart with 'Dominique', it reached No.7 on the UK chart.
The song sold over 1.5 million copies in the US, winning a Grammy Award for the year's best Gospel song.

When Jeanine Deckers entered a Dominican convent in Belgium, she was allowed to keep her guitar, which she used to entertain the sisters and perform at retreats.
She composed her own songs, including one about St. Dominic, the founder of her order, called "Dominique." Philips Records in Brussels agreed to record an album of her songs and press a few hundred copies, but when they heard it, they decided to press thousands of copies and distribute them around Europe, earning money for the convent to support their good deeds.
When she became a nun, Deckers took the name Sister Luc-Gabrielle; Philips gave her the stage name Sœur Sourire, meaning "Sister Smile."

The album did surprisingly well, so Philips issued it in America, naming her "The Singing Nun" for this audience. The album went nowhere, but a music publisher for the label thought "Dominique" had hit potential and released it as a single.
Even though it's sung in Luc-Gabrielle's native French, the song captivates American listeners and climbs all the way to the top, where it stays for four weeks.

In 1964, she performs it on the Ed Sullivan Show.In 1965, she leaves the order and releases an ode to contraception called "Glory Be to God for the Golden Pill."

This and her other efforts go nowhere, and she finds herself in financial distress, exasperated when the Belgian government comes after her for taxes on her earnings, which all went to the convent. In 1985.
  • She and her partner, a one-time nun named Annie Pecher whom she met at the convent, kill themselves by ingesting deadly doses of barbiturates.

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DEC 7th
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1967 - Otis Redding

Otis Redding went into the studio to record '(Sittin' On) The Dock Of The Bay'. - The song went on to be his biggest hit.
- However, Redding didn't see its release; he was killed three days later in a plane crash.

Redding wrote the first verse of the song, under the abbreviated title 'Dock of the Bay', on a houseboat at Waldo Point in Sausalito, California a short time after his appearance at The Monterey pop festival.

Redding's familiar whistling, heard before the song's fade was the singer fooling around.
He had intended to return to the studio at a later date to add words in place of the whistling.
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1974 - Barry White
Barry White was at No.1 on the UK singles chart with 'You're The First, The Last, My Everything',
The singers first UK No.1. Originally written in the 1950s as a country song with the title 'You're My First, You're My Last, My In-Between.'

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1974 - Carl Douglas
Carl Douglas started a two-week run at No.1 on the US singles chart with 'Kung Fu Fighting'.
The song was recorded in 10 minutes and had started out as a B-side and went on to sell over 10 million and became one of the Best Selling Singles of all time

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Dec 7th
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1987
Harry Chapin receives a posthumous Congressional Gold Medal for his efforts in fighting hunger. with Bill Ayres, Chapin founded World Hunger Year, which is later re-named WhyHunger and becomes a very effective organization in distributing food to those in need.
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Bruce Springsteen, Paul Simon, and Judy Collins (among others) appear onstage at Carnegie Hall to pay tribute to Harry Chapin, who would have been celebrating his 45th birthday.
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1987
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Uriah Heep become the first hard rock act to play behind the Iron Curtain in Moscow, Russia. They do 10 shows at the Olympic Stadium.

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In 1987, the world was on the verge of seismic change. That winter, Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev and his US counterpart Ronald Reagan ushered in the first sign of a thaw in the Cold War between the two countries when they signed the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty.

As the two politicians were shaking hands on their historic accord, a bunch of grizzled British rock veterans were busy preparing for their own sortie behind the Iron Curtain to play 10 shows at Moscow’s 18,500-capacity Olympic Stadium.


Uriah Heep weren’t the first Western act to play in Moscow – Elton John, Billy Joel and UB40 beat them to it – but they were the first hard-rock band to do so. And Heep would, in their own small way, become part of world history

Steve Parker (manager, Uriah Heep): When László asked if Heep would play in Moscow, I said yes without asking the band. I realised that it could be a worldwide publicity boost for them, and because it looked like Russia would become a major market in the future. The last show they did before Moscow was in a 2,000-capacity club in Germany, so the Olympic Stadium would be a massive leap up.

Artemy Troitsky (Russian journalist/author): In Russia, the only way to get rock albums was on the black market. Rock music was never banned, but it was never on radio or TV, and records were not officially on sale.

Mick Box (guitarist, Uriah Heep): We had heard about fans in Russia being sent to prison just for owning our records.
 
I often think back to the autumn day that I saw John and Yoko walking down Broadway. Nobody bothered them. They walked right by me. I turned around and looked and noticed that everyone on the street stopped and watched them as they walked. It was either 1978 or 1979. They had no idea of the horrible tragedy that was in their very near future.
 
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