Throwback Thursday: This Week in History
THIS WEEK IN HISTORY 1957: After a show at the Pan Pacific Auditorium in Los Angeles, local police told Elvis Presley that he was not allowed to wiggle his hips onstage, the local press also ran headlines saying Elvis would have to clean up his act. The...
THIS WEEK IN HISTORY
1957: After a show at the Pan Pacific Auditorium in Los Angeles, local police told Elvis Presley that he was not allowed to wiggle his hips onstage, the local press also ran headlines saying Elvis would have to clean up his act. The next night, the Los Angeles Vice Squad filmed his entire concert, to study his performance.
1964: 31 year old Salvatore Philip Bono married 18 year old Cherilyn Sarkisian La Piere. For a time they performed together as Caesar and Cleo before changing the name of their act to Sonny and Cher. Their union lasted 12 years.
1965: The Who released the single ‘My Generation’ in the UK. The song was named the 11th greatest song by Rolling Stone on their list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time and 13th on VH1’s list of the 100 Greatest Songs of Rock & Roll. It reached No. 2 in the UK, the Who’s highest charting single in their home country but only No. 74 in America.
1975: After releasing the single and album Born To Run, Bruce Springsteen had the rare honour of simultaneous covers on both Time and Newsweek magazines in the US.
1977: The Belgian travel service issued a summons against The Sex Pistols claiming the sleeve to the bands single ‘Holidays In The Sun’ infringed copyright of one of its brochures.
1978: The animated cartoon, Kiss Meets the Phantom of the Park, was shown on NBC-TV in the U.S. The four rock stars had to deal with a mad scientist who went crazy in an amusement park. All four members of Kiss had just released their individual solo albums.
1980: Mark Chapman bought a five-shot .38 special for $169. A little over six weeks later, he would use the gun to kill John Lennon outside his New York City apartment.
1983: Pink Floyd’s ‘Dark Side of the Moon’ marked its 491st week on the Billboard album chart in the US, surpassing the previous record holder, ‘Johnny’s Greatest Hits’ by Johnny Mathis. When it finally fell off of list in October 1988, ‘Dark Side’ had set a record of 741 weeks on the chart.
1998: All four original members of Black Sabbath reunited momentarily to play ‘Paranoid’ on US TV’s David Letterman Show.
2000: A new web site was launched to help teach children basic Physics. www.britneyspears.ac featured the singer to illustrate mathematical equations. Visitors could access physics theories generously interspersed with photos of Britney.
2001: U2 performed for the first time on ‘The Late Show with David Letterman’ live from New York City.
2003: Research in the US found that songs get stuck in our heads because they create a ‘brain itch’ that can only be scratched by repeating a tune over and over. Songs such as the Village People’s ‘YMCA’ and the Baha Men’s ‘Who Let The Dogs Out’ owe their success to their ability to create a ‘cognitive itch’, according to Professor James Kellaris, of the University of Cincinnati College of Business Administration.
2007: Forbes.com reported that Elvis Presley had regained his crown as the highest-earning dead celebrity, with an annual income of $49m (£23.7m) during the past year. John Lennon ranked second with $44m (£21.3m), while Peanuts cartoon creator Charles M Schulz was third on the list, Beatle George Harrison was fourth with $22m (£10.6m). Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain topped the list in 2006.
2007: Keith Richards marched with campaigners protesting against possible Sussex hospital cuts. The Stones guitarist joined 15,000 people for the walk through Chichester to oppose plans which could see St Richard’s Hospital downgraded. A spokeswoman for the guitarist said: “Keith is a long-standing member of the West Wittering community and is pleased to lend his support to local efforts to save St Richard’s Hospital.’
2008: A statue honouring AC/DC’s Bon Scott was unveiled at the Fremantle Fishing Boat Harbour in Western Australia. Although born in Scotland, Scott grew up in Fremantle after his family emigrated to Australia in 1952. Bon started out his newfound Australian life in Melbourne, his family lived in the suburb of Sunshine for 4 years before moving to Fremantle. Scott was born in 1946 died on 20th February 1980. He is buried in Fremantle cemetery.
2009: Forbes Magazine reported that Michael Jackson had earned about 72 million dollars since his death on June 25th. That was good enough for third place on their list of dead celebrities making the most money. Fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent came in first at $350 million, songwriters Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein were second with $235 million and Elvis Presley was fourth, earning $55 million.
2013: New Zealand singer Lorde, 16, topped the UK singles chart with her debut single, ‘Royals’, making her the youngest solo artist to score a UK No.1 since 15-year-old Billie Piper’s ‘Because We Want To’ in 1998. Lorde was signed to Universal on a development deal at just 13 years old, after a friend’s father sent them home recordings of her singing Duffy and Pixie Lott tracks.
THIS WEEKEND IN HISTORY
1967: Iggy and the Stooges made their live debut when they played at a Halloween party in Michigan. 1970: Michelle Gilliam from The Mamas and the Papas married actor Dennis Hopper, the marriage lasted eight days.
1974: Led Zeppelin held the UK launch for their new record label Swan Song atChislehurst Caves, Surrey England on Halloween night. Drinks were served by nuns in suspenders, a naked woman lay in a coffin covered in jelly and naked male wrestlers cavorted in recesses of the caves. Label mates Bad Company, The Pretty Things and Maggie Bell also attended. The launch also tied in with the releases of The Pretty Things new album Silk Torpedo. The label was named after an unreleased Zeppelin instrumental track.
1987: Forbes Magazine listed the Top 40 American entertainment earners from 86-87, 8th was Whitney Houston $44 million, 7th Madonna $47 million and third place Bruce Springsteen $56 million.
1989: The very first MTV unplugged show was recorded in New York, featuring UK band Squeeze, the program was aired on 26th Nov 1989.
1990: During a gig in Seattle, Washington, Billy Idol dumped 600 dead fish in Faith No More’s dressing room. They responded by walking on stage, naked during Idol’s set.
1993: Flavor Flav from Public Enemy was arrested charged with attempted murder of his neighbour. Flav claimed he had sex with his girlfriend.
1996: Slash announced he was no longer in Guns N’ Roses. The guitarist said that Axl Rose and he had only been civil to each other on two occasions since 1994.
1996: U2 set up a video link to an internet site from their recording studio in Dublin so fans could watch them record their new album.
1998: Chart history was made when the UK Top 5 singles chart was made up entirely of new entries. Alanis Morissette went in at No.5, Culture Club at No.4, U2 at No.3, George Michael at No.2 and Cher with ‘Believe’ at No.1.
1999: Foo Fighters released their third studio album ‘There Is Nothing Left to Lose’, the album marks the first appearance of drummer Taylor Hawkins. Early pressings of the disc included a temporary tattoo, similar to the one featured on the album cover.
2000: All Saints came top of a poll to find the sexiest female act. 12,000 UK television viewers voted for the group, The Spice Girls came second and Atomic Kitten third. The 50’s group The Beverley Sisters were voted into 11th place beating TLC.
2000: Britney Spears paid £6,000 to hire a private bar in Leipzig, Germany during a night off on her ‘Oops!… I did It Again Tour.’ Britney who at 18 was banned from drinking in the US was reported to be knocking back vodka laced White Russians and Pina Coladas.
2002: Armed police arrested an international gang who were planning to kidnap former Spice Girl Victoria Beckham and her two young children. The gang had planned to ransom Victoria for £5m.
2004: Guitarist Eric Clapton collected his CBE from Buckingham Palace for his services to music.
2005: The white suit worn by John Lennon on the cover of the Beatles’ Abbey Road album sold for $118,000 (£66,385) at an auction in Las Vegas. And an Austin Princess hearse driven by the late star in the documentary Imagine sold for $150,000 (£84,388). A portion of the proceeds from the sale of the items went to Amnesty International.
2007: Ozzy Osbourne claimed his reputation had been tarnished after a party supposedly involving him was organised by US police officers to round up missing criminal suspects. Over 500 people in North Dakota with outstanding arrest warrants were sent invitations and more than 30 suspects turned up. Osbourne said it was “insulting” that his name had been used but police argued it was a “creative” way to fight crime. Ozzy had been selected because he was due to play a gig in a nearby arena, which was used to explain why he would supposedly have attending the party.