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Singer Billie Holiday with Bernie Weissman, owner and manager of Sugar Hill, on Broad Street, Newark, 1957

Jimmie Vaughan is 72 years old today

Jimmie Vaughan, New York City, Dec. 3, 2017

Photo by Frank Beacham

Jimmie Vaughan is 72 years old today.

A blues rock guitarist and singer based in Austin, Vaughan is the older brother of the late, Texas blues guitar legend, Stevie Ray Vaughan.

Several notable blues guitarists have had a significant influence on Vaughan's playing style including Freddie King, Albert King, B.B. King and Johnny "Guitar" Watson.

Born in Dallas County, Texas, to Jimmie Lee Vaughan and Martha Jean Cook, Vaughan was raised in Dallas. He moved to Austin in the late 1960s and began playing with such musicians as Paul Ray and W.C. Clark.

In 1969, Vaughan's group opened for The Jimi Hendrix Experience in Fort Worth. It was at this show that Vaughan lent Jimi Hendrix his Vox Wah-wah pedal which Hendrix ending up breaking. In turn, Hendrix gave Vaughan his own touring Wah-wah pedal.

Vaughan developed his own easily recognized personal style. He formed the band, The Fabulous Thunderbirds, with singer and harpist Kim Wilson, bassist Keith Ferguson and drummer Mike Buck. The original Fabulous Thunderbirds were all protégés of Austin blues club owner, Clifford Antone.

The band's first four albums, released between 1979 and 1983, are ranked among the most important “white blues” recordings. These early albums did not sell well, so the band was left without a recording contract for a couple of years (during the time when Vaughan's younger brother achieved commercial success).

The Fabulous Thunderbirds got a new contract in 1986, and made several albums with a more commercially popular sound and production style.

Vaughan left the band in 1989, and made his only "duo album," Family Style, with his younger brother, Stevie Ray. Before the album's release, Stevie Ray died in a helicopter crash along with other band members in East Troy, Wisconsin, on August 27, 1990.

The album was released a few days after the tragic accident. The artist listed on the album was "The Vaughan Brothers." The album was light, blues-influenced rock, with Jimmie Vaughan singing on several tracks.

Vaughan released his first solo album, Strange Pleasure, in 1994. The album contained a song "Six Strings Down" that was dedicated to the memory of his brother. He has continued his solo career since then. Vaughan's solo albums contain mostly blues-rock material that he writes himself.

He made a special guest appearance on Bo Diddley's 1996 album, A Man Amongst Men, playing guitar on the tracks "He's Got A Key" and "Coatimundi."

In 2001, Vaughan paid an installment on his (and the Fabulous Thunderbirds') debt to harmonica swamp blues when he contributed guitar to the Lazy Lester album, Blues Stop Knockin.'

Since 1997, Fender has produced a Jimmie Vaughan Tex-Mex Stratocaster.

Vaughan appeared in the 1998 released film, Blues Brothers 2000, as a member of the fictional "Louisiana Gator Boys" blues band led by B.B. King. Vaughan is close friends with Dennis Quaid. They worked together on the film, Great Balls of Fire.

Vaughan was the third opening act for most of the dates of Bob Dylan's summer 2006 tour, preceded by Elana James and the Continental Two and Junior Brown.

Vaughan loves classic and custom cars, and is an avid car collector. He has had many of his customs and hot rods displayed in museums, as well as featured in rodding and custom magazines.

Here, Vaughan performs a live set…

Carl Reiner was born 101 years ago today

Mel Brooks and Carl Reiner, 2001

Photo by Robert Trachtenberg

Carl Reiner was born 101 years ago today.

An actor, film director, producer, writer and comedian, Reiner was born in the Bronx. He was the son of Bessie and Irving Reiner, who was a watchmaker. His parents were Jewish immigrants — his father from Romania and his mother from Austria.

When he was sixteen, his older brother, Charlie, read in the New York Daily News about a free dramatic workshop being put on by the Works Progress Administration and told him about it. He had been working as a machinist fixing sewing machines. He credits Charlie with changing his career plans.

Reiner performed in several Broadway musicals, including Inside U.S.A., and Alive and Kicking, and had the lead role in Call Me Mister. In 1950, he was cast by producer Max Leibman in Sid Caesar's Your Show of Shows, appearing on-air in skits while also working alongside writers such as Mel Brooks and Neil Simon.

He also worked on Caesar's Hour with Brooks, Simon, Larry Gelbart, Mel Tolkin, Mike Stewart, Aaron Ruben, Sheldon Keller and Gary Belkin. Starting in 1960, on The Steve Allen Show, Reiner teamed with Mel Brooks as a comedy duo.

Their performances on stage and television included Reiner playing the straight man to Brooks' 2000 Year Old Man character. The routine eventually expanded into a series of five comedy albums and a 1975 animated TV special.

In 1959, Reiner developed a television pilot, Head of the Family, based on his experience on the Caesar shows. However, the network didn't like Reiner in the lead role. In 1961, it was recast and retitled The Dick Van Dyke Show, and became an iconic series, making stars of his lead actors Dick Van Dyke and Mary Tyler Moore.

In addition to writing many of the episodes, Reiner occasionally appeared as temperamental show host "Alan Brady," who ruthlessly browbeats his brother-in-law (played by Richard Deacon). The show ran from 1961 to 1966.

In 1966, he co-starred in the Norman Jewison film, The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming.

Reiner began his directing career on the Van Dyke show. After that show ended its run, Reiner's first film feature was an adaptation of Joseph Stein's play, Enter Laughing (1967), which in turn was based on Reiner's semi-autobiographical 1958 novel of the same name.

Balancing writing, directing, producing and acting, Reiner worked on a wide range of films and television programs. Probably the best-known films of his early directing career were the cult comedy Where's Poppa? (1970), starring George Segal and Ruth Gordon; Oh, God! (1977) with George Burns; and The Jerk (1979) with Steve Martin.

Reiner played a large role in the early career of Steve Martin, by directing and co-writing four films for the comedian: The Jerk in 1979, Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid in 1982, The Man with Two Brains in 1983 and All of Me in 1984. Reiner also appeared in both The Jerk and Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid.

In 1989, he directed Bert Rigby, You're a Fool. In 2000, Reiner was honored with the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor.

A year later, he played thief and con man, Saul Bloom, in Steven Soderbergh's remake of Ocean's Eleven and has reprised that role in its sequels, Ocean's Twelve and Ocean's Thirteen. Reiner has the distinction of being the only person to appear on The Tonight Show with each of its five hosts.

Reiner was the father of actor-turned-director Rob Reiner (b. 1947), poet, playwright and author Sylvia Anne (Annie) Reiner (b. 1957), and painter, actor and director Lucas Reiner (b. 1960).

Reiner described himself as a Jewish atheist. He said, "I have a very different take on who God is. Man invented God because he needed him. God is us."

A Democrat, Reiner endorsed Bernie Sanders for the Democratic Party nomination during the 2016 United States presidential election.

On June 29, 2020, Reiner died at his home in Beverly Hills, California in the company of his family. He was 98 years old. According to his nephew, George Shapiro, Reiner fell while leaving his TV room at around 10:00 p.m. Pacific Time and lost consciousness. His cause of death was officially confirmed to be natural causes.

Here is Reiner and Mel Brooks doing a comedy routine in 1959

Jerry Reed was born 86 years ago today

Jerry Reed, 1976

Jerry Reed was born 86 years ago today.

Jerry Reed Hubbard, his real name, was a country music singer, guitarist and songwriter, as well as an actor who appeared in more than a dozen films.

His signature songs included "Guitar Man," "A Thing Called Love," "Alabama Wild Man," "Amos Moses," "When You're Hot, You're Hot,” "Ko-Ko Joe," "Lord, Mr. Ford," "East Bound and Down" (the theme song for the 1977 blockbuster, Smokey and the Bandit, in which Reed co-starred), "The Bird" and "She Got the Goldmine (I Got the Shaft)."

Born in Atlanta, Reed was the second child of Robert and Cynthia Hubbard. His grandparents lived in Rockmart and he would visit them from time to time. He was quoted as saying as a small child, while running around strumming his guitar, "I am gonna be a star. I'm gonna go to Nashville and be a star."

Reed's parents separated four months after his birth, and he and his sister spent seven years in foster homes or orphanages. Reed was reunited with his mother and stepfather in 1944. Music and impromptu performances helped ease the stressful times the new family was under. By high school, Reed was already writing and singing music, having picked up the guitar as a child.

At age 18, he was signed by publisher and record producer Bill Lowery to cut his first record, "If the Good Lord's Willing and the Creek Don't Rise." At Capitol Records, he recorded both country and rockabilly singles to little notice, until his label mate, Gene Vincent, covered his "Crazy Legs" in 1958.

By 1958, Lowery signed Reed to his National Recording Corporation, and he recorded for NRC as both artist and as a member of the staff band, which included other NRC artists, Joe South and Ray Stevens.

In 1959, Reed hit the Billboard "Bubbling Under The Top 100" and Cashbox Country chart with the single, "Soldier's Joy."

After serving two years in the military, Reed moved to Nashville in 1961 to continue his songwriting career, which had continued to gather steam while he was in the armed forces, thanks to Brenda Lee's 1960 cover of his "That's All You Got to Do." He also became a popular session and tour guitarist.

In 1962, he scored some success with two singles "Goodnight Irene" (as by Jerry Reed and the Hully Girlies, featuring a female vocal group) and "Hully Gully Guitar," which found their way to Chet Atkins at RCA Victor, who produced Reed's "If I Don't Live Up to It" in 1965.

In July, 1967, Reed had his best showing so far on the country charts (#53) with his self-penned, "Guitar Man," which Elvis Presley soon covered. Reed's next single was, "Tupelo Mississippi Flash," a comic tribute to Presley. The song became his first Top 20 hit, going to #15 on the chart.

In a remarkable twist of fate, Elvis came to Nashville to record nine days later on September 10, 1967, and one of the songs he became especially excited about was "Guitar Man."

Reed recalled how he was tracked down to play on the Elvis session. "I was out on the Cumberland River fishing, and I got a call from Felton Jarvis (then Presley's producer at RCA). He said, 'Elvis is down here. We've been trying to cut 'Guitar Man' all day long. He wants it to sound like it sounded on your album.'

“I finally told him, 'Well, if you want it to sound like that, you're going have to get me in there to play guitar, because these guys (you're using in the studio) are straight pickers. I pick with my fingers and tune that guitar up all weird kind of ways.'"

Jarvis hired Reed to play on the session. "I hit that intro, and [Elvis'] face lit up and here we went. Then after he got through that, he cut [my] "U.S. Male" at the same session. I was toppin' cotton, son."

Reed also played the guitar for Elvis Presley's "Big Boss Man" (1967), recorded in the same session.

Bass singer Ray Walker of The Jordanaires remembered that memorable session more vividly, remarking that Reed flubbed the intro to "Guitar Man" repeatedly as a result of being extremely nervous.

Walker also remembered the guitarist telling Presley, "God, you're handsome!"

On January 15 and 16th, 1968, Reed worked on a second Presley session, during which he played guitar on a cover of Chuck Berry's "Too Much Monkey Business," "Stay Away" and "Goin' Home" (two songs revolving around Elvis' film, Stay Away, Joe), as well as another Reed composition, "U.S. Male."

Elvis also recorded two other Reed compositions: "A Thing Called Love" in May, 1971 for his He Touched Me album, and "Talk About The Good Times" in December, 1973, for a total of four.

Johnny Cash would also release "A Thing Called Love" as a single in 1971, which would reach #2 on the Billboard Country Singles Chart for North America. It was also successful in Europe. It would become the title track for a studio album that he released the following spring.

In the mid-1970s, Reed's recording career began to take a back seat to his acting aspirations. In 1974, he co-starred with his close friend, Burt Reynolds, in the film W.W. and the Dixie Dancekings.

While he continued to record throughout the decade, his greatest visibility was as a motion picture star, almost always in tandem with headliner Reynolds. After 1976's Gator, Reed appeared in 1978's High Ballin’ and 1979's Hot Stuff. He also co-starred in all three of the Smokey and the Bandit films. The first, which premiered in 1977, landed Reed a #2 hit with the soundtrack's "East Bound and Down."

Reed died in Nashville on September 1, 2008 of complications from emphysema. He was 71.

In a tribute in Vintage Guitar Magazine, Rich Kienzle wrote that "Reed set a standard that inspires finger-style players the way Merle and Chet inspired him.

Here, Reed joins Dolly Parton to perform “She Got The Goldmine (I Got The Shaft)”

Fred Rogers was born 95 years ago today

Fred Rogers was born 95 years ago today.

An educator, Presbyterian minister, songwriter, author and television host, Rogers created and hosted Mister Rogers' Neighborhood (1968–2001), which featured his gentle, soft-spoken personality and directness to his audiences.

Initially educated to be a minister, Rogers was displeased with the way television addressed children and made an effort to change this when he began to write for and perform on local Pittsburgh-area shows dedicated to youth.

WQED developed his own show in 1968 and it was distributed nationwide by Eastern Educational Television Network. Over the course of three decades on television, Fred Rogers became an indelible American icon of children's entertainment and education, as well as a symbol of compassion, patience and morality.

He was also known for his advocacy of various public causes. His testimony before a lower court in favor of fair use recording of television shows to play at another time (now known as time shifting) was cited in a U.S. Supreme Court decision on the Betamax case, and he gave now-famous testimony to a U.S. Senate committee, advocating government funding for children's television.

Rogers received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, some forty honorary degrees and a Peabody Award. He was inducted into the Television Hall of Fame and was recognized by two Congressional resolutions.

Several buildings and artworks in Pennsylvania are dedicated to his memory, and the Smithsonian Institution displays one of his trademark sweaters as a "Treasure of American History."

Rogers was diagnosed with stomach cancer in December, 2002, not long after his retirement. He underwent surgery on January 6, 2003, which was unsuccessful.

Rogers died on the morning of February 27, 2003, at his home with his wife by his side, less than a month before he would have turned 75.

Here, Mr. Rogers remixed in a performance of “Garden of Your Mind”

Mary Ellen Mark, photographer, was born 83 years ago today

Photo by Marcela Taboada

Mary Ellen Mark, photographer, was born 83 years ago today.

A photographer known for her photojournalism, portraiture and advertising photography, Mark had 16 collections of her work published and has been exhibited at galleries and museums worldwide. She received numerous accolades, including three Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Awards and three fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts.

Mark was also a unit photographer on movie sets, shooting production stills of more than 100 movies including Arthur Penn's Alice's Restaurant (1969), Mike Nichols' Catch-22 (1970), Carnal Knowledge (1971) and Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now (1979) through to Baz Luhrmann's Australia (2008). For Look magazine, she photographed Federico Fellini shooting Satyricon (1969).

Mark worked with film, using a wide range of cameras in various formats, from 35 mm, 120/220, 4×5-inch view camera and a 20×24 Polaroid Land Camera, primarily in black and white using Kodak Tri-X film.

She published 18 books of photographs and contributed to publications including Life, Rolling Stone, The New Yorker, New York Times and Vanity Fair. Her photographs have been exhibited worldwide.

Mark was transparent with the subjects of her photography about her intent to use what she saw in the world for her art, about which she has said "I just think it's important to be direct and honest with people about why you're photographing them and what you're doing. After all, you are taking some of their soul."

Mark joined Magnum Photos in 1977 and left in 1981, joining Archive Pictures and then in 1988 opened her own agency. She served as a guest juror for photography call for entries at The Center for Fine Art Photography and taught workshops at the International Center of Photography in New York, in Mexico and at the Center for Photography at Woodstock.

She co-wrote, and was associate producer and still photographer for the feature film, American Heart (1992), starring Jeff Bridges and Edward Furlong, and directed by Martin Bell. It depicts a gruff ex-convict who struggles to get his life back on track.

Mark died on May 25, 2015 in Manhattan at age 75 of myelodysplastic syndrome, a blood illness caused by bone marrow failure.

Ozzie Nelson was born 117 years ago today

Ozzie Nelson was born 117 years ago today.

A band leader, actor, television director and producer, Nelson originated and starred in The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet, a radio and long-running television series with his wife, Harriet, and two sons, David and Ricky.

Nelson started his entertainment career as a band leader. He formed and led the Ozzie Nelson Band, and had some initial limited success.

He made his own "big break" in 1930. The New York Daily Mirror ran a poll of its readers to determine their favorite band. He knew that news vendors got credit from the newspaper for unsold copies by returning the front page and discarding the rest of the issue. Gathering hundreds of discarded newspapers, the band filled out ballots in their favor. They edged out Paul Whiteman and were pronounced the winners.

From 1930 through the 1940s, Nelson's band recorded prolifically — first on Brunswick (1930–1933), then Vocalion (1933–1934) then back to Brunswick (1934–1936), Bluebird (1937–1941), Victor (1941) and finally back to Bluebird (1941-through the 1940s).

Nelson's records were consistently popular. In 1934, he enjoyed success with his hit song, "Over Somebody Else's Shoulder," which he introduced. He was their primary vocalist and (from August, 1932) featured in duets with his other star vocalist, Harriet Hilliard.

Nelson's calm, easy vocal style was popular on records and radio and quite similar to son Rick's voice and Harriet's perky vocals added to the band's popularity.

In 1935, Ozzie Nelson and His Orchestra had a #1 hit with "And Then Some" on the U.S. pop singles chart. Nelson composed several songs, including "Wave the Stick Blues," "Subway," "Jersey Jive," "Swingin' on the Golden Gate" and "Central Avenue Shuffle."

In October, 1935, he married the band's vocalist, Harriet Hilliard. The couple had two children. David (1936–2011) became an actor and director. Eric ("Ricky") (1940–1985) became an actor and singer.

Ozzie Nelson appeared with his band in feature films and short subjects of the 1940s, and often played speaking parts, displaying a tongue-in-cheek sense of humor (as in the 1942 musical, Strictly in the Groove). He shrewdly promoted the band by agreeing to appear in soundies, three-minute musical movies shown in "film jukeboxes" of the 1940s.

In 1952, when he and his family were established as radio and TV favorites, they starred in a feature film, Here Come the Nelsons, (which actually doubled as a "pilot" for the TV series).

In the 1940s, Nelson began to look for a way to spend more time with his family, especially his growing sons. Besides band appearances, he and Harriet had been regulars on Red Skelton's radio show.

He developed and produced his own radio series, The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet. The show went on the air in 1944, with their sons played by actors until 1949, and in 1952 it moved over to television (the radio version continued for another two years).

The show starred the entire family — and America watched Ozzie and Harriet raise their boys. Nelson was producer and co-writer of the entire series. He was very hands-on and involved with every aspect of the radio and then TV program.

Cultural historians have noted that the on-screen character was very different from the real-life Ozzie Nelson, who has been characterized as an authoritarian figure who monitored every aspect of his children's lives.

In 1998, A&E broadcast a documentary entitled Ozzie and Harriet: The Adventures of America's Favorite Family, which depicted Ozzie Nelson as a dictatorial personality who "thwarted his sons, preventing them from attending college and reminding them that they were obliged to work on television."

Author David Halberstam has written, "the Nelsons arguably were a dysfunctional family. In real life, Ozzie was a workaholic who stole his sons' childhood (by having them grow up in show business)."

Nelson died at his home in the San Fernando Valley on June 3, 1975, with his wife and sons at his bedside. He was 69.

Sam Lay was born 88 years ago today

Sam Lay, New York City, B.B. King’s Club, 2005 with the Chicago Blues Reunion

Photo by Frank Beacham

Sam Lay was born 88 years ago today.

Lay, a drummer and vocalist, began his career in 1957, as the drummer for the Original Thunderbirds, and soon after became the drummer for the harmonica player, Little Walter.

In the early 1960s, Lay began recording and performing with prominent blues musicians such as Willie Dixon, Howlin' Wolf, Eddie Taylor, John Lee Hooker, Junior Wells, Bo Diddley, Magic Sam, Jimmy Rogers, Earl Hooker and Muddy Waters.

The recordings Lay made during this time, along with Waters' Fathers and Sons album recorded in 1969, are considered to be among the definitive works from the careers of Waters and Wolf.

In the mid-1960s, Lay joined the Paul Butterfield Blues Band and recorded and toured extensively with them.

Bob Dylan, with Lay as his drummer, was the first performer to introduce electric-rock at the Newport Folk Festival in 1965. Lay also recorded with Dylan, most notably on the Highway 61 Revisited album. (Lay drums on the "Highway 61" track. The majority of the drum tracks are Bobby Gregg.)

Lay's drumming can be heard on over 40 recordings for the Chess Records label, with many notable blues performers. He has toured the major blues festivals around the U.S. and Europe with the Chess Records All-Stars.

In the late 1980s, Lay was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in Memphis. He was recently inducted into the Jazz Hall of Fame in Los Angeles.

He was nominated eight times for the coveted W. C. Handy Award for "Best Instrumentalist."

Lay had two recent recordings with his own band on Appaloosa Records and Evidence Records, and two recordings on Alligator Records with the Siegel-Schwall Band. His own 1969 release on Blue Thumb Records, Sam Lay in Bluesland, was produced by Michael Bloomfield and Nick Gravenites.

Lay was prominently featured on a PBS-TV broadcast of seven episodes on the “History of the Blues,” produced by director Martin Scorsese. Lay also shot many home movies of fellow blues performers in small Chicago venues of the late 1950s and 1960s. These home movies were seen in the PBS special History of the Blues and the WTTW production Record Row by the filmmaker, Michael MacAlpin.

Sam Lay is one of the 2015 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Inductees with the Paul Butterfield Blues Band.

Lay died at a nursing facility in Chicago on January 29, 2022, at the age of 86.

Here is the trailer for the film, “Sam Lay in Bluesland”

Sister Rosetta Tharpe was born 108 years ago today

Sister Rosetta Tharpe performing at Cafe Society Downtown, New York City, Dec. 11, 1940

Photo by Charles Peterson

Sister Rosetta Tharpe was born 108 years ago today.

A singer, songwriter, guitarist and recording artist, Tharpe was a pioneer of 20th century music. She attained popularity in the 1930s and 1940s with her gospel recordings that were a unique mixture of spiritual lyrics and rhythmic/early rock accompaniment.

Tharpe became gospel music's first crossover artist and its first great recording star, referred to later as "the original soul sister." She was an early influence on figures such as Little Richard, Johnny Cash, Elvis Presley and Jerry Lee Lewis.

Willing to cross the line between sacred and secular by performing her music of "light" in the "darkness" of the nightclubs and concert halls with big bands behind her, Tharpe pushed spiritual music into the mainstream and helped pioneer the rise of pop–gospel beginning with her 1939 hit, "This Train."

Her unique music left a lasting mark on more conventional gospel artists such as Ira Tucker, Sr. of the Dixie Hummingbirds. While she offended some conservative churchgoers with her forays into the pop world, she never left gospel music.

Tharpe's 1944 hit, "Down By The Riverside," was selected for the American Library of Congress National Recording Registry in 2004, with the citation stating that it captured her "spirited guitar playing" and "unique vocal style," which were an influence on early rhythm and blues performers, as well as gospel, jazz and rock artists.

Her 1945 hit, "Strange Things Happening Every Day," recorded in late 1944, featured Tharpe's vocals and electric guitar, with Sammy Price (piano), bass and drums. It was the first gospel record to cross over, hitting #2 on the Billboard "race records" chart in April, 1945. Race Music would later be called rhythm and blues. The recording has been cited as an important precursor of rock and roll.

Tharpe has been called the Godmother of Rock n' Roll.

Born Rosetta Nubin in Cotton Plant, Arkansas to parents who were cotton pickers, Tharpe’s father was a singer and her mother sang and played mandolin. Tharpe’s mother, Katie Bell Nubin, was also a preacher for the COGIC, which was founded by a black Baptist bishop named Charles Mason in 1894, who encouraged rhythmic musical expression, dancing in praise and allowing women to preach in church.

With the encouragement of her mother, Tharpe began singing and playing the guitar as “Little Rosetta Nubin” from the age of four and was cited as a musical prodigy. By age six, Tharpe had joined her mother as a regular performer in a traveling evangelical troupe.

Billed as a "singing and guitar playing miracle," Tharpe accompanied her mother in hybrid performances — part sermon, part gospel concert — before audiences all across the American South.

In the mid-1920s, Tharpe and her mother settled in Chicago, where the duo continued to perform religious concerts at the COGIC church on 40th Street while occasionally traveling to perform at church conventions throughout the country.

As a result, Tharpe developed considerable fame as a musical prodigy, standing out in an era when prominent black female guitarists remained very rare. In 1934, at the age of 19, Rosetta Tharpe married a COGIC preacher named Thomas Thorpe, who had accompanied her and her mother on many of their tours.

Although the marriage only lasted a short time, she decided to incorporate a version of her first husband's surname into her stage name, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, which she would use for the rest of her career.

In 1938, Tharpe left her husband, and with her mother, moved to New York City. Although she had more than one marriage, she performed under the name of Tharpe for the rest of her life.

On October 31, 1938, at age 23, Tharpe recorded for the first time – four sides with Decca Records backed by "Lucky" Millinder's jazz orchestra.

The first gospel songs ever recorded by Decca, "Rock Me," "That's All," "My Man and I" and "The Lonesome Road" became instant hits, establishing Tharpe as an overnight sensation and one of the first commercially successful gospel recording artists. Her records caused an immediate furor. Many churchgoers were shocked by the mixture of gospel-based lyrics and secular-sounding music, but secular audiences loved them.

Tharpe's appearances with jazz artist Cab Calloway at Harlem's Cotton Club in October, 1938 and in John Hammond's "Spirituals to Swing" concert at Carnegie Hall on December 23, 1938, gained her even more fame, along with notoriety. These performances, which both shocked and awed the crowds, were controversial as well as revolutionary in several respects.

Performing gospel music in front of secular, nightclub audiences and alongside blues, jazz musicians and dancers was highly unusual, and within conservative religious circles the mere fact of a woman performing guitar music, particularly in those settings, was frowned upon.

For these reasons, Tharpe was often falling out of favor with segments within the gospel community. In 1946, Tharpe saw Marie Knight perform at a Mahalia Jackson concert in New York. Tharpe recognized a special talent in Knight.

Two weeks later, Tharpe showed up at Knight's doorstep, inviting her to go on the road. They toured the gospel circuit for a number of years, during which they recorded hits such as "Up Above My Head" and "Gospel Train."

Tharpe was so popular that she attracted 25,000 paying customers to her wedding to her manager, Russell Morrison (her third marriage), followed by a vocal performance, at Griffith Stadium in Washington, D.C. in 1951.

Tharpe's performances were curtailed by a stroke in 1970, after which she had a leg amputated as a result of complications from diabetes.

On the eve of a scheduled recording session, she died in Philadelphia on October 9, 1973 after another stroke.

Musically, Tharpe's unique guitar style blended melody-driven urban blues with traditional folk arrangements and incorporated a pulsating swing sound that is one of the first clear precursors of rock and roll.

Little Richard referred to the stomping, shouting, gospel music performer as his favorite singer when he was a child. In 1945, she heard Richard sing prior to her concert at the Macon City Auditorium and later invited him on stage to sing, his first public performance outside of the church, with her.

Following the show, she paid him for his performance, which inspired him to become a performer. When Johnny Cash gave his induction speech at the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame, he referred to Tharpe as his favorite singer when he was a child. His daughter, Rosanne, similarly stated in an interview with Larry King that Tharpe was her father's favorite singer.

Tharpe began recording with electric guitar in the 1940s, with "That's All," which is cited to have been an influence on Chuck Berry and Elvis Presley. A number of other musicians, including Aretha Franklin, Jerry Lee Lewis and Isaac Hayes have identified her singing, guitar playing and showmanship as an important influence on them.

Here, Tharpe performs “Down By the Riverside”

Henrik Ibsen, "the father of realism" and one of the founders of Modernism in the theatre, was born 195 years ago today

Ibsen by Gustav Borgen

Henrik Ibsen, "the father of realism" and one of the founders of Modernism in the theatre, was born 195 years ago today.

A major 19th century Norwegian playwright, theatre director and poet, Ibsen’s major works include Brand, Peer Gynt, An Enemy of the People, Emperor and Galilean, A Doll's House, Hedda Gabler, Ghosts, The Wild Duck, Rosmersholm and The Master Builder.

He is the most frequently performed dramatist in the world after Shakespeare, and Pravda has reported that A Doll's House is the world's most performed play.

Several of his plays were considered scandalous to many of his era, when European theatre was required to model strict morals of family life and propriety.

Ibsen's work examined the realities that lay behind many façades, revealing much that was disquieting to many contemporaries. It utilized a critical eye and free inquiry into the conditions of life and issues of morality. The poetic and cinematic play Peer Gynt, however, has strong surreal elements.

Ibsen is often ranked as one of the truly great playwrights in the European tradition. Richard Hornby describes him as "a profound poetic dramatist — the best since Shakespeare".

He is widely regarded as the most important playwright since Shakespeare. He influenced other playwrights and novelists such as George Bernard Shaw, Oscar Wilde, Arthur Miller, James Joyce and Eugene O'Neill.

Ibsen wrote his plays in Danish (the common written language of Denmark and Norway) and they were published by the Danish publisher, Gyldendal.

Although most of his plays are set in Norway — often in places reminiscent of Skien, the port town where he grew up — Ibsen lived for 27 years in Italy and Germany, and rarely visited Norway during his most productive years.

Born into a merchant family connected to the patriciate of Skien, his dramas were shaped by his family background. He was the father of Prime Minister Sigurd Ibsen.

Crossing the Seine, Paris

Photo by Rebecca Plotnick

Ursula Andress, twice a Bond girl and sex symbol of the 1960s, is 87 years old today

Ursula Andress, twice a Bond girl and sex symbol of the 1960s, is 87 years old today.

A Swiss-American actress, Andress is known for her role as Bond girl, Honey Rider, in the first James Bond film, Dr. No (1962), for which she won a Golden Globe. She later starred as Vesper Lynd in the Bond-parody, Casino Royale (1967).

Born in Ostermundigen, Canton of Bern, Switzerland, Andress became famous in Dr. No. In what became an iconic moment in cinematic and fashion history, she rose out of the Caribbean Sea in a white bikini sporting a large diving knife on her hip.

Due to her heavy Swiss-German accent, her character's voice was provided by Nikki van der Zyl, while the calypso was sung by Diana Coupland. The scene made Andress the "quintessential" Bond girl. She later said that she owed her career to that white bikini.

"This bikini made me into a success. As a result of starring in Dr. No as the first Bond girl, I was given the freedom to take my pick of future roles and to become financially independent."

The bikini she wore in the film sold at auction in 2001 for $59,755.

In 2003, in a UK Survey by Channel 4, her entrance in Dr. No was voted #1 in "the 100 Greatest Sexy Moments." In 1965, she posed nude for Playboy. When asked why she had agreed to do the Playboy shoot she replied coolly, "Because I'm beautiful."

Andress co-starred with Elvis Presley in the 1963 musical film, Fun in Acapulco, with Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin in 4 for Texas (1963), opposite Marcello Mastroianni in The 10th Victim (1965), alongside John Richardson in She (1965) and as the countess in The Blue Max (1966).

She also appeared in the Bond satire, Casino Royale (1967), as Vesper Lynd, an occasional spy who persuades Evelyn Tremble, played by Peter Sellers, to carry out a mission. She used her own voice in Casino Royale.

In 1967, Andress co-starred with another Bond girl in the Italian comedy, Anyone Can Play. She turned down the role of Matilda in the British-thriller Berserk!, a role that eventually went to English actress, Diana Dors. In 1981's Clash of the Titans, she co-starred with Laurence Olivier.

In 1995, Andress was chosen by Empire magazine as one of the "100 Sexiest Stars in film history."

Here, Andress in the star-making beach scene in “Dr. No”

Ursula Andress with Elvis Presley and Elsa Cárdenas in the film, Fun in Acapulco, 1963

Moms Mabley was born 129 years ago today

Moms Mabley was born 129 years ago today.

Born Loretta Mary Aiken, Mabley was a standup comedian. A veteran of the Chitlin' circuit of African-American vaudeville, she later appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show and the The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour.

Born in Brevard, North Carolina, by age 14, Mabley had been raped twice and had two children who were given up for adoption. That year she ran away to Cleveland, joining a traveling vaudeville show, where she sang and entertained.

She took her stage name, Jackie Mabley, from an early boyfriend, commenting to Ebony in a 1970s interview that he'd taken so much from her, it was the least she could do to take his name. Later, she became known as "Moms" because she was indeed a "Mom" to many other comedians on the circuit in the 1950s and 1960s.

She came out as a lesbian at the age of twenty-seven, becoming one of the first triple-X rated comedians on the comedy circuit. During the 1920s and 1930s, she appeared in androgynous clothing (as she did in the film version of The Emperor Jones with Paul Robeson) and recorded several of her early "lesbian stand-up" routines.

Mabley was one of the top women doing stand-up in her heyday, eventually recording more than 20 albums of comedy routines. She appeared in movies, on television and in clubs.

Mabley was one of the most successful entertainers of the Chitlin' circuit, earning $10,000 a week at Harlem's Apollo Theater at the height of her career. She made her New York City debut at Connie's Inn in Harlem.

In the 1960s, she became known to a wider white audience, playing Carnegie Hall in 1962, and making a number of mainstream TV appearances, particularly her multiple appearances on the The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour when that CBS show was #1 on television in the late 1960s. It introduced her to a whole new baby boomer audience.

Mabley was billed as "The Funniest Woman in the World." She tackled topics too edgy for many other comics of the time, including racism.

One of her regular themes was a romantic interest in handsome young men rather than old "washed-up geezers," and she got away with it courtesy of her stage persona, where she appeared as a toothless, bedraggled woman in a house dress and floppy hat.

She also added the occasional satirical song to her jokes, and her cover version of "Abraham, Martin and John" hit #35 on the Hot 100 on July 19, 1969. At 75 years old, she became the oldest person ever to have a U.S. Top 40 hit with the song.

Mabley died in 1975 at age 81.

Here Mabley performs “Abraham, Martin and John” in 1969

Philip Roth was born 90 years ago today

Philip Roth was born 90 years ago today.

Roth first gained attention with the 1959 novella, Goodbye, Columbus, an irreverent and humorous portrait of American Jewish life for which he received the U.S. National Book Award for Fiction.

Roth's fiction, regularly set in Newark, New Jersey, is known for its intensely autobiographical character, for philosophically and formally blurring the distinction between reality and fiction, for its "supple, ingenious style" and for its provocative explorations of Jewish and American identity.

His profile rose significantly in 1969 after the publication of the controversial Portnoy's Complaint, the humorous and sexually explicit psychoanalytical monologue of "a lust-ridden, mother-addicted young Jewish bachelor," filled with "intimate, shameful detail, and coarse, abusive language."

Roth was one of the most awarded U.S. writers of his generation. His books twice received the National Book Award, twice the National Book Critics Circle award and three times the PEN/Faulkner Award. He received a Pulitzer Prize for his 1997 novel, American Pastoral, which featured one of his best-known characters, Nathan Zuckerman, the subject of many other of Roth's novels.

The Human Stain (2000), another Zuckerman novel, was awarded the United Kingdom's WH Smith Literary Award for the best book of the year. In 2001, in Prague, Roth received the inaugural Franz Kafka Prize.

Roth died at a Manhattan hospital of congestive heart failure on May 22, 2018, at the age of 85.

Clarence "Frogman" Henry, R&B singer and pianist from New Orleans, is 86 years old today

Clarence "Frogman" Henry, R&B singer and pianist from New Orleans, is 86 years old today.

Fats Domino and Professor Longhair were young Henry's main influences while growing up. When Henry played in talent shows, he dressed like Longhair and wore a wig with braids on both sides.

His trademark croak, utilized to the maximum on his 1956 debut hit, "Ain't Got No Home." It earned Henry his nickname and jump-started a career that endures to this day. "(I Don't Know Why) But I Do" and "You Always Hurt the One You Love," both from 1961, were his other big hits.

Henry opened eighteen concerts for the Beatles across the U.S. and Canada in 1964, but his main source of income came from the Bourbon Street strip in New Orleans, where he played for nineteen years. His name could still draw hordes of tourists long after his hit-making days had ended.

Henry's pioneering contribution to the genre has been recognized by the Rockabilly Hall of Fame. In April 2007, "Frogman" was honored for his contributions to Louisiana music with induction into the Louisiana Music Hall of Fame.

Here, Henry performs “Ain’t Got No Home”

Frogman Henry and the Beatles

Elvis Presley agreed to purchase the home called Graceland on March 19, 1957 — 66 years ago today

In the spring of 1957, Elvis Presley was completing his second Hollywood movie, Loving You, and his first movie soundtrack album. He had two studio albums and 48 singles already under his belt and two years of nearly nonstop live appearances behind him.

If his life had taken a different path, the spring of 1957 might have seen Elvis Presley filling out law school applications or interviewing for his first job as college graduation approached.

But the hardworking son of Gladys and Vernon Presley was already his family's primary breadwinner in the spring of 1957, and already looking, at the tender age of 22, to purchase them a new home for the second time.

He found that home on the outskirts of Memphis — a southern Colonial mansion on a 13.8-acre wooded estate. With a $1,000 cash deposit against a sale price of $102,500, Elvis Presley agreed to purchase the home called Graceland on March 19, 1957 — 66 years ago today.

It's a special enough thing for any young man to be able to buy a house for his family, but for a young man who was as devoted to his family as Elvis was, it must have been particularly satisfying.

Elvis had already bought one house for his parents on Audubon Avenue in East Memphis, but that residential neighborhood had become overrun with gawkers and worshipers as Elvis became a megastar.

There was also the matter of the growing entourage of extended family and friends around Elvis driving the need for a larger home base.

Officially, Graceland was where Elvis, his parents and his grandmother Minnie Mae lived, but unofficially, it was also the home/hotel/clubhouse for the entire "Memphis Mafia" — the ever-changing cast of childhood and newfound friends who surrounded and often drew salaries from Elvis throughout his post-stardom life.

Many girlfriends and one wife (the former Priscilla Beaulieu, who wed Elvis at age 21 in 1967 but moved in quietly several years earlier) also came and went at Graceland during its 20 years as Elvis's base of operations.

Today, it is preserved precisely as Elvis left it when he passed away in the upstairs master bathroom in 1977.

His daughter, Lisa Marie, inherited Graceland on Elvis's death, and in the years since then, it has become one of the nation's most popular tourist attractions — the second-most-visited house in America after the big white one on Pennsylvania Avenue.

Thanks History.com

Bob Dylan — debut album of the singer, songwriter and poet — was released 61 years ago today

Bob Dylan — debut album of the singer, songwriter and poet — was released 61 years ago today.

Produced on March 19, 1962 by Columbia Record’s legendary talent scout, John H. Hammond, who signed Dylan to the label, the album features folk standards, plus two original compositions, "Talkin' New York" and "Song to Woody."

Dylan met John Hammond at a rehearsal session for Carolyn Hester on September 14, 1961, at the apartment shared by Hester and her then-husband, Richard Fariña.

Hester had invited Dylan to the session as a harmonica player, and Hammond approved him as a session player after hearing him rehearse, with recommendations from his son, musician John P. Hammond, and from Liam Clancy.

Hammond later told Robert Shelton that he decided to sign Dylan "on the spot," and invited him to the Columbia offices for a more formal audition recording. No record of that recording has turned up in Columbia's files, but Hammond, Dylan and Columbia's A&R director, Mitch Miller, have all confirmed that an audition took place.

On September 26, Dylan began a two-week run at Gerde's Folk City, second on the bill to The Greenbriar Boys. On September 29, an exceptionally favorable review of Dylan's performance appeared in the New York Times. The same day, Dylan played harmonica at Hester's recording session at Columbia's Manhattan studios.

After the session, Hammond brought Dylan to his offices and presented him with Columbia's standard five-year contract for previously unrecorded artists. Dylan signed immediately.

That night at Gerdes, Dylan told Shelton about Hammond's offer, but asked him to "keep it quiet" until the contract's final approval had worked its way through the Columbia hierarchy. The label's official approvals came quickly.

Studio time was scheduled for late November, and during the weeks leading up to those sessions, Dylan began searching for new material even though he was already familiar with a number of songs.

According to Dylan's friend, Carla Rotolo, "He spent most of his time listening to my records, days and nights. He studied the Folkways Anthology of American Folk Music, the singing of Ewan MacColl and A.L. Lloyd, Rabbit Brown's guitar, Guthrie, of course, and blues...his record was in the planning stages. We were all concerned about what songs Dylan was going to do. I clearly remember talking about it."

The album was ultimately recorded in three short afternoon sessions on November 20 and 22. Hammond later joked that Columbia spent "about $402" to record it, and the figure has entered the Dylan legend as its actual cost.

Despite the low cost and short amount of time, Dylan was still difficult to record, according to Hammond. "Bobby popped every “p,” hissed every “s,” and habitually wandered off mic," recalled Hammond. "Even more frustrating, he refused to learn from his mistakes. It occurred to me at the time that I'd never worked with anyone so undisciplined before."

Seventeen songs were recorded, and five of the album's chosen tracks were actually cut in single takes ("Baby Let Me Follow You Down," "In My Time of Dyin'," "Gospel Plow," "Highway 51 Blues" and "Freight Train Blues") while the master take of "Song to Woody" was recorded after one false start. The album's four outtakes were also cut in single takes.

During the sessions, Dylan refused requests to do second takes. "I said no. I can't see myself singing the same song twice in a row. That's terrible." The album cover features a reversed photo of Dylan holding his acoustic guitar. It is unknown as to why the photo was flipped.

By the time sessions were held for his debut album, Dylan was absorbing an enormous amount of folk material from sitting and listening to contemporaries performing in New York's clubs and coffeehouses.

Many of these individuals were also close friends who performed with Dylan, often inviting him to their apartments where they would introduce him to more folk songs. At the same time, Dylan was borrowing and listening to a large number of folk, blues and country records, many of which were hard to find at the time.

Dylan claimed in the documentary, No Direction Home, that he needed to hear a song only once or twice to learn it.

The final album sequence of Bob Dylan features only two original compositions. The other eleven tracks are folk standards and traditional songs. Few of these were staples of his club/coffeehouse repertoire. Only two of the covers and both originals were in his club set in September, 1961. Dylan said in a 2000 interview that he was hesitant to reveal too much of himself at first.

Of the two original songs — "Song to Woody" — is the best known.

According to Clinton Heylin, the original handwritten manuscript to "Song to Woody" bears the following inscription at the bottom of the sheet: "Written by Bob Dylan in Mills Bar on Bleecker Street in New York City on the 14th day of February, for Woody Guthrie."

Melodically, the song is based on one of Guthrie's own compositions, "1913 Massacre," but it is possible Guthrie fashioned "1913 Massacre" from an even earlier melody. He often did that, like many folk artists — including Dylan.

Guthrie would often adopt familiar folk melodies into new compositions. He was Dylan's main musical influence at the time of Bob Dylan's release, and indeed on several of the songs Dylan is apparently imitating Guthrie's vocal mannerisms.

"Talkin' New York" references Guthrie's song, "Pretty Boy Floyd."

Dylan takes an arranger's credit on many of the traditional songs, but a number of them can be traced to his contemporaries. For example, the arrangement of "House of the Rising Sun" was developed by Dave Van Ronk, who was a close friend at the time.

During his recording of "Baby Let Me Follow You Down," Dylan mentions the arranger, Eric Von Schmidt, whom he met in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Von Schmidt introduced the arrangement to Dylan as well as an arrangement for "He Was a Friend of Mine," which was also recorded for but omitted from Dylan's first album.

Dylan would leave most of these songs behind when he moved to the concert stage in 1963, but he performed "Man of Constant Sorrow" during his first national television appearance in mid-1963 (a performance included on the 2005 retrospective, No Direction Home).

"Baby Let Me Follow You Down" would later return in a driving electric arrangement during his 1965 and 1966 tours with The Hawks. A live recording was included on Live 1966. After 1966, Dylan performed only five songs from his debut album in concert, and only "Song to Woody" and "Pretty Peggy-O" would be heard with any frequency.

Bob Dylan, the album, did not receive much acclaim until years later. "These debut songs are essayed with differing degrees of conviction," writes music critic Tim Riley, "[but] even when his reach exceeds his grasp, he never sounds like he knows he's in over his head, or gushily patronizing...Like Elvis Presley, what Dylan can sing, he quickly masters; what he can't, he twists to his own devices.

“And as with the Presley Sun sessions, the voice that leaps from Dylan's first album is its most striking feature, a determined, iconoclastic baying that chews up influences, and spits out the odd mixed signal without half trying."

At the time of its release, Bob Dylan received little notice, and both Hammond and Dylan were soon dismissive of the first album's results. The album did not initially sell well either, and Dylan was for a time known as "Hammond's Folly" in record company circles.

Mitch Miller, Columbia's chief of A&R at the time, said U.S. sales totaled about 2,500 copies. Bob Dylan remains Dylan's only release not to chart at all in the U.S., though it eventually reached #13 in the UK charts in 1965.

Despite the album's poor performance, financially it was not disastrous because the album was very cheap to record.

Bob Dylan and John Hammond

Bob Dylan recording the album

Bob Dylan performs "Talkin' New York"

France, 1932

Photo by Henri Cartier-Bresson

Bill Frisell is 72 years old today

Photo by Monica Jane Frisell

Bill Frisell is 72 years old today.

A guitarist, composer and arranger, Frisell has been one of the leading guitarists in jazz since the late 1980s. His eclectic music touches on progressive folk, classical music, country music and noise music. He is known for using an array of effects to create unique sounds from his instrument.

Born in Baltimore, Frisell spent most of his youth in the Denver area. He studied clarinet with Richard Joiner of the Denver Symphony Orchestra as a youth, graduated from Denver East High School and went to the University of Northern Colorado to study music.

His original guitar teacher in the Denver-Aurora metropolitan area was Dale Bruning, with whom Frisell released the 2000 duo album, Reunion.

After graduating from Northern Colorado, where he studied with Johnny Smith, Frisell went to the Berklee College of Music in Boston. There he studied with Jon Damian and Jim Hall.

Frisell's major break came when guitarist Pat Metheny was unable to make a recording session, and recommended Frisell to Paul Motian, who was recording Psalm (1982) for ECM Records. Frisell became ECM's in-house guitar player, and worked on several albums, most notably Jan Garbarek's 1981 Paths, Prints.

Frisell's first solo release was In Line, which featured solo guitar as well as duets with the bassist, Arild Andersen.

Frisell's first group to receive much acclaim was a quartet with Kermit Driscoll on bass, Joey Baron on drums and Hank Roberts on cello (later slimmed down to a trio when Roberts left). Many other albums with larger ensembles were recorded with this group as the core.

In the 1980s, Frisell lived in the New York City area and was an active participant in the city's music scene. He lived in Hoboken, New Jersey, where the rents were cheaper and the city was accessible via public transportation.

He forged an early partnership with John Zorn — including as a member of quick-change band, Naked City — and performed or recorded with many others. He also became known for his work in Motian's trio, along with saxophonist Joe Lovano.

In 1988, Frisell left New York City and moved to Seattle. In the early 1990s, Frisell made two of his best-reviewed albums: first, Have a Little Faith, an ambitious survey of Americana of all stripes, from Charles Ives and Aaron Copland (the entirety of Billy the Kid) to John Hiatt (the title song), Bob Dylan ("Just Like a Woman") and Madonna (a lengthy, psychedelic rock-tinged version of "Live to Tell").

The second was, This Land, a complementary set of originals. During this time he performed with many musicians, including the more up and coming, such as Douglas September on the album, 10 Bulls. He also branched out by performing soundtracks to silent films of Buster Keaton with his trio, and contributed to Ryuichi Sakamoto's album, Heartbeat.

In the mid-1990s, Frisell disbanded his trio. He continued the trend marked by Have a Little Faith by more explicitly incorporating elements of bluegrass and country music into his music. His friendship with Gary Larson led him to provide music for the TV version of The Far Side (released on the album, Quartet, along with music written for Keaton's Convict 13).

Since 2000, Frisell has lived on Bainbridge Island, Washington, near Seattle.

Here, Frisell performs the music for the 2014 film, The Great Flood

Musically, the flood caused the Great Migration, which fueled the evolution of acoustic blues to electric blues bands that thrived in cities like Memphis, Detroit and Chicago. It became the wellspring for R&B and rock as well as developing jazz styles.

Charley Pride was born 89 years ago today

Charley Pride was born 89 years ago today.

A country music singer, musician/guitarist, recording artist, performer and business owner, Pride’s greatest musical success came in the early to mid-1970s when he became the best-selling performer for RCA Records since Elvis Presley.

In total, he garnered 39 #1 hits on the Billboard Hot Country Songs charts.

Pride was one of the few African-American country musicians to have had considerable success in the country music industry and only the second African American to have been inducted as a member of the Grand Ole Opry.

In 2010, Pride became a special investor and minority owner of the Texas Rangers Major League Baseball club.

Born in Sledge, Mississippi, Pride was one of eleven children of poor sharecroppers. His father intended to name him Charl Frank Pride, but owing to a clerical error on his birth certificate, his legal name is Charley Frank Pride. In his early teens, Pride began playing guitar.

Though he also loved music, one of Pride's lifelong dreams was to become a professional baseball player. In 1952, he pitched for the Memphis Red Sox of the Negro American League. He pitched well, and, in 1953, he signed a contract with the Boise Yankees, the Class C farm team of the New York Yankees.

During that season, an injury caused him to lose the "mustard" on his fastball, and he was sent to the Yankees' Class D team in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin. Later that season, while in the Negro leagues with the Louisville Clippers, he and another player (Jesse Mitchell), were traded to the Birmingham Black Barons for a team bus.

"Jesse and I may have the distinction of being the only players in history to be traded for a used motor vehicle," Pride mused in his 1994 autobiography.

While he was active in baseball, Pride had been encouraged to join the music business by country stars such as Red Sovine and Red Foley, and was working towards this career.

In 1958, in Memphis, Pride visited Sun Studios and recorded some songs. One song has survived on tape, and was released in the United Kingdom as part of a box set. The song is a slow stroll in walking tempo called "Walkin' (the Stroll)."

Nashville manager and agent, Jack D. Johnson, signed Pride and landed him a contract with a record label, and he caught the ear of record producer Chet Atkins. A longtime producer at RCA Victor, Atkins had made stars out of country singers such as Jim Reeves and Skeeter Davis. Pride was signed to RCA in 1965. In January, 1966, he released his first single, "The Snakes Crawl at Night," which did not chart.

On the records of this song submitted to radio stations for airplay, the singer was listed as "Country Charley Pride." At this time, country music was a white medium. Jack made sure that there were no pictures of Pride distributed for the first two years of his career, in order to avoid the effects of Jim Crowism.

The success of "Just Between You and Me" was enormous. In 1967, he became the first black performer to appear at the Grand Ole Opry since harmonica player DeFord Bailey. Bailey was a regular cast member of the Opry from 1925 through 1941 — and made a final appearance in 1974.

Between 1969 and 1971, Pride had eight single records that simultaneously reached #1 on the U.S. Country Hit Parade and also charted on the Billboard Hot 100. During the rest of the 1970s and into the 1980s, Pride continued to rack up country music hits.

He stayed with RCA Records until 1986. At that point, he grew angry over the fact that RCA began to promote newer country artists and didn't renew contracts with many older artists who had been with the label for years. He moved on to 16th Avenue Records, where Pride bounced back with the #5 hit, "Shouldn't It Be Easier Than This."

Pride's lifelong passion for baseball continued throughout his life. He had an annual tradition of joining the Texas Rangers for workouts during Spring Training. A big Rangers fan (Dallas has been his home for many years), Pride was often seen at their games.

Pride died in Dallas on December 12, 2020, of complications related to COVID-19. He was 86 years old.

Here, Pride performs a medley of songs...

George Plimpton was born 96 years ago today

“I never understood people who don't have bookshelves.” — George Plimpton

George Plimpton was born 96 years ago today.

A journalist, writer, editor, actor and occasional amateur sportsman, Plimpton was widely known for his sports writing and for helping to found The Paris Review.

He was also famous for "participatory journalism" which included competing in professional sporting events, acting in a Western, performing a comedy act at Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas and playing with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra and then writing about the experience from the point of view of an amateur.

Born in New York City, Plimpton spent his childhood attending St. Bernard's School and growing up in an apartment duplex on Manhattan's Upper East Side located at 1165 Fifth Avenue. During the summers, he lived in West Hills, a hamlet located in the Town of Huntington in Suffolk County, New York.

Plimpton’s father was a successful corporate lawyer and a founding partner of the law firm, Debevoise and Plimpton. He was appointed by President John F. Kennedy as U.S. deputy ambassador to the United Nations serving from 1961 to 1965. His mother was Pauline Ames, the daughter of the botanist, Oakes Ames, and artist, Blanche Ames.

In 1953, Plimpton joined the influential literary journal, The Paris Review, founded by Peter Matthiessen, Thomas H. Guinzburg and Harold L. Humes, becoming its first editor in chief. This periodical carries great weight in the literary world, but has never been financially strong. For its first half-century, it was allegedly largely financed by its publishers and by Plimpton.

One of the magazine's most notable discoveries was author Terry Southern, who was living in Paris at the time and formed a lifelong friendship with Plimpton, along with future classical and jazz pioneer, David Amram.

Outside the literary world, Plimpton was famous for his competition in professional sporting events. In 1958, prior to a post-season exhibition game at Yankee Stadium between teams managed by Willie Mays (National League) and Mickey Mantle (American League), Plimpton pitched against the National League.

His experience was captured in the book, Out of My League. (He intended to face both line-ups, but tired badly and was relieved by Ralph Houk.)

Plimpton sparred for three rounds with boxing greats Archie Moore and Sugar Ray Robinson, while on assignment for Sports Illustrated.

In 1963, Plimpton attended preseason training with the Detroit Lions of the National Football League as a backup quarterback, and ran a few plays in an intrasquad scrimmage. These events were recalled in his best-known book, Paper Lion, which was later adapted into a feature film starring Alan Alda, released in 1968.

Plimpton revisited pro football in 1971, this time joining the Baltimore Colts and seeing action in an exhibition game against his previous team, the Lions. These experiences served as the basis of another football book, Mad Ducks and Bears, although much of the book dealt with the off-field escapades of football friends such as Alex Karras and Bobby Layne.

Another sports book, Open Net, saw him train as an ice hockey goalie with the Boston Bruins, even playing part of a National Hockey League preseason game.

Plimpton also appeared in a number of feature films as an extra and in cameo appearances. He had a small role in the Oscar-winning film, Good Will Hunting, playing a psychologist. Plimpton played Tom Hanks's antagonistic father in Volunteers.

Plimpton was a demolitions expert in World War II. After returning to New York from Paris, he routinely fired off fireworks at his evening parties. His enthusiasm for fireworks grew, and he was appointed Fireworks Commissioner of New York by Mayor John Lindsay, an unofficial post he held until his death.

Each year, during New York Book week, Plimpton would hold court with anyone on the street at The Paris Review booth.

I always looked forward to seeing and talking with him. He was always friendly, open and quick with a great story. After a few years, my conversations with Plimpton at the book fair became a highlight of the experience.

He was a real life literary figure and there are few like him anymore.

John Kander, Broadway composer and half of the songwriting team of Kander and Ebb, is 96 years old today

John Kander, Broadway composer and half of the songwriting team of Kander and Ebb, is 96 years old today.

Born in Kansas City, Kander attended the Oberlin Conservatory of Music before earning a Master's degree at Columbia University. There, he was a protégé of Douglas Moore. He studied composition with Jack Beeson and Otto Luening. His studies were interrupted at Oberlin when he served in the Cadet corps of the United States Merchant Marines.

Kander began his Broadway career as substitute rehearsal pianist for West Side Story. The stage manager for West Side Story then asked Kander to play the auditions for her next show, Gypsy.

During the auditions, Kander met the choreographer, Jerome Robbins, who suggested that Kander compose the dance music for the show in 1959. After that experience, he wrote dance arrangements for Irma la Douce in 1960. His first produced musical was, A Family Affair, written with James and William Goldman.

Kander met lyricist Fred Ebb in 1962, and began a songwriting collaboration that would last for more than four decades. Later that year, rising star Barbra Streisand recorded two of the duo's songs, "My Coloring Book" and "I Don't Care Much."

In 1965, Kander and Ebb landed their first show on Broadway, Flora the Red Menace, produced by Hal Prince, directed by George Abbott, and with book by George Abbott and Robert Russell. Liza Minnelli made her initial Broadway appearance in the show.

Kander and Ebb have since been associated with writing material for both Liza Minnelli and Chita Rivera, and have produced special material for their appearances live and on television. The musicals Cabaret and Chicago have been made into films. The film version of Chicago won the 2002 Academy Award for Best Picture.

Kander, along with Ebb, also wrote songs for Thornton Wilder's The Skin of Our Teeth. It was set to premiere in London, but the rights were pulled by Wilder's nephew.

He also says that Harvey Schmidt and Tom Jones, the writers of The Fantasticks, wrote a musical of Wilder's Our Town and it took them thirteen years to write, only to have the rights pulled as well by the nephew.

His first musical without Fred Ebb (who died in 2004) was The Landing, with book and lyrics by Greg Pierce. It opened the Vineyard Theatre’s 2013–2014 season.

Kander's musical, Kid Victory, with book and lyrics by Greg Pierce, had its world premiere February 28, 2015 at the Signature Theatre in Arlington, VA. It premiered Off-Broadway at the Vineyard Theatre on February 1, 2017 in previews, and opened officially on February 22, 2017.

Here, Liza Minnelli performs Kander’s Cabaret, the 1972 film version

On this day in 1932 — 91 years ago — Pulitzer Prize-winning author John Updike was born in the small town of Shillington, Pennsylvania

On this day in 1932 — 91 years ago — Pulitzer Prize-winning author John Updike was born in the small town of Shillington, Pennsylvania.

The only child of a math teacher father and aspiring writer mother, Updike developed an early love for reading and drawing and won a scholarship to Harvard. He became editor of the famous Harvard Lampoon and married as an undergraduate.

After graduating in 1953, Updike went to England for a year to study art. In England, he met New Yorker writers and editors E.B. and Katherine White, who offered him a job. Updike worked on staff for the illustrious magazine until 1957, when he quit and moved to Ipswich, Massachusetts, to concentrate on fiction and poetry.

He supported his wife and children with contributions to the New Yorker and in 1958 published his first novel, The Poorhouse Fair, to favorable reviews.

Two years later, he published Rabbit, Run, considered one of his best novels, about a former high school basketball star named Harry "Rabbit" Angstrom. He wrote a sequel, Rabbit Redux, in 1971 and won Pulitzer Prizes for Rabbit Is Rich (1981) and Rabbit at Rest (1990).

Updike's 1968 novel, Couples, detailing the sexual high-jinx of married couples in a small town, topped the bestseller chart for several weeks.

The prolific Updike published some 60 books during his lengthy career, including novels, children's books, poetry, short story collections and non-fiction. He also wrote frequently for magazines.

He died of lung cancer on January 29, 2009 at age 76.

Thanks History.com

Above, Updike is shown writing in 1950.

On this day in 1965 — 58 years ago — the first spacewalk was carried by the Russian cosmonaut Alexei Leonov

Soviet cosmonaut  exiting the spacecraft Voskhod 2, 1965

Photo from Associated Press

On this day in 1965 — 58 years ago —the first spacewalk was carried by the Russian cosmonaut Alexei Leonov.

The walk was a major Soviet advance in the space race. The plans had been kept secret, so Soviet broadcasts of the event caught most of the world by surprise, including Lieutenant Colonel Leonov’s family.

“What is he doing?” his four-year-old daughter cried. “Please tell daddy to get back inside.”

After he retired, Leonov revealed how many times the mission had neared disaster. In the 2004 book “Two Sides of the Moon,” he detailed how high pressure in his spacesuit had nearly prevented him from re-entering the capsule.

Then a systems failure forced the two-man crew to manually guide re-entry. They landed in Siberia, without communications, and endured days of frigid temperatures, with one pistol to ward off wolves.

After they were found, the pair skied miles to a rescue helicopter.

Thanks New York Times

Wilson Pickett was born 82 years ago today

Wilson Pickett was born 82 years ago today.

A R&B, soul and rock and roll singer and songwriter, Pickett was a major figure in the development of American soul music. He recorded more than 50 songs, which made the U.S. R&B charts and frequently crossed over to the U.S. Billboard Hot 100.

Among his best known hits are "In the Midnight Hour" (which he co-wrote), "Land of 1,000 Dances," "Mustang Sally" and "Funky Broadway."

Born in Prattville, Alabama, Pickett grew up singing in Baptist church choirs. He was the fourth of 11 children and called his mother "the baddest woman in my book," telling historian Gerri Hirshey: "I get scared of her now. She used to hit me with anything, skillets, stove wood — (one time I ran away and) cried for a week. Stayed in the woods, me and my little dog."

Pickett eventually left to live with his father in Detroit in 1955. Pickett's forceful, passionate style of singing was developed in the church and on the streets of Detroit, under the influence of recording stars such as Little Richard, whom he later referred to as "the architect of rock and roll.”

In 1955, Pickett became part of a gospel music group called the Violinaires. The group accompanied The Soul Stirrers, The Swan Silvertones and The Davis Sisters on church tours across the country.

After singing for four years in the locally popular gospel-harmony group, Pickett, lured by the success of other gospel singers of the day, who left gospel music in the late 1950s for the more lucrative secular music market, joined the Falcons in 1959.

The Falcons were one of the first vocal groups to bring gospel into a popular context, thus paving the way for soul music. The group also featured some notable members who went on to become major solo artists. When Pickett joined the Falcons, Eddie Floyd and Sir Mack Rice were also members of the group.

Pickett's biggest success with The Falcons was "I Found a Love," co-authored by Pickett and featuring his lead vocals. A minor hit at the time for the Falcons (Pickett would later re-record it, and have a much bigger solo hit with the song) was "I Found A Love." It paved the way for Pickett to go solo.

Soon after recording the song, Pickett cut his first solo recordings, including "I'm Gonna Cry," his first collaboration with Don Covay. Around this time, Pickett also recorded a demo for a song he co-wrote, called "If You Need Me."

A slow-burning soul ballad featuring a spoken sermon, Pickett sent the demo to Jerry Wexler, a producer at Atlantic Records.

Wexler heard the demo and gave it to one of the label's own recording artists, Solomon Burke. Burke's recording of "If You Need Me" became one of his biggest hits (#2 R&B, #37 Pop) and is now considered a soul standard, but Pickett was crushed when he discovered that Atlantic had given away his song.

However, when Pickett — holding a demo tape under his arm — returned to Wexler's personal studio, Wexler asked him whether he was angry about this loss. Pickett said, “It’s over.”

Pickett's version of the song was released on Double L Records, and was a moderate hit, peaking at #30 R&B, #64 pop. His first significant success as a solo artist came with "It's Too Late," an original composition (not to be confused with the Chuck Willis standard of the same name).

Entering the charts on July 27, 1963, it eventually peaked at #7 on the R&B chart (#49 Pop). This record's success convinced Wexler and Atlantic to buy Pickett's recording contract from Double L Records in 1964. Pickett's Atlantic career began with a self-produced single, "I'm Gonna Cry."

Looking to boost Pickett's chart chances, Atlantic next paired him with record producer Bert Berns and established songwriters Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil. With this team, Pickett recorded "Come Home Baby," a duet with singer Tami Lynn, but this single failed to chart.

Pickett's breakthrough came at Stax Records' recording studio in Memphis, where he recorded his third Atlantic single, "In the Midnight Hour" (1965). This song became Pickett's first big hit, peaking at #1 R&B, #21 pop (U.S.) and #12 (UK). It sold over a million copies.

The genesis of "In the Midnight Hour" was a recording session on May 12, 1965, at which Wexler worked out a powerful rhythm track with studio musicians Steve Cropper and Al Jackson of the Stax Records house band, which also included bassist, Donald "Duck" Dunn.

Stax keyboard player, Booker T. Jones, who usually played with Dunn, Cropper and Jackson as Booker T. & the M.G.'s, did not play on any of the Pickett studio sessions. Wexler said to Cropper and Jackson, "Why don't you pick up on this thing here?" He performed a dance step.

Cropper later explained in an interview that Wexler told them that "this was the way the kids were dancing; they were putting the accent on two. Basically, we'd been one-beat-accenters with an afterbeat; it was like 'boom dah,' but here this was a thing that went 'um-chaw,' just the reverse as far as the accent goes."

Pickett recorded three sessions at Stax in May and October, 1965, and was joined by keyboardist, Isaac Hayes, for the October sessions. In addition to "In the Midnight Hour," Pickett's 1965 recordings included the singles "Don't Fight It," (#4 R&B, #53 pop) "634-5789 (Soulsville, U.S.A,)" (#1 R&B, #13 pop) and "Ninety-Nine and A Half (Won't Do)" (#13 R&B, #53 pop).

All but "634-5789" were original compositions Pickett co-wrote with Eddie Floyd and/or Steve Cropper. "634-5789" was credited to Cropper and Floyd alone.

For his next sessions, Pickett would not return to Stax. The label's owner, Jim Stewart, banned all outside productions in December, 1965. As a result, Wexler took Pickett to Fame Studios, another recording studio with a closer association to Atlantic Records.

Located in a converted tobacco warehouse in nearby Muscle Shoals, Pickett recorded some of his biggest hits. This included the highest charting version of "Land of 1,000 Dances," which became Pickett's third R&B #1, and his biggest ever pop hit, peaking at #6. It was another million selling disc.

Toward the end of 1967, Pickett began recording at American Studios in Memphis with producers Tom Dowd and Tommy Cogbill, and also began recording numerous songs by Bobby Womack.

The songs "I'm In Love," "Jealous Love," "I've Come A Long Way," "I'm A Midnight Mover" (a Pickett/Womack co-write) and "I Found A True Love" were all Womack-penned hits for Pickett in 1967 and 1968.

Outside of music, Pickett's personal life was troubled. Even in his 1960s heyday, Pickett's friends found him to be temperamental and preoccupied with guns. Don Covay described him as "young and wild." Then in 1987, as his recording career was drying up, Pickett was given two years' probation and fined $1,000 for carrying a loaded shotgun in his car.

In 1991, he was arrested for allegedly yelling death threats while driving a car over the front lawn of Donald Aronson, the Mayor of Englewood, New Jersey. The following year, he was charged with assaulting his girlfriend.

In 1993, Pickett was involved in an accident where he struck an 86-year-old pedestrian, Pepe Ruiz, with his car in Englewood. Ruiz, who helped organize the New York animation union, died later that year. Pickett pled guilty to drunken driving charges and received a reduced sentence of one year in jail and five years probation.

In 2003, Pickett co-starred in the D.A. Pennebaker-directed documentary, Only the Strong Survive, a selection of both the 2002 Cannes and Sundance Film Festivals.

Pickett spent the twilight of his career playing dozens of concert dates a year until 2004, when he began suffering from health problems.

Pickett died from a heart attack on January 19, 2006 in Reston, Virginia. He was 64.

Here, Pickett performs his signature hit, “In the Midnight Hour”

Wilson Pickett and James Brown perform “Cold Sweat” and “Midnight Hour”

Copyrighted on March 18, 1911 — 112 years ago today — "Alexander's Ragtime Band" was the multimillion-selling smash hit that helped turn American popular music into a major international phenomenon — both culturally and economically

A century ago, even before the phonograph had become a common household item, there was already a burgeoning music industry in the United States based not on the sale of recorded musical performances, but on the sale of sheet music.

It was in the medium of printed paper, and not grooved lacquer or vinyl discs, that songs gained popularity in the first two decades of the 20th century, and no song gained greater popularity in that era than Irving Berlin's "Alexander's Ragtime Band."

Copyrighted on March 18, 1911 — 112 years ago today — "Alexander's Ragtime Band" was the multimillion-selling smash hit that helped turn American popular music into a major international phenomenon — both culturally and economically.

It may seem like a rather grand claim to make about a simple, catchy tune, but then as now, simple and catchy were great virtues in the realm of pop music. Most people first encountered "Alexander's Ragtime Band" when it was played on the piano by a friend or family member.

This was the way that songs caught on in the era before radio, and part of what helped "Alexander" catch on was its relative lack of complexity.

Though nominally a ragtime tune, anyone who plays the piano would quickly recognize the differences between it and a true rag like Scott Joplin's "The Entertainer," which places some fairly significant demands on both the left and right hand.

"Alexander's Ragtime Band" is a vastly simpler piece for an amateur to master, and this greatly encouraged sheet music sales, which topped 1.5 million copies in the first 18 months after its publication.

Though it gained worldwide popularity purely as a piece of printed sheet music, innumerable recorded versions of "Alexander's Ragtime Band" would soon follow, particularly after lyrics were added to what was originally an instrumental tune. Those lyrics — "Come on and hear, Come on and hear..." — and that tune are still familiar a century after they were written.

Some of Irving Berlin's later contributions to the American popular music canon — songs like "White Christmas," "God Bless America" and "There's No Business Like Show Business" — eclipsed even the massive success of "Alexander's Ragtime Band."

It's entirely possible, however, that those 20th century classics would never have been written were it not for the commercial success that Irving Berlin achieved with the song he copyrighted on this day in 1911.

Thanks History.com

1957 Cadillac Eldorado Biarritz

Photo by Ricardo General

John Sebastian is 79 years old today

John Sebastian, New York City, 2010

Photo by Frank Beacham

John Sebastian is 79 years old today.

A singer, songwriter, guitarist and autoharpist, Sebastian founded The Lovin' Spoonful. Sebastian's father, also named John Sebastian, was a noted classical harmonica player and his mother was a radio script writer. He is the godson of Vivian Vance (Ethel Mertz of “I Love Lucy”).

Sebastian grew up surrounded by music and musicians, including Burl Ives and Woody Guthrie and hearing such players as Lead Belly and Mississippi John Hurt in his own neighborhood.

One of his first recording gigs was playing guitar and harmonica for Billy Faier's 1964 album, The Beast of Billy Faier. He also recorded with Fred Neil on the Bleecker & MacDougal album and Tom Rush's self-titled album in 1965. He came up through the Even Dozen Jug Band and The Mugwumps, which split to form the Lovin' Spoonful and The Mamas & the Papas.

Sebastian was joined by Zal Yanovsky, Steve Boone and Joe Butler in the Spoonful, which was named after "The Coffee Blues," a Mississippi John Hurt song. Sebastian also played autoharp on occasion.

The Lovin' Spoonful became part of the American response to the British Invasion and was noted for such folk-flavored hits as "Jug Band Music," "Do You Believe in Magic," "Summer in the City," "Daydream," "Nashville Cats," "Did You Ever Have to Make Up Your Mind?," "Six O'Clock," "You Didn't Have to Be So Nice" and "Younger Girl."

The band, however, began to implode after a 1967 marijuana bust in San Francisco involving Yanovsky, a Canadian citizen. Facing deportation, he gave up the name of his dealer, which caused a fan backlash and internal strife.

Neither Sebastian nor Joe Butler was involved in the matter. Neither was even in San Francisco at the time. Yanovsky subsequently left the band and was replaced by Jerry Yester.

Sebastian left the Lovin' Spoonful in 1968, although he and the original band reunited briefly to appear in the film, One Trick Pony, starring Paul Simon and Blair Brown.

In December, 1968, a musical he composed the music and lyrics for — Jimmy Shine — opened on Broadway with Dustin Hoffman in the title role. He embarked on a moderately successful solo career after leaving the Lovin' Spoonful in 1968. Sebastian was popular among the rock festival circuits.

He had a memorable, albeit unscheduled appearance at Woodstock, appearing after Country Joe McDonald's set, playing songs such as "I Had A Dream," "Rainbows All Over Your Blues," "Darling Be Home Soon" and "Younger Generation," which he dedicated to a newborn baby at the festival.

Documentary remarks by festival organizers revealed that Sebastian was under the influence of marijuana at the time, hence his spontaneity and casual, unplanned set.

"By the time I got to Woodstock I remained a pot smoker, but there was a natural high there," said Sebastian. "In an interview it is the easy thing to say 'yeah, I was really high,' but it was actually a very small part of the event. In fact, I had a small part of some pill that someone gave me before I went onstage, but it wasn't a real acid feeling."

Sebastian also returned for Woodstock '94, playing harmonica for Crosby, Stills and Nash. Sebastian released his album — John B. Sebastian — in 1970, which featured him accompanied by various L.A. and New York musicians.

Sebastian played harmonica with The Doors on the song "Roadhouse Blues" under the pseudonym, G. Pugliese, to avoid problems with his contract, which was featured on Morrison Hotel album.

He also played on "Little Red Rooster" on the live album Alive, She Cried, and on seven songs on Live In Detroit. He is also credited with playing harmonica on Crosby Stills Nash & Young's "Déjà Vu" from the album of the same name.

In 1976, Sebastian had a #1 single with "Welcome Back," the theme song to the sitcom, Welcome Back, Kotter. His only Top 40 solo hit, it found new life 28 years later when a sample from it became the hook for rapper Mase's 2004 hit, "Welcome Back."

More recently, he played with John Sebastian and the J-Band, a jug band including Fritz Richmond from the Jim Kweskin Jug Band, Yank Rachell, an original jug-band leader, and Geoff Muldaur. Several modern musicians cite him as a large influence, including blues harmonica player, Mike Tetrault.

As a songwriter, Sebastian's songs have been covered by Elvis Costello, who recorded "The Room Nobody Lives In." The Everly Brothers, Tom Petty and Jimmy Buffett have all recorded his "Stories We Could Tell."

Other Sebastian songs were recorded by Dolly Parton, Del McCoury, Helen Reddy, Brenda Lee, Johnny Cash, Bobby Darin, Slade and Joe Cocker.

Sebastian was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2008.

Here, Sebastian and The Lovin’ Spoonful performs “Summer in the City” in 1966

Here’s a good guitar story on John Sebastian’s birthday.

In 1965, when Sebastian was with the Lovin' Spoonful, he had a Goldtop 1957 Gibson guitar, which he traded to Rick Derringer of The McCoys for an amplifier to replace one that had blown.

By around 1966, the guitar's original gold finish was looking very worn, and Derringer's father continually ragged him about it.

"So I figured that since we didn’t live far from Gibson’s factory in Kalamazoo, the next time the group went there I’d give it to Gibson and have it refinished,” Derringer recalled. “I had it done at the factory in the SG-style clear red finish that was popular at the time."

However, he wasn't happy with the instrument when he got it back: it "just didn’t feel the same...it had changed into an altogether different guitar."

Derringer then sold it to Dan Armstrong's guitar shop in New York. The guitar had only been in Armstrong's shop for a few days when it was purchased by Eric Clapton.

Clapton did not play this instrument much, his principal guitars in 1966-68 being his psychedelic 1964 SG, a 1964 ES-335, a 1963 or 64 Reverse Firebird and a sunburst Les Paul he bought from Andy Summers.

In August, 1968, Clapton gave the guitar as a present to his good friend, George Harrison. Harrison dubbed the red guitar, "Lucy," after redhead comedienne Lucille Ball.

Harrison and The Beatles were at the time recording what would become The Beatles (the White Album), and had been working for several weeks on "While My Guitar Gently Weeps."

Harrison had been unable to record a lead track for the song he was satisfied with; moreover Lennon and McCartney were dismissive of it and "didn't try very hard."

Therefore Harrison, knowing that his bandmates were on good behavior around guests, invited Clapton to come into EMI Studios on September 6 and lay down a lead track, telling him "you don't need to bring a guitar, you know I've got a good Les Paul you can use."

Clapton laid down the track in a single take. But later said that he was so high at the time he doesn't remember it at all.

Harrison continued to play Lucy as one of his principal guitars for the remainder of his time with The Beatles. It can be seen in the promotional video for "Revolution" and the documentary, Let It Be.

In 1973, Lucy was one of the items stolen in a burglary at Harrison's home in Beverly Hills. The thief or an intermediary sold it at Whalin's Sound City on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood.

Owner George Whalin promptly resold it (in violation of the statutory 30-day waiting period) to Miguel Ochoa, a musician from Guadalajara, Mexico. When the red guitar appeared on a police stolen-property bulletin, Whalin called Ochoa's contact number, his friend Mark Havey.

This began a lengthy negotiation which resulted, ultimately, in Harrison via Havey, trading Ochoa a Les Paul sunburst and a Fender Precision Bass for the return of Lucy.

Harrison would later refer to the incident as a "kidnapping."

Harrison kept Lucy until his death in 2001.

Lucy is now one of the most famous electric guitars in the world.

John Sebastian wasn't scheduled to play at Woodstock at all.

He was there as an audience member, flying high on psychedelics with some friends backstage and was asked to fill another gap between bands.

Cartoon by Rogerio A. Nogueira

Michelle Shocked is 61 years old today

Photo by Mark Metcalfe

Michelle Shocked is 61 years old today.

A singer-songwriter, Shocked was born Karen Michelle Johnston in Dallas. Her stepfather was in the U.S. Army and the family moved from base to base. Her mother was Mormon and she was raised in that faith.

Her mother had her committed to a psychiatric hospital for a time during her teenage years. She went through a punk rock phase, wearing a Mohawk hairdo and squatting in abandoned buildings in San Francisco.

In 1984, Shocked adopted the stage name "Michelle Shocked," a play on the expression "Shell Shocked," as she explained in an interview with Green Left Weekly:

"The term 'Miss Shell Shocked' is a direct reference to the thousand-yard stare, which was a term that they first used to describe the victims of shell-shock in World War One. These people from outward appearances had survived the war quite well when in fact inside their minds were blown. I first used that name in 1984 at the Democratic Convention in San Francisco where I was arrested for protesting and demonstrating against corporations who contribute money to both the Democratic Party and the Republican Party campaigns."

Shocked received her first international exposure after Pete Lawrence recorded her performance on a portable tape recorder at the Kerrville Folk Festival in Texas. Lawrence released the tape in Europe as The Texas Campfire Tapes (1986).

The album's success brought major labels asking her to sign a contract. Shocked was resistant to what she saw as the machinations of the music industry, and worked to retain a degree of creative control.

Her first U.S. success came with the release of her 1988 debut album, Short Sharp Shocked, on college radio rotations around the country, which was met with strong acclaim from listeners.

On the crest of this independent momentum, her 1989 album Captain Swing on Mercury Records was released, followed by her 1992 album Arkansas Traveler.

In 1995, Shocked contributed an original song to the soundtrack for the film, Dead Man Walking, called "Quality of Mercy." In 1996, she released a studio version of an underground release Kind-Hearted Woman (black cover) on the short-lived Private Music label.

Starting in 2002 with the release of Deep Natural, Shocked established her own label, Mighty Sound. She reissued expanded versions of her entire catalog, made possible by having retained complete ownership of her work when she signed with Mercury in 1987.

An acoustic version of her song "How You Play the Game" was featured as the opening and credits soundtrack in the DVD of the 2004 documentary film Bush's Brain. Shocked continues to make music as an independent artist.

In June 2005, she released a trilogy of albums called Threesome (Don't Ask Don't Tell, Mexican Standoff and Got No Strings). In May, 2007, she released the album ToHeavenURide; in September 2009, Soul of My Soul.

Here, Shocked performs Arkansas Traveler

Nat King Cole, a singer and musician who first came to prominence as a leading jazz pianist, was born 104 years ago today

Nat King Cole performing at Ciro’s nightclub, Los Angeles, circa 1954

In the audience in background is Jack Palance (left) and Gig Young (right)

Photo by Sid Avery

Nat King Cole, a singer and musician who first came to prominence as a leading jazz pianist, was born 104 years ago today.

Cole owes most of his popular musical fame to his soft, baritone voice, which he used to perform in big band and jazz genres. He was one of the first African Americans to host a television variety show, The Nat King Cole Show, and has maintained worldwide popularity since his death from lung cancer in February, 1965.

Nathaniel Adams Coles was born in Montgomery, Alabama. He had three brothers: Eddie, Ike and Freddy, and a half-sister, Joyce Coles. Ike and Freddy would later pursue careers in music as well. When Cole was four years old, he and his family moved to Chicago, where his father, Edward Coles, became a Baptist minister.

Cole learned to play the organ from his mother, Perlina Coles, the church organist. His first performance was "Yes! We Have No Bananas" at age four. He began formal lessons at 12, eventually learning not only jazz and gospel music, but also Western classical music, performing, as he said, "from Johann Sebastian Bach to Sergei Rachmaninoff."

The family lived in the Bronzeville neighborhood of Chicago. Cole would sneak out of the house and hang around outside the clubs, listening to artists such as Louis Armstrong, Earl Hines and Jimmie Noone. He participated in Walter Dyett's renowned music program at DuSable High School.

Inspired by the performances of Earl Hines, Cole began his performing career in the mid-1930s while still a teenager, adopting the name "Nat Cole." His older brother, Eddie, a bass player, soon joined Cole's band, and they made their first recording in 1936 under Eddie's name. They also were regular performers at clubs.

Cole, in fact, acquired his nickname, "King," performing at one jazz club, a nickname presumably reinforced by the otherwise unrelated nursery rhyme about Old King Cole. He also was a pianist in a national tour of Broadway theatre legend Eubie Blake's revue, "Shuffle Along."

When the show suddenly failed in Long Beach, California, Cole decided to remain there. He would later return to Chicago in triumph to play such venues as the famed Edgewater Beach Hotel.

Cole and two other musicians formed the "King Cole Swingers" in Long Beach and played in a number of local bars before getting a gig on the Long Beach Pike for $90 a week. The trio consisted of Cole on piano, Oscar Moore on guitar and Wesley Prince on double bass. The trio played in Failsworth throughout the late 1930s and recorded many radio transcriptions. Cole was not only pianist, but leader of the combo as well.

Radio was important to the King Cole Trio's rise in popularity. Their first broadcast was with NBC's Blue Network in 1938. It was followed by appearances on NBC's Swing Soiree. In the 1940s, the trio appeared on the Old Gold, Chesterfield Supper Club and Kraft Music Hall radio shows.

Legend was that Cole's singing career did not start until a drunken barroom patron demanded that he sing "Sweet Lorraine." Cole, in fact, has gone on record saying that the fabricated story "sounded good, so I just let it ride." He frequently sang in between instrumental numbers. Noticing that people started to request more vocal numbers, he obliged.

Yet the story of the insistent customer is not without some truth. There was a customer who requested a certain song one night, but it was a song that Cole did not know, so instead he sang "Sweet Lorraine." The trio was tipped 15 cents for the performance, a nickel apiece (Nat King Cole: An Intimate Biography, Maria Cole with Louie Robinson, 1971).

The King Cole Trio signed with the fledgling Capitol Records in 1943. The group had previously recorded for Excelsior Records, owned by Otis René, and had a hit with the song, "I'm Lost," which René wrote, produced and distributed.

Revenues from Cole's record sales fueled much of Capitol Records' success during this period. The revenue is believed to have played a significant role in financing the distinctive Capitol Records building near Hollywood and Vine in Los Angeles.

Completed in 1956, it was the world's first circular office building and became known as "The House that Nat Built." Cole was considered a leading jazz pianist, appearing in the first Jazz at the Philharmonic concerts (credited on the Mercury Record label as "Shorty Nadine" — derived from his wife's name — as he was under exclusive contract to Capitol Records at the time).

His revolutionary lineup of piano, guitar and bass in the time of the big bands became a popular setup for a jazz trio. It was emulated by many musicians, among them Art Tatum, Oscar Peterson, Ahmad Jamal and blues pianists Charles Brown and Ray Charles. He also performed as a pianist on sessions with Lester Young, Red Callender and Lionel Hampton.

Cole's first mainstream vocal hit was his 1943 recording of one of his compositions, "Straighten Up and Fly Right," based on a black folk tale that his father had used as a theme for a sermon. Johnny Mercer invited him to record it for his fledgling Capitol Records label. It sold over 500,000 copies, proving that folk-based material could appeal to a wide audience.

Although Cole would never be considered a rocker, the song can be seen as anticipating the first rock and roll records. Indeed, Bo Diddley, who performed similar transformations of folk material, counted Cole as an influence.

In 1946, the Cole trio paid to have their own 15-minute radio program on the air. It was called, "King Cole Trio Time." It became the first radio program sponsored by a black performing artist.

During those years, the trio recorded many "transcription" recordings, which were recordings made in the radio studio for the broadcast. Later, they were used for commercial records.

Beginning in the late 1940s, Cole began recording and performing pop-oriented material for mainstream audiences, in which he was often accompanied by a string orchestra. His stature as a popular icon was cemented during this period by hits such as "The Christmas Song,” "Nature Boy" (1948), "Mona Lisa" (1950), "Too Young" (the #1 song in 1951) and his signature tune, "Unforgettable" (1951).

While this shift to pop music led some jazz critics and fans to accuse Cole of selling out, he never totally abandoned his jazz roots. As late as 1956, for instance, he recorded an all-jazz album, After Midnight.

Cole had one of his last big hits in 1963, two years before his death, with the classic "Those Lazy-Hazy-Crazy Days of Summer," which reached #6 on the Pop chart.

On November 5, 1956, The Nat King Cole Show debuted on NBC. The variety program was the first of its kind hosted by an African-American, which created controversy at the time. Beginning as a 15-minute pops show on Monday night, the program was expanded to a half hour in July, 1957.

Despite the efforts of NBC, as well as many of Cole's industry colleagues — including Ella Fitzgerald, Harry Belafonte, Frankie Laine, Mel Tormé, Peggy Lee and Eartha Kitt who all worked for industry scale (or even for no pay) in order to help the show save money — The Nat King Cole Show was ultimately done in by lack of a national sponsorship.

Companies such as Rheingold Beer assumed regional sponsorship of the show, but a national sponsor never appeared. The last episode of The Nat King Cole Show aired December 17, 1957. Cole had survived for over a year, and it was he, not NBC, who ultimately decided to pull the plug on the show.

Commenting on the lack of sponsorship his show received, Cole quipped shortly after its demise, "Madison Avenue is afraid of the dark."

In August, 1948, Cole purchased a house from Col. Harry Gantz, the former husband of Lois Weber, in the all-white Hancock Park neighborhood of Los Angeles.

The Ku Klux Klan, still active in Los Angeles well into the 1950s, responded by placing a burning cross on his front lawn. Members of the property-owners association told Cole they did not want any undesirables moving in. Cole retorted, "Neither do I. And if I see anybody undesirable coming in here, I'll be the first to complain."

Cole fought racism all his life and rarely performed in segregated venues.

In 1956, he was assaulted on stage during a concert in Birmingham, Alabama, with the Ted Heath Band (while singing the song "Little Girl"), by three members of the North Alabama Citizens Council, who apparently were attempting to kidnap him.

The three male attackers ran down the aisles of the auditorium towards Cole and his band. Although local law enforcement quickly ended the invasion of the stage, the ensuing melée toppled Cole from his piano bench and injured his back.

Cole did not finish the concert and never again performed in the South. A fourth member of the group who had participated in the plot was later arrested in connection with the act. All were later tried and convicted for their roles in the crime.

Cole was a heavy smoker throughout his life and rarely seen without a cigarette in his hand. He was a smoker of Kool menthol cigarettes, believing that smoking up to three packs a day gave his voice its rich sound. (Cole would smoke several cigarettes in rapid succession before a recording.) After an operation for stomach ulcers in 1953, he had been advised to stop smoking but did not do so.

In December, 1964, he was diagnosed with lung cancer. He underwent cobalt and radiation therapy and was initially given a positive prognosis.

On January 25, he underwent surgery to remove his left lung. Despite medical treatments, he died on February 15, 1965 at St. John's Hospital in Santa Monica, California.

He was 45 years old.

Here, Cole performs “Route 66”

Pattie Boyd — first wife of both George Harrison and Eric Clapton — is 79 years old today

Pattie Boyd — first wife of both George Harrison and Eric Clapton — is 79 years old today.

A model, photographer and author from the United Kingdom, in August, 2007, Boyd published her autobiography, Wonderful Tonight, which debuted at the top of the New York Times Best Seller list.

Her photographs of Harrison and Clapton, titled Through the Eye of a Muse, have been exhibited in Dublin, Sydney, Toronto, Moscow, London and throughout the United States.

Boyd moved to London in 1962 and worked as a shampoo girl at Elizabeth Arden's salon, until a client who worked for a fashion magazine inspired her to begin work as a model. She was photographed by David Bailey and Terence Donovan, and appeared on the cover of Vogue. She was cast for A Hard Day's Night, where she met George Harrison.

Boyd exhibited her photos of Harrison and Clapton, at the San Francisco Art Exchange on Valentine's Day, 2005, in a show entitled, Through the Eye of a Muse. The exhibition appeared in San Francisco and London during 2006, and in La Jolla, California in 2008.

Boyd's photography was shown in Dublin and in Toronto in 2008 and at the Blender Gallery in Sydney, Australia and in Almaty, Kazakhstan in 2009 and 2010. Her exhibit, "Yesterday and Today: The Beatles and Eric Clapton," was shown in Santa Catalina Island in California, and at the National Geographic Headquarters in Washington, DC in 2011.

When Harrison asked Boyd on a date, she was "semi-engaged" to photographer Eric Swayne at the time and declined. Several days later, after ending her relationship with Swayne, she went back to work on the film and Harrison asked her out on a date for a second time.

The couple went to a private gentlemen's club called the Garrick Club, chaperoned by the Beatles' manager, Brian Epstein. According to Boyd, one of the first things Harrison said to her on the film set was: "Will you marry me? Well, if you won't marry me, will you have dinner with me tonight?"

Boyd had her first encounter with LSD in early 1965 when the couple's dentist, John Riley, secretly laced her coffee with the drug during a dinner party at his home. As she was getting ready to leave with Harrison, John and Cynthia Lennon, Riley told them that he had spiked their drinks and tried to convince them to stay.

Outside, Boyd was in an agitated state from the drug and threatened to break a store window, but Harrison pulled her away. Later, when Boyd and her group were in an elevator on their way up to the Ad Lib club, they mistakenly believed it was on fire.

Later that year, Boyd moved into Kinfauns with Harrison. The couple were engaged on December 25, 1965, and married on January 21, 1966, in a ceremony at a registry office in Ashley Road, Epsom, with Paul McCartney as best man.

Through her interest in Eastern mysticism and her membership in the Spiritual Regeneration Movement, she inspired all four Beatles to meet the Indian mystic Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in London in 1967, which resulted in a visit to the Maharishi's seminar in Bangor, the following day.

In 1973, Boyd's marriage to Harrison began to fail and she had an affair with Faces guitarist, Ronnie Wood. She separated from Harrison in 1974 and their divorce was finalized on June 9, 1977.

Boyd said her decision to end their marriage and leave Harrison was based largely on his repeated infidelities, culminating in an affair with Ringo Starr's wife Maureen, which Boyd called "the final straw."

In the late 1960s, Clapton and Harrison became close friends, and began writing and recording music together. At this time Clapton fell in love with Boyd.

His 1970 album with Derek and the Dominos, Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs, was written to proclaim his love for her, particularly the hit song "Layla."

When Boyd rebuffed his advances late that year, Clapton descended into heroin addiction and self-imposed exile for three years. Boyd moved in with Clapton and married him in 1979. Her struggles within the marriage were masked by her public image with Clapton.

Although Boyd drank and admits to past drug use, she never became an alcoholic or a drug addict like Clapton did. Boyd left Clapton in September, 1984, and divorced him in 1988. Her stated reasons were Clapton's years of alcoholism, as well as his numerous affairs including one with Italian model, Lory Del Santo.

In 1989, her divorce was granted on the grounds of "infidelity and unreasonable behavior."

Boyd believes she was the inspiration for the songs: "Bell Bottom Blues" and "Wonderful Tonight.”

In April, 2015, Boyd was married for the third time to property developer, Rod Weston, was quoted as saying, "It's almost our silver anniversary so we thought we had better get on with it.”

Paul Kantner was born 82 years ago today

Photo by Christopher Michel

Paul Kantner was born 82 years ago today.

Kantner co-founded Jefferson Airplane and its spin-off band, Jefferson Starship. Although the band was originally formed by Marty Balin, Kantner eventually became the main man of Jefferson Airplane and captained the group through various successor incarnations of Jefferson Starship.

Kantner had the longest continuous membership with the band. At times, he was its only member.

A political anarchist, Kantner once advocated the use of psychedelic drugs such as LSD for mind expansion and spiritual growth, and was a prominent advocate of the legalization of marijuana. At the end of his life, he said he no longer did drugs.

When he became a teenager, he went into total revolt against all forms of authority, and became determined to become a protest folk singer in the manner of his musical hero, Pete Seeger.

During the summer of 1965, singer Marty Balin saw Kantner perform at the Drinking Gourd, a San Francisco folk club, and recruited him as part of the original Jefferson Airplane. When the group needed a guitarist, Kantner recommended Jorma Kaukonen, whom he knew from his San Jose days.

Kantner would be the only member to appear on all Jefferson Airplane/Starship albums bearing the Jefferson prefix. Kantner's songwriting often featured whimsical or political lyrics with a science-fiction or fantasy theme, usually set to music that had a hard rock, almost martial sound.

Kantner and Jefferson Airplane were among those who played at Woodstock. Forty years later, Kantner recalled: “We were due to be on stage at 10 p.m. on the Saturday night but we didn’t actually get on until 7:30 a.m. the following day.”

Later in the year, the group also played at Altamont, where Marty Balin was knocked unconscious by a Hell's Angel member originally hired as security for the concert.

Despite its commercial success, the Airplane was plagued by intra-group fighting, causing the band to begin splintering at the height of its success. Part of the problem was manager Bill Graham, who wanted the group to do more touring and more recording.

During the transitional period of the early 1970s, as the Airplane started to disintegrate, Kantner recorded Blows Against The Empire, a concept album featuring an ad-hoc group of musicians whom he dubbed Jefferson Starship.

This earliest edition of Jefferson Starship included members of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young (David Crosby and Graham Nash) and members of the Grateful Dead (Jerry Garcia, Bill Kreutzmann and Mickey Hart), as well as some of the other members of Jefferson Airplane (Grace Slick, Joey Covington and Jack Casady).

In 1991, Kantner and Balin reformed Jefferson Starship and Kantner continued to tour and record with the band.

Kantner died in San Francisco at the age of 74 in January, 2016 from multiple organ failure and septic shock after he suffered a heart attack days earlier.

Shortly after Kantner's passing, Grateful Dead drummer Mickey Hart reflected, "He was kind of the backbone of that band. It was always about Grace and Jack and Jorma (Kaukonen), I don’t think he got the credit he deserved."

Kanter died on the same day as Airplane co-founder, Signe Toly Anderson.

Here, is a 1987 interview with Marty Balin and Paul Kantner

Vince Martin was born 86 years ago today

Vince Martin at the 50th anniversary reunion concert of Gerde’s Folk City, NYC, June 7, 2010

Photo by Frank Beacham

Vince Martin was born 86 years ago today.

A folk singer and songwriter, Martin first recorded with the Tarriers (Erik Darling, Alan Arkin and Bob Carey) in 1956 on the hit single, Cindy, Oh Cindy.

Martin became more widely known with his duo recordings with Fred Neil in the early 1960s. The album, Tear Down The Walls (1964), contained mainly Neil's songs, recorded with musicians including John Sebastian and Felix Pappalardi, and became very popular and influential on the burgeoning folk (and later folk rock) scene.

In 1969, he recorded the album, If the Jasmine Don't Get You ... the Bay Breeze Will, in Nashville with the musicians who had just finished recording Bob Dylan's Nashville Skyline. A second solo album, Vince Martin, followed in 1973.

More recently, Martin has performed with Thurston Moore, and issued an album, Full Circle, in 2003.

Martin is featured in Vagabondo! (2010), a documentary about his life.

Martin died on July 6, 2018 at the age of 81 from pulmonary fibrosis.

William Gibson is 75 years old today

William Gibson is 75 years old today.

An American-Canadian speculative fiction novelist and essayist who has been called the "noir prophet" of the cyberpunk sub-genre, Gibson coined the term "cyberspace" in his short story "Burning Chrome" (1982) and later popularized the concept in his debut novel, Neuromancer (1984).

In envisaging cyberspace, Gibson created an iconography for the information age before the ubiquity of the Internet in the 1990s. He is also credited with predicting the rise of reality television and with establishing the conceptual foundations for the rapid growth of virtual environments such as video games and the World Wide Web.

Having changed residence frequently with his family as a child, Gibson became a shy, ungainly teenager who often read science fiction. After spending his adolescence at a private boarding school in Arizona, Gibson evaded the draft during the Vietnam War by emigrating to Canada in 1968, where he became immersed in the counterculture.

After settling in Vancouver he eventually became a full-time writer. He retains dual citizenship.

Gibson's early works are bleak, noir near-future stories about the effect of cybernetics and computer networks on humans — a "combination of lowlife and high tech." The short stories were published in popular science fiction magazines.

The themes, settings and characters developed in these stories culminated in his first novel, Neuromancer, which garnered critical and commercial success, effectively initiating the cyberpunk literary genre.

Although much of Gibson's reputation has remained associated with Neuromancer, his work has continued to evolve.

After expanding on Neuromancer with two more novels to complete the Sprawl trilogy, Gibson became an important author of another science fiction sub-genre — steampunk — with the 1990 alternate history novel The Difference Engine, written with Bruce Sterling.

Gibson has written more than twenty short stories and ten critically acclaimed novels (one in collaboration), and has contributed articles to several major publications and collaborated extensively with performance artists, filmmakers and musicians.

His thought has been cited as an influence on science fiction authors, design, academia, cyberculture and technology.

Written on the spot and recorded as an afterthought near the end of a session at Gold Star Studios in Los Angeles, the song — "Tequila" — hit #1 on the Billboard pop chart on March 17, 1958 — 65 years ago today

Written on the spot and recorded as an afterthought near the end of a session at Gold Star Studios in Los Angeles, the song — "Tequila" — hit #1 on the Billboard pop chart on March 17, 1958 — 65 years ago today.

It was the Champs only pop hit. Half a century later, this accidental classic still sounds as fresh and irresistible as it did to the long-forgotten Cleveland disk jockey who rescued it from the cutout bin of history.

The reason "Tequila" needed rescuing is that it was never really intended to be a hit. It was recorded rather hastily one afternoon in December, 1957 to fill the B-side of a single called "Train to Nowhere" by Dave Burgess.

Burgess was a minor rockabilly guitarist in the Los Angeles area whose day job was as an A&R man with Gene Autry's fledgling record label, Challenge. After a session of laying down instrumental tracks for the country singer Jerry Wallace's next album on Challenge, a frugal Dave Burgess decided to use the leftover studio time to record his own B-side.

It was not uncommon at the time for B-sides to be devised in the studio from some or other riff contributed by a session musician, and this one would be no exception.

Saxophonist Danny Flores contributed the now-familiar melody and vaguely Latin, syncopated rhythm. He also contributed the low, growling vocal line, "Tequila," without which the song might truly have remained the throwaway it was intended to be.

It was only after the "Tequila" session that the musicians present that day came up with a name for themselves, inspired by the name of Gene Autry's horse, Champion. It was also after that session that Danny Flores came up with the pseudonym "Chuck Rio," under which he was given the songwriting credit on "Tequila."

None of this would have mattered, however, had a Cleveland DJ not decided to "flip" the flop called "Train to Nowhere" one day in the winter of 1958 and treat his listeners to the first broadcast of "Tequila," which in short order went on to become one of the biggest B-side hits in rock-and-roll history and a #1 hit for the Champs on this day in 1958.

Here, introduced by Wolfman Jack, is the Champs performing “Tequila”

Thanks History.com

Lost City Diner, Baltimore, August, 2014

Photo by Maxime Siegler

Jerry Jeff Walker was born 81 years ago today

Jerry Jeff Walker was born 81 years ago today.

A country music singer and songwriter, Walker was best known for writing the song, "Mr. Bojangles." His prolific music career and his widespread musical influence made him an iconic fixture of the Texas country music scene.

His maternal grandparents played for square dances in the area, with his grandmother — Jessie Conroe — playing piano and her husband playing fiddle.

After high school, Walker (then named Ronald Clyde Crosby) joined the National Guard, but his thirst for adventure led him to go AWOL and roam the country busking for a living in New Orleans and throughout Texas, Florida and New York, often accompanied by H.R. Stoneback (a friendship referenced in 1970's "Stoney").

He played mostly ukulele until Harriet Ottenheimer, one of the founders of The Quorum, got him settled on a guitar in 1963. He adopted his stage name "Jerry Jeff Walker" in 1966, and spent his early folk music days in Greenwich Village through the mid-1960s.

Walker co-founded a band with Bob Bruno in the late-1960s called Circus Maximus that put out two albums. One album featured the popular FM radio hit, "Wind," but Bruno's interest in jazz apparently diverged from Walker's interest in folk music.

Walker thus resumed his solo career and recorded the seminal album, "Mr. Bojangles," with the help of David Bromberg and other influential Atlantic recording artists. He settled in Austin in the 1970s associating mainly with the country outlaw scene that included artists such as Willie Nelson, Guy Clark, Waylon Jennings and Townes Van Zandt.

"Mr. Bojangles" (written by Walker) is perhaps his most well-known and most-often covered song. It was about an obscure alcoholic but talented tap-dancing drifter, (not the famous stage and movie dancer Bill "Bojangles" Robinson, as usually assumed), nor was it about New Orleans blues musician Babe Stovall, a friend of Walker's.

In his autobiography “Gypsy Songman,” Walker makes it clear the man he met was white. Further, in an interview with BBC Radio 4 in August, 2008, he pointed out that at the time the jail cells in New Orleans were segregated along color lines, so his influence could not have been black.

Bojangles is thought to have been a folk character who entertained informally in the south of the U.S. and California, with authentic reports of him existing from the 1920s through about 1965.

Artists from Neil Diamond to Nina Simone, Bob Dylan, Philip Glass, David Bromberg, Tom T. Hall, Jim Stafford, Sammy Davis Jr., Lulu (New Routes), Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Harry Belafonte and Robbie Williams have covered the song.

Walker has also recorded songs written by others such as "LA Freeway" (Guy Clark), "Up Against the Wall Red Neck Mother" (Ray Wylie Hubbard), "(Looking for) The Heart of Saturday Night" (Tom Waits) and London Homesick Blues (Gary P. Nunn).

A string of records for MCA and Elektra followed Jerry Jeff's move to Austin, Texas, before he gave up on the mainstream music business and formed his own independent record label. Tried & True Music was founded in 1986, with his wife, Susan, running it.

Susan also founded Goodknight Music as his management company and Tried & True Artists for his bookings. A series of increasingly autobiographical records followed under the Tried & True imprint. Tried & True also sells his autobiography called "Gypsy Songman." In 2004, Jerry Jeff released his first DVD of songs from his past as performed in an intimate setting in Austin.

He has interpreted the songs of others like Rodney Crowell, Guy Clark, Townes Van Zandt, Keith Sykes, Paul Siebel, Bob Dylan, Todd Snider and even a rodeo clown named Billy Jim Baker.

Some have called Jerry Jeff the Jimmy Buffett of Texas. It was Jerry Jeff who first drove Jimmy Buffett to Key West (from Coconut Grove, Florida in a Packard). Walker and Buffett also co-wrote the song "Railroad Lady" while riding the last run of the Panama Limited.

Walker has developed a style of music he calls "Cowjazz." The poignant “Eastern Avenue River Railway Blues” is one of the best examples of this music. The song sounds like a cross between Bob Dylan and Harry Chapin, with lyrics that refer to the industrial area between Cincinnati's Eastern Avenue and the Ohio River, just south of the tony Mount Adams area.

Walker had an annual birthday celebration bash in Austin at the Paramount Theatre and at Gruene Hall in Gruene, Texas. This party became an enormous event in Texas and brought some of the biggest names in country music out for a night of picking and swapping stories under the Austin skyline.

Walker was diagnosed with throat cancer in 2017. He died of the disease on October 23, 2020, at a hospital in Austin. He was 78 years old.

Here, Walker performs Ray Wylie Hubbard's “Up Against the Wall Redneck Mother”

Jerry Jeff Walker with Willie Nelson and Kris Kristofferson

Jerry Lewis was born 97 years ago today

Jerry Lewis as The Nutty Professor

Jerry Lewis was born 97 years ago today.

A comedian, actor, singer, film producer, screenwriter and film director, Lewis was known for his slapstick humor in film, television, stage and radio. He was originally paired up with Dean Martin in 1946, forming the famed comedy team of Martin and Lewis.

In addition to the duo's popular nightclub work, Martin and Lewis starred in a successful series of comedy films for Paramount Pictures.

Lewis was also known as the host, for more than 40 years, of the Muscular Dystrophy Association's annual Labor Day Telethon and national chairman of the MDA.

On February 22, 2009, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences awarded Lewis the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award.

Lewis died at his home in Las Vegas on August 20, 2017, at the age of 91. The cause was end-stage cardiac disease and peripheral artery disease.

Here, Lewis performs the typewriter sketch from the film, “Who’s Minding the Store?” in 1963

In 1973 — 50 years ago — Eric Weissberg and Steve Mandell began a three-week run at #1 on the U.S. album chart with “Dueling Banjos,” from the 1972 film, Deliverance

Eric Weissberg, Apr. 20, 2007, New York City (accompanying Tom Paxton)

Photo by Frank Beacham

In 1973 — 50 years ago — Eric Weissberg and Steve Mandell began a three-week run at #1 on the U.S. album chart with “Dueling Banjos,” from the 1972 film, Deliverance.

Weissberg was a banjo player and multi-instrumentalist. He went to the University of Wisconsin–Madison and then to the Juilliard School of Music. He joined an early version of the Greenbriar Boys (1958–59), but left before they made any recordings. He then joined The Tarriers, replacing Erik Darling.

The Tarriers had a hit with "Banana Boat Song," though Harry Belafonte had the bigger hit soon afterwards.

At first, Weissberg was taken on as a string-bass player, but the group soon made use of his multi-instrumental talents as banjo player, fiddler, guitarist, mandolin player and singer.

At this time, he was still a student at Juilliard. His first album with The Tarriers, Tell The World About This (1960), has a much rougher feel than the smoothly-produced sound of The Weavers or The Kingston Trio.

In 1964, he had to do one year of duty with the National Guard, but on returning, the group re-formed.

In 1965, the group accompanied Judy Collins on a tour of Poland and Russia, but disbanded soon after. Judy Collins was sufficiently impressed to use him as a session musician on Fifth Album (1965) and several later albums.

Commercially, interest in acoustic folk groups was waning, so Weissberg began his successful career as a session musician, playing on albums by The Clancy Brothers, Doc Watson, Melanie, Billy Joel, Bob Dylan, Loudon Wainwright III, Talking Heads, Tom Paxton, Jim Croce, Art Garfunkel, John Denver, Ronnie Gilbert and others.

He is remembered for the hit single, "Dueling Banjos," the theme from the film Deliverance, produced by Joe Boyd and directed by John Boorman. There was also a hit album called Dueling Banjos: From the Original Motion Picture Soundtrack 'Deliverance' in 1973, but the album was not all it seemed to be.

Back in 1963, Weissberg had recorded an album called New Dimensions in Banjo and Bluegrass with Marshall Brickman (a writer who later received an Oscar for Annie Hall) and Clarence White (who later joined The Byrds.)

The 1963 album was dragged out of the archives, and two tracks were removed. In their place was the hit single, and thus a new album was born. One of the original tracks, "Shuckin' The Corn" was later sampled by Beastie Boys.

Weissberg was almost as well known for his dobro guitar as for his bluegrass banjo playing. He has also recorded with jazz musicians Herbie Mann and Bob James. In 1998, he joined Richard Thompson and dozens of other folk musicians on Nanci Griffith's album, Other Voices Too.

In recent years, he toured with Tom Paxton. They often played a variant of "Dueling Banjos" in the set, in addition to Paxton's material.

On February 12, 2009, Weissberg joined the Aaron Copland School of Music at Queens College orchestra and chorus, along with the Riverside Inspirational Choir and NYC Labor Choir, in honoring Abraham Lincoln's 200th birthday at the Riverside Church in New York City.

Under the direction of Maurice Peress, they performed Earl Robinson's "The Lonesome Train: A Music Legend for Actors, Folk Singers, Choirs and Orchestra" in which Weissberg was the banjo player.

On March 22, 2020, Weissberg died at the age of 80 from Alzheimer's disease at a nursing home in White Lake Township, Michigan, near Detroit.

Ray Benson is 72 years old today

Photo by Nathan Edge

Ray Benson is 72 years old today.

The front man of the Western swing band, Asleep at the Wheel, Benson is a native of Philadelphia. He formed Asleep at the Wheel with friends, Lucky Oceans and Leroy Preston. The group relocated to Austin in 1973 after a suggestion from Willie Nelson.

Since then, the group has released more than 20 albums. Though the band's lineup has changed greatly over the years (about 90 people have been part of Asleep at the Wheel at some point), Benson has always remained at the helm as the band's driving force.

In addition to his work with Asleep at the Wheel, Benson is also an accomplished producer whose credits include albums by Dale Watson, Suzy Bogguss, Aaron Watson, James Hand and Carolyn Wonderland. He also produced single tracks for Willie Nelson, Aaron Neville, Brad Paisley, Pam Tillis, Trace Adkins, Merle Haggard and Vince Gill.

In 2003, Benson released his first solo album, Beyond Time.

He is also a founding member of the Rhythm and Blues Foundation, which raises money to help aging R&B artists, and a member of the board of directors of the SIMS Foundation, which provides low-cost mental health services to Austin musicians and their families.

Benson is also a trustee for the Texas chapter of NARAS, a board member of St Davids Community Health Foundation and a board member and founding member of Health Alliance for Austin Musicians (HAAM).

Benson is the host of the Texas Music Scene TV show. In an interview, Benson said that when he was on the board of directors for Austin City Limits, he urged them to start a spin-off show that focused on Texas bands because Austin City Limits had grown beyond its original scope to become an international show.

Benson is 6 feet, 7 inches tall with size 16 EEE feet.

Here, Ray Benson joins Brad Paisley to perform “Miles and Miles of Texas”