May 3rd: The Biggest Music Headlines

2021
American R&B and swing singer-songwriter, record executive and bandleader, Lloyd Price died age 88. He was known as ‘Mr. Personality’, after his 1959 million-selling hit, ‘Personality’. His first recording, ‘Lawdy Miss Clawdy’, was a hit for Specialty Records in 1952.

2020
The Stranglers’ keyboard player Dave Greenfield died at the age of 71 after testing positive for coronavirus. Greenfield contracted COVID-19 following a prolonged stay in hospital for heart problems. He is best known as a long-standing member of the rock band and penning the music for their biggest hit ‘Golden Brown’.

2019
Wayne State University of Detroit, Michigan awarded Jack White with an honorary doctor of humane letters degree “for his dedication to Detroit and significant contributions to the arts as one of the most prolific and renowned artists of the past two decades”.

2017
American drummer Casey Jones died aged 77. In the early 1960s, he recorded with Earl Hooker, A.C. Reed, McKinley Mitchell, and Muddy Waters. As a session drummer, he worked with artists such as Lou Rawls, Otis Rush and Johnny Winter. For six years he was a member of Albert Collins’s band as his drummer.

2017
The Eagles were suing a hotel in Mexico that calls itself the Hotel California, after the band’s hit song and album. The rock band claim the 11-room hotel, in Todos Santos, “actively encourages” guests to believe it is associated with them in order to sell merchandise. They claim the hotel plays Eagles songs in the lobby and sells t-shirts describing the venue as “legendary”.

2014
American musician Bobby Gregg died aged 78. Gregg is best is known for his work as a drummer on several seminal 1960s songs, including Bob Dylan’s ‘Like a Rolling Stone’ and Simon And Garfunkel’s ‘The Sound of Silence’. He was also temporarily a member of The Hawks, which later became known as The Band.

2012
Paul McCartney and his wife Nancy Shavell narrowly avoided a potential deadly helicopter crash when their pilot became disoriented during a flight in bad weather and missed some trees by just two feet. Flying home to their estate in East Sussex, England after a day in London, the McCartney’s were not aware of how close they came to crashing at the time. The UK’s Department of Transport launched an investigation into the incident the following November.

2009
Bob Dylan went to No.1 on the UK album chart with ‘Together Through Life’ his seventh UK No.1 album. It was the singer, songwriter’s 33rd studio album, he last topped the UK chart with ‘New Morning’ in 1970. His first No.1 in 1964, was ‘The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan’. Dylan now held the record, (previously held by Tom Jones), for the longest gap between solo number one albums.

2008
Rap star Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs was honoured with a star on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame. The 38-year-old dedicated the star to his father, who was shot dead in 1972.

2006
The first Bob Dylan radio program was aired on XM Satellite Radio. Tracks played on his show included Blur, Prince, Billy Bragg, Wilco, Mary Gauthier, L.L. Cool J and The Streets.

2005
Fall Out Boy release their breakthrough album, From Under the Cork Tree. Debuting at #9 on the albums chart, the sophomore effort is their first to crack the Top 10.

2004
The US Supreme Court rejected an appeal by two musicians who claimed they were owed royalties from Ozzy Osbourne. Bassist Robert Daisley and drummer Lee Kerslake had fought a long-running battle since 1997 with the Osbourne family claiming they were entitled to money from the albums ‘Blizzard of Ozz’ and ‘Diary of a Madman.’ Sharon Osbourne, Ozzy’s wife and manager, said that the pair had “harassed” her family and had had their contributions removed from the albums because of their “abusive and unjust behaviour”.

1997
Katrina And The Waves won the Eurovision Song Contest in Dublin with the song ‘Love Shine A Light’, making them the first UK winners since Bucks Fizz in 1981.

1997
The Notorious B.I.G. started a three week run at No.1 on the US singles chart with his posthumous hit ‘Hypnotize’, a No.10 hit in the UK, the rapper was gunned down and killed on March 9th, 1997.

1991
Andy Williams marries his second wife, Debbie Haas, in New York City.

1986
Robert Palmer went to No.1 on the US singles chart with ‘Addicted To Love’, it made No.5 in the UK. Palmer originally recorded the song as a duet with Chaka Khan but due to contractual problems her voice was removed.

1986
The Art Of Excellence by Tony Bennett became the first album in the US to be initially released on CD instead of the traditional vinyl format.

1980
Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band started a six weeks run at No.1 on the US album chart with ‘Against The Wind’.

1980
Dexy’s Midnight Runners were at No.1 on the UK singles chart with ‘Geno’, a song written about US soul singer Geno Washington.

1976
David Bowie played the first of six sold out nights at Wembley, on his Station To Station tour, his first UK gig in three years.

1976
Paul McCartney made his first concert appearance in America in almost ten years when Wings kicked off their 31-date ‘Wings Over America’ tour at the Tarrant County Convention Center, Fort Worth, Texas.

1977
Helmut Koellen (bass player for Triumvirat) dies of carbon monoxide poisoning at age 27 as he listens to studio tracks in his car while the engine is running in his garage.

1975
The Bay City Rollers started a three-week run at No.1 on the UK chart with their second album ‘Once Upon A Star.’

1972
Les Harvey, age 27, guitarist with Stone The Crows died after being electrocuted on stage during a gig at Swansea University, Wales. He was the brother of Scottish singer Alex Harvey and a member of the Alex Harvey Soul Band.

1971
Led Zeppelin kicked off a European tour at K.B. Hallen, Copenhagen, Denmark in front of 4,000 fans. The set list included the only known performance of ‘Four Sticks’ and the debut live performance of ‘Misty Mountain Hop’.

1969
Jimi Hendrix was arrested by police on his way to Toronto for possession of hashish and heroin. Hendrix claimed the drugs had been planted on him.

1968
The Beach Boys opened their US tour on which the co-headliner was Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. The second half of the concert which featured the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, lectured the audience on “spiritual regeneration.” The reaction was so negative, more than half of the remaining tour dates were cancelled.

1968
The Jimi Hendrix Experience recorded ‘Voodoo Chile.’ It was featured on the ‘Electric Ladyland’ double album and became a UK No.1 single on 21st November 1970 two months after the guitarist’s death. Hendrix’s solo on the track was named the 11th greatest solo of all-time in Guitar World’s 100 Greatest Guitar Solos.

1967
Pink Floyd appeared at The Moulin Rouge, Ainsdale, Southport, England. The promotion flyers for the club said: ‘The Moulin Rouge night club. Wine, Dine, Dance! And have a gay time’.

1965
The Beatles spent the day filming for their forthcoming film Help!, on Salisbury Plain, England, with the British Army’s Third Tank Division.

1952
Kitty Wells recorded ‘It Wasn’t God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels’. Wells was disenchanted with her career prospects and was considering retirement, but agreed to the session at Owen Bradley’s studio because of the $125 union scale recording payment. ‘It Wasn’t God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels’ was an answer song to Hank Thompson’s ‘The Wild Side of Life’, and its lyrical treatment of seductive, wayward women. It became the first No.1 Billboard country hit for a solo female artist.