Tag Archives: December Music et al

Beatles, Music et al, Music of the 60s, Today in history

Busy Beatles December 17

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Busy Beatles December 17

Professional Pictures

On December 17, 1961 Brian Epstein contacted a local wedding photographer, Albert Marrion, to have him take professional pictures of the group for the first time.

DJ Carroll James

On December 17, 1963 radio DJ Carroll James at Washington. D.C. station WWDC, a U.K. played copy of  “I Want to Hold Your Hand” after a 15-year-old girl from Silver Spring, MD wrote to him requesting Beatles music after she saw the CBS-news segment on December 10.

James Carroll became the first disc jockey to broadcast a Beatles record on American radio. He had obtained the record from his stewardess girlfriend, who brought the single back from the UK. Due to listener demand, the song was played daily, every hour.

Capital Records had planned on releasing “I Want to Hold Your Hand” on January 13, 1964 and the next day (Dec 18), the company threatened to sue WWDC to stop playing song. Capital then reversed itself and decided to rush-release “I Want To Hold Your Hand.” Capital cancelled Christmas leaves and pressing plants and staff geared up for rush release.

Busy Beatles December 17

Busy Beatles December 17

Third Christmas Record

December 17, 1965: “The Beatles Third Christmas Record” released. Several off-key, a cappella versions of “Yesterday” were dispersed throughout the record, alongside Lennon’s “Happy Christmas to Ya List’nas”, “Auld Lang Syne”, a one-and-a-half-line version of the Four Tops’ “It’s the Same Old Song” (which they quickly stop before they violate the copyright) and an original poem titled “Christmas Comes But Once a Year”.

Members of the Beatles’ US fan-club did not receive this (or any) Christmas flexi-disc in 1965. Rather, they received a black and white postcard, with a photo of the Fab Four and the message “Season’s Greetings – Paul, Ringo, George, John.” The Beatle Bulletin, the publication of the US fan-club, explained in its April 1966 edition that the tape arrived too late to prepare the record in time for Christmas.

Busy Beatles December 17

Christmas Time Is Here Again

December 17, 1967:  mailing of the 1967 Christmas disc, Christmas Time Is Here Again to fan club members. Their fifth.

The Beatles created an elaborate production around the concept of several groups auditioning for a BBC radio show. The title song serves as a refrain throughout the record. The Beatles portray a multitude of characters, including game show contestants, aspiring musicians (“Plenty of Jam Jars”, by the Ravellers), and actors in a radio drama (“Theatre Hour”). At the end John reads a poem, “When Christmas Time Is Over.” This offering was likely a deliberate homage to/continuation of the broadly similar “Craig Torso” specials produced for BBC Radio 1 that same year by the Beatles’ friends and collaborators the Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band, and also shares much in common with their then-unreleased track “You Know My Name (Look Up the Number)”, recorded six months previously.

For those of you with the interest, the money,  and the space, you can order a newly released box set from Apple Corps that includes  each Beatles Christmas disc.

Busy Beatles December 17
Music et al, Music of the 60s, Today in history

December 15 Music et al

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December 15 Music et al

The First Family

December 15 Music et al

December 15, 1962 – March 8, 1963: Vaughn Meader’s comedy album, The First Family Billboard #1 album.

On it, Meader and others parodied the President John F Kennedy and the rest of the extended first family. Released in November 1962 (two years after JFK’s election), the album sold at a rate more than one million copies per week for the first 6 1/2  weeks. By January it had sold more than 7 million copies. The two main writers were Bob Booker and Earle Doud. In fact, the actual name of the album is: “Bob Booker & Earle Doud Present The First Family.”  Before release, there were some who felt that such comedy was degrading to the Presidency, but its sales hushed those detractors.

The album won the Grammy Award for Album of the Year in 1963. In March 1963 a second album, The First Family Volume Two, had a combination of spoken-word comedy and songs. It peaked at #4 on the album chart in June 1963.

December 15 Music et al

Immediately upon Kennedy’s assassination, Cadence Records pulled both albums from stores and destroyed all unsold copies. Not until 1999 did the albums appear again.

December 15 Music et al

Beatles ’65

December 15 Music et al

On December 15, 1964,  Capital released The Beatles Beatles ’65. In two weeks it became the 9th biggest selling album of 1964.

It was the fifth album Capital issued, the Beatles’ seventh American album overall. Like many early Beatle albums, Beatles ’65  was not a UK release, but a collection of songs many of which had already appeared on UK releases.

For Beatles ’65 the songs were mainly from the UK Beatles For Sale, but also the UK Hard Day’s Night. The tracks were:

Side 1

  1. No Reply*
  2. I’m a Loser*
  3. Baby’s In Black*
  4. Rock and Roll Music
  5. I’ll Follow the Sun*
  6. Mr Moonlight
 Side 2

  1. Honey Don’t
  2. I’ll Be Back*
  3. She’s a Woman*
  4. I Feel Fine*
  5. Everybody’s Trying to Be My Baby

*written by Lennon/McCartney

Beatle success always influenced the music industry even including album titles. During 1965 the following artists released their own ’65 album:

  • Frank Sinatra, Sinatra ’65
  • Duke Ellington, Ellington ’65
  • Sergio Mendes, Brasil ’65
December 15 Music et al

Plastic Ono Band

December 15 Music et al

On December 15, 1969 John Lennon gave what turned out to be his last live performance in England. His Plastic Ono Band played at the UNICEF “Peace for Christmas” charity concert at the Lyceum Ballroom in London.

Surprised by the announcement that UNICEF had scheduled him, but wanted to take advantage of the publicity to promote his War Is Over campaign, Lennon quickly invited those who had participated in September’s Toronto Rock and Roll Revival: Eric Clapton, Klaus Voormann, and Alan White, and Billy Preston.

On December 15, however, Clapton arrived with almost all of Delaney & Bonnie’s touring band, which at the time included George Harrison. Because of Harrison’s participation, it was the first time since the Beatles last show on August 29, 1966 that Lennon and Harrison performed in a concert together.

The full line-up, playing before a huge “War is over” backdrop, was: Lennon, Harrison, Clapton and Delaney Bramlett, Ono, Bonnie Bramlett,  Alan White, im Gordon, Billy Preston,  Klaus Voormann, Bobby Keys, and Jim Price. Lennon later referred to it as the Plastic Ono Supergroup.

Don’t Worry Kyoko

The band played two songs. For the first Lennon said, “We’d like to do a number. This song’s about pain” and then played “Cold Turkey.” The second song was “Don’t Worry Kyoko” which lasted nearly 40 minutes. Geoff  Emerick recorded the songs and he had to switch tape reels twice. Drummers Alan White and Jimmy Gordon eventually sped up their drumming to the point that the band simply had to run out of steam. Many in the audience had already walked out. Those who remained were, according to Lennon, “in a trance.”

The songs remained unreleased until the 2005 reissue of Lennon’s Some Time in New York City. “Don’t Worry Kyoko” was severely trimmed.  (Songfact article)

The concert also featured the Young Rascals, Desmond Dekker and the Aces, and Blue Mink and Black Velvet. Emperor Rosko was the disc jockey between performances.

The next day, John and Yoko flew to Toronto to begin the next stage of their peace campaign.

December 15 Music et al
Music et al, Music of the 60s

December 11 Music et al

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December 11 Music et al

Please Mr Postman

December 11 Music et al

December 11 – December 17, 1961: Please Mr. Postman by the Marvelettes #1 Billboard Hot 100. Released on August 28, the song is notable as the first Motown song to reach the number-one position on the Billboard Hot 100.

D-liver d-letter, the sooner d-better!

The Beatles recorded Please Mr. Postman two years later for their second album With The Beatles.  It had been a part of their set since 1962, but by the time The Beatles came to record it they found it took some time to get right. It took nine takes. They completed it in the morning on 30 July 1963, the same day that they recorded It Won’t Be Long, Till There Was You, Roll Over Beethoven and All My Loving,

December 11 Music et al

Sam Cooke killed

December 11 Music et al

December 11, 1964: in Los Angeles, Bertha Franklin shot and killed Sam Cooke under mysterious circumstances.

On May 24, 1967 the courts awarded Franklin $30,000 compensation for damages because she had shot in self-defense.

December 11 Music et al

December 11 Music et al

LSD

Four December 11 Music Happenings

December 11, 1965 was the Muir Beach Acid Test. It was the first one for famed acid chemist, Owsley Stanley. In his book, Dark Star Robert Greenfield quoted Stanley:  “In December ’65, I really heard the Grateful Dead for the first time. It was at the Fillmore  the night before the Muir Beach Acid Test. I was standing in the hall and they were playing and they scared me to death. Jerry’s guitar terrified me. I had never before heard that much power. That much thought. That much emotion. I thought to myself, ‘These guys could be bigger than the Beatles.'”

From Rolling Stone magazine: “…the Dead played at the Muir Beach Acid Test in a lodge by the sea in Marin County. The sound of Jerry Garcia’s guitar grabbed hold of Owsley, and he freaked out on acid for the first time. In The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, Tom Wolfe described how Owsley completely lost control of himself, dissolving into “gaseous nothingness” until he became nothing more than a single cell. “If he lost control of that one cell, there would be nothing left,” Wolfe wrote. “The world would be, like, over.” “I lost control of that cell as well,” Owsley says. “They were all gone. That was the initiation. The price I had to pay to get through the gate. Ego death. I thought I was going to die, and I said, ‘Fuck it.’ And that was good.”

December 11 Music et al

John Lennon

December 11 Music et al

December 11, 1970, John Lennon released the John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band album. It was the first solo album by Lennon. ( he and Yoko had issued three experimental albums and the Live Peace in Toronto 1969, credited to the Plastic Ono Band.) The cover photo was snapped with a consumer-grade Instamatic camera by actor Dan Richter.

Lennon and the band recorded the album between 26 September – 23 October 1970 at Ascot Sound Studios and Abbey Road Studios. The album is generally considered one of Lennon’s finest solo albums, because of its emotional honesty, as with the album’s Side 1, Track 1 song, Mother.

Rolling Stone magazine’s 1970 review by Lester Bangs said in part: “This one will grow on you. They haven’t ironed out all the awkwardness yet, but this is the first J&Y album that doesn’t insult the intelligence…”

In 1987, as part of its 20th anniversary, Rolling Stone magazine ranked it fourth on “The 100 Best Albums of the Last Twenty Years”.

In 2012, the magazine ranked it number 23 on its list of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.

December 11 Music et al