Today in Music History for Aug. 15: In 1925, jazz pianist Oscar Peterson was born in Montreal. Peterson began playing on Montreal radio stations and with local dance bands in the early 1940s.
Today in Music History for Aug. 15:
In 1925, jazz pianist Oscar Peterson was born in Montreal. Peterson began playing on Montreal radio stations and with local dance bands in the early 1940s. In 1949, he made a sensational debut at Carnegie Hall as a surprise guest at "Jazz at the Philharmonic" concert. Peterson formed the first of his famous trios in 1951. By the end of the decade, he was one of the best known jazz musicians in the world through his recordings and personal appearances. His version of "Tenderly" was especially popular. Peterson, also a composer, is best-known for his extended Canadiana Suite. He collected eight Grammys, including a lifetime achievement award in 1997, hundreds of prizes from the jazz community, the Governor General's Performing Arts Award for lifetime achievement and was a Companion of the Order of Canada. In 2005, Canada Post marked his contribution to music with a 50-cent stamp. He died on Dec. 23, 2007.
In 1933, country singer Bobby Helms was born in Bloomington, Ind. His 1957 recording of "Jingle Bell Rock" is a perennial favourite at Christmas time. Helms' other hits from the late '50s include "My Special Angel" and "Fraulein." He died at his home in Martinsville, Ind., on June 19, 1997.
In 1946, songwriter Jimmy Webb was born in Elk City, Okla. Webb's songs, such as "By the Time I Get to Phoenix" and "Up, Up and Away" made him a millionaire by the time he was 21. Glen Campbell had a hit with "Phoenix," as well as Webb's "Wichita Lineman" and "Galveston," and the Fifth Dimension made "Up, Up and Away" a million-seller. "Up, Up and Away" also won Webb a Grammy Award in 1967 for Best Song.
In 1956, Canadian contralto Kathleen Howard, a native of Niagara Falls, Ont., died in Hollywood at the age of 76. She spent 12 seasons with the Metropolitan Opera in New York, beginning in 1916. Howard retired as a singer in 1928, later taking character parts in movies and working as a journalist.
In 1958, singer Buddy Holly married Maria Elena Santiago in a private ceremony at Holly's parents' home in Lubbock, Texas. Holly died in a plane crash the following February.
In 1965, "The Beatles" played before a capacity crowd of 55,000 at Shea Stadium in New York, setting a record, at the time, for the largest concert audience.
In 1969, the Woodstock Music and Arts Fair began on Max Yasgur's farm near Woodstock, N.Y. Over the next three days, more than 400,000 people turned out to hear more than 30 acts, including Jimi Hendrix, the "Grateful Dead," Janis Joplin, "The Who," Joan Baez and "Jefferson Airplane." The festival became a symbol for the peaceful lifestyle championed by the youth of the day. The festival's legend was spread by a movie of the event and two albums of Woodstock's music.
In 1970, Charles Manson signed with the ESP label to record an album called "Lie." The LP was meant to pay for some of his legal expenses.
In 1971, one-hit wonder Thomas Wayne was killed in a car crash at age 31. His only hit, "Tragedy," made the top-five in 1959. (Note for trivia buffs: The record was produced by Elvis Presley's former guitarist, Scotty Moore.)
In 1975, New York radio station WNEW-FM broadcast live a Bruce Springsteen concert from the Bottom Line nightclub.
In 1979, Bob Dylan's album "Slow Train Coming" was released amid reports that Dylan had converted to Christianity. The LP contained several specific religious references.
In 1980, George Harrison's autobiography, "I, Me Mine," was published privately in London. Copies went for 148 pounds (then about US$400) apiece. A mass market edition of the book was published two years later.
In 1981, Stevie Wonder gave his gold LP for "Hotter Than July" to Tami Ragoway of Los Angeles. Ragoway's boyfriend had been killed in a holdup at a hamburger joint while the couple was returning from a Wonder concert.
In 1984, Norman Petty, the man who produced Buddy Holly's records, died at age 57. Petty ran a recording studio in Clovis, N.M., about 150 kilometres west of Holly's hometown of Lubbock, Texas. Holly and his band, "The Crickets," went to Petty's studio in February 1957 and recorded "That'll Be the Day," which became Holly's first hit. For the next 18 months, Petty produced all of Holly's records, but Holly parted company with both Petty and "The Crickets" in October 1958. Petty was about to sue Holly when the singer was killed in a plane crash on Feb. 3, 1959.
In 1986, six hours after emergency surgery on his vocal chords, the lead singer of the Norwegian pop group "A-ha" wowed a packed audience at the Expo Theatre in Vancouver. Using a local anesthetic, doctors at St. Paul's Hospital in Vancouver had removed a three-centimetre cyst from Morton Harket's throat.
In 1987, 15- to 20,0000 "Dead Heads" jammed the small Colorado community of Telluride for two "Grateful Dead" concerts that required approval in a municipal referendum. Opponents had charged that the shows would be detrimental to Telluride's small-town atmosphere.
In 1987, a crowd estimated at 80,000 jammed a park in the northern English industrial city of Leeds for Madonna's first British concert. Many fans waited 12 hours for the show to start and there was some rowdiness as impatience grew. Police reported 60 arrests.
In 1987, Peter Shidlof, viola player with the world's longest surviving string ensemble, "The Amadeus Quartet," died in northwestern England at age 65. It was announced a few days later that the quartet would disband.
In 1990, Lew DeWitt, former "Statler Brothers" tenor and guitarist, died at his home in Waynesboro, Va., at age 52. He died of an intestinal disorder which had forced him to leave the country group in 1982 after more than 18 years. DeWitt wrote one of the "Statlers'" biggest hits, "Flowers On the Wall," a 1965 million-seller.
In 1991, an estimated 750,000 people jammed into New York's Central Park for a free concert by Paul Simon. The two-hour-plus concert also was broadcast live on cable television and simulcast on 200 radio stations. Simon closed the show with a solo version of one of his hit duets with Art Garfunkel, "Sounds of Silence." Garfunkel later complained to the New York Times that he wasn't "good enough to be invited."
In 1996, country singer Shania Twain was honoured at a homecoming in the northern Ontario town of Timmins. She was presented with the key to the city, pressed her hands into cement and was shown a plaque renaming the city's Algonquin Boulevard to Shania Twain Way.
In 1996, a women’s shelter on Long Island, N.Y., refused to accept money from a benefit concert featuring James Brown. The shelter said Brown’s wife had accused him of assaulting her, although each time she withdrew the accusations or the charges were dismissed.
In 1997, an appeals court in San Francisco said two original members of "Creedence Clearwater Revival" could use the Creedence name. The band's former leader, John Fogerty, had objected to Doug Clifford and Stu Cook calling their new group "Creedence Clearwater Revisited."
In 1998, "Deep Purple" singer Ian Gillan bopped a security guard on the head with a microphone during a concert in Pontiac, Mich. The guard said he was trying to move an unruly fan from near the stage. Gillan was charged with assault and battery.
In 2008, legendary record producer Jerry Wexler died at age 91. He helped shape R&B music with influential recordings of Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles and other greats, and later made key recordings with the likes of Bob Dylan and Willie Nelson.
In 2009, former "Beatle" Paul McCartney performed at Atlanta's historic Piedmont Park in front of nearly 40,000 people. The money raised went to maintaining and expanding the sprawling and heavily-used park in the shadow of Midtown Atlanta's skyscrapers. The park dates back to a private club founded in 1887.
In 2009, Neal McCoy, Linda Davis and Michael Martin Murphey were inducted into the Texas Country Music Hall of Fame.
In 2009, Jim Dickinson, a musician and producer who helped shape the Memphis sound in an influential career that spanned more than four decades, died at age 67. He recorded and produced with greats like Aretha Franklin, Bob Dylan, "Big Star," "The Rolling Stones" and "Sam and Dave."
In 2010, Robert Wilson, the bassist for the funk and R&B group "The Gap Band," died of a heart attack at his home outside of Los Angeles. He was 53. He formed "The Gap Band" with his brothers Charlie and Ronnie. They rocketed to stardom in the 1980s with hits like "Outstanding," ''You Dropped a Bomb On Me" and "Yearning for Your Love."
In 2012, in a first for the annual Elvis candlelight vigil, his daughter Lisa Marie and his ex-wife Priscilla appeared together at Graceland, surprising thousands of fans who flocked to the Presley's home in Memphis to mark the 35th anniversary of the King's death.
In 2012, B.C.-native Carly Rae Jepsen's "Call Me Maybe" nine-week run at No.1 on the Billboard Hot 100 ended as Flo Rida's "Whistle" took the top spot.
In 2012, Elton John's longtime bass player Bob Birch was found dead in his home near Los Angeles of a gunshot wound to the head in an apparent suicide. He was 56.
In 2013, 32,000 people crammed into McMahon Stadium in Calgary to attend the Alberta Flood Aid benefit concert to raise money for flood recovery efforts in southern Alberta. Performers included Randy Bachman, Tom Cochrane, Corb Lund, Jann Arden, Colin James, Loverboy, Johnny Reid, The Sheepdogs and Ian Tyson. The event raised over $1.5 million.
---
The Canadian Press
