1958: Jamie Records released Duane Eddy’s debut album, Have ‘Twangy’ Guitar Will Travel. The LP spent eighty-two weeks on the Billboard pop chart and Eddy went on to release nine more charting albums and twenty-six more charting singles over the next five years.

1962: Sam Cooke released “Twistin’ the Night Away,” the title track from his eighth studio album.

1963: Drummer Charlie Watts left Alexis Korner’s Blues Incorporated to join an up-and-coming band called The Rollin’ Stones. Three days later Watts played his first gig with the Stones at the Ealing Blues Club in London.

1964: The Temptations recorded “The Way You Do the Things You Do” for Detroit’s Motown Records. The single became the group’s first top 20 pop hit, peaking at #11 on the Billboard Hot 100, and reached #1 on the Cash Box R&B chart.

1965: The Beatles were at the top of the Billboard pop chart for the first of nine weeks with Beatles ‘65, their seventh American LP and fourth #1 album in the US. The album includes eight of the fourteen songs from the band’s four UK album “Beatles for Sale” in addition to “I’ll Be Back” from A Hard Day’s Night and the single “I Feel Fine” along with its B-side “She’s a Woman.”

1965: “Heart of Stone” by the Rolling Stones from their fourth studio album, Out of Our Heads, entered the Billboard Hot 100, where it later reached #19.

1967: The Monkees’ second studio album More of the Monkees was released. In February the album displaced their debut LP at the top of the Billboard pop chart and remained at #1 for eighteen weeks—the longest of any Monkees album.

1967: The Byrds released “So You Want to Be a Rock ‘n’ Roll Starr,” a song inspired by the manufactured nature of the Monkees. The single was included on their next album, Younger Than Yesterday. It features trumpet playing by South African musician Hugh Masekela in the first instance of the use of brass on a Byrds recording.

1967: The Young Rascals released their second album, Collections.

1970: Badfinger released Magic Christian Music, their second studio album and first after changing their name from The Iveys to Badfinger. The band was the first to sign with the Beatles’ Apple Records label and the album was released as a “pseudo-soundtrack” to the film The Magic Christian after the official soundtrack, which was originally scheduled to be released by Apple, was instead released on the Pye and Commonwealth United Records labels. Apple assembled the album from the group’s three songs in the film, four unreleased songs, and seven older tracks from when they were still known as The Iveys.

1970: During a UK tour, Led Zeppelin appeared at The Royal Albert Hall in London on the night of Jimmy Page’s 26th birthday. Audience members included John Lennon, Eric Clapton, and Jeff Beck. The two-and-a-quarter-hour set was recorded and filmed but shelved until it was officially released on DVD in 2003.

1971: Badfinger began sessions for their next album at EMI Studios in London with producer Geoff Emerick. The recordings remained unreleased until June 1993, though many of the songs resurfaced during sessions later that year with producers George Harrison and Todd Rundgren on the band’s fourth studio album, Straight Up.

1971: “River Deep—Mountain High” by the Supremes and the Four Tops peaked at #14 on the Billboard Hot 100. One of several recordings that paired the two Motown groups, the song was released as part for their 1970 album, The Magnificent 7, and, in addition to reaching #7 on the R&B chart, it was the highest charting version of the song in the US.

1976: Graham Parker and the Rumour signed their first record deal with Mercury Records in England. Two years and four albums later, Parker became dissatisfied with the label and signed with Arista Records.

1979: The Music for UNICEF benefit concert took place in New York City featuring Rod Stewart, The Bee Gees, Earth Wind and Fire, ABBA, and Donna Summer.

1981: Manfred Mann’s Earth Band released their cover of Bruce Springsteen’s “For You” from their tenth studio album, Chance.

1981: Dire Streets released “Romeo and Juliet” as the first single from their third studio album, Making Movies.

1995: Fairport Convention released their eighteenth studio album, Jewel In The Crown.

1997: David Bowie performed his 50th Birthday Bash concert the day after his birthday at Madison Square Garden with guests Frank Black, Sonic Youth, Robert Smith of The Cure, The Foo Fighters, Lou Reed, Billy Corgan, and Placebo. Proceeds from the concert went to the Save The Children fund.

Birthdays Today

Ishmon Bracey, influential early blues singer and guitarist, was born in Byram, MS in 1899 or 1901.

Jimmy Boyd, singer, musician, and actor best known for his recording of the song “I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus,” was born in Jayess, MS in 1939.

Joan Baez, folk singer, songwriter, musician, and activist, was born in Staten Island, NY in 1941.

Roy Head, singer best known for his 1965 hit “Treat Her Right”, was born in Three Rivers, TX in 1941.

Scott Walker, baritone singer for the Walker Brothers, was born Noel Scott Engel in Hamilton, OH in 1943.

Dick Yount, bassist and vocalist for Harpers Bizarre, was born in 1943.

Jimmy Page, guitarist, session musician, solo artist, and member of the Yardbirds and Led Zeppelin, was born James Patrick Page in Heston, Middlesex, England in 1944.

Bill Albaugh, drummer for The Lemon Pipers, was born in Oxford, OH in 1946.

Tim Hart, guitarist, singer, and founding member of Steeleye Span, was born in Lincoln, Lincolnshire, England in 1948.

Billy Cowsill, singer, musician, songwriter, producer, Cowsills lead singer, and member Blue Northern, was born in Middletown, RI in 1948.

Paul King, multi-instrumentalist for Mungo Jerry and solo artist who formed the King Earl Boogie Band with other members of Mungo Jerry, was born in Dagenham, Essex, England in 1948.

David Johansen, singer, songwriter, solo artist, and member of the New York Dolls, who’s also released material under the name Buster Poindexter, was born in Staten Island, NY in 1950.

Dave Matthews, singer, songwriter, guitarist, and leader of Dave Matthew Band, was born in Johannesburg, South Africa in 1967.