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Today In Rock History

April 25th . . . 1918 - Legendary jazz vocalist Ella Fitzgerald is born in Newport News, VA . . . 1923 - Blues guitarist Albert King is born . . . 1933 - Jerry Leiber is born in Baltimore. With Mike Stoller, he’s written witty rock hits like “Yakety Yak” and “Jailhouse Rock” . . . 1945 - Bjorn Ulvaeus of Abba is born in Gothenburg, Sweden . . . 1945 - Stu Cook (Creedence Clearwater Revival) is born this day . . . 1950 - Steve Ferrone, drummer with the Average White Band and Eric Clapton, is born in Brighton, England . . . 1956 - Elvis Presley reaches top of US chart with Heartbreak Hotel, his first No. 1 . . . 1961 - Elvis Presley makes his last stage appearance for nearly eight years at Bloch Arena in Hawaii . . . 1964 - The Beatles have an amazing 14 singles on the American chart . . . 1967 - The Beatles perform “All You Need Is Love” during a global satellite broadcast . . . 1974 - Jim Morrison’s widow, Pam, dies in Hollywood at the age of 27. Police suspect heroin use may have played a part in her death . . . 1977 - Elvis Presley makes his last-known recordings during a live concert at the Saginaw (Mich.) Civic Center . . . 1981 - Wings break up after Denny Laine leaves the band. Paul McCartney says he will carry on as a solo artist . . . 1987 - Crowded House had their biggest U.S. hit when “Don’t Dream It’s Over” peaked at #2; U2 replace Beastie Boys at top of US LP chart with The Joshua Tree . . . 1990 - The Fender Stratocaster on which Jimi Hendrix played “The Star-Spangled Banner” at Woodstock sells at a London auction for $295,000 . . . 1994 - The Eagles played the first of two shows where they recorded their ‘Hell Freezes Over’ album . . . 1994 - A judge sentences Beastie Boy Adam Horowitz to 200 hours’ community service after he beats up a TV cameraman during River Phoenix’s funeral . . . 1994 - A judge determines that Michael Bolton’s “Love Is a Wonderful Thing” sounds a little too similar to the Isley Brothers’ “Love Is a Wonderful Thing.” Ya think? . . . 1997 - Warren Haynes and Allen Woody quit the Allman Brothers Band to tend to their careers as Gov’t Mule . . . 1999 - Funk star Roger Troutman, 47, dies in a hospital in Dayton, Ohio, after being shot several times . . . 2000 - Eric Clapton is reunited on a TV stage in London with his former Derek & the Dominos keyboard player Bobby Whitlock, for their first performance together in 29 years . . . 2002 - Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes, the effervescent, sometimes volatile rapping member of the Grammy-winning R&B trio TLC, is killed in a car crash in Honduras . . . 2003 - The late jazz great Nina Simone is laid to rest in Carry-Le-Rouet, France . . . 2004 - Piano man Billy Joel drives his car into a house in Long Island. Nobody is seriously injured. It’s his third car crash in two years . . . 2007 - American singer Bobby “Boris” Pickett died of leukemia at the age of 69. He scored the Halloween anthem ‘The Monster Mash’ in 1962 . . .

Just in time for the Beavis & Butthead revival!! Woo-hoo!

A sneak peek at My Morning Jacket's new album....

I think I got a contact buzz just watching this....

RHT Pic 'o' the Week

RHT Pic 'o' the Week
Prosecution evidence leaked from the Barry Bonds trial

Randon Non-Rock Notes. Rock Notes, get it? I'm awesome.

Car wrecks! Woohoo!

Here's a baby rabbit eating a flower.

Best commercial on TV right now. You dang woodchucks!!

Quite simply, the greatest redneck car ramp jump ever. Period.

Slippery slide accidents are always money, aren't they?

Let's revisit this famous soccer bitch.

Yo. My man. Seriously, this is not the best way to get free ice cream.

Good boy.

I want this lamb! Oh, and this lamb!

Hey lady, watch where you're goin'.

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Don Kirshner, 1934-2011

I remember staying up late as a kid on Saturday nights, not just to watch Saturday Night Live, but to catch Don Kirshner's Rock Concert. Incredibly, this influential icon is not in the rock & roll Hall of Fame. Go figure...RIP, Don.

From Rolling Stone.com
-

Remembering Don Kirshner, Who Influenced Pop From the Brill Building to Bubblegum

By David Browne
January 18, 2011 6:40 PM EDT

Most music fans knew Don Kirshner, who died Jan. 17 at age 76 of heart failure, as the straight-faced host of Don Kirshner’s Rock Concert, the rock TV show that ran between 1973 and 1981. But Kirshner was more than just a TV presence — he was also an illustrious music publisher and manager, not to mention the man who helped launch bubblegum and American prog.

As Kirshner told RS in a 2009 interview, there was no better example of his renown than his negotiations to book the Rolling Stones on his show in 1973. “I was a nervous wreck because the Stones were being offered a million dollars by the other networks,” Kirshner said. “I got Mick Jagger on the phone and he says, ‘So what are you giving me?’ I said, ‘300.’ He says, ‘300 grand?’ I said, ‘No, $300 a man.’ He laughed and said, ‘Chap, I love your work and I’m gonna do it for you.’ The Stones and the Beatles, they were into our American songs and writers.”

Dubbed the “Man with the Golden Ear” by Time in 1966, Kirshner couldn’t play an instrument but was a key figure in the early days of rock and pop. Although he harbored dreams of becoming a pro athlete while growing up in New York, he started writing songs in the late Fifties with his friend Bobby Darin, which led to the creation of Aldon Music, a publishing house Kirshner co-founded with Al Nevins. Among Aldon’s stable of writers were then-unknowns like Neil Diamond, Carole King, Gerry Coffin, Barry Mann, Cynthia Weil and Neil Sedaka. “I believed they were the future Gershwins and Rodgers and Hammersteins,” Kirshner told RS. “I felt if I had a break, I could build that dream.”

By hustling their songs to other artists, Kirshner made his dream come true: It’s hard to imagine the Sixties without Aldon and Brill Building gems like “Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow,” “Breaking Up Is Hard to Do” and “The Loco-Motion."

“He was such a character, so colorful,” says Paul Shaffer, who worked on a TV pilot with Kirshner in the Seventies and became a longtime friend. “If he loved a record, he’d call people from the studio and hold up the phone to the speaker. He’d describe how excited he was when Neil Diamond came in with ‘I’m a Believer.’ He really loved this music.”

When Kirshner sold Aldon to Columbia-Screen-Gems in the mid-Sixties, Kirshner was given creative control over one of the company’s new TV series, The Monkees, resulting in their early hits “Last Train to Clarksville,” “I’m a Believer” and “(I’m Not Your) Steppin’ Stone.”

Kirshner’s tenure with the Monkees didn’t last long; the group grew to resent his control over their music. But even then, Kirshner emerged triumphant. At a meeting with the group at the Beverly Hills Hotel, Kirshner presented them with a new song he urged them to cover: “Sugar, Sugar.”

“Mike Nesmith said, ‘It’s a piece of junk — I’m not doing it,’” Kirshner told RS. “I came home and my son Ricky was reading an Archie comic book, and I thought that if I could give a voice to Archie, Jughead and Veronica, I could do the same thing, so I created the Archies.”

The all-cartoon band’s version of “Sugar, Sugar” was Number One for four weeks in 1969 and helped launch what became known as bubblegum pop. “That’s all because the Monkees wouldn’t do my song and got me PO’d,” Kirshner said.

Kirshner’s influence extended to the following decade. Rock Concert prided itself on live — not lip-synched — performances by nearly every major band of the time. For many rock fans in the Seventies, the show was their first exposure to David Bowie, the Allman Brothers Band, Kiss, Lynyrd Skynyrd, the Ramones and the Mahavishnu Orchestra.

Shaffer affectionately parodied Kirshner’s famously wooden delivery and wide-lapel suits on Saturday Night Live. (“He got a kick out of it,” Shaffer says. “He would tell me, ‘Ed Sullivan was stiff, too, but he got the gig too.’”) Kirshner also signed Kansas to his label, Kirshner Records, during which they had their biggest hits, like “Dust in the Wind” and “Carry On My Wayward Son.”

At the time of his death, Kirshner was retired and living with his longtime wife Sheila in Boca Raton, Florida. Although he felt overlooked in the annals of rock history, Kirshner prided himself on his vast song catalog (recently estimated to be worth $1 billion) and the lessons he’d passed along to those who came after him, like controversial Beatles and Stones business manager Allen Klein. “One of the things I taught Allen in the beginning was that the value of a song copyright was like real estate,” Kirshner told RS. “I kept telling him, ‘There’s nothing greater than a song.’”

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RHT Greatest American Rocker: Elvis Presley

RHT Greatest American Rocker: Elvis Presley

RHT Greatest Guitarist: Jimi Hendrix

RHT Greatest Guitarist: Jimi Hendrix

RHT Greatest Artist of the 80's: Michael Jackson

RHT Greatest Artist of the 80's: Michael Jackson

RHT Greatest Album of the 70's: Dark Side of the Moon

RHT Greatest Album of the 70's: Dark Side of the Moon

RHT Greatest Album of the 80's: Back in Black

RHT Greatest Album of the 80's: Back in Black

RHT Most Iconic Guitar Of All-Time

RHT Most Iconic Guitar Of All-Time
The Gibson Les Paul

RHT Greatest Album of the 60's: Abbey Road

RHT Greatest Album of the 60's: Abbey Road

RHT Greatest Artist of the 90's: Nirvana

RHT Greatest Artist of the 90's: Nirvana

RHT Greatest Rock Voice: Freddie Mercury

RHT Greatest Rock Voice: Freddie Mercury

RHT Most Beautiful Woman in Music: Carrie Underwood

RHT Most Beautiful Woman in Music: Carrie Underwood

RHT Greatest Album Cover: Abbey Road

RHT Greatest Album Cover: Abbey Road

RHT Greatest Metal Song: Iron Man

RHT Greatest Metal Song: Iron Man

RHT Greatest Song: Stairway to Heaven

RHT Greatest Song: Stairway to Heaven

Time flies when you're havin' fun . . .

R.I.P. Delaney

I lost my little Scottish Terrier on Monday, September 8th to cancer. Her name was Delaney and she was a warrior. She was a rescue, and in her lifetime she'd been to hell and back. At the risk of sounding like a total wimp, it hurts like a son-of-a-bitch. If you're a dog lover like myself and want to see what she was all about, you can check out this link:

http://delaneywarrior.blogspot.com/

Man, I miss that little dog.

By the way, this link stays up as long as RHT is in existence.