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1
Christmas Music, Part 1 ~ Sleigh Ride
• 1709 ~ Franz Xaver Richter, Austro-Moravian singer, violinist, composer, conductor and music theoretician • 1879 ~ Gilbert and Sullivan's operetta, H.M.S. Pinafore, opened. Arthur Sullivan conducted the orchestra while William Gilbert played the role of a sailor in the chorus and in the Queen’s Nay-vee. • 1913 ~ Mary Martin, American singer and actress, primarily for the musical theater, Tony and Emmy Award-winning actress, mother of actor Larry Hagman More about Mary Martin • 1924 ~ Lady Be Good opened in New York City. George Gershwin wrote the music while Fred and Adele Astaire were well-received by the show’s audience for their dancing talents. • 1936 ~ Lou Rawls (Louis Allen), American Grammy Award-winning singer of popular music, TV regular on Dean Martin Presents • 1938 ~ Sandy Nelson, Drummer • 1939 ~ Diane Lennon, Singer with The Lennon Sisters on Lawrence Welk Show, Jimmy Durante Presents the Lennon Sisters • 1940 ~ Glenn Miller got a call from ASCAP (American Society of Composers and Publishers). He was informed that he couldn’t use his Moonlight Serenade as his band’s theme song. He had to use Slumber Song instead because of an ASCAP ban. • 1945 ~ Bette Midler, American Grammy Award-winning pop-rock singer and actress • 1945 ~ Burl Ives made his concert debut. He appeared at New York’s Town Hall. We lovingly listen every year for the voice of this old-time radio personality as the narrator and banjo-pickin’ snowman in TV’s Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. • 1946 ~ Gilbert (Raymond) O’Sullivan, Singer • 1950 ~ John Wesley Ryles, Singer • 1950 ~ Ernest John Moeran passed away • 1968 ~ Promises, Promises opened on Broadway. The play ran for 1,281 performances, earning $35,000 in profits each week of 1969. Dionne Warwick had a hit version of the title song. • 1986 ~ Horace Heidt passed away • 1989 ~ Alvin Ailey passed away • 1990 ~ Russell Markert passed away 2 Christmas Music, Part 2 ~ Joy To The World • 1774 ~ • 1856 ~ Robert Kajanus, Finnish conductor and composer • 1899 ~ Sir John Barbirolli, British conductor and cellist • 1914 ~ Eddie Sauter, Drummer, trumpeter, composer, orchestra leader of the Sauter- Finegan Orchestra, arranger for Benny Goodman and Artie Shaw • 1916 ~ Charlie Ventura, Tenor sax, played with Gene Krupa, Stan Kenton, Charlie Parker, Count Basie, band leader • 1917 ~ Sylvia Syms, Singer, ‘world’s greatest saloon singer’ • 1918 ~ Milton DeLugg, Bandleader on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson; Milton DeLugg and His Orchestra: Abe Burrows’ Almanac, The Chuck Barris Rah Rah Show, Dagmar’s Canteen, Doodles Weaver, The Gong Show, Judge for Yourself, Your Hit Parade; played accordion in The Milton DeLugg Quartet and songwriter • 1928 ~ Jörg Demus, Austrian pianist • 1934 ~ Billy Paul (Paul Williams), Singer • 1941 ~ Tom McGuinness, Bass, guitar with Manfred Mann; McGuinness Flint; and Blues Band • 1942 ~ Ted Bluechel, Jr., Singer, drummer with The Association • 1944 ~ Eric Bloom, Singer, guitarist • 1945 ~ John Densmore, Musician with The Doors • 1952 ~ Michael McDonald, Singer, songwriter, keyboard with The Doobie Brothers • 1960 ~ Rick Savage, Bass with Def Leppard • 1972 ~ Motown’s Temptations reached the #1 spot on the top 40 charts with Papa Was a Rollin’ Stone. It was the fourth #1 hit for the Temptations, joining My Girl, I Can’t Get Next to You and Just My Imagination. 3 Christmas Music, Part 3 ~ Angels We Have Heard On High • 1596 ~ Nicola Amati, Italian violin maker, teacher of Guarneri and Stradivari • 1729 ~ Padre Antonio Francisco Javier Jose Soler, Spanish composer whose works span the late Baroque and early Classical music eras. He is best known for his keyboard sonatas, an important contribution to the harpsichord, fortepiano and organ repertoire. • 1876 ~ Hermann Goetz died. He was a German composer.  1883 ~ Anton Webern, Austrian composer and conductor
Read quotes by and about Webern More information about Webern • 1907 ~ Connie (Connee) Boswell, Singer Connie or Connee (a spelling she preferred later in life), who also played several musical instruments, arranged vocals for herself and her two sisters. Although she was stricken with polio and worked from her wheelchair, she never let this get in the way of being part of her jazz-singing trio. The Boswell Sisters’ talent was quickly recognized and by the time Connee was 24 years old, the sisters were doing vaudeville, radio, playing New York’s Paramount Theatre, recording with the Dorsey Brothers: You Oughta Be in Pictures; making films and appearing on the U.S.A.’s first public TV broadcast. One thing led to another and Connie went solo, entertaining World War II troops, making films, appearing on Broadway and recording with big names like Woody Herman’s; even a duet classic with Bing Crosby: Basin Street Blues. Her musical influence spanned many generations and music styles. If you’d have asked Ella Fitzgerald, she would have told you, "They just don’t make ’em like Connee Boswell anymore." 1923 ~ Maria Callas (Calogeropoulous), American soprano
More information about Callas Read quotes by and about Callas • 1925 ~ The first jazz concerto for piano and orchestra was presented at Carnegie Hall in NYC. Commissioned by Walter Damrosch, American composer George Gershwin presented Concerto In F, and was also the featured soloist playing a flugelhorn in a slow, bluesy style as one of his numbers. • 1927 ~ Phyllis Curtin, Singer: soprano with the New York City Opera, Metropolitan Opera, Vienna Staatsoper, La Scala, Teatro Colon; coordinator of Voice Dept and Opera at Yale School of Music, Dean Emerita of Boston Univ School for the Arts • 1927 ~ Ferlin Husky (aka: Simon Crum, Terry Preston), Singer • 1930 ~ Andy (Howard Andrew) Williams, American Emmy Award-winning entertainer, singer • 1931 ~ Jaye P. (Mary Margaret) Morgan, Singer, performer • 1941 ~ Johann Christian Sinding, Norwegian composer • 1944 ~ Frank Sinatra was in the Columbia Records studio recording Old Man River. • 1948 ~ Ozzy (John) Osbourne, Songwriter, singer • 1949 ~ Mickey Thomas, Singer with Jefferson Starship • 1953 ~ Kismet opened on Broadway in New York. The show ran for 583 performances. • 1955 ~ Elvis Presley's first release on RCA Victor Records was announced. No, it wasn’t Hound Dog or Heartbreak Hotel. The first two sides were actually purchased from Sam Phillips of Sun Records: Mystery Train and I Forgot to Remember to Forget. Elvis was described by his new record company as "The most talked about personality in recorded music in the last 10 years." • 1960 ~ Camelot opened at the Majestic Theatre in New York City. Richard Burton and Julie Andrews played the leading roles in the musical written by Lerner and Loewe. Robert Goulet got rave reviews for his songs, If Ever I Would Leave You, Then You May Take Me to the Fair and How to Handle a Woman, among others. Camelot had a run of 873 performances. Broadway went Hollywood in the 1967 film version of Camelot. Its run was not quite as successful. • 1968 ~ The O’Kaysions received a gold record for Girl Watcher. The song had a promotional reprise in the 1990s as a theme for Merv Griffin's Wheel of Fortune, with the revamped lyrics, I’m a Wheel Watcher... • 1977 ~ After 29 weeks in the #1 position on the album charts (a record, literally...), Rumours, by Fleetwood Mac, was replaced at the top spot by the album Simple Dreams, sung by Linda Ronstadt. • 1999 ~ Handel's Messiah Gets Modern Makeover in Ireland • 2000 ~ Kevin Mills, a member of the Christian rock groups Newsboys and White Heart, died after a motorcycle accident in Hollywood. He was 32. Mills, of Louisville, Ky., was a singer and bass player, his family said. He also was a member of the Screen Actors Guild and appeared on TV in "An Inconvenient Woman" in 1991. White Heart started in 1982. Newsboys, an Australian band now based near Nashville, was formed four years later. Newsboys have sold nearly 3 million records and earned three Grammy nominations on the religious rock circuit. • 2000 ~ Washington Honored Eastwood, Baryshnikov, Others • 2002 ~ Rich Dangel, credited with creating the opening guitar chords of garage band staple Louie Louie, died of an aneurysm at his home. He was 60. Dangel was a member of the seminal Northwest rock band the Wailers, who introduced the nation to the Northwest sound - raw, unpolished and catchy. He may be best known for coming up with the power chords that opened the Wailers' 1961 regional hit, Louie, Louie, written by rhythm-and-blues singer Richard Berry and taken to the top of the national charts by another Northwest band, the Kingsmen from Portland, Ore. Dangel co-wrote his first chart hit, "Tall Cool One" with fellow Wailer John Greek when he was still in high school. The song resulted in the group's first album, "The Fabulous Wailers," a cross-country tour and a 1959 appearance on Dick Clark's "American Bandstand." 4 Christmas Music, Part 4 ~ I Heard The Bells on Christmas Day • 1660 ~ André Campra, French composer • 1667 ~ Michel Pignolet De Monteclair, French composer • 1861 ~ Lillian Russell (Helen Louise Leonard), Singer, actress, burlesque • 1879 ~ Sir Herbert Hamilton Harty, Irish composer, conductor, pianist and organist • 1915 ~ Eddie Heywood, Jr., Pianist, composer • 1927 ~ Duke Ellington's big band opened the famed Cotton Club in Harlem. It was the first appearance of the Duke’s new and larger group. He played the club until 1932. Part 2: • 1934 ~ Ethel Merman recorded I Get a Kick Out of You, from Cole Porter's musical, Anything Goes. She was backed by the Johnny Green Orchestra. The tune was recorded for Brunswick Records. • 1934 ~ Wink (Winston Conrad) Martindale, TV host, singer • 1938 ~ Yvonne Minton, Australian mezzo-soprano • 1940 ~ John Cale, Bass, keyboard, viola, singer with The Velvet Underground • 1942 ~ Bob Mosley, Bass with Moby Grape • 1942 ~ Chris Hillman, Guitar, bass, mandolin with The Byrds • 1944 ~ Dennis Wilson, American rock-and-roll singer and drummer • 1948 ~ Southside Johnny (Lyon), Singer with Southside Johnny and The Asbury Dukes • 1965 ~ Composer, lyricist, and singer, Jacques Brel made his American debut in concert at Carnegie Hall in New York City. Brel composed Jackie, You’re Not Alone, If You Go Away and more. • 1972 ~ Billy Paul from Philadelphia received a gold record for his smash hit, Me and Mrs. Jones. • 1976 ~ Baron (Edward) Benjamin Britten (of Aldeburgh) died in Aldeburgh. He was a British composer, conductor, and pianist. More information about Britten • 2002 ~ Emmy-nominated pianist George Gaffney, who accompanied such musicians as Peggy Lee, Engelbert Humperdink and Sarah Vaughan, died. He was 62. Born in New York City, Gaffney began studying the piano at age 10 but switched to the trombone. After serving in the U.S. Marine Corps from 1958 to 1961, Gaffney returned to New York, where he played piano and began arranging and accompanying singers. Gaffney moved to the Chicago area in the mid-1960s and was musical director of the Playboy Club in Lake Geneva, Wis., where he first met Vaughan. Gaffney came to California in the early 1970s and found work as a studio musician and accompanist. He worked on a number of television programs, including the TV series "Moonlighting," and was nominated for an Emmy. From 1980 to 1990, he was Vaughan's accompanist and musical director. He moved to Las Vegas in 1994 and worked as Humperdink's musical director. In recent years, he also orchestrated tunes for Rita Moreno. • 2002 ~ Mary Hansen, guitarist and vocalist with the '90s alternative band Stereolab died. She was 36. Hansen, from Maryborough in Queensland, Australia, died in a cycling accident in London, The Independent newspaper reported Friday. Details of the accident were not available. Band spokesman Mick Houghton was quoted by The Independent as saying a truck might have backed into her, "but I really don't know much more than that." Hansen joined the band in 1992, two years after it was formed by Tim Gane, formerly of the band McCarthy, and his girlfriend Laetitia Sadier. Among hundreds of messages posted on the band Web site, one from a fan who identified himself as Louis called Hansen "the soul" of the band. Hansen, who played several instruments, first appeared on 1992's LoFi single and all subsequent releases, including 1994's Mars Audiac Quintet and 1996's Emperor Tomato Ketchup. Stereolab had been working on a new album, expected to be released next year. • 2003 ~ Barry Morell, a tenor who played leading roles at the Metropolitan Opera and internationally for more than two decades, died of esophageal cancer. He was 75. Morell began his career as a baritone, until he sought the guidance of former Metropolitan Opera baritone Giuseppe Danise, who told him he should be a tenor. He was best known for performing the operas of Puccini. He made his debut as Pinkerton in "Madame Butterfly" in 1955 with the New York City Center Opera Company. In 1958, he made his Met debut in the same role. He appeared in Berlin, Barcelona, Vienna and other opera houses in Europe, South America and across the United States. Among his more than 20 roles during 257 performances at the Met were Rodolfo in "La Boheme," Enzo in "La Gioconda" and the title roles of "Don Carlo" and "Faust". 5 Christmas Music, Part 5 ~ Carol of the Bells • 1687 ~ Francesco Xaverio Geminiani, Italian violinist, writer and composer • 1791 ~ Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, composer, died in Vienna, Austria at the age of 35. Mozart, the precocious child prodigy, composed several pieces that are deemed central to the classical era. Though he ranked as one of the greatest musical genius, he did not live a life of affluence as none of his compositions earned him a decent commission. • 1870 ~ Vitezslav Novak, Czech composer and pedagogue • 1901 ~ Walt Disney, Man behind many much-loved animated musicals • 1922 ~ Don Robertson, Nashville Songwriters Association Hall of Famer, whistler • 1930 ~ Larry Kert, Actor, singer, dancer in the West Side Story original cast, 1957 • 1932 ~ Little Richard (Pennimann), US rock 'n roll artist, preacher • 1936 ~ Chad Mitchell, Singer with Chad Mitchell trio • 1936 ~ Bing Crosby took over as host of The Kraft Music Hall. Jimmy Dorsey (who would later be host, himself) led the Kraft Orchestra. • 1945 ~ José Carreras, Spanish tenor with the New York Metropolitan Opera • 1947 ~ Jim Messina, American rock guitarist and singer, duo of Loggins and Messina and groups: Buffalo Springfield and Poco • 1960 ~ Les Nemes, Bass with Haircut 100 • 1960 ~ Jack Russell, Singer with Great White • 1973 ~ Paul McCartney released Band On The Run, his fifth album since his departure from The Beatles. Two hit singles from the album Ð 'Jet' and 'Band on the Run' made it McCartney's most successful album. • 2003 ~ Avie Parton, mother of country music singer, songwriter and actress Dolly Parton, died after a long illness. She was 80. Parton was responsible for stitching the patchwork rag coat for young Dolly that the singer later recounted in the song, Coat of Many Colors. The song helped propel Dolly Parton to stardom and came to symbolize her climb from rags to riches. She also was the witness at Dolly's secret marriage to Carl Dean in 1966 in Ringgold, Ga. 2012 ~ Dave Brubeck, American jazz pianist and composer
More information about Brubeck 6 Christmas Music, Part 6 ~ Just In Time For Christmas • 1877 ~ Thomas Alva Edison made the first sound recording ever by reciting and recording the nursery rhyme, "Mary had a Little Lamb". Edison recorded sound on a cylinder, which was then rotated against a needle. The needle moved up and down in the grooves of the cylinder, producing vibrations that were amplified by a conical horn. Edison assuumed that this would be useful only for office dictation purposes and not much for recording music. • 1896 ~ Ira Gershwin (Israel Gershvin), American librettist and lyricist 1920 ~ Dave Brubeck, American jazz pianist and composer
More information about Brubeck • 1929 ~ Nikolaus Harnoncourt, German conductor, cellist and musicologist • 1930 ~ Bobby Van (Bobby King Robert Stein), Actor, dancer • 1939 ~ Steve Alaimo, Singer, actor • 1941 ~ Helen Cornelius, Singer • 1942 ~ Len Barry (Borrisoff), Singer, with The Dovells • 1944 ~ Jonathan (Kenneth) King, Singer, songwriter, producer • 1944 ~ Red Bank Boogie, Count Basie's salute to his hometown, was recorded on Columbia Records. The tune is a tribute to Red Bank, New Jersey. • 1948 ~ Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts debuted on CBS-TV. The show ran for almost • 10 years and the redhead introduced such talent as Pat Boone, The Chordettes, Carmel Quinn, The McGuire Sisters, Rosemary Clooney, Tony Bennett, Connie Francis, Steve Lawrence and Al Martino. • 1956 ~ Peter Buck, Guitarist with R.E.M. • 1956 ~ Rick (Paul) Buckler, Drummer, singer with The Jam • 1960 ~ Eileen Farrell debuted at the Metropolitan Opera House in NYC in the title role of Gluck's Alcestis. • 1962 ~ Ben Watt, Guitarist, keyboard, singer with Everything but the Girl • 1969 ~ Musician Cab Calloway turned actor as he was seen in the Hallmark Hall of Fame presentation of The Littlest Angel on NBC. The big band singer, known for such classics as Minnie the Moocher, became a movie star in The Blues Brothers (1980) with John Belushi and Dan Ackroyd. • 1969 ~ Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye, by Steam, reached the #1 spot on the top 40. It stayed at the top for two weeks and was the only major hit for the group. • 1984 ~ Two former Beatles debuted in two film releases this day. Paul McCartney's Give My Regards to Broad Street and George Harrison's A Private Function were finalized for theatre audiences. • 1988 ~ Roy Orbison, Singer, passed away • 1989 ~ Sammy Fain passed away More information about Fain • 2000 ~ Werner Klemperer, a Jewish refugee from Nazi Germany who went on to play the inept German prison-camp commandant Col. Klink on TV's "Hogan's Heroes," died of cancer at the age of 80. Klemperer fled Germany in 1935 with his father, Otto, a distinguished conductor and composer. He won two Emmy Awards for his portrayal of the monocled Col. Wilhelm Klink on the 1960s sitcom about World War II Allied prisoners of war. He was a gifted actor on both film and stage, receiving a Tony nomination in • 1988 as a feature actor in a musical for his role in Hal Prince's revival of "Cabaret." Other Broadway roles included starring opposite Jose Ferrer in "The Insect Comedy," and with Tallulah Bankhead in the 1955 production of "Dear Charles." Most recently, he co-starred in Circle in the Square's production of Chekhov's "Uncle Vanya." Klemperer also appeared as a narrator with nearly every major symphony orchestra in the United States. His repertoire included such works as Beethoven's "Egmont" and "Fidelio," Stravinsky's "L'Histoire du Soldat" and "Oedipus Rex." His narration of Mozart's "The Impresario," with the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra, aired on PBS's "Live from Lincoln Center." He also performed in various operas, including "The Sound of Music," with the New York City Opera. He played Prince Orlofsky in "Die Fledermaus" with companies in Seattle and Cleveland. • 2003 ~ Hans Hotter, the world's leading Wagnerian bass-baritone of his time, died at the age of 94. The 6-foot-4 Hotter, whose career spanned half a century, was known for his booming, noble voice. He mastered such roles as Wotan in Wagner's Ring Cycle, Gurnemanz in "Parsifal", the title role in "The Flying Dutchman" and Hans Sachs in Die Meistersinger. He also won praise for Schubert lieder. Hotter started his operatic career in 1930, and sang in Prague and Hamburg and at the Munich Opera, where he became a leading singer in 1937. He remained with the company until 1972. He also was a member of the Vienna Opera from 1939 until • 1970. Hotter created the role of Olivier in the world premiere of Richard Strauss "Capriccio" in 1942. According to the British newspaper The Guardian, the role of Jupiter in Strauss's "Die Liebe der Danae" had been written for him but its premiere was disrupted when all theaters were closed after the assassination attempt on Adolf Hitler in August 1944. After the war, Hotter began a 12-year association with the Wagner family's opera house at the Bayreuth festival in 1952. The same year, he made his Metropolitan Opera debut as the Dutchman. He also became a producer. His final production was in 1981 in Chicago of Beethoven's "Fidelio". 7  Hanukkah
Chanukah Chanukah Music Chanukah Music Lyrics Pearl Harbor Day Christmas Music, Part 7 ~ Hark the Herald Angels Sing • 1637 ~ Bernardo Pasquini, Italian composer of operas, oratorios, cantatas and keyboard music. • 1840 ~ Hermann Goetz, German Composer • 1842 ~ The Philharmonic Society of New York, the first permanent orchestra in the U.S., held its first concert. Despite uncomfortable seating, the event was a huge success. They performed works of Beethoven. 1863 ~ Pietro Mascagni, Italian composer and conductor
More information about Mascagni • 1879 ~ Rudolf Friml, Musician, composer • 1887 ~ Ernst Toch, Austrian-born American composer • 1911 ~ Louis Prima, Trumpeter, bandleader with Louis Prima and His New Orleans Gang, Gleeby Rhythm Orchestra; songwriter, singer, married to Keely Smith • 1931 ~ Bobby Osborne, Musician, mandolin, singer with the duo - Osborne Brothers • 1942 ~ Harry Chapin, American folk-rock singer and songwriter, Recipient of Special Congressional Gold Medal, Worldwide Humanitarian for the Hungry, Needy and Homeless • 1948 ~ NBC presented Horace Heidt's Youth Opportunity Program for the first time. The talent show earned Dick Contino, an accordionist, the $5,000 prize as the program’s first national winner. • 1949 ~ Tom Waits, Singer, songwriter, playwright, married to Kathleen Brennan • 1954 ~ Mike Nolan, Singer with Bucks Fizz • 1957 ~ Pat Boone was at the top of the pop charts for the first of six weeks with April Love. His other number one hits included Ain’t That a Shame, I Almost Lost My Mind, Don’t Forbid Me and Love Letters in the Sand. • 1984 ~ Michael Jackson was in Chicago to testify that the song, The Girl is Mine, was exclusively his and he didn’t swipe the song, Please Love Me Now. It was a copyright infringement case worth five million dollars. He won. • 1990 ~ Dee (Delectus) Clark passed away 8 Hanukkah
Chanukah Chanukah Music Chanukah Music Lyrics Christmas Music, Part 8 ~ It Came Upon A Midnight Clear • 1731 ~ Frantisek Xaver Dusek, Czech composer and one of the most important harpsichordists and pianists of his time. 1865 ~ Jean (Johan) Julius Christian Sibelius, Finnish composer
Read quotes by and about Sibelius More information about Sibelius • 1882 ~ Manuel Maria Ponce, • 1890 ~ Bohuslav Martinu • 1925 ~ Jimmy Smith, Grammy Award-winning musician, modern jazz organist • 1925 ~ Sammy Davis, Jr., American singer of popular music 1939 ~ James Galway, Irish flutist
Read quotes by and about Galway More information about Galway • 1939 ~ Jerry Butler, Singer with The Impressions • 1941 ~ Ray Eberle and The Modernaires teamed with the Glenn Miller Orchestra to record Moonlight Cocktail on Bluebird Records. By April, 1942, the song was a solid hit. • 1942 ~ Bobby Elliott, Drummer with The Hollies • 1943 ~ Jim (James Douglas) Morrison ‘The Lizard King’, Singer in the rock group The Doors • 1946 ~ John Rubinstein, Tony Award-winning actor, composer • 1947 ~ Gregg Allman, Keyboards, guitar, singer with Allman Brothers Band • 1957 ~ Phil Collen, Guitarist with Def Leppard • 1961 ~ Surfin’, The Beach Boys first record, was released on Candix Records. It became a local hit in Los Angeles but only made it to #75 nationally. The surfin’ music craze didn’t take hold across America for another year. By the time Surfin’ Safari entered the Top 40 (September, 1962), though, The Beach Boys were ridin’ a wave of popularity that continues today. • 1963 ~ Florence Henderson and Jose Ferrer co-starred in The Girl Who Came to Supper on Broadway. The production, however, only lasted for 112 shows. • 1963 ~ Frank Sinatra, Jr. was kidnapped in Lake Tahoe, Nevada. He was set free four days later. It was discovered that Sinatra, Jr. cooperated with his abductors in their plot. Dad was not proud, nor pleased. Frank, Jr. went on to conduct the big band for Frank, Sr. and all was well. • 1966 ~ Sinead O’Connor, Singer • 1980 ~ John Lennon was shot and killed on this day as he stood outside of his New York City apartment house, the Dakota. A deranged, obsessed ‘fan’ asked Lennon to autograph an album, then shot him as Lennon started to comply. The man was quickly apprehended by others gathered at the scene. A several-days vigil by hundreds of mourning fans is remembered as candles flickered and the song Give Peace a Chance was heard, a continuing tribute to the musician and songwriter of a generation. John Lennon’s wife, Yoko Ono, together with New York’s officials, set up a permanent memorial to her husband: a section of Central Park, opposite the Dakota, named Strawberry Fields. • 1982 ~ Marty Robbins passed away • 2003 ~ Lewis Allen, producer of the Broadway hit "Annie" and winner of three Tony Awards, died of pancreatic cancer, his wife said. He was 81. "Annie" opened in 1977 and ran for six years. Allen won a Tony for it and for two plays he produced: Herb Gardner's "I'm Not Rappaport" in 1986 and Terrence McNally's "Master Class" in 1996. Allen also produced several films, including Shirley Clarke's "The Connection" (1961), Francois Truffaut's "Fahrenheit 451" (1966) and both the 1963 and 1990 versions of "Lord of the Flies." He was an early supporter of "Annie," which started life at a regional theater in Connecticut. Although that production received lukewarm reviews, Allen got producer- director Mike Nichols to join him in backing the Broadway version, which spawned the 1982 film version that Allen did not produce. Allen was born in Berryville, Va., graduated from the University of Virginia and served with the American Field Service during World War II. His wife, Jay Presson Allen, wrote the screenplays for "Cabaret" (1972) and Alfred Hitchcock's "Marnie" (1964). • 2003 ~ Cuban pianist Ruben Gonzalez, who found new fame in the mid-1990s playing with Compay Segundo's Buena Vista Social Club band, died. He was 84. Gonzalez's keyboard gymnastics provided the heartbeat of the Buena Vista Social Club's string of traditional Cuban "son" music albums beginning in 1997. The smallish man with grizzled hair and beard gained worldwide attention as the pianist on the opening album of the series, the Grammy-winning "Buena Vista Social Club." 9 Hanukkah
Chanukah Chanukah Music Chanukah Music Lyrics Christmas Music, Part 9 ~ Mary Did You Know • 1791 ~ Peter Joseph Von Lindpaintner • 1837 ~ Charles-Emile Waldteufel, French pianist, conductor and composer of dance music • 1882 ~ Joaquín Turina • 1906 ~ Freddy Martin ‘Mr. Silvertone’, Tenor sax, bandleader • 1915 ~ Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, German soprano • 1926 ~ Benny Goodman's first recording session was this day. He played clarinet with the Ben Pollack Orchestra on a tune titled Downtown Shuffle on Victor Records. Goodman, incidentally, was all of 17 years old. • 1938 ~ Tatiana Troyanos, American mezzo-soprano • 1938 ~ David Houston, Grammy Award,winning singer, actor • 1944 ~ Neil Innes, Keyboard, singer, songwriter with The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band • 1950 ~ Joan Armatrading, British rock singer and songwriter • 1953 ~ Frank Sinatra recorded Young At Heart. The song was turned down by Nat ‘King’ Cole and other artists, believe it or not. It became a top hit in the U.S. in March of 1954. • 1954 ~ Jack Hues, Singer with Wang Chung • 1956 ~ Sylvia (Sylvia Allen), Singer • 1956 ~ The Million Dollar Session was held at Sun Records in Memphis, TN. Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins and Jerry Lee Lewis gathered for an impromptu jam session. Six songs by the artists were recorded at this session. None of the songs was released for nearly three decades. • 1957 ~ Donny Osmond, Singer with the Osmond Brothers, TV host of Donny and Marie, actor • 1973 ~ Keith Moon, Rod Stewart and Roger Daltrey opened the rock opera Tommy in London. The show featuring Tommy, Pinball Wizard and other tunes, was so hot that tickets sold for $50 and up. • 1984 ~ The Jackson’s Victory Tour came to a close at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles after 55 performances in 19 cities. The production was reported to be the world’s greatest rock extravaganza and one of the most problematic. The Jackson brothers received about $50 million during the five-month tour of the U.S., with some 2.5 million fans in attendance. • 2000 ~ Marina Koshetz, who followed her famous Russian diva mother Nina to the opera and concert stage and into the movies, died at the age of 88. • 2004 ~ Country and Western singer Jerry Scoggins, whose baritone rendition of the theme song of "The Beverly Hillbillies" became one of television's favorite tunes, died at age 93. 10 Hanukkah
Chanukah Chanukah Music Chanukah Music Lyrics Christmas Music, Part 10 ~ O Come, O Come Emmanuel • 1822 ~ César-Auguste-Jean-Guillaume-Hubert Franck, Belgian composer and organist • 1906 ~ Harold Adamson, Lyricist 1908 ~ Olivier Messiaen, French composer
More information about Messiaen • 1910 ~ Dennis Morgan (Stanley Morner), Singer, actor • 1910 ~ Tenor Enrico Caruso and conductor Arturo Toscanini were featured at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City for the world premiere of Puccini's The Girl of the Golden West. • 1913 ~ Morton Gould, American Pulitzer Prize-winning composer, conductor and pianist • 1924 ~ Ken Albers, Bass singer with The Four Freshmen • 1927 ~ For the first time, famed radio announcer George Hay introduced the WSM Barn Dance as the Grand Ole Opry. The show’s title may have changed but it remained the home of country music. • 1930 ~ Duke Ellington and his orchestra recorded the haunting Mood Indigo on Victor Records. It became one of the Duke’s most famous standards. • 1943 ~ Chad Stuart, Guitarist, lyricist, singer with the duo - Chad & Jeremy • 1946 ~ Christopher ‘Ace’ Kefford, Bass with The Move • 1947 ~ Walter ‘Clyde’ Orange, Drummer, singer with The Commodores • 1948 ~ Jessica Cleaves, Singer with Friends of Distinction • 1949 ~ Frank Beard, Drummer with ZZ Top • 1949 ~ Fats Domino recorded his first sides for Imperial Records. The legend from New Orleans recorded The Fat Man, one of the earliest rock and roll records. The title also turned into Domino’s nickname and stayed with him through his years of success. • 1951 ~ John (Raul) Rodriguez, Singer • 1953 ~ Harry Belafonte debuted on Broadway in Almanac at the Imperial Theatre. Critics hailed Belafonte’s performance as "electrifyingly sincere." Also starring in the show: Hermione Gingold, Billy DeWolfe, Polly Bergen and Orson Bean. • 1966 ~ The Beach Boys made a one-week stop at the top of the Billboard Hot 100 as Good Vibrations made it to #1. It was the third #1 hit the group scored. The others were I Get Around and Help Me, Rhonda. • 1967 ~ Otis Redding and four members of the Bar-Kays (Otis’ backup group) were killed in the crash of a private plane near Madison, Wisconsin. Redding was 26 years old. His signature song, (Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay was recorded three days before his death. It was #1 for four weeks beginning February 10, 1968. Redding was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1989. The Bar-Kays biggest hit was in July, 1967: Soul Finger. James Alexander, bass player for the group, was not on the plane. Ben Cauley, trumpet player, survived the crash. The group played for a time with various new members. • 1987 ~ Jascha Heifetz passed away Read quotes by and about Heifetz More information about Heifetz 11 Hanukkah
Chanukah Chanukah Music Chanukah Music Lyrics Christmas Music, Part 11 ~ Ding Dong! Merrily On High 1803 ~ Louis-Hector Berlioz, French composer,
conductor, music critic and major force in the development of musical form
during the Romantic Era
More information about Berlioz • 1876 ~ Mieczyslaw Karlowicz, Polish composer and conductor • 1882 ~ The Bijou Theatre in Boston, MA became the first theatre to be lighted by electricity. • 1908 ~ Elliot Cook Carter, Jr., American composer • 1916 ~ (Damaso) Perez Prado, Piano, organ • 1926 ~ Willie Mae ‘Big Mama’ Thornton, Blues singer • 1931 ~ Rita Moreno (Rosita Alverio), Dancer, Academy and Emmy Award-winning actress • 1934 ~ Curtis Williams, Singer with The Penguins • 1935 ~ Tom Brumley, Steel guitar with Buck Owens and the Buckaroos, Stone Canyon Band • 1939 ~ Marlene Dietrich recorded Falling In Love Again on the Decca label. • 1940 ~ David Gates, Guitarist, keyboard, singer with Bread • 1944 ~ Brenda Lee (Tarpley), American singer of popular music • 1944 ~ "The Chesterfield Supper Club" debuted on NBC radio. Perry Como, Jo Stafford and many other stars of the day shared the spotlight on the 15-minute show that aired five nights a week. The show was sponsored by Chesterfield cigarettes. • 1952 ~ An audience of 70,000 people watched from 31 theatres as Richard Tucker starred in Carmen. The event was the first pay-TV production of an opera. Ticket prices ranged from $1.20 to $7.20. • 1954 ~ Jermaine Jackson, Singer with The Jackson Five, brother of Michael, Janet, La Toya, Tito, Randy, Marlon and Jackie • 1973 ~ Karen and Richard Carpenter received a gold record for their single, Top of the World. • 1982 ~ Toni Basil reached the #1 one position on the pop music charts for the first time, with her single, Mickey. • 2000 ~ Ruth Martin, a writer whose translations of both popular and obscure operas were widely used in American opera houses, died at the age of 86. Martin collaborated with her husband Thomas Martin in translating the librettos of some of the world's most famous operas, including Mozart's Don Giovanni and The Marriage of Figaro, as well as Puccini's Boheme, and Bizet's Carmen. Martin and her husband also translated some of the rarest operas, such as Offenbach's Grand Duchess of Gerolstein, and Dvorák's Rusalka. The Martins' translations were marked by their clarity and singability, and despite the increasing use of closed-captioning systems in major opera houses, their translations are still used widely. Martin contributed articles on opera for Opera News, Aria, and Theater Arts. She also served on the boards of the New York Federation of Music Clubs, the Liederkranz Foundation and the National Opera Foundation. • 2001 ~ Erik Johns, who wrote the libretto for Aaron Copland's only full-length opera, The Tender Land, died in a fire at his home in Fishkill, N.Y. He was 74. Born Horace Eugene Johnston in Los Angeles, Johns began his career in music as a dancer. He met Copland when he was 19 at a New Year's Eve party in New York. In 1952 the two began collaborating on an opera based on Let Us Now Praise Famous Men, a book by writer James Agee and photographer Walker Evans that describes the lives of several Southern sharecropper families during the Depression. Copland composed the music and Johns wrote the libretto, or the words. The work was originally commissioned as a television opera by NBC but was subsequently rejected by the network. The New York City Opera performed it at its premiere at City Center in April 1954 in a short two-act version. The two later added a third act. • 2001 ~ Jose Fajardo, a Cuban flutist who was one of the most influential bandleaders in Latin music, died an aneurysm. He was 82. The Cuban native had emigrated from Cuba in 1961, when he refused a request from the Cuban government to continue a musical tour to other communist countries. During his lengthy career, Fajardo recorded more than 40 albums and performed around the world. He was credited with expanding the audience for charanga, a Cuban musical style that backs a singer with flute, violins, piano, bass and percussion. Fajardo started his first group, Fajardo y sus Estrellas, in the 1940s. He later led three bands by the same name. After moving to the United States, he founded bands in New York and Miami and began performing in new style called pachanga, featuring a slightly more assertive rhythm. Fajardo was featured on "Cuban Masters: Los Originales," an album of performances by leading Cuban musicians that was released November 2001. • 2002 ~ Kay Rose, the first woman to win an Academy Award for sound editing, died. She was 80. Rose won the statuette for her work on the 1984 film The River. A native of New York, Rose was recognized in March with a career achievement award from the Cinema Audio Society. The Motion Picture Sound Editors gave her a similar lifetime achievement award in 1993. In October 2002, directors George Lucas and Steven Spielberg endowed the Kay Rose Chair in the Art of Sound and Dialogue Editing at the University of Southern California's School of Cinema-Television. The chair is the first of its kind in the country. After studying film at Hunter College, she became a civilian film apprentice for the Army Signal Corps during World War II. There, she helped create such training films as How to Erect a Double Apron Barbed Wire Fence and the John Huston documentary Report from the Aleutians. She moved to Hollywood in 1944 and found a job as an assistant to an editor at Universal studios. In 1951, she married film editor Sherman Rose. Together, they produced the 1954 sci-fi cult classic, Target Earth. They later divorced. During her five-decade career, Rose received sound editing credits on such films as The Rose, Ordinary People, On Golden Pond, The Milagro Beanfield War, The Prince of Tides, For the Boys and Speed. 12 Hanukkah
Chanukah Chanukah Music Chanukah Music Lyrics Christmas Music, Part 12 ~ Still, Still, Still • 1887 ~ Kurt Atterberg • 1915 ~ Frank (Francis Albert) Sinatra, American actor and singer of popular music • 1918 ~ Joe Williams (Joseph Goreed), Jazz singer, sang with Count Basie, actor on The Bill Cosby Show • 1938 ~ Connie Francis (Concetta Franconero), American singer and actress • 1941 ~ Terry Kirkman, Wind instruments, keyboards with The Association • 1941 ~ Dionne Warwick, American Grammy Award-winning of popular music • 1942 ~ Mike Pindar, Keyboards with The Moody Blues • 1943 ~ Dickie Betts, Guitar with The Allman Brothers and also Great Southern • 1943 ~ Mike Smith, Organs, singer with The Dave Clark Five • 1943 ~ Grover Washington, Jr., American jazz saxophonist • 1946 ~ Clive Bunker, Drummer with Jethro Tull • 1949 ~ Paul Rodgers, Piano, vocals with Free, Bad Company, The Firm • 1959 ~ Sheila E. (Escovedo), Drummer, singer • 1959 ~ Paul Rutherford, Singer with Frankie Goes to Hollywood • 1984 ~ The group known as Band Aid, 38 of Britain’s top rock musicians, recorded Do They Know This is Christmas? for Ethiopian famine victims. Despite the best of intentions, much of the food raised never got to the starving Ethiopians. In fact, much of it was found rotting on docks, not fit for human consumption. More than a Band-Aid was needed to fix that political mess. • 1989 ~ Lindsay Crosby, son of crooner Bing Crosby, died • 2002 ~ Actor Brad Dexter, who rode with Yul Brynner as one of the "Magnificent Seven" and became a confidant of both Marilyn Monroe and Frank Sinatra, died. He was 85. Burly and handsome, he was often cast as a tough guy in supporting roles, which included 1958's "Run Silent, Run Deep," starring Burt Lancaster and Clark Gable, and 1965's "None but the Brave," starring Sinatra. He made his film debut in the "The Asphalt Jungle" in 1950, but his most prominent role came in 1960's "The Magnificent Seven," in which he starred with Brynner, Steve McQueen, Charles Bronson and James Coburn. Born Boris Milanovich in Goldfield, Nev., Dexter made guest appearances on the 1950s television shows "Zane Gray Theater," "Death Valley Days" and "Wagon Train." In January 1953, he married singer Peggy Lee, but they divorced eight months later. Soon after his divorce, Dexter befriended Monroe. In 1954, he tried unsuccessfully to persuade her to stay with her husband, Joe DiMaggio. His friendship with Sinatra took on legendary proportions during the filming of "None but the Brave" in 1964. On location in Hawaii, Sinatra nearly drowned and Dexter saved his life. • 2002 ~ Marvin O. Herzog, who traveled the world with his Bavarian Polka Band for 58 years, died of pancreatic cancer. He was 70. Herzog was a polka celebrity who regularly booked 170 appearances a year. He and his band would travel more than 75,000 miles a year in a converted Greyhound bus. For years, Herzog was the star and co-sponsor of Frankenmuth's Summer Music Fest, which drew about 25,000 visitors annually to the town known for its Bavarian events and shopping. Born in Frankenmuth, Herzog lived there his entire life. He quit his job at Star of the West Milling in 1973 to concentrate full-time on polka music. He played a Cordovox - a mix of organ and accordion. Herzog recorded 32 albums, including his Schnitzelbank and Octoberfest records in German as well as Polish, Italian and English polkas. He had a radio show and co-hosted a television show. Herzog was inducted into the International Polka Association Hall of Fame in 1979. 13 Hanukkah
Chanukah Chanukah Music Chanukah Music Lyrics Christmas Music, Parts 13 ~ The Alfred Burt Carols • 1761 ~ Johann Andreas Streicher, German piano maker • 1835 ~ Phillips Brooks, Lyricist, O Little Town of Bethlehem • 1838 ~ Alexis Vicomte De Castillon • 1843 ~ Charles Dickens published his play "A Christmas Carol" • 1874 ~ Josef Lhévinne, Russian pianist, teacher. After gaining fame as a soloists in Russia and Europe, he and Rosa came to the U.S.A. in 1919. While they continued to concertize, they both taught at Juilliard; although he had the more prominent concert career, she lived on to become legendary for teaching an endless succession of prominent pianists including Van Cliburn. • 1925 ~ Wayne Walker, Songwriter • 1925 ~ Dick Van Dyke, American Emmy Award-winning actor and comedian • 1928 ~ Audiences at Carnegie Hall heard the first performance of George Gershwin's composition, An American in Paris. The debut was performed by the New York Philharmonic Orchestra under the direction of Walter Damrosch. Advertised as "a tone poem with jazz and sound effects", it was used as a ballet for Gene Kelly's 1951 performance in the movie of the same name. Unfortunately, George Gershwin did not live to see his composition being danced to in the Academy Award-winning An American in Paris. It won six Oscars: Best Art Direction/Set Direction [Color], Best Color Cinematography, Best Costume Design [Color], Best Story and Screenplay, Best Picture ... and Best Score. • 1929 ~ Christopher Plummer (Orme), Actor, Sound of Music, Doll's House • 1929 ~ Hoagy Carmichael recorded with Louis Armstrong. They did Rockin’ Chair on Columbia records and cylinders. • 1940 ~ The two-sided jump tune, The Anvil Chorus, was recorded by Glenn Miller and his orchestra for Bluebird Records in New York. The 10-inch, 78 rpm record ran six minutes (including flipping). • 1941 ~ John Davidson, Actor, singer, TV game show host of the Hollywood Squares • 1948 ~ Jeff ‘Skunk’ Baxter, Guitarist with Steely Dan, The Doobie Brothers • 1948 ~ Ted Nugent, Guitarist, singer with Amboy Dukes • 1948 ~ The American Federation of Musicians went back to work after an 11½-month strike. During the strike, there was an 11½-month ban on phonograph records as well. • 1949 ~ Randy Owen, Guitarist, singer with Alabama • 1949 ~ Tom Verlaine (Miller), Guitarist, singer with Television • 1974 ~ Former George Harrison was greeted at the White House. President Gerald R. Ford invited Harrison to lunch. The two exchanged buttons, Ford giving George a WIN (Whip Inflation Now) pin and Harrison gave the President an OM (Hindu mantra word expressing creation) button. • 2000 ~ Cellist Yo-Yo Ma made a special guest appearance on NBC television's West Wing. No, he did't play a partisan leader, but he was featured in some of the music of Bach. • 2002 ~ Maria Bjornson, a set and costume designer whose work on the hit musical The Phantom of the Opera won critical acclaim, was found dead at her London home. She was 53. Bjornson was born in Paris in 1949 and grew up in London, the daughter of a Romanian woman and a Norwegian father. She went to the French Lycee in London and then studied at the Byam Shaw School of Art and the Central School of Art and Design. Bjornson worked as a theater designer from 1969, and designed 13 productions at the Glasgow Citizens' Theater. She worked for the Welsh National Opera and its English and Scottish counterparts, and was involved with the Royal Shakespeare Company and the Royal Ballet. Her colorful and grand design for Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical Phantom of the Opera at Her Majesty's Theater in London in 1986 won her international acclaim. In 1988, Bjornson's work on Phantom won two Tony Awards, one for sets and the other for costumes. After Phantom she collaborated with Lloyd Webber again on Aspects of Love, and worked on the Royal Ballet's production of Sleeping Beauty at Covent Garden in London in 1994 and on Cosi Fan Tutte at Glyndebourne in 1991. • 2002 ~ Former Lovin' Spoonful guitarist Zal Yanovsky, who traded in the wild rock star life for a quiet existence as a restaurant owner in Canada, died. The Toronto native died of a heart attack at his home in Kingston, Ontario, six days before his 58th birthday. Famed for such hits as Do You Believe in Magic and Summer in the City, the Lovin' Spoonful enjoyed a brief reign in the mid 1960s as America's answer to the Beatles. The quartet, led by singer/guitarist John Sebastian, racked up seven consecutive top 10 singles in 16 months. Yanovsky, a tall Russian Jew who resembled Ringo Starr, joined forces with Sebastian in New York City in 1964. The pair shared a love of folk music, and both had played in the Mugwumps, a short-lived combo that also included future Mamas and Papas members "Mama" Cass Elliot and Denny Doherty. The Lovin' Spoonful, named after a Mississippi John Hurt song, took shape in 1965 when Yanovsky and Sebastian teamed up with drummer Joe Butler and bass player Steve Boone. The group's first single, Do You Believe In Magic reached the top 10 that year. Its followup, You Don't Have To Be So Nice also went top 10 in early 1966. Summer in the City was their sole No. 1. Besides recording five albums, the band also did the soundtracks to Woody Allen's What's Up, Tiger Lily? and Francis Ford Coppola You're A Big Boy Now. Yanovsky was the zany member of the group. He was the focal point during live performances, but his biting humor often rubbed his colleagues the wrong way, especially when one of his girlfriends ended up with Sebastian. In 1966, the group's banner year, Yanovsky was faced with deportation after he and Boone were arrested for marijuana possession in San Francisco. They turned in their dealer, which damaged the band's hipster credentials. Amid rising tensions, Yanovsky was voted out of the band in 1967, but remained on amicable terms with his colleagues. He recorded a solo album, Alive and Well in Argentina, in 1968. Sebastian, the band's creative force, left that year, and the band soon broke up. The original members reunited in 1980 to appear in the Paul Simon film One-Trick Pony and then in 2000 when it was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Yanovsky dabbled in TV before going into the restaurant business. He ran Chez Piggy, an acclaimed eatery in Kingston. • 2003 ~ Jazz trumpeter Webster Young, who played with greats such as Miles Davis and John Coltrane in the 1950s, died of a brain tumor. He was 71. Young's career got an early boost when Louis Armstrong took him as a student when he was 10 years old. As a teenager, Young jammed with Dizzy Gillespie, earning the nickname "Little Diz" in Washington D.C.-area clubs for a style that resembled Gillespie's. Young broke into the modern jazz scene in New York City in the late 1950s, recording several albums. He returned to Washington D.C. in the 1970s to raise his family. He toured in Europe in the 1980s and performed regularly at jazz clubs until eight months before his death. Young's career peaked in 1957, when he played coronet with John Coltrane for the album "Interplay for Two Trumpets and Two Tenors" for the Prestige record label. 14 Hanukkah
Chanukah Chanukah Music Chanukah Music Lyrics • 1911 ~ "Spike" (Lindley Armstrong) Jones, American drummer, bandleader of satiric music • 1913 ~ Dan Dailey, Singer, dancer, actor • 1914 ~ Rosalyn Tureck, American pianist and harpsichordist • 1920 ~ Clark Terry, Trumpet, flugelhorn with Lionel Hampton, Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Quincy Jones • 1928 ~ America’s original Funny Girl, Fanny Brice, recorded If You Want the Rainbow, a song from the play, My Man, on Victor Records. • 1932 ~ Abbe Lane (Lassman), Singer, glamour actress, photographed in bathtub filled with coffee, bandleader Xavier Cugat's ex-wife • 1936 ~ You Can’t Take It with You opened at the Booth Theatre in New York City. • 1946 ~ Patty Duke, US film actress • 1947 ~ Christopher Parkening, American guitarist • 1953 ~ Fred Allen returned from semiretirement to narrate Prokofiev's classic, Peter and the Wolf, on the Bell Telephone Hour on NBC radio. • 1963 ~ Singer Dinah Washington died in Detroit. • 1970 ~ George Harrison received a gold record for his single, My Sweet Lord. • 1983 ~ The musical biography of Peggy Lee opened at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre in New York City. The show was titled Peg. • 1984 ~ The Cotton Club opened around the U.S. There were nine classic songs by Duke Ellington on the soundtrack of the movie. • 1990 ~ Opera lovers were turned into couch potatoes. For four evenings, starting on this day, they watched and listened to an unabridged telecast of Richard Wagner's marathon-length opera The Ring. • 2001 ~ Conte Candoli, a Trumpet player and staple of The Tonight Show band during Johnny Carson's era, died of cancer. He was 74. Candoli was recognized for developing a musical style based on Dizzy Gillespie's bebop playing, with a touch of Miles Davis and Clifford Brown. The Indiana-born Candoli, grew up surrounded by musical instruments and influences. His father, a factory worker, played the trumpet and wanted Candoli and his brother Pete to become musicians. At 16, he worked in Woody Herman’s orchestra during summer vacations. While playing in California, Candoli began his association with the then New York-based Tonight Show. In 1972, when Carson moved the show to Burbank, Candoli joined the band. He left when Carson retired in 1992. 15 Christmas Music, Part 15 Ð The FirstÊNoel 1910 ~ John Hammond, American jazz critic • 1922 ~ Alan Freed, American disc jockey • 1939 ~ One of the most celebrated motion pictures of all time, Gone with the Wind, starring with Vivien Leigh and Clark Gable was premiered in Atlanta to critical acclaim. The picture ran for close to four hours. • 1941 ~ A musical standard was recorded this day on Victor Records. Lena Horne sang the torch classic that became her signature: Stormy Weather. "Don’t know why there’s no sun up in the sky. Stormy weather..." • 1942 ~ Dave Clark, British rock drummer and singer • 1943 ~ Fats (Thomas Wright) Waller died. He was an American jazz pianist, organist, composer, singer, and comedic entertainer, whose innovations to the Harlem stride style laid the groundwork for modern jazz piano. at the age of 39 from pneumonia More information about Waller • 1944 ~ Glenn Miller passed away when his plane disappeared over the English Channel. Major Glenn Miller was on his way to lead his Air Force Band in a Christmas concert. • 1954 ~ Davy Crockett, Indian Fighter was featured on Walt Disney’s TV series for the first time. Crockett was played by Fess Parker. It wasn’t long before the Davy Crockett craze brought a new number one song to the pop music charts. "Davy, Davy Crockett, king of the wild frontier." • 1962 ~ The first record album to poke fun at a U.S. President became the #1 LP in the country. Vaughn Meader’s The First Family made the humorist a household word. The album stayed at #1 for three months. • 1984 ~ Jan Peerce passed away • 1986 ~ Violinist Isaac Stern arrived in a horse-drawn carriage to cut the ribbon for the renovated Carnegie Hall in New York City. • 1986 ~ Kenny Rogers cut himself a deal with the Dole Food Company. The singer became the highest-paid celebrity pitchman, ‘doling’ out nice words about pineapple and other Dole products for 17 million dollars. • 2000 ~ Revered conjunto musician Valerio Longoria, who taught accordion to children in San Antonio for many years, died at the age of 76. Musicians and friends remembered the master accordionist as an innovator and influential stylist of conjunto music, a Texas-based rhythm fueled by the accordion and the bajo sexto, a 12-string Spanish bass guitar. As a teen-ager, Longoria played weddings and parties in Harlingen. In 1942, he was drafted into the U.S. Army and at the end of World War II was stationed in Germany, where he managed to get an accordion and play in nightclubs. In 1945, he moved to San Antonio, where he began recording for Corona Records. Longoria was among the first inductees into the Tejano Conjunto Music Hall of Fame in 1982, and in 1986 he received the National Heritage Award, the nation's highest honor for folk artists. • 2001 ~ Rufus Thomas, a musician whose Bear Cat helped Sun Records get its start and whose Funky Chicken gave a boost to the Stax Label, died at the age of 84. Rufus Thomas was best known for novelty dance recordings like Walking the Dog, Do the Funky Chicken and Push and Pull. He began tap dancing on the streets of Memphis for tips and performed in amateur shows in high school. In the 1940s, Thomas ran his own Beale Street amateur show that attracted B.B. King, Bobby "Blue" Bland and many other performers who went on to become famous. In his declining years, Thomas took on the title of Beale Street ambassador and liked to refer to himself as the world's oldest teen- ager. In 1953, Thomas recorded Bear Cat, an answer to Big Mama Thornton's Hound Dog, and it became Sun Record's first hit. That was before Elvis Presley arrived on the scene to become Sun's undisputed star. Thomas complained in later years that Sun's black artists were pushed aside after Presley's success. In the 1960s, Thomas became one of the founding performers for Stax Records, which created what came to be known as "the Memphis sound," with performers like Isaac Hayes, Otis Redding and Puccini's Madama Butterfly. With the participation of Igor Stravinsky, early Santa Fe seasons gained world attention. Stravinsky brought music to the 1957 through 1963 seasons. His last night as both conductor and general director was Aug. 24, 2000, when he led Richard Strauss' Elektra. Former President Bush presented Crosby a National Medal of Arts in 1991. He also received an Officer's Cross of the Federal German Order of Merit in 1992 for his service to German music. • 2002 ~ Rick Chase, a morning radio personality for KWIN-FM of Stockton, was found dead in his apartment. He was 45. Chase was best known for his work at KMEL-FM in San Francisco from 1986 to 1998. He also worked at KFRC-FM and KITS-FM in the Bay Area, KNVQ-FM in Reno and KZZO-FM in Sacramento. Chase, a 20-year radio veteran known to his listeners for his bombastic on-air personality, had worked at KWIN for two years. • 2002 ~ Washington, DC Area: The storied history and sweeping skyline of US Airways Arena ended in a billowing cloud of dust Sunday morning as technicians reduced it to rubble with hundreds of pounds of dynamite. Almost 200 people, some of whom grew up watching sports and cultural events at arena, gathered hundreds of yards away in the chill morning to say goodbye to the piece of 20th-century Washington's history just outside the Capital Beltway. A shopping center will replace it. The arena began life in 1973 as the Capital Centre, a state-of-the-art architectural gem. In the ensuing decades, it housed the Washington Bullets basketball team and the Washington Capitals hockey team and held concerts by Elvis Presley, Michael Jackson, Frank Sinatra, the Rolling Stones, Pavarotti. "I remember seeing the Washington Bullets when they were really good and the Caps when they were really bad, as well as Prince and Tina Turner," said Stewart Small, who grew up near the arena and now lives in Alexandria, Va. "I know it's not Ebbets Field, but it had a lot of memories for me." Crews used about 400 pounds of dynamite at 500 locations to do the job. In just over 15 seconds, the stadium that took 15 months to build caved into a cloud of light brown dust. Some in the crowd cheered, but most were silent. A few were teary-eyed as dust soared above where the 18,000-seat arena had stood. The arena opened Dec. 2, 1973, to a sellout crowd that watched the Bullets beat the Seattle SuperSonics 98-96. It has had no regular clients since the NBA Bullets, now Wizards, and the NHL Capitals moved to the MCI Center downtown. 16 Christmas Music, Part 16 Ð We Three Kings 1770 ~ Ludwig van Beethoven, Composer
Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony was featured in
the Walt Disney movie Fantasia and his
Symphony Number 5 in Fantasia 2000
More information on Beethoven  Grammy winnerIf composers had Facebook: Beethoven's profile 1882 ~ Zoltán Kodály, Hungarian composer and collector of folk songs
More information on Kodály • 1893 ~ Antonin Dvorák attended the first performance of his New World Symphony at Carnegie Hall in New York City. • 1899 ~ Sir Noel Coward, British composer of musical comedies, actor and producer • 1905 ~ Sime Silverman published the first issue of Variety, the weekly show biz magazine. The first issue was 16 pages in length and sold for a nickel. Variety and Daily Variety are still going strong. • 1907 ~ Eugene H. Farrar became the first singer to broadcast on radio. He sang from the Brooklyn Navy Yard in New York. The song was Do You Really Want to Hurt Me? • 1940 ~ Bob Crosby and his Bobcats backed up brother Bing as San Antonio Rose was recorded on Decca Records. • 1960 ~ Lucille Ball took a respite from her weekly TV series to star in the Broadway production of Wildcat, which opened at the Alvin Theatre in New York City. The show ran for 171 performances. • 1967 ~ The Lemon Pipers released Green Tambourine on an unsuspecting psychedelic world this day. The tune made #1 on February 3, 1968. • 1971 ~ Melanie (Safka) received a gold record for the single, Brand New Key, about roller skates and love and stuff like that. This one made it to #1 on Christmas Day, 1971. • 1971 ~ Don McLean’s eight-minute-plus (8:32) version of American Pie was released. It became one of the longest songs with some of the most confusing (pick your favorite interpretation) lyrics to ever hit the pop charts. American Pie hit #1 on January 15, 1972. • 1972 ~ Paul McCartney's single, Hi, Hi, Hi, was released. It peaked at #10 on the top tune tabulation (February 3, 1973). • 2003 ~ Singer and guitarist Gary Stewart, who had a No. 1 country hit in 1975 with She's Actin' Single (I'm Drinkin' Doubles), died of an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound. He was 58. A native of Letcher County, Ky., Stewart was a compelling songwriter and performer of guitar-driven, honky tonk country. His last album, Live at Billy Bob's Texas, was released in 2003. Besides the 1975 chart-topper, his hits included Drinkin' Thing and Out of Hand. He worked with Southern rock greats Dickie Betts and Gregg Allman of The Allman Brothers Band on the 1980 album Cactus and a Rose. 17 1749 ~ Domenico Cimarosa, Italian composer 1894 ~ Arthur Fiedler, American violinist and conductor
More information on Fiedler • 1910 ~ Sy (Melvin James) Oliver, Trumpeter, singer, arranger, bandleader, composer • 1926 ~ Benny Goodman played a clarinet solo. This was not unusual for Benny except that it was his first time playing solo within a group recording session. Goodman was featured with Ben Pollack and His Californians on He’s the Last Word. • 1936 ~ Tommy Steele (Hicks), Singer, actor • 1937 ~ Art Neville, Keyboards, percussion, singer with The Neville Brothers • 1937 ~ Nat Stuckey, Country singer, songwriter • 1939 ~ Eddie Kendricks, Singer with The Temptations • 1942 ~ Paul Butterfield, American blues singer and harmonica player with Paul Butterfield Blues Band • 1943 ~ Dave Dee (Harmon), Tambourine, singer, record promoter • 1955 ~ Carl Perkins wrote Blue Suede Shoes. Less than 48 hours later, he recorded it at the Sun Studios in Memphis. The tune became one of the first records to be popular simultaneously on rock, country and rhythm & blues charts. • 1958 ~ Mike Mills, Bass with R.E.M • 1961 ~ Sarah Dallin, Singer with Bananarama • 1969 ~ Tiny Tim (Herbert Buchingham Khaury) married Miss Vickie (Victoria Budinger) on The Tonight Show starring Johnny Carson. This is the Tiny Tim of the falsetto version of Tiptoe Through the Tulips fame. The NBC-TV program earned the second-highest, all-time audience rating; second only to Neil Armstrong’s walking on the the moon. Mr. Tiny Tim and Miss Vickie had a daughter, Tulip. Then in 1977 they stopped tiptoeing together. • 1969 ~ Chicago Transit Authority became a gold record for the group of the same name (they later changed their name to Chicago). When the album was released by Columbia Records, it marked the first time an artist’s debut LP was a double record. • 1970 ~ The Beach Boys played to royalty at Royal Albert Hall in London. Princess Margaret was in attendance and shook the royal jewelry to such classics as Good Vibrations, I Get Around and Help Me, Rhonda. • 1977 ~ Elvis Costello, making a rare TV appearance, agreed to perform on NBC’s Saturday Night Live. • 1978 ~ Don Ellis passed away • 1999 ~ Rex Allen passed away • 2004 ~ Johnnie Carl, Crystal Cathedral Orchestra conductor, took his life. Mr. Carl has been in the employment of the Crystal Cathedral for nearly 30 years and was internationally renowned as a conductor and as a composer and arranger of over 3,500 musical pieces. He was 57 years old. 18 Christmas Music, Part 18 Ð The Birthday of a King
1644 ~ Antonio Stradivari, Italian,
most celebrated of all violin makers
Read more information about Stradivari • 1778 ~ Joseph Grimaldi, Clown: ‘greatest clown in history’, ‘king of pantomime’, Joey the Clown; singer, dancer, acrobat, his character was part of the plot for the movie "Her Alibi". He died in 1837. • 1786 ~ Baron Karl von Weber, Opera composer 1869 ~ Edward Alexander MacDowell, American composer and pianist
More information about MacDowell • 1892 ~ Premiere of The Nutcracker ballet by Tchaikovsky. This traditional Christmas ballet is so popular that its annual performances keeps many opera companies afloat. Act 1 tells a story of how little Clara aids her magical Christmas gift (a Nutcracker in the form of a soldier) defeat an army of mice. As a reward, he takes her to his magic kingdom and introduces her to a variety of subjects in a colorful stream of character dances. Tchaikovsky's supply of themes is endless and he constantly provides brilliant orchestration. • 1919 ~ Anita O'Day (Colton), American jazz singer • 1920 ~ Conductor Arturo Toscanini made his first recording for Victor Records in Camden, New Jersey. • 1934 ~ Willie Smith sang with Jimmy Lunceford and his orchestra on Rhythm is Our Business on Decca Records • 1941 ~ Sam Andrew, Guitarist with Big Brother and the Holding Company • 1943 ~ Keith Richards, British rock guitarist and singer with The Rolling Stones • 1948 ~ Bryan ‘Chas’ Chandler, Bass with the Animals • 1961 ~ The Tokens celebrated their first #1 hit single. The Lion Sleeps Tonight (Wimoweh) was a chart topper for four weeks in a row. • 1972 ~ Helen Reddy received a gold record for the song that became an anthem for women’s liberation, I Am Woman. The song had reached number one on December 9, 1972. • 1975 ~ Rod Stewart announced that he was leaving the group, Faces, and was going solo in a deal with Warner Brothers. • 1981 ~ Rod Stewart gave a concert at the Los Angeles Forum, which was televised to 23 countries and carried by FM radio stations in the US to an audience of about 35 million. • 1982 ~ Daryl Hall and John Oates reached the #1 spot on the music charts for the fifth time with Maneater. The song stayed in the top spot for four weeks, making it Hall and Oates’ most popular hit. • 2001 ~ Eddie Baker, whose efforts to create a jazz hall of fame planted the seeds for the American Jazz Museum in Kansas City, died after complications from heart surgery. He was 71. Baker, a trumpeter and pianist, had led the New Breed Jazz Orchestra since the 1960s, forming close relationships with many top jazz artists. He began calling for a jazz hall of fame as early as the 1970s. He held what he hoped would be the first annual induction to the International Jazz Hall of Fame in 1985 at the Music Hall. But attendance was low, despite a star-studded roster of talent that included the Count Basie Orchestra, George Benson and Woody Herman. He maintained the hall of fame on paper, even though it never had a physical home. Through the years, Baker suggested building a jazz hall in several spots in Kansas City, including the 18th and Vine district and Union Station. His push generated interest in the project, but the American Jazz Museum opened under a different name in 1997 without his involvement. He also was an original member of the Kansas City Jazz Commission, which organized pub crawls and promoted jazz in the 1980s, and he helped organize the Elder Statesmen of Jazz, a service organization of older musicians. • 2004 ~ Legendary British saxophonist Dick Heckstall-Smith, who played with a list of musicians that reads like a who's who of the international jazz and rock music scene, has died. 19 Christmas Music, Parts 19-22 Ð Johnny Marks 1888 ~ Fritz Reiner, Hungarian-born American conductor who was the musical director of the Pittsburgh Symphony, New York Metropolitan Opera and Chicago Symphony. He died in 1963. • 1915 ~ Edith Piaf (Edith Giovanna Gassion), French chanteuse and songwriter • 1925 ~ ‘Little’ Jimmy Dickens, Country Music Hall of Famer • 1928 ~ Galt MacDermot, Composer • 1940 ~ Phil Ochs, American folk singer, songwriter and guitarist • 1941 ~ Maurice White, Singer, drummer, founder of the group Earth, Wind & Fire • 1944 ~ Alvin Lee, Musician with Ten Years After • 1944 ~ Zal Yanovsky, Guitarist, singer with The Lovin’ Spoonful more about Zal Yanovsky • 1952 ~ Jeff Davis, Bass with Amazing Rhythm Aces • 1952 ~ Janie Fricke, Singer, Country Music Association Female Vocalist of the Year in 1982 and 1983 • 1957 ~ Meredith Willson’s The Music Man opened at the Majestic Theatre in New York City. The Broadway show starred Robert Preston and had a run of1,375 shows. It also had 76 trombones and 101 cornets in the band... • 1960 ~ Neil Sedaka’s Calendar Girl was released on RCA Victor Records. The song became Sedaka’s fourth record to make the charts. Other hits from the guy who made money off of a love song for Carole King (Oh, Carol) include The Diary, Stairway to Heaven, Bad Girl, Next Door to an Angel, Happy Birthday Sweet Sixteen, Laughter in the Rain and Breaking Up is Hard to Do. • 1960 ~ Frank Sinatra recorded his first session with his very own record company. Frank did Ring-A-Ding-Ding and Let’s Fall in Love for Reprise Records. • 2000 ~ Milt Hinton, a jazz bassist and photographer called "The Judge" by the jazz greats he worked with and photographed during a 70-year career, died at the age of 90. During his career, Hinton performed with almost every luminary of jazz and popular music, from Louis Armstrong, Cab Calloway, Dizzy Gillespie and John Coltrane to Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, Barbra Streisand and Paul McCartney. Hinton also documented his world with a camera, compiling close to 60,000 negatives depicting hundreds of jazz artists and popular musicians on the road, in the studio, backstage and at parties. • 2001 ~ Bill Bissell, a former University of Washington marching band director who helped create "The Wave", died in his sleep. He was 70. Bissell directed the Huskies' band with flair, innovation and humor from 1970 until he retired in 1994. He and former Washington yell leader Robb Weller introduced "The Wave," in which fans stand with arms raised and cheer section by section, to college football 20 years ago. Bissell directed halftime shows at 14 bowl games, including six Rose Bowls and an Orange Bowl, and was awarded a Citation of Excellence from the National Band Association in 1981. 20 Christmas Music, Parts 19-22 Ð Johnny Marks 1728 ~ Franz Xaver Pokorny, Czech Classical era composer and violinist. • 1783 ~ Padre Antonio Francisco Javier Jose Soler • 1871 ~ Henry Kimball Hadley, American composer and conductor • 1898 ~ Irene (Marie) Dunne, Actress in Show Boat, Anna and the King of Siam, Alternate Delegate to the United Nations, Kennedy Center Honors Lifetime Achievement Award in 1985. • 1909 ~ Vagn Holmboe, Danish composer and music critic • 1920 ~ An English-born comedian named Leslie Downes became an American citizen. He had lived in the United States since 1908 and became one of the nation’s true ambassadors for show business and charity. We say, "Thanks for the memories," to Bob Hope. • 1928 ~ For the first time, a living actress in the United States had a theatre named after her. The Ethel Barrymore Theatre opened in New York City. • 1932 ~ Al Jolson recorded April Showers on Brunswick Records. • 1938 ~ John Harbison, American composer and conductor • 1944 ~ Bobby Colomby, Drummer, singer with Blood, Sweat & Tears • 1948 ~ Little Stevie Wright, Singer with The Easybeats • 1949 ~ Harry Belafonte had his second session with Capitol Records. Included in the session were Whispering and Farewell to Arms. With eight tunes then recorded and little enthusiasm from record buyers, Capitol decided to part company with Belafonte by not renewing the singer’s contract. He went to RCA Victor in April, 1952. • 1952 ~ Jimmy Boyd reached the #1 spot on the record charts with the Christmas song of the year,I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus. • 1957 ~ Billy (Steven) Bragg, Songwriter, guitarist, singer • 1966 ~ Chris Robinson, Singer with The Black Crowes • 1972 ~ Jack Albertson and Sam Levine starred as two retired vaudevillians in Neil Simon’s classic comedy, The Sunshine Boys, which opened at the Broadhurst Theatre in NYC. The play had a run of 538 performances. The movie version later became a box office smash, as well. • 1973 ~ Singer Bobby Darin passed away following open-heart surgery at the age of 37. He left a legacy of memories in rock ’n’ roll and pop tunes, as well as on television and in movies (even an Oscar nomination for his role in Captain Newman, M.D.). The story of Darin being groomed to replace Frank Sinatra at Capitol Records is absolutely true. Unfortunately, Capitol didn’t think the grooming was going so well, and withheld many of Darin’s songs for many years; releasing them in a compilation CD in 1995. Good stuff to listen to: Splish Splash, Queen of the Hop, Dream Lover, Mack the Knife, Beyond the Sea, If I Were a Carpenter, etc. At the end, Darin, who had recorded for Atco, Capitol and Atlantic Records had just begun recording for Motown. • 1980 ~ Shirley Temple Black became a grandmother. Her oldest daughter gave birth to a baby girl. • 1999 ~ Hank Snow passed away • 2000 ~ Roebuck "Pops" Staples, patriarch of the Staple Singers whose lyrics on "Respect Yourself" and other hits delivered a civil rights message with a danceable soul beat, passed away. "They took this really positive message music and made it contemporary and popular by putting it with electric guitars and inserting a groove," said Sherman Wilmott, who is helping create a museum in Memphis, Tennessee, honoring the musical stars at Stax Records, the Staple Singers' principal label. Born in Winona, Mississippi, Staples learned to sing acappella and developed his Delta blues electric guitar style. Starting out as a gospel group in 1948, the Staple Singers with son Pervis and daughters Mavis and Cleotha as singers reached an even wider audience with 1970s soul hits such as Respect Yourself, I'll Take You There and If You're Ready (Come Go With Me). Before achieving stardom, Staples resisted taking his family on tour and held jobs in Chicago's stockyards andsteel mills. Staples came to believe he could contribute in song to the battle for blacks' civil rights being waged by the Rev. Martin Luther King and others, Wilmott said. "He sang and played guitar. He was extremely well- spoken and calm and intelligent," he said. Another daughter, Yvonne, told the Tribune: "When Dr. King started preaching, Pops said 'I think we can sing it.' That's what he felt," she said. "He believed that the world could be made a better place for all of us." At age 80, Staples won a Grammy Award as a solo artist in 1994 for his album "Father Father." He also received a National Heritage Fellowship Award at the White House from first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton. The group entered the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame last year. In a 1998 interview with the Tribune, Staples said his musical education began early. "We'd come home and didn't have anything to do after we eat but go to bed. So we'd go out in the yard and sing." • 2000 ~ Rob Buck, lead guitarist for the rock band 10,000 Maniacs, died of liver failure at the age of 42, three weeks after he collapsed at his home in western New York. 2004 ~ Blues singer-guitarist Son Seals, one of the most distinctive voices to emerge
in the genre during the 1970s, died at the age of 62.
More information about Son Seals 2004 ~ Italian soprano Renata Tebaldi, one of the great post-World
War II opera divas who Arturo Toscanini said had the "voice of an angel,"
died at the age of 82.
More information about Renata Tebaldi 21 Christmas Music, Parts 19-22 Ð Johnny Marks 1810 ~ Ludwig Schuncke, German pianist and composer, and close friend of Robert Schumann. • 1850 ~ Zdenek Fibich, Czech composer of classical music. • 1913 ~ Andor Foldes, Pianist who played with Budapest Philharmonic at eight years of age • 1921 ~ Alicia Alonso (Martinez Hoyo), Dancer • 1933 ~ Freddie Hart, Country singer • 1940 ~ Frank Zappa, American rock guitarist, composer, arranger and songwriter, with Mothers of Invention, father of Dweezil and Moon Unit Zappa 1944 ~ Michael Tilson Thomas, American conductor and pianist,
jazz band conductor, led the London Symphony Orchestra and Los Angeles
Philharmonic
More information about Tilson Thomas • 1946 ~ Carl Wilson, Guitarist with The Beach Boys, brother of Brian and Dennis, his original group was Carl and the Passions • 1953 ~ Andras Schiff, Hungarian pianist • 1966 ~ The Beach Boys received a gold record for the single, Good Vibrations. • 1985 ~ Springsteen’s album, Born in the USA, passed Michael Jackson's Thriller to become the second longest-lasting LP in the top 10. It stayed there for 79 weeks. Only The Sound of Music, with Julie Andrews, lasted longer at 109 weeks. 22 Christmas Music, Parts 19-22 Ð Johnny Marks 1723 ~ Carl Friedrich Abel, German composer of the Classical era. He was a renowned player of the viola da gamba, and composed important music for that instrument. • 1821 ~ Giovanni Bottesini, Italian Romantic composer, conductor, and a double bass virtuoso • 1853 ~ Maria Teresa Carreno, Venezuelan pianist, singer, composer, and conductor. 1858 ~ Giacomo Puccini, Italian opera composer
More information about Puccini 1883 ~ Edgard Varèse, French-born American avant-garde composer
More information about Varèse • 1874 ~ Franz Schmidt, Austrian composer, cellist and pianist. • 1885 ~ (Joseph) Deems Taylor, American opera composer and writer, music critic for New York World from 1921 until 1925, New York American from 1931 to 1932, intermission commentator for Sunday radio broadcasts of NY Philharmonic (1936 to 1943), president of ASCAP, married to poet and playwright Mary Kennedy • 1901 ~ André Kostelanetz, Russian-born American conductor and arranger of Broadway show tunes • 1939 ~ Gertrude ‘Ma’ Rainey passed away • 1941 ~ Jimmy Lunceford and his orchestra recorded Blues in the Night on Decca. The song became one of Lunceford’s biggest hits. Between 1934 and 1946 Jimmy Lunceford had more hits (22) than any other black jazz band (except Duke Ellington and Cab Calloway). • 1944 ~ Barry Jenkins, Drummer with Nashville Teens and also the Animals • 1946 ~ Rick Nielsen, Guitarist, singer with Cheap Trick • 1949 ~ Maurice Gibb, Bass, songwriter with the Bee Gees, married to singer Lulu, twin of Robin Gibb More about Maurice Gibb and the Bee Gees • 1949 ~ Robin Gibb, Songwriter for Bee Gees, twin of Maurice Gibb More about the Bee Gees • 1958 ~ The Chipmunks were at the #1 position on the music charts on this day in 1958 as Alvin, Simon, and Theodore sang with David Seville. The Chipmunk Song, the novelty tune that topped the charts for a month, is still a Christmas favorite today... Christmas, Christmas time is near Time for toys and time for cheer We’ve been good, but we can’t last Hurry Christmas, hurry fast Want a plane that loops the loop Me, I want a hula hoop We can hardly stand the wait Please Christmas, don’t be late • 1972 ~ Folk singer Joni Mitchell received a gold record for the album, For the Roses. The album included the song, You Turn Me on, I’m a Radio. • 1981 ~ London was the scene of a rock ’n’ roll auction where buyers paid $2,000 for a letter of introduction from Buddy Holly to Decca Records. Cynthia and John Lennon’s marriage certificate was worth $850 and an autographed program from the world premiere of the Beatles film Help! brought $2,100. • 1984 ~ CBS Records announced plans for the release of Mick Jagger's first solo album, set for February, • 1985 ~ The Rolling Stones went solo after a 20-year career with the self- proclaimed "greatest rock ’n’ roll band in the world." The album: She’s the Boss. • 2002 ~ Joe Strummer (John Mellors), who brought punk attitude and politics to one of the most significant bands in rock 'n' roll history, the Clash, died of a heart attack at his home in Somerset, England. He was 50. Strummer, a singer, guitarist, songwriter, activist and actor, had been touring with his band the Mescaleros since the release of their second album "Global a- Go-Go" in July 2001; the latest leg of the tour ended in November in Liverpool. The Clash, which formed in 1976, released its first album in '77 and broke up for good in 1986, will be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in March. The original lineup of Strummer, Mick Jones, Terry Chimes and Paul Simonon was expected to re-form for the induction ceremony and play the band's first single, "White Riot," at the ceremony. Although it was written as an advertising tagline, the Clash successfully lived up to its slogan as "the only band that matters." The son of a diplomat, Strummer was born John Graham Mellor on Aug. 21, 1952, in Ankara, Turkey. He attended boarding schools in London, and as a teenager grew infatuated with reggae, R&B and rock 'n' roll. He formed a pub band, the 101ers, in 1974, which he gave up to form the Clash with Jones, Chimes and Keith Levene. The band was playing standard rock 'n' roll prior to Strummer's arrival. He added reggae to the mix and upped the ante in politics and intensity. He took a Jones tune, for example, that was a complaint about a girlfriend and turned it into one of the band's early anthems, "I'm So Bored With the U.S.A." "Within the Clash, Joe was the political engine of the band," British troubadour Billy Bragg said. "Without Joe there's no political Clash, and without the Clash the whole political edge of punk would have been severely dulled." Jones and Strummer penned all of the tunes on their debut and often worked as a team, though later albums would have songs attributed solely to Strummer and, for their final two efforts, have all songs attributed to the band.  23 Michael's Birthday :) Christmas Music, Part 23 ~ Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker • 1689 ~ Joseph Bodin De Boismortier, French baroque composer of instrumental music, cantatas, opŽra-ballets, and vocal music. • 1907 ~ Don McNeill, Radio host 1918 ~ José Greco, Italian flamenco dancer
More information about José Greco • 1929 ~ Chet Baker, American jazz trumpeter and singer • 1934 ~ Claudio Scimone, Italian conductor and musicologist • 1935 ~ ‘Little’ Esther Phillips (Esther Mae Jones), Pianist, singer, Grammy nomination for Best female R & B vocalist in 1973. Aretha Franklin won but she gave the award to Esther • 1939 ~ Johnny Kidd (Frederick Heath), Singer, songwriter with Johnny Kidd & The Pirates • 1940 ~ Tim Hardin, Singer, composer • 1940 ~ Jorma Kaukonen, Guitarist with Jefferson Airplane and also Hot Tuna • 1940 ~ Eugene Record, Singer with Chi-Lites • 1942 ~ Bob Hope agreed to entertain U.S. airmen in Alaska. It was the first of his many famous Christmas shows for American armed forces around the world. The tradition continued for more than three decades. • 1943 ~ The first complete opera to be televised was aired on WRBG in Schenectady, NY. (WRGB was named after GE engineer Dr. W.R.G. Baker. It was not named, as many have thought over the years, for red, blue and green, the three primary colors of a TV picture tube.) Humperdinck’s "Hansel and Gretel" was the opera presented. • 1945 ~ Ron Bushy, Drummer with Iron Butterfly • 1951 ~ Johnny Contardo, Singer with Sha-Na-Na, formerly Eddie and The Evergreens • 1964 ~ Eddie Vedder (Mueller), Songwriter, singer with Pearl Jam • 1964 ~ Rock ’n’ roll radio,in the guise of Pirate Radio, went to the U.K. Radio London began its regular broadcasts. It was joined, at sea, by other pirates like Radio Caroline and Radio Luxembourg. It was a gallant effort to broadcast commercial radio, which was illegal in Great Britain. On England’s mainland, one had to listen to ‘Auntie Beeb’ (the BBC) or nothing at all. It was generally like a battle. Government agents would attempt to board a floating radio station, take it over, and shut it down. Many times the ships would broadcast from different locales to foil the governmental crackdown on the high seas. Later, the BBC split into four different radio networks, Radio 1, 2, 3 and 4, to stem the tide of the pirates who gained huge audiences by playing popular music. Eventually, limited commercial broadcasting came to Great Britain. • 1969 ~ B.J. Thomas received a gold record for the single, Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head from the motion picture, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Raindrops hit number one on the pop charts on January 3, 1970 and stayed there for 4 weeks. • 1969 ~ Elton John met with arranger Paul Buckmaster, writer Bernie Taupin and producer Gus Dudgeon. The collaboration marked the start of one of the most successful milestones of music in the 1970s. Together, they created Your Song, Friends, Levon, Tiny Dancer, Rocket Man and many more. • 2000 ~ Pianist Victor Borge, died in his sleep. • 2001 ~ Anthony Charles Chavis, Zydeco musician and son of the late Zydeco pioneer Boozoo Chavis, died after suffering a heart attack He was 45. His death came just eight months after his father's. Charles Chavis, in addition to playing the washboard, was lead vocalist on numerous recordings with Boozoo, including his 1996 hit What You Gonna Do? After Boozoo Chavis' death, his sons had agreed to continue the Magic Sounds Band. It was not clear how Charles Chavis's death would affect the group. In addition to his music, Charles Chavis had worked with his father as a jockey and trainer at Chavis stables. 24 Christmas Music, Part 24 - O Holy Night • 1719 ~ Johann Christoph Altnikol, German organist, bass singer, and composer. He was a son-in-law and copyist of Johann Sebastian Bach • 1818 ~ Franz Gruber of Oberndorf, Germany, composed the music for "Silent Night" to words written by Josef Mohr. The traditional song was sung for the first time during Midnight Mass on this night. • 1824 ~ Peter Cornelius, German composer and writer • 1871 ~ Opera-goers in Cairo, Egypt were treated to Verdi’s Aida in its world premiere. The composer was commissioned to write the opera for festivities celebrating the opening of the Suez Canal • 1887 ~ Lucrezia Bori, Spanish lyric composer • 1893 ~ Harry Warren (Salvatore Guaragna), Composer, Song Writer’s Hall of Famer: Best Song Oscar • 1906 ~ Professor Reginald A. Fessenden sent his first radio broadcast from Brant Rock, MA. The program included a little verse, some violin and a speech. • 1918 ~ Zara Nelsova, Canadian-born American cellist • 1914 ~ Ralph Marterie, ‘Caruso of the trumpet’: musician, bandleader • 1924 ~ Carol Haney, Dancer, member of Jack Cole dance company, worked with Bob Fosse, in films • 1928 ~ The first broadcast of The Voice of Firestone was heard. The program aired each Monday evening at 8:00. The Voice of Firestone became a hallmark in radio broadcasting. It kept its same night, time (in 1931 the start time changed to 8:30) and sponsor for its entire run. Beginning on September 5, 1949, the program of classical and semiclassical music was also seen on television. • 1930 ~ Robert Joffrey (Khan), Choreographer with The Joffrey Ballet; died in 1988 • 1931 ~ Ray Bryant, Pianist, composer • 1944 ~ Mike Curb, Music executive, producer, Oscar-winner • 1944 ~ The Andrews Sisters starred in the debut of The Andrews Sisters’ Eight-To- The-Bar-Ranch on ABC radio. Patti, Maxine and LaVerne ran a fictional dude ranch. George ‘Gabby’ Hayes was a regular guest along with Vic Schoen’s orchestra. The ranch stayed in operation until 1946. • 1945 ~ Lemmy (Ian Kilmister), Bass, singer with Motorhead • 1946 ~ Jan Akkerman, Guitar, lute with bands: Friendship Sextet, Johnny and the Cellar Rockers • 1951 ~ Menotti's "Amahl and the Night Visitors", the first opera composed for television, made its debut on NBC-TV. Amal and the Night Visitors became a Christmas classic. • 1955 ~ The lovely Lennon Sisters debuted as featured vocalists on The Lawrence Welk Show on ABC-TV. They became regulars with Welk within a month and stayed on the show until 1968. • 1957 ~ Ian Burden, Keyboards with Human League • 1977 ~ The Bee Gees spent Christmas and New Year’s Eve at the top of the music charts. How Deep is Your Love became #1 this day and stayed that way for three weeks. • 2000 ~ Felix Popper, a conductor and music administrator at the New York City Opera, died at the age of 92. Popper joined the New York City Opera in 1949 as an assistant conductor and vocal coach. By 1958 he was named music administrator, and he played an important role in guiding the opera through a period in which the house truly established itself. During this time, the company is credited with discovering important American singers such as Johanna Meier, Tatiana Troyanos, Gianna Rolandi, Faith Esham and Jane Shaulis. Popper retired from the opera in 1980 but continued to work as a consultant and vocal coach. • 2000 ~ Longtime Detroit blues radio personality and promoter Famous Coachman died of an apparent heart attack. He was 75. Coachman was host of the weekend blues and gospel show on Detroit's WDET for 21 years until 1997 and remained busy in the city's music world until his death. "Everybody knew Coachman," said JoAnn Korczynska, blues music director for WHFR at Henry Ford Community College in Dearborn. "He really did know B.B. King and John Lee Hooker. When I met John Lee Hooker, one of the first things he said to me was `How is Coachman doing?'" Coachman said he was named "Famous" because "my mother knew I would be." • 2000 ~ Nick Massi, an original member of the Four Seasons who handled bass vocals and vocal arrangements throughout the band's glory days, died of cancer at the age of 73. Massi was born in Newark as Nicholas Macioci. The longtime West Orange resident performed with several bands before joining Frankie Valli in a group called the Four Lovers. By 1961, the group had evolved into the Four Seasons. Massi remained with the group until 1965, when he grew tired of touring, Valli said. Massi performed on hits such as Sherry, Big Girls Don't Cry, Walk Like a Man and Rag Doll, which friends said was his favorite. During his tenure, the group made the Billboard Top 40 chart 17 times and toured throughout the United States and overseas, melding doo-wop vocals with a contemporary beat. They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990. Valli's falsetto was the band's trademark, but he said Massi was his musical mentor. "He could do four-part modern harmonies that would amaze musicians who had studied for years. And he did it all in his head without writing it down," Valli said. 25  Christmas Family Fun Christmas Music Christmas Music Lyrics Christmas Music, Part 25 Ð Hallelujah Chorus 1583 ~ Orlando Gibbons
Read quotes by and about Gibbons
More information about Gibbons • 1896 ~ John Philip Sousa wrote the melody to a song that had haunted him for days. On Christmas Day, that melody was finally titled, The Stars and Stripes Forever. • 1907 ~ Cab Calloway (Cabell Calloway III), American jazz singer and bandleader • 1912 ~ Tony Martin (Alvin Morris), Singer, actor, married to dancer Cyd Charisse • 1915 ~ Pete Rugolo, Bandleader, arranger, scored TV’s The Fugitive • 1931 ~ Lawrence Tibbett was the featured vocalist as radio came to the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City. The first opera was Hansel und Gretel by Humperdinck, heard on the NBC network of stations. In between acts of the opera, moderator Olin Downes would conduct an opera quiz, asking celebrity guests opera-related questions. The program’s host and announcer was Milton Cross. He worked out of the Met’s Box 44. • 1932 ~ Little Richard, American rock-and-roll singer, pianist and songwriter • 1937 ~ O’Kelly Isley, Singer with the Grammy Award-winning group, The Isley Brothers • 1937 ~ Arturo Toscanini conducted the first broadcast of Symphony of the Air over NBC radio. • 1939 ~ The Charles Dickens classic, A Christmas Carol, was read by Lionel Barrymore on The Campbell Playhouse on CBS radio. The reading of the tale became an annual radio event for years to come. • 1944 ~ Henry Vestine, Guitarist with Canned Heat, sideman for Frank Zappa • 1945 ~ Noel Redding, Bass with Noel Redding Band and also The Jimi Hendrix Experience • 1946 ~ Jimmy Buffett, Songwriter, singer • 1948 ~ Barbara Mandrell, CMA Entertainer of the Year (1980, 1981), Female Vocalist of the Year in 1979 • 1954 ~ Robin Campbell, Guitar, singer with UB40 • 1954 ~ Annie Lennox, Singer with Eurythmics • 1957 ~ Shane MacGowan, Songwriter, musician: guitar, singer with The Pogues 26 Happy Boxing Day! ÊBoxing Day is a holiday traditionally celebrated the day following Christmas Day, when servants and tradesmen would receive gifts, known as a "Christmas box", from their masters, employers or customers, in the United Kingdom,The Bahamas, Barbados, Canada, Hong Kong, Australia, Bermuda, New Zealand, Kenya, South Africa, Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica and other former British colonies. Today, Boxing Day is a public holiday usually falling on 26 December. • 1678 ~ Johann Georg Pisendel • 1762 ~ Franz Wilhelm Tausch • 1921 ~ Steve Allen, Comedian, author, musician, composer, TV host of The Tonight Show, The Steve Allen Show; films: The Benny Goodman Story, married to Jayne Meadows • 1926 ~ Earle Brown, American avant-garde composer More about Brown • 1931 ~ George Gershwin's musical, Of Thee I Sing, opened at the Music Box Theatre in New York City. The show became the first American musical to be awarded a Pulitzer Prize. • 1935 ~ Abdul ‘Duke’ Fakir, Singer with The Four Tops • 1939 ~ W.C. Handy of Memphis, TN one of the legendary blues composers of all time, recorded the classic St. Louis Blues. W.C. and his band recorded in New York for Varsity Records. Handy was one of the first to use the flat third and seventh notes in his compositions, known in the music world as ‘blue’ notes. The music awards for blues artists’ are called the W.C. Handy National Blues Awards. • 1940 ~ Phil Spector, ‘Tycoon of Teen’, record company executive, originator of Wall of Sound, sang with The Teddy Bears, songwriter • 1942 ~ Adriana Maliponte, Italian soprano • 1952 ~ André-Michel Schub, French-born American pianist • 1963 ~ Capitol Records rushed to release its first single by the Fab Four, otherwise known as The Beatles. I Want to Hold Your Hand, backed with I Saw Her Standing There, reached #1 on February 1, 1964. The flood of music by John, Paul, George and Ringo had started the British Invasion; changing contemporary music forever. • 1964 ~ More Beatles news: The Fab Four got their sixth #1 hit song since February • 1, as I Feel Fine became the top tune this day. The first five #1 hits by The Beatles were: I Want to Hold Your Hand, She Loves You, Can’t Buy Me Love, Love Me Do and A Hard Day’s Night. • 1967 ~ A sad day for jazz fans, as the Dave Brubeck Quartet formally disbanded after sax man Paul Desmond left the group. Desmond was a fixture with the quartet for 16 years and can be heard on all the immortal Brubeck standards, including Take Five. • 1999 ~ Curtis Mayfield passed away • 2001 ~ Edward Downes, a professor best known as host of the "Texaco Opera Quiz" heard during live Metropolitan Opera radio broadcasts, died at the age of 90. Opera experts answered questions from listeners in the opera quiz, held during opera intermissions from 1958 to 1996. Known for his wit and mellow baritone voice, Downes put his panelists at ease and offered teasing hints to the answers when experts were stumped. Born in Boston, Downes began attending operas at a young age with his father, Olin Downes, who later became chief music critic at The New York Times. Edward Downes, who never completed an undergraduate degree, received a Ph.D. in musicology from Harvard University at the age of 47. He later taught at Wellesley College, the Longy School of Music, the University of Minnesota and Queens College. 27 1879 ~ "Bunk" Johnson, American jazz trumpeter • 1901 ~ Marlene Dietrich, German singer and actress • 1903 ~ The barbershop quartet favorite, Sweet Adeline, was sung for the first time, in New York City. The song was composed by Henry Armstrong with the words of Richard Gerard. The title of the song came from a theatre marquee that promoted the great operatic soprano, Adelina Patti. Now female barbershop quartets call themselves Sweet Adelines. • 1906 ~ Oscar Levant, American pianist, composer, writer and radio personality • 1911 ~ Anna Russell, Operatic parodies • 1927 ~ The Jerome Kern (music) and Oscar Hammerstein II (lyrics) musical, Show Boat, opened at the Ziegfeld Theatre in New York City. Its star, Helen Morgan, received excellent reviews from critics of the show; a musical about riverboat show people and their romances and disappointments. • 1931 ~ Walter Norris, Pianist, composer • 1932 ~ Radio City Music Hall, in New York City, opened. It was the largest indoor theatre in the world. The gala grand opening show was a six-hour extravaganza that lost half a million dollars within three weeks. The theatre has since been renovated to recapture its original decorative charm. An Art Deco cathedral of entertainment, it seats more than 6,200 people and is still a must-see for those visiting New York. During the holiday season, audiences continue to get a kick out of seeing the world- famous Rockettes perform in precision on Radio City Music Hall’s nearly 10,000-square-foot stage which is a combination movie palace and live theater. It remains a showcase for many exciting musical events. It has a seating capacity of 6,200 seats. • 1939 ~ The Glenn Miller Show, also known as Music that Satisfies, started on CBS radio. The 15-minute, twice-a-week show was sponsored by Chesterfield cigarettes and was heard for nearly three years. • 1940 ~ Singer Al Jolson and actress Ruby Keeler were divorced after 12 years of marriage. They had separated a year earlier; but Jolson talked Keeler into co-starring with him in the Broadway show, Hold on to Your Hats. She left the show before the opening and then left the marriage. • 1941 ~ Leslie Maguire, Pianist with Gerry and The Pacemakers • 1944 ~ Mick Jones, Guitarist with Foreigner • 1952 ~ David Knopfler, Guitarist, singer with Dire Straits • 1953 ~ Elliot Easton (Shapiro), Guitarist with The Cars • 1975 ~ The Staple Singers reached the top spot on the pop music charts for the second time in their career. This time with Let’s Do It Again. The song, the theme from the movie soundtrack of the same name, was the last hit the group would have. I’ll Take You There was The Staple Singers’ first number one hit (June 3, 1972). • 1980 ~ The John Lennon hit, (Just Like) Starting Over, began a five-week stay at #1 on the pop charts. The hit was from the album, Double Fantasy. Lennon was murdered on December 8th of that year, as the single and LP had started their climb up the charts. • 2003 ~ Vestal Goodman, a pioneering gospel music singer who performed for half a century, including a stint on "The PTL Club" with Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker, died. She was 74. Goodman and her late husband Howard "Happy" Goodman were part of The Happy Goodman Family act, which recorded 15 No. 1 gospel music songs and performed more than 3,500 concerts. In the mid-1980s, the couple were regulars on "The PTL Club" television show starring the Bakkers. They left in 1988 after three years on the show, and were not linked to financial improprieties as others on the show were. The Happy Goodman Family was inducted into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame in • 1998. They were original members of "The Gospel Singing Jubilee" syndicated TV program that was a pioneer in gospel music broadcasting, appearing on more than 100 U.S. stations. The Goodmans sang at the White House in 1979 for President Carter. • 2003 ~ Bobbie Nell Brookshire Gordon, a singer who toured in the 1970s with jazz great Duke Ellington, died. She was 64. Gordon, a Dayton native, was discovered in 1961 while singing at a bar in her hometown. She performed with pianist Betty Greenwood and had come to the attention of Ellington, the noted bandleader. Gordon toured from 1970 to 1974 with Ellington. A newly released digital video disc of a • 1971 performance, "Live at Tivoli Gardens," includes Gordon singing "Love You Madly" and "One More Time." Gordon was featured as "Nell Brookshire" with Ellington on the cover of Jet magazine in September 1971. • 2003 ~ Dick St. John, half of the Dick & Dee Dee duo, whose 1961 hit, The Mountain's High, made No. 2 on the Billboard pop singles chart, died. He was 63. Dick & Dee Dee's biggest hit was The Mountain's High, but they also cracked the Top 25 pop singles chart in 1963 with Young and In Love and 1965's Thou Shalt Not Steal. St. John, born Richard Gosting, began performing with his friend Mary Sperling in junior high. With St. John as the chief songwriter, the two soon attracted the attention of Liberty Records in Los Angeles. St. John and Sperling, who was renamed Dee Dee by the label, combined elements of doo- wop, soul and R&B in their sound. They toured with the Beach Boys and the Rolling Stones. Dick & Dee Dee were semi-regulars on such musical shows as "American Bandstand." St. John also wrote songs that were recorded by Lesley Gore, Jan and Dean, the Four Seasons and Quincy Jones, and he contributed music to many television shows. 28 1812 ~ Julius Rietz, German composer, conductor and cellist • 1896 ~ Roger Sessions, American composer • 1905 ~ Earl "Fatha" Hines, American jazz pianist and bandleader, a classic duet with Louis Armstrong was Weather Bird, songwriter • 1911 ~ San Francisco established its own symphony orchestra as part of its comeback from a disastrous earthquake. • 1921 ~ Johnny Otis (Veliotes), ‘Inventor of R&B’, composer, song writer, drummer vibes with The Johnny Otis Show • 1930 ~ Edmund Thigpen, Jazz Drummer • 1932 ~ Dorsey Burnette, Singer, brother of singer Johnny Burnette • 1938 ~ Charles Neville, Saxophone, flute, percussion with The Neville Brothers • 1943 ~ Bobby Comstock, Singer • 1944 ~ The musical, On the Town, opened in New York City for a run of 462 performances. It was Leonard Bernstein's first big Broadway success. The show’s hit song, New York, New York, continues to be successful. • 1946 ~ Edgar Winter, American rock vocalist, saxophonist, guitarist and keyboardist • 1946 ~ Carrie Jacobs Bond passed away. She was an American singer, pianist, and songwriter who composed some 175 pieces of popular music from the 1890s through the early 1940s • 1947 ~ Dick Diamonde (Dingeman Van Der Sluys), Bass with The Easybeats • 1950 ~ Alex Chilton, Guitarist, singer • 1953 ~ Richard Clayderman, Pianist • 1953 ~ Joe Diffie, Country Singer • 1957 ~ At The Hop, by Danny and The Juniors, hit #1 on the music charts. It stayed at the top spot for seven weeks. The title of the tune was originally Do the Bop, but was changed at the suggestion of ‘America’s Oldest Living Teenager’ Dick Clark. Trivia: Danny and The Juniors filled in for a group that failed to appear on Clark’s American Bandstand show in Philadelphia. He called The Juniors to come into the studio immediately. They did and lip-synced At The Hop (written by Junior, Dave White and a friend, John Medora). It took off like a rocket to number one. (A few years later, Danny and The Juniors handed stardom to Chubby Checker when they failed to appear on Clark’s show.) • 1963 ~ Paul Hindemith passed away More information about Hindemith • 1964 ~ Principal filming of the movie classic, Dr. Zhivago, began on location near Madrid, Spain. When completed, the film was 197 minutes long and so spectacular that it received ten Oscar nominations, winning five of the Academy Awards, including Best Original Score. Lara’s Theme was first heard in this movie. • 1981 ~ WEA Records (Warner-Elektra-Atlantic) raised the price of its 45 rpm records from $1.68 to $1.98 this day. The company was the leader of the pack with other labels soon boosting their prices. Within a few years, the 45 rpm record was boosted right out of existence. • 2001 ~ Frankie Gaye, whose combat experience during the Vietnam War was credited with influencing his older brother Marvin's legendary Motown album "What's Going On," died of complications following a heart attack. He was 60. Gaye was a radio operator stationed in Vietnam in the 1960s when he wrote letters to his brother expressing his dissatisfaction with the war. His experiences influenced several songs on his brother's 1971 album, including Save The Children, Inner City Blues and Mercy Mercy Me, according to Ralph Tee in the book "Soul Music Who's Who." Gaye, like his brother, had begun singing in church as a youngster. He went on to work with several Motown artists, including Mary Wells and Kim Weston and provided background vocals on many of his brother's albums, including "What's Going On" and 1977's "Marvin Gaye, Live at the London Palladium." On his own, Gaye composed the soundtrack to the 1972 film "Penitentiary 1" and toured extensively, both in the United States and England. He also released the singles Extraordinary Girl in 1989 and My Brother in 1990. 29
• 1876 ~ Pablo Casals, Spanish cellist and conductor More information about Casals • 1912 ~ Peggy Glanville-Hicks, Australian composer and music critic • 1922 ~ Rose Lee Maphis, Entertainer, half of the team: Mr. and Mrs. Country Music with husband Joe, Hee Haw regular • 1942 ~ Ray Thomas, Flute, saxophone, harmonica, singer with The Moody Blues • 1943 ~ San Fernando Valley was recorded by Bing Crosby. He chose the tune because he felt it would be a big hit. He was right. Within a week after its release, the song became a popular favorite everywhere, including the San Fernando Valley in California. • 1945 ~ Sheb Wooley recorded the first commercial record made in Nashville, TN. The song was recorded on the Bullet label; but it was 13 years before Wooley would finally score with a big hit (The Purple People Eater was #1 for six weeks in June and July, 1958). Wooley (whose first name is Shelby) played the part of Pete Nolan on TV’s Rawhide, recorded novelty tunes under the name, Ben Colder, and acted in High Noon, Rocky Mountain, Giant and Hoosiers. The Country Music Association honored him with the title of Comedian of the Year in 1968. If you remember the TV show Hee Haw, with Buck Owens and Roy Clark, it was Sheb Wooley who wrote the theme song. • 1951 ~ Yvonne Elliman, Actress, singer joined Eric Clapton in his 1974 comeback tour • 1952 ~ Gelsey Kirkland, Dancer, ballerina, author of Dancing on My Grave: An Autobiography, Shape of Love • 1957 ~ Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme were married. They became popular singers on the The Tonight Show with Steve Allen, and as Las Vegas showroom regulars and recording artists. They are still together in one of Hollywood’s most enduring marriages. • 1961 ~ Mark Day, Guitarist with Happy Mondays • 1963 ~ Much to the chagrin of the disc jockeys at 50,000-watt WABC in New York, the 5,000-watt blowtorch known as WMCA and its famed ‘Good Guys’ became the first New York radio station to play The Beatles' I Want to Hold Your Hand. It didn’t take long for WABC to get revenge. It started calling itself the ‘official’ Beatles station (W-A-Beatle-C). • 1980 ~ American singer, songwriter Tim Hardin died of a heroin overdose. Hardin wrote the songs 'If I Were A Carpenter' (covered by Bobby Darin, Johnny Cash and June Carter, The Four Tops, Leon Russell, Small Faces, Robert Plant and Bob Seger,) and 'Reason To Believe', (covered by Rod Stewart). Hardin appeared at the 1969 Woodstock Festival. • 1967 ~ Orchestra leader Paul Whiteman passed away at the age of 76. Known as the King of Jazz, Whiteman had 28 #1 hits between 1920 and 1934 including Three O’Clock in the Morning, My Blue Heaven, All of Me and Smoke Gets in Your Eyes. • 2001 ~ Cassia Eller, one of the most irreverent singers of Brazilian rock music, died at the age of 39. Eller's fame peaked in 2001 with the sale of about 250,000 copies of her "MTV Unplugged" album and a performance in January's Rock in Rio festival in front of hundreds of thousands of fans, singing along with one of her hits, I just ask God for a little indecency. • 2001 ~ Jazz pianist Ralph Sutton, a leading practitioner of the stride piano, died at the age of 79. Born in St. Charles, Mo., in 1922, Sutton made his professional debut at age 11 with his father's band. He later signed on with trombone great Jack Teagarden, and played at several clubs along New York's famed 52nd Street. To create his eclectic style, Sutton drew from the jazz piano, from ragtime and the blues to stride, in the style made famous by James P. Johnson, Willie "The Lion" Smith, and Fats Waller. Critics hailed Sutton as one of the best contemporary jazz pianists with a mastery of his instrument. He was a founding member of the 1968 World's Greatest Jazz Band, which performed at Elitch Gardens in Denver. • 2003 ~ Manny Dworman, who owned a Greenwich Village nightspot where comedians including Jerry Seinfeld, Ray Romano and Jon Stewart performed, died. He was 73. Dworman, a musician who played the oud, guitar and mandolin, owned the Comedy Cellar and the Olive Tree Cafe upstairs. The club was previously the site of Cafe Feenjon, a Middle Eastern nightclub that originally opened as a coffeehouse in 1960. Dworman performed at Cafe Feenjon with his band, the Feenjon Group, which recorded five albums, performed at Carnegie Hall and inspired the radio show "Music From Around the World." Comedy Cellar, which opened in 1980, also hosted performances by Chris Rock and Colin Quinn. Discussions at the club inspired the Comedy Central show "Tough Crowd with Colin Quinn." Dworman was featured in the 2002 documentary "Comedian" by Jerry Seinfeld. • 2004 ~ Jerry Orbach, American singer and actor for the musical theater and longtime star of the "Law & Order" television series, died at 69. Orbach, a lanky actor with a deep voice and a slicked mop of black hair, first made his name on Broadway, winning a Tony for "Promises, Promises." He was also in the original cast of "Chicago" and "42nd Street." 30 1756 ~ Pavel Vranicky, Moravian classical composer • 1853 ~ Andre-Charles-Prosper Messager, French composer, organist, pianist, conductor and administrator. • 1859 ~ Josef Bohuslav Foerster, Czech composer of classical music • 1895 ~ Vincent Lopez, Bandleader, played at NYC’s Astor Hotel, some of the greats started with him: Artie Shaw, Buddy Morrow, Buddy Clark 1904 ~ Dmitri Kabalevsky, Russian composer, pianist and conductor
More information about Kabalevsky • 1910 ~ Paul Frederic Bowles, American composer and novelist • 1914 ~ Bert Parks (Jacobson), Radio/TV host of Miss America Pageant, Break the Bank, Stop the Music • 1919 ~ Sir David Willcocks, British organist, conductor and educator • 1928 ~ Bo Diddley (Otha Ellas Bates McDaniel), Singer • 1931 ~ Skeeter Davis (Mary Frances Penick), Singer • 1936 ~ The famous feud between Jack Benny and Fred Allen was ignited. After a 10- year-old performer finished a violin solo on The Fred Allen Show, Mr. Allen said, "A certain alleged violinist should hide his head in shame for his poor fiddle playing." It didn’t take long for Mr. Benny to respond. The humorous feud lasted for years on both comedian’s radio shows. • 1937 ~ John Hartford, Grammy Award-winning songwriter, banjo, fiddle, guitar on Glen Campbell's Good Time Comedy Hour • 1939 ~ Del Shannon (Charles Westover), Singer, songwriter, inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame • 1942 ~ Michael Nesmith, Guitarist with The Monkees, formed The First National Band, movie producer of the first Grammy-winning video • 1945 ~ Davy Jones (David Thomas Jones), Singer with The Monkees, actor • 1947 ~ Jeff Lynne, Singer, guitar with The Electric Light Orchestra, songwriter • 1948 ~ Alfred Drake and Patricia Morrison starred in Kiss Me Kate which opened at the New Century Theatre in New York City. Cole Porter composed the music for the classic play that was adapted from Shakespeare’s comedy, The Taming of the Shrew. The show ran for 1,077 performances on the Great White Way. • 1942 ~ Frank Sinatra opened at New York’s Paramount Theatre for what was scheduled to be a 4-week engagement (his shows turned out to be so popular that he was booked for an additional 4 weeks). An estimated 400 policemen were called out to help curb the excitement. It is said that some of the teenage girls were hired to scream, but many more screamed for free. Sinatra was dubbed ‘The Sultan of Swoon’, ‘The Voice that Thrills Millions’, and just ‘The Voice’. Whatever he was, it was at this Paramount Theatre engagement that modern pop hysteria was born. • 1954 ~ Pearl Bailey opened on Broadway in the play, House of Flowers, about two madams with rival bordellos. Diahann Carroll was also cast in the play, written by Truman Capote. Harold Arlen provided the musical score. • 1969 ~ Peter, Paul and Mary received a gold record for the single, Leaving On a Jet Plane. The song had hit #1 on December 20. • 1970 ~ Paul McCartney sued the other three Beatles to dissolve the partnership and gain control of his interest. The suit touched off a bitter feud between McCartney and the others, especially his cowriter on many of the Beatles compositions, John Lennon. The partnership officially came to end in 1974. • 1976 ~ The Smothers Brothers, Tom and Dick, played their last show at the Aladdin Hotel in Las Vegas and retired as a team from show business. Each continued as a solo artist. They reunited years later for another stab at TV (on NBC) plus concert appearances that proved very successful. • 1979 ~ Richard Rodgers passed away More about Richard Rodgers • 2000 ~ Bohdan Warchal, a violinist and conductor who was one of Slovakia's most popular musicians, of an unspecified illness at the age of 70. A violinist in the Slovak Philharmonic, Warchal, who died on Saturday, won acclaim as the founder and conductor of the Slovak Chamber Orchestra, which has given concerts all over the world ever since it was established in 1960. Warchal was awarded a medal by President Rudolf Schuster for his life-time work last year. • 2003 ~ Hong Kong's Canto-pop diva and actress Anita Mui died. She was 40 years old. Mui began her career after winning a singing contest in Hong Kong in 1982. She rose to stardom with her song Homecoming in 1984. Canto-pop refers to hits sung in Cantonese, the dialect of Chinese that is widely spoken in Hong Kong and in many overseas Chinese communities. Mui also turned to acting and won Taiwan's Golden Horse film award for best actress in • 1987 for her role as a tormented ghost in the movie "Rouge." 2004 ~ Artie Shaw (Arthur Arschawsky), American jazz clarinetist, bandleader, composer and arranger died More information about Shaw 31  Christmas Music, Conclusion ~Auld Lang Syne • 1894 ~ Ernest John Moeran, English composer who had strong associations with Ireland. • 1904 ~ Nathan Milstein, Russian-born American violinist and composer • 1908 ~ Jonah Jones (Robert Elliott Jones), Trumpeter, singer, played with Cab Calloway and threw spitball that got Dizzy Gillespie fired from a band • 1922 ~ Rex Allen, ‘The Arizona Cowboy’, entertainer, rodeo star, singer, songwriter who published over 300 songs • 1923 ~ Singer Eddie Cantor opened in the lead role of Kid Boots. Broadway critics called the production, "A smash musical hit!" Eddie made several of the songs from that show into smash hits also, like Alabamy Bound and If You Knew Susie. Three years later, If You Knew Susie became the title song for a movie starring Cantor. • 1928 ~ Ross Barbour, Singer with The Four Freshmen • 1929 ~ Guy Lombardo and his Royal Canadians played Auld Lang Syne as a New Year’s Eve song for the first time. Auld Lang Syne had been the band’s theme song long before 1929. However, this night was the start of a New Year’s Eve tradition as Lombardo’s famed orchestra played at the Hotel Roosevelt Grill in New York City to usher in the new year. Where did it Auld begin? Scottish poet Robert Burns said he heard an old man singing the words, and wrote them down; but Burns is considered the original author. The literal translation means "old long since"; less literal means "days gone by". Auld Lang Syne and Happy New Year! • 1930 ~ Odetta (Holmes Felious Gordon), American folk-blues singer, guitarist, songwriter and actress • 1940 ~ As a result of a dispute between the radio networks and ASCAP (the American Society of Composers and Publishers), the radio industry was prevented from playing any ASCAP-licensed music. The ban lasted for ten months. An ASCAP competitor, BMI (Broadcast Music Incorporated) made giant strides, expanding to include 36,000 copyrights. Many radio stations had to resort to playing public domain songs, such as marches and operas, to keep their stations on the air. Even kids songs were played over and over again until the ban was lifted. One of the most popular songs to be played was Happy Birthday to You, which was performed in many different languages just to get past the ban. The original song is now, in fact, a copyrighted piece of music, though it wasn’t at the time. • 1942 ~ Andy Summers (Somers), Guitarist, singer with The Police • 1943 ~ Roy Rogers, ‘the King of the Cowboys’, and Dale Evans were hitched in marriage. They rode off into that sunset together for over fifty years. (Roy died July 6, 1998.) • 1948 ~ Donna Summer (LaDonna Gaines), Grammy Award-winning singer • 1951 ~ Tom Hamilton, Bass with Aerosmith • 1960 ~ After playing California nightclubs as The Pendletones, Kenny and the Cadets, and Carl and the Passions, a new group emerged this day: The Beach Boys. The group’s first national hit, Surfin’ Safari, was soon to be. They recorded for local (Los Angeles) Colpix Records and at the height of their popularity, Capitol Records. The Beach Boys also recorded under the Reprise Records banner. The revitalized group still tours and Capitol continues to reissue various greatest hits packages. The Beach Boys were inducted into The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1988. • 1972 ~ Joe McIntyre, Singer with New Kids on the Block • 1975 ~ Elvis Presley performed before 60,000 fans at the Silverdome in Pontiac, MI. He earned $800,000 for the concert, a world record for a single concert by a single artist. • 1985 ~ Over 54,500 people played kazoos in downtown Rochester, New York. The assembled multitude played A Bicycle Built for Two. Any idea why? Well, they felt it was appropriate for the last day of the year and it got the crowd listed in the Guiness Book of World Records for ‘Most Kazoo-ers’. • 2000 ~ Tanaquil Le Clercq, the ballerina who dazzled the world in the 1940s and '50s before her career was cut short by paralytic polio, died of pneumonia at the age of 71. Le Clercq contracted the disease, which left her paralyzed below the waist, in 1956. At the time, she was the fourth wife of George Balanchine and had attracted an adoring public because of her long-legged elegance. She later became a teacher at Dance Theater of Harlem, wrote two books and regularly attended dance performances. The New York City Ballet, of which Le Clercq was a charter member, paid tribute to her in 1988, when it opened its 50th-anniversary season. She acknowledged a thunderous New York State Theater ovation from her wheelchair. Le Clercq was blessed with an elongated physique that she used with refinement or humor. She epitomized the modernized look in classical dancing, which enthralled Balanchine, who once cast her as a dragonfly. As the first City Ballet ballerina trained since childhood by Balanchine, she was naturally identified with the roles he created for her in his major works, such as the ballets "Symphonie Concertante," "Symphony in C" and "La Valse," in which her doomed heroine danced herself to death. She was equally unforgettable in the ballets of Jerome Robbins and as the white-faced allegorical figure of Sacred Love in "Illuminations" in 1950. • 2000 ~ José Greco, the famed flamenco dancer and choreographer who founded the José Greco Spanish Dance Company,of heart failure at the age of 82. Born in Montorio nei Frentani, Italy, of Spanish-Italian parents, he moved to Seville, Spain, at the age of 3, then was raised in Brooklyn from the age of 10. He began his career in 1937 and became known as the greatest Spanish dancer in the world. In 1941, the already famous Argentine-born dancer La Argentinita (known off the stage as Encarnacion Lopez) was preparing for an American tour when she saw Greco dance and asked him to perform as her partner and the featured male performer in her company until she died in 1945. After that, Greco danced with her sister Pilar Lopez. In 1951, Greco shared with Carol Channing the title of "New Broadway Personality of the Year." The José Greco Dance Company, which helped integrate flamenco with mainstream ballet, toured extensively in North America, and six times worldwide, over the following two decades. In 1962, he Greco was knighted by the Spanish government. In 1971, Greco formed the Foundation for Hispanic Dance. His autobiography, "Gypsy in My Soul: The Autobiography of Jose Greco," was published in 1977. • 2000 ~ Eddy Shaver, a guitarist who performed with his father Billy Joe Shaver and Dwight Yoakam, died at the age of 38. Eddy Shaver grew up around music because of his father, a celebrated songwriter whose songs include I'm Just an Old Chuck of Coal (But I'm Gonna Be a Diamond Someday) and Georgia on a Fast Train. Dickie Betts of The Allman Brothers Band helped teach Eddy Shaver to play and gave him his two favorite guitars, one formerly owned by the late guitarist Duane Allman. Eddy Shaver began playing guitar with his father at 13, and gradually became Billy Joe Shaver's musical partner and sometime co-writer. Billy Joe Shaver merged from country to a more rock-influenced sound because of his son. Albums by the band Shaver include "Tramp on Your Street," the live "Shaver: Unshaven," and "Electric Shaver." A new album, "The Earth Rolls On," was released on March 20, 2001. • 2001 ~ Marie Hartford, a well-known businesswoman on Music Row and widow of the late songwriter and performer John Hartford, died of lung cancer. She was 67. Marie Hartford worked at Glaser Publishing, booking the studios at the Glaser Brothers' Music Row operation, where country music's Outlaw movement was bred. John Hartford, who wrote the standard Gentle on My Mind, died June 4 after a decade-long battle with cancer. The song was recorded more than 300 times, most prominently by Glen Campbell in 1967 but also by Dean Martin, Elvis Presley and Aretha Franklin. • 2003 ~ Renata Babak, an internationally known mezzo-soprano with the Bolshoi Opera who defected from the Soviet Union in 1973, died of pancreatic cancer. She was 69. Babak gave recitals until last year, singing in a sweet but powerful and well-controlled voice described by critics as among the best in the world. Her last opera was in 1997, when she performed in Tchaikovsky's Iolanta with Opera Camerata of Washington. Babak was an international star with 10 years' experience at the Bolshoi when she defected while the opera company was playing at La Scala in Milan, slipping out of a hotel lobby wearing a wig and dark glasses. She immigrated to Canada and went into hiding for two years. Babak's U.S. debut at Carnegie Hall in 1975 was met with enthusiastic reviews. She moved to New York and then to Washington in the hopes of working with George London, then general director of the Washington Opera. Babak joined the faculty of the Washington Conservatory of Music when London was disabled by a stroke.  |
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