On 26th March 2001 The toy figure of Eminem was banned by some UK shops. Woolworth’s and Hamleys refused to stock the dolls. Psychologists had warned that parents who buy the dolls for children will be inadvertently giving their approval to bad language. Well that sounds like total fucking nonsense to me!
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On 23rd March 1967 at a ceremony held at the Playhouse Theatre in London, The Beatles were awarded three Ivor Novello awards. These were for 1966: Best-selling British single “Yellow Submarine”,(Effectively the ‘A’ Side of the Record Issued in 1966 Which Achieved the Highest Certified British Sales) most-performed song “Michelle”, and next-most-performed song “Yesterday”. Incidentally fact fans, the most covered Beatles song is “Yesterday,” with over 2,200 covers, according to Guinness World Records, and is also considered the most covered song of all time. Meanwhile the band’s most played song is “Here Comes the Sun” it has racked up over a billion streams on Spotify, making it the only Beatles track to reach that milestone.
None of the Beatles attended the Ivor Novello ceremony back in ’67 and the winning songs were played by Joe Loss and his Orchestra. The lead vocal for “Michelle” was sung by Ross MacManus, whose son would go on to become the professional musician Elvis Costello. In 1970, Ross MacManus recorded a version of The Beatles’ song “The Long And Winding Road” under the pseudonym of Day Costello, which spent 17 weeks in the Australian chart, peaking at number 16. He was also the man responsible for the music and vocals from the R. White’s Lemonade television advertisement theme song “Secret Lemonade Drinker”, on which MacManus Junior (a.k.a. Elvis Costello) sang backing vocals.
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On 14th March 1991 R.E.M. played the first of two nights at London’s Borderline Club under the name of Bingo Hand Job. The group were in the UK to promote their seventh studio album ‘Out Of Time’ and their current single “Losing My Religion”. The single hit number 4 on the US Billboard chart, number 19 in the UK and topped the chart in the Netherlands.
At the 1992 Grammy Awards, “Losing My Religion” won Best Short Form Music Video and Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal. Its video won awards for Video of the Year, Best Group Video, Breakthrough Video, Best Art Direction, Best Direction, and Best Editing at the 1991 MTV Video Music Awards. In 2020, “Losing My Religion” became the first R.E.M. video to reach one billion views on YouTube. It was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2017, and Rolling Stone ranked it at number 112 in its 2024 list of the “500 Greatest Songs of All Time”.
The ‘Out Of Time’ album went on to top the charts in the US, Austria, Canada, the Netherlands and the UK. For the “secret” gigs at the Borderline under the previously mentioned pseudonym Bingo Hand Job members of R.E.M. were joined by Billy Bragg, Peter Holsapple and Robyn Hitchcock, who also adopted pseudonyms. The pseudonyms adopted by the band and their mates were The Doc (Berry), Raoul (Buck), Stinky (Stipe) and Ophelia (Mills), along with friends Conrad (Billy Bragg), Violet (Robyn Hitchcock) and Spanish Charlie (Peter Holsapple).
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On March 11th 1969 the Temptations became the first Motown act to win a Grammy Award for “Cloud Nine” for the Best Rhythm & Blues Group Performance. The single reached Number 2 on the US R&B chart, number 6 on the US Billboard chart, number 9 in Canada and number 15 in the UK. All in 1968. The song was the first of their singles to feature Dennis Edwards instead of David Ruffin in the lineup, and was the first of producer Norman Whitfield’s glorious psychedelic soul tracks. The track was written by Whitfield and Barrett Strong.
In 1968, Sly and the Family Stone had a hit with their single “Dance to the Music”, and Temptations member Otis Williams introduced Norman Whitfield to the band’s music. At first, Whitfield did not want to produce anything with such a radically different sound. “I don’t want to get into all that crazy shit,” he said. “That ain’t nothing but a little passing fancy.” Within a few weeks, however, he had created the backing tracks for “Cloud Nine”.
The song featured a vocal part from all five Temptations; Paul Williams, Dennis Edwards, Eddie Kendricks, Otis Williams and Melvin Franklin. Cuban percussionist Mongo Santamaria played conga drums on the song alongside the iconic Motown house band the Funk Brothers. The song has some excellent bass from James Jamerson.
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On March 11th 1978 French pop singer, composer, songwriter, record producer, drummer and dancer Claude Francois, also known as Cloclo, was electrocuted changing a light bulb while standing in his bathtub. He was aged just 39. This was on the eve of a scheduled US tour. He sold more than 20 million records during his career, and further 6 million since his death. He had the 1976 UK hit, “Tears On The Telephone”, which reached number 35 in the UK chart. This was his only UK hit.
François co-wrote the lyrics of “Comme d’habitude” with Jacques Revaux. Francois took his version of the song to number three in the French charts in 1967. In 1969 Paul Anka wrote English lyrics for the song and gave it the title “My Way,” which became one of Frank Sinatra’s signature songs. David Bowie said that in 1968, a year before Paul Anka acquired the French song his publisher asked him to write English lyrics for “Comme d’habitude”. His version, titled “Even A Fool Learns To Love”, was rejected. He never forgot that rejection though. This work became the starting point for his 1971 song “Life On Mars”. Chris O’Leary wrote that David Bowie felt “using “Comme d’habitude” wasn’t theft but more a statement of rightful ownership.” The phrase “Inspired by Frankie” was written next to the song in the LP liner notes of Bowie’s ‘Hunky Dory’ album.
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On March 4th 1982 two of Frank Zappa’s kids son Dweezil and daughter Moon Unit formed a band called Fred Zeppelin. They were aged 12 and 14 at the time. Their first single was “My Mother Is A Space Cadet”. That is a great band name in my opinion! In fact there is a Led Zeppelin tribute act with the same name around now. Some sources suggest that the band name the Zappa sprogs used was in fact Fred Zappalin, or something similar. But whatever name it was made under it is in fact a damned good song! The song was written by Dweezil and Moon Unit along with none other than Steve Vai. It was produced by Eddie Van Halen and Donn Landee, credited as “The Vards”, (a pun on Van Halen’s mother’s pronunciation of his first name Edward). Van Halen also plays the (uncredited) slide guitar that opens the song.
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On February 28th 1981 the Who released their first single since the death of drummer, Keith Moon, who died in 1978. Former Faces and Small Faces drummer Kenney Jones, took Moon’s place behind the drums. The song was called “You Better You Bet”. The single peaked at Number 9 in the UK and Number 18 in the US. MTV was launched on 1st August 1981, “You Better You Bet” was the fourth video played on the channel.
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On 24th February 1969 the Jimi Hendrix Experience played their last ever British performance when they appeared at the Royal Albert Hall in London. I am not entirely sure why, but during the encore of “Purple Haze” and “Wild Child” the stage was invaded by fans, police, bouncers, floor managers and practically the entire audience. The entire audience? The Royal Albert Hall capacity is close to 6,000. How big is the fucking stage? Those were the days, right? Incidentally the support acts that night were Van Der Graaf Generator and Fat Mattress.
The full set list for the Jimi Hendrix Experience was:
Lover Man
Stone Free
Hear My Train a Comin’
I Don’t Live Today
Red House
Foxy Lady
Sunshine of Your Love
Bleeding Heart
Fire
Little Wing
Voodoo Child (Slight Return)
Room Full of Mirrors Encore:
Purple Haze
Wild Thing
The Star-Spangled Banner
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On February 17th 1978 Kate Bush released her debut studio album ‘The Kick Inside’ which included her UK Number 1 hit, “Wuthering Heights”. That song was the first time a female singer-songwriter topped the UK charts with a self-penned song. She was still only 19 years old and had written some of the songs when she was only 13. The album’s second single, “The Man With The Child in His Eyes”, reached Number 6 in the UK. The album made it to number 3 in the UK and number 1 in the Netherlands. It also reached the top 5 in Australia, France, New Zealand and Norway. “Moving” and “Them Heavy People” were issued as singles in some territories, but both failed to have any serious action in the charts. The latter made it to number 21 in the Netherlands. Kate appeared on the iconic US TV show ‘Saturday Night Live’ in December 1978. But sadly this did not help and the album failed to make the Billboard top 200. But who cares, Kate went on to achieve so much and yes, eventually even the Americans took to her!
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On February 14th 1977 US singer songwriter Janis Ian received 461 Valentine’s day cards after indicating in the lyrics of her song ‘At Seventeen’, she had never received any. The particular line from the song which produced this rather kind gesture was “To those of us who knew the pain of valentines that never came“. 461 cards is a lot, but obviously I receive thousands every year. It really is hard being this handsome and charming!
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