On this day in 1954, Elvis Presley's first commercial recording session took place at Sun Records in Memphis, TN. The song he recorded was "That's All Right, Mama." "Blue Moon Of Kentucky" was on the B-side. Ahhh, the good old days of the single 45-rpm record. Incidentally, "That's All Right, Mama" was also recorded by the Jerry Garcia Band. I will be visiting the Sun Records studio during The Diva's annual vacation in September, and will give a full report when we return. I'm hoping to find one of the cool black Sun Records label logo t-shirts like the cool country stars and rockers wear.
On this day in 1965, the rock group Jefferson Airplane was formed. Jefferson Airplane is regarded as the most successful San Francisco band of the late 60s, despite countless personnel and even name changes, and they are considered the best band from the psychodelic era. In fact, how can you not think of "White Rabbit" and "Somebody To Love" when you think of the psychodelic 60's? Decades before the term "music video" was coined, Jefferson Airplane filmed a video for "White Rabbit." I remember watching it on VH-1 in the 80's, thinking how trippy it was with the psychodelic shapes and colors. I'm not sure where they would have played the video, but it's very cool that they had a video for the song. Go ask Alice - I think she'll know.
On this day in 1970, Casey Kasem's American Top 40 Countdown debuted on a Los Angeles radio station. Every week, Casey would count down the USA's biggest and best-selling records using the Top 40 from Billboard's Hot Hundred charts. In Louisville, the show aired on Sunday mornings, from nine till noon. I got to listen to the first half hour of the show before we went left for church. Casey would always start out the broadcast by playing the song that was number one the previous week. If I missed the first few minutes of the show, I would visit one of our neighborhood record stores, to Shively Records or Phoenix Records to look at their copy of Billboard magazine.
4 comments:
The Grateful Dead did not record "That's All Right, Mama." The Jerry Garcia Band did though. :)
Thank you for clearing that up, buddy. And thanks for being a faithful reader.
When the truth is found......to be lies
And all the joy.....within you dies
Don't you want somebody to love?
In light of the week we've been through, I'm sure Kasey Casem would dedicate that one to the G family.
Remember what the Door Mouse said.
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