THIS DAY IN MUSIC

March 9th: On this Day

1964, The Beatles filmed the last day of train scenes for the movie A Hard Day's Night. During their six days of filming aboard a moving train, The Beatles travelled a total of 2,500 miles on the rails.

1964, Capitol Records released a song called 'Letter To The Beatles' by The Four Preps. The lyrics describe a boy lamenting the fact that he's lost his girlfriend to The Fab Four. On its first day, the record shot to No.85 on the charts and it looked like The Preps were going to have another hit on their hands. Unfortunately they had included a few bars from 'I Want To Hold Your Hand' without permission and Capitol was forced to withdraw the single to avoid a lawsuit.

1966, The Beach Boys started recording the Brian Wilson and Tony Asher penned song 'God Only Knows', which when released in May 1966 was the eighth track on the group's album Pet Sounds. It became a UK No.2 single in 1966 and the B-side of 'Wouldn't It Be Nice' in the US.

1966,

1967, Pink Floyd and The Thoughts appeared at The Marquee Club London, England. The Marquee club has often been defined as 'the most important venue in the history of pop music', not only for having been the scene of the development of modern music culture in London, but also for having been an essential meeting point for some of the most important artists in rock music.

1968, Bob Dylan started a ten week run at No.1 on the UK chart with John Wesley Harding. The album marked Dylan's return to acoustic music after three albums of electric rock music and was exceptionally well received by critics, also reaching No.2 on the US charts. The commercial performance was considered remarkable, considering that Dylan had made Columbia Records release the album without much publicity.

1970, Having recently changed their name from Earth to Black Sabbath,  Ozzy Osbourne, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler and Bill Ward made their concert debut at The Roundhouse, London.

1971, Led Zeppelin appeared at Leeds University, Leeds, England, during their 'Back To The Clubs' tour. This was the first tour which saw Zeppelin performing 'Stairway To Heaven', 'Black Dog' and 'Going To California.'

1974, Alvin Stardust was at No.1 on the UK singles chart with 'Jealous Mind'. Know as Shane Fenton in the 1960s, it was the singer's only UK chart topper.

1975, Actor Telly Savalas was at No.1 on the UK singles chart with his version of the David Gates (from Bread) song 'If'. Savalas was currently high in the TV ratings playing the policeman Kojak.

1981, Robert Plant played a secret gig at Keele University, England with his new band The Honey Drippers.

1985, Dead Or Alive were at No.1 on the UK singles chart with 'You Spin Me Round (Like A Record). It was the first No.1 for the production team of Stock, Aitken and Waterman who went on to produce over 100 UK Top 40 hits.

1985, Mick Jagger released his solo single 'Just Another Night' a No. 12 hit in the US and No. 32 on the UK charts.

1985, REO Speedwagon started a three week run at No.1 on the US singles chart with 'Can't Fight This Feeling', it made No.16 in the UK.

1987, U2 released their fifth studio album The Joshua Tree which features the singles 'Where The Streets Have No Name', and 'I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For'. The album became the fastest selling in UK history and the first album to sell over a million CDs, spending a total of 201 weeks on the UK chart. It topped the charts in over 20 countries and became U2's first US No.1 album.

1991, 'Should I Stay Or Should I Go' gave The Clash their only UK No.1 single after the track was used for a Levi's TV advertisement. The track was first released in 1982 from their album Combat Rock.

1996, Take That scored their eighth and last UK No.1 single (until re-forming in 2006) with their version of The Bee Gees 1977 song 'How Deep Is Your Love', (originally intended for US singer Yvonne Elliman), and used as part of the soundtrack to the film Saturday Night Fever.

1997, Notorious BIG was gunned down and killed as he left a party at the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles. Born Christopher Wallace the rapper was pronounced dead on arrival at Cedars Sinai Hospital. He was 24 years old.

2004, Former Crazy Town guitarist Rust Epique died of heart failure from an apparent heart attack at his home in Las Vegas. Epique was 36. Crazy Town had the 1999 world-wide No.1 single 'Butterfly'.

2005, 53-year-old Danny Joe Brown, the original lead singer of Molly Hatchet, died from renal failure due to complications from diabetes. Brown was the front man for the band's self-titled album in 1978, which went Platinum.

2007, Brad Delp lead singer of US rock band Boston committed suicide by carbon monoxide poisoning in at his home in the New Hampshire town of Atkinson. He died from the smoke of two charcoal grills he’d lit inside his sealed master bathroom. He was found by police lying on a pillow on his bathroom floor with a note paper-clipped to his shirt which read: "Mr. Brad Delp. I am a lonely soul." Boston had the 1977 UK No.22 single 'More Than A Feeling' and the 1986 US No.1 single 'Amanda.'

2010, Lil Wayne was sentenced to a year in prison at New York City's Rikers Island jail complex after pleading guilty to gun possession. The charges were linked to his arrest in 2007 when a gun was found on his tour bus. His sentencing came after several delays; the first date was postponed to allow the rapper to have dental work and the second had to be rearranged after a fire broke out in the New York court complex.

2012, 76-year-old Jerry Lee Lewis married for the seventh time when he wed his caregiver Judith Brown. Lewis split from his sixth wife, Kerrie McCarver, in 2004 after twenty years of marriage. Brown, who was 14 years younger than Lewis, was previously married to the star's cousin Rusty.

2016, A study by The Journal of Advanced Nursing reported that pop records set a bad example by portraying ageing and old people in a negative light, focusing on dying and physical decline. Researchers trawled the musical archives from the 1930s to the present day for any tracks mentioning old age. The majority, 55 out of 76 songs, focused on "bad" aspects of ageing. The Beatles and Elton John featured on the "negative list", along with Pulp and The Who.

March 9th: Born on this day

1930, Born on this day, American jazz saxophonist, violinist, trumpeter and composer Ornette Coleman. He was one of the major innovators of the free jazz movement of the 1960s. Coleman died of a cardiac arrest at the age of 85 in New York City on June 11, 2015.

1934, Born on this day, Lloyd Price, US singer, songwriter, (1959 US No.1 & UK No.7 single 'Stagger Lee').

1936, Born on this day, Mickey Gilley, US singer, (1980 US No. 22 single 'Stand By Me' from the soundtrack 'Urban Cowboy').

1942, Born on this day, singer-songwriter and record producer, John Cale, Velvet Underground, (1968 'White Light, White Heat', 1967 Velvet Underground And Nico 'peeled banana' album). He produced the first albums of the Stooges, the Modern Lovers, Patti Smith, Squeeze, and Happy Mondays.

1942, Born on this day, Mark Lindsay, singer, guitarist with Paul Revere & The Raiders, (1971 US No.1 single with ‘Indian Reservation’ plus 14 other US Top 30 hit singles).

1944, Born on this day, Trevor Burton, The Move, (1969 UK No.1 single 'Blackberry Way').

1945, Born on this day, Robert Calvert, singer, poet, Hawkwind & solo, (1972 UK No.3 single 'Silver Machine'). Calvert died on 14th August 1988.

1945, Born on this day, Ron Wilson, drummer, The Surfaris, (1963 US No.2 & UK No.3 single 'Wipe Out'). Died of a brain anueryism on 7th May 1989.

1945, Born on this day, Robin Trower, guitarist, Procol Harum, (1967 UK No.1 single & US No.5 ' 'A Whiter Shade Of Pale'' & three top 20 solo albums).

1946, Born on this day, Jim Cregan, guitar, Family, Cockney Rebel, (1975 UK No.1 single 'Make Me Smile', Come Up And See Me), also works with Rod Stewart.

1948, Born on this day, Chris Thompson, vocals, Manfred Mann's Earth Band, (1976 UK No.6 single 'Blinded By The Light', a US No.1 in 1977).

1948, Born on this day, Jeffrey Osborne, soul singer, (1984 UK No.11 & US No. 29 single 'On The Wings Of Love').

1949, Born on this day, Jimmy Fadden, Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, (1971 US No.9 single 'Mr Bojangles').

1951, Born on this day, Frank Rodriguez, ? & The Mysterians, (1966 US No. 1 & UK No.37 single 96 Tears). The song was a UK No.17 hit for The Stranglers in 1990.

1958, Born on this day, Martin Fry, vocals, ABC, (1982 UK No.4 & 1983 US No.18 'The Look Of Love' plus nine other UK Top 40 singles).

1968, Born on this day, Robert Sledge, drums, Ben Folds Five, (1997 UK No.26 single 'Battle Of Who Could Care Less').

1969, Born on this day, Adam Siegel, American rock guitarist and producer. Founding member of the Los Angeles punk band Excel, and subsequently became the lead guitarist for the Suicidal Tendencies side project Infectious Grooves.

1980, Born on this day, Chingy, US rapper, (2003 US No.2 album ‘Jackpot’, 2003 US No.2 & UK No.17 single ‘Right Thurr’).

1987, Born on this day, Lil Bow Wow, (Shad Moss), US rapper, (2001 UK No. 6 single 'Bow Wow, That's My Name').