TODAY IN HISTORY – JANUARY 10th
1917 - Born this day, Jerry Wexler, producer and record company executive. Co-owner of Atlantic records, vice president at Warner Brothers, worked with Ray Charles, Phil Spector, Dr John, Dusty Springfield, Dire Straits, Bob Dylan.
1939 - Born this day, Scott McKenzie [Phillip Blondheim], in Jacksonville, Florida, singer, 1967 UK No.1 single San Francisco, Be Sure To Wear Some Flowers In Your Hair, also auditioned for The Monkees. In 1988 Scott co-wrote the Beach Boys hit Kokomo with former Papa, John Phillips.
1943 - Born this day, Jim Croce, US singer, songwriter, (You Don’t Mess Around with Jim, 1973 US No.1 single Time In A Bottle, Bad, Bad Leroy Brown, I’ve Got a Name). Died in plane crash on the way to a concert on 20 September 1973.
1945 - Born this day, Rod Stewart [Roderick David Stewart], born on 10 January 1945, in London, England. Played with The Hoochie Coochie Men, joined Steampacket, Shotgun Express, Jeff Beck Group, The Faces. He went to school with future Kinks Ray and Dave Davis. The Faces split in 1975, guitarist Ron Wood was on permanent loan to the Stones, bass player Ronnie Laine went on to form Slim Chance and drummer Kenny Jones joined The Who.
His biggest hit was the 1971 UK and US No.1 single Maggie May / Reason To Believe. Rod has scored over 40 UK Top 40 singles including 6 No.1's. Rod married New Zealand model Rachel Hunter in 1990. 'I Found the girl that I want, I won't be putting my banana in anybody's fruit bowl from now on', said Rod. They split in 1999.
In 1990, Patricia Boughton filed a lawsuit against Rod claiming that a football he kicked into the crowd during a concert at the Pine Knob Music Theatre had ruptured a tendon in her middle finger and as a result made sex between her and her husband 'very difficult'. Rod won a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 1999 Ivor Novello songwriting awards.
(1971 UK and US No.1 single Maggie May, Reason To Believe, You Wear It Well, Angel, What Made Milwaukee Famous, Oh No Not My Baby, Farewell, Sailing, This Old Heart Of Mine, Tonight's The Night, The Killing Of Georgie, I Don't Want To Talk About It, First Cut Is The Deepest, You're In My Heart, Hotlegs, Da Ya Think I'm Sexy, Tonight I'm Yours, Baby Jane, Every Beat Of My Heart).
1946 - Born this day, Aynsley Dunbar, drums, Journey, 1981 US No.14 single Who's Crying Now, with Whitesnake, 1987 UK No.9 single Is This Love, 1987 US No.1 and UK No.9 single Here I Go Again.
1948 - Born this day, Donald Fagen, musician, vocals, keyboardist, Steely Dan, 1974 UK No.37 album Pretzel Logic, 1975 UK No.13 album Katy Lied, 19754 UK No.38 album Can't Buy A Thrill originally released in 1973, 1976 UK No.11 album The Royal Scam, 1977 UK No.5 album Aja, 1978 UK No.41 album Greatest Hits, 1980 UK No.27 album Gaucho, 1982 UK No.44 album Gold, 1973 US No.11 single Reeling In The Years.
1949 - The Radio Corporation of America, sometimes known as RCA, announced a new 7-inch, 45 rpm phonograph record. Soon, the 45, the record with the big hole in the middle, would change the pop music business. RCA even manufactured a record player that played only 45s - with a fat spindle that made stacking wax really simple and automatic for those romantic times when hands were just too busy to be flippin’ records.
1953 - Born this day, Pat Benatar [Andrejewski], Grammy award-winning singer, (Crimes of Passion [1980], and Fire and Ice [1981], Hit Me with Your Best Shot, 1985 UK No.17 single Love Is A Battlefield).
1958 - Born this day, Shawn Colvin, singer, songwriter, musician, guitarist, 1995 UK No.40 single with Mary Chapin Carpenter, One Cool Remove.
1958 - Jerry Lee Lewis has his only UK No.1 single with 'Great Balls Of Fire.'
1958 - The release date for the Elvis Presley single Jailhouse Rock was put back a week because Decca Records pressing plant in the UK were unable to meet the advance orders of 250,000.
1964 - Born this day, Brad Roberts, vocals, guitar, Crash Test Dummies, 1994 UK No.2 and US No.4 single MMM MMM MMM MMM.
1964 - The Rolling Stones recorded 'Not Fade Away' at Regent Sound Studios in London, England.
1976 - C.W. McCall went to No.1 on the US singles chart with Convoy. It made No.2 in the UK. C.W. McCall was in fact an advertising agent, his real name was Bill Fries.
1976 - Deep Purple split up at the end of a UK tour. David Coverdale went on to form Whitesnake, Jon Lord and Ian Paice formed a band with Tony Ashton. The classic line up of Blackmore, Gillan, Glover, Lord & Paice reformed in 1984.
1977 - Keith Richards was fined £750 with £250 costs after being found guilty of possessing cocaine. He was also fined £25, for driving without an MOT or car tax.
1979 - Richard Carpenter entered a chemical dependency treatment center in Topeka, Kansas.
1981 - John Lennon's 'Imagine' started a four-week run at No.1 on the UK singles chart, 10 years after it was recorded. Lennon had two other songs in the Top 5 this week, 'Happy Christmas, (War Is Over') and '(Just Like) Starting Over.' 'Imagine' was voted by the viewers of BBC TV as the best lyrics of all time in a poll broadcast in Oct 1999. Also on this day John and Yoko's 'Double Fantasy' album started an eight-week run at No.1 on the US chart. 'Just Like Starting Over' was at No.1 on the US singles chart.
1984 - Singer, Cyndi Lauper became the first female recording artist since Bobbie Gentry in 1967, to be nominated for five Grammy Awards: Album of the Year, Best New Artist, Best Pop Vocal Performance (Female), Record of the Year and Song of the Year. She went one better for copping the award for Worst Hair Colouring by a Woman on the Planet. Girls Just Want to Have Fun.
1984 - Motley Crue played their opening show on the first leg of Ozzy Osbournes Bark At The Moon tour in front of nine and a half thousand people in Portland, Maine.
1997 - James Brown got a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
1999 - Norman Cook scored his third UK No.1 single under the name of Fatboy Slim with Praise You, his other No.1's were with the Housemartins and Beats International.
2000 - Singer Melissa Etheridge announced that David Crosby was the sperm donor of her two children with girlfriend Julie Cypher.
2003 - Bee Gee Maurice Gibb was fighting for his life after a heart attack following major stomach surgery. The 53 year-old singer had been rushed to hospital after collapsing at his Florida home.
2003 - A haul of 500 Beatles tapes known as the 'Get Back sessions', which were stolen in the 1970's, were found after UK police cracked a major bootleg operation in London and Amsterdam. Five men were arrested.
2005 - A woman was suing Gene Simmons from Kiss for slander, alleging a documentary made her out to be a "sex-addicted nymphomaniac". Georgeann Walsh Ward, 53, of New York, said during a VH1 documentary her photo was flashed up as Simmons talked about his past sexual encounters. Ms Walsh Ward had dated Simmons for three years when he was a student. In the documentary, Simmons boasted of having sex with over 4,600 women.
2006 - An Australian woman appeared in court charged with repeatedly stabbing her partner with a pair of scissors in the back, shoulder and thigh because he played Elvis Presley's song 'Burning Love' over and over again.
2007 - Madame Tussauds unveiled its fourth waxwork of Kylie Minogue, making the Australian pop star the most modelled celebrity after the Queen. The model became the first scented waxwork, wearing Minogue's Darling perfume.
2008 - Rod Allen Bainbridge, lead singer of The Fortunes, died aged 63 after battling liver cancer. The group's biggest hit was 'You've Got Your Troubles' which was a UK No.2 hit in 1965, also reaching No.7 seven in the US.
2016 - Died this day. David Bowie (David Robert Jones), singer, songwriter, actor and record producer. Bowie died just 2 days after his 69th birthday and the release of his last album "Blackstar" from liver cancer in his New York apartment. He had been diagnosed 18 months earlier but had not made the new of his illness public. He had insisted that he did not want a funeral, and according to his death certificate he was cremated in New Jersey on January 12th.