ON THIS DAY in 1924,
singer Margaret Whiting was born in Detroit, to a musical family headed by pop composer Richard Whiting.
She was one of the first artists signed by lyricist/singer Johnny Mercer when he co-founded Capitol Records in 1942, and she began recording under her own name in 1945. Her hits include All Through the Day, In Love in Vain, A Tree in the Meadow, Slippin’ Around and Silver Bells with country music star Jimmy Wakely, and Baby, It’s Cold Outside, a duet with Mercer. Maggie Whiting had steady work in bigtime radio, on Club 15, the Bob Hope Show, the Jack Smith Show and the Railroad Hour, and she continued to guest on TV talk and variety shows through the 1970’s. She died Jan. 10 2011 of natural causes at age 86.
In 1929, actress Marcia Henderson was born at Andover Mass. She was Kathleen on TV’s The Aldrich Family, had recurring roles on Two Girls Named Smith, World of Giants & Dear Phoebe, and guested on other episodic TV until 1960. She died in Yakima Wash. Nov 23, 1987 at age 58.
In 1932, Canadian radio pioneer Reginald Fessenden died at age 65. The broadcasting inventor, engineer, held 300 radio patents. He broadcast the world’s first program of voice and music to ships at sea Christmas Eve, 1906.
In 1937, Hal Kemp and his orchestra recorded the now-standard tune, Got a Date with an Angel, for RCA Victor Records in Hollywood. The distinctive vocal was provided by Skinnay Ennis.
In 1956, Buddy Holly had his first Nashville recording session, including an early take of “That’ll Be The Day.” The track was credited to Buddy Holly & The Three-Tunes (his backing band before the Crickets). The song would be re-recorded before it hit big.
In 1957, the songwriting team of Hal David and Burt Bacharach were about to score their first #1 hit record as Marty Robbins was in New York to tape their “The Story of My Life” as the B-side of his next Columbia release, “She Was Only Seventeen (He Was One Year More).”
In 1963, the album “Introducing The Beatles” was pressed by Vee-Jay Records. The following January, when it was released, Capitol Records filed an injuction to try to keep Vee-Jay from manufacturing or distributing Beatles’ records. The trial that resulted determined that Vee-Jay could only release records by the ‘Fab Four’ until October 15, 1964.
In 1965, “Till Death Us Do Part” debuted on England’s BBC-TV. The show was so popular that it became a hit series in Great Britain and was the forerunner of the 1970’s CBS-TV smash, All in the Family, starring Carroll O’Connor and Jean Stapleton.
Also in 1965, Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and Bill Wyman of the Rolling Stones were fined five pounds each for insulting behaviour after urinating on the wall of a London gas station. The owner had refused to give them the key to the men’s room.
In 1967, Jimi Hendrix either quit or was fired as the opening act for the Monkees’ U-S tour after only five days. His replacement was Vanilla Fudge.
Also in 1967, a UK floating pirate radio station, “Swinging Scotland”, shut down for lack of funds.
Still in 1967, the Billboard singles chart showed that Windy, by The Association, was the most popular record in the U.S. for the fourth straight week. The Los Angeles-based sextet would make way for Jim Morrison and The Doors a week later when Light My Fire became the hottest record of the mid-summer.
Again in 1967, The Doors were guests on ABC-TV’s American Bandstand, performing “Crystal Ship” and “Light My Fire.”
In 1968, the Byrds‘ “Sweetheart of the Rodeo” album was released.
In 1969, after an altercation in a Detroit parking lot Aretha Franklin was arrested for disturbing the peace. As she drove out of the police station after posting $50 bail she angrily ran down a stop sign.
Also in 1969, Elvis Presley‘s ’68 Comeback Special album, “Elvis,” was certified as a Gold Record.
In 1971, a license for Kelowna’s second radio station CKIQ-1150 Kelowna was approved by the CRTC; it signed on November 8th with 1000 watts. The station is now CKFR, labelled as AM 1150, with a news/talk/sports format.
Also in 1971, just 19 days after Jim Morrison‘s untimely death, The Doors‘ album “L.A. Woman” was certified as a Gold Record
Still in 1971, Motown Records released Stevie Wonder‘s single “If You Really Love Me,” one of his last tracks to feature the Funk Brothers as the backup band. Stevie would soon leave Detroit’s Hitsville USA studios to record in New York, henceforth playing most of the instruments himself.
In 1972, while on tour in Sweden with Wings, Paul and Linda McCartney were arrested for being in possession of drugs.
Also in 1972, the variety show “The Bobby Darin Amusement Company” premiered on C-B-S TV.
In 1974, the No. 1 Billboard Pop Hit was “Annie’s Song,” by John Denver. Denver wrote the song in 10 minutes on a ski lift in Switzerland.
In 1977, Tony Orlando announced his retirement from show business, triggered largely by the recent suicide of close friend Freddie Prinze. However he reversed the decision two months later, Orlando had two solo hits in 1961 (Halfway to Paradise and Bless You) and 14 hits with his backup singers (known as Dawn) through the mid-1970s. He also hosted a weekly TV variety show with Dawn (Telma Hopkins and Joyce Vincent) from 1974-1976.
In 1979, actress Hope Summers, who played Aunt Bee’s friend Clara on TV’s Andy Griffith Show, and was the voice for “Mrs. Butterworth” the famous talking maple syrup bottle, died of heart failure at age 78.
Also in 1979, Little Richard, who had given up show business in favor of his alter ego as Reverend Richard Penniman, spoke at a revival meeting in suburban San Francisco. He warned the congregation about “the evils of rock & roll music.” He also stated “If God can save an old homosexual like me, he can save anybody.”
In 1983, Diana Ross performed a concert in New York’s Central Park. The show the night before had been “rained out.”
In 1985, Bruce Springsteen‘s fans disabled the phone system in Washington, D-C by overloading the circuits with requests for tickets to the Boss’s show at Robert F. Kennedy Stadium. The concert was sold out within 90 minutes.
In 1986, the No. 1 Billboard Pop Hit was “Sledgehammer,” by Peter Gabriel. The song was the first single from Gabriel’s album “So.”
In 1987, Hugh Bryant, a member of the Delta Rhythm Boys, collapsed and died of a heart attack in Helsinki while singing at the funeral of the group’s founder, Lee Gaines. Gaines had died a week earlier of cancer. The Delta Rhythm Boys were popular in the 1940’s, and recorded with such jazz greats as Ella Fitzgerald and Count Basie. The Delta Rhythm Boys continued to perform after moving to Europe in the mid-’50s.
Also in 1987, a New York jury ruled that Morris Albert‘s 1975 composition “Feelings” was in large part plagiarised from “Pour Toi,” a song written in 1956 by French composer Lou Geste. The jury ruled that Geste was owed at least 500-thousand dollars U-S. Pictured above, Albert’s own recording of “Feelings” was a million-seller, and scores of other versions of the tune have been recorded.
In 1989, “Toy Soldiers” by Martika topped the charts and stayed there for 2 weeks.
Also in 1989, the soundtrack album ‘Batman’ by Prince started a six-week run at No.1 on the Billboard pop album chart.
In 1992, model Wayne McLaren, who was the Marlboro Man in the 70’s, and who smoked a pack-and-a-half a day, died of lung cancer that spread to his brain at age 51.
In 1994, more than 54-thousand fans jammed Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, as Billy Joel and Elton John performed the first of five concerts together. They dueted on “Your Song,” “Honesty” and “I Guess That’s Why They Call It the Blues.”
In 1995, two teens drowned in a river during an REM concert at an Irish castle northwest of Dublin. There were about 70-thousand people at the show, which was not interrupted.
Also on this date in 1995, Canadian singer David Clayton-Thomas angered patrons at a Blood, Sweat and Tears concert in the heavily Jewish Detroit suburb of West Bloomfield. Halfway through the show, he remarked that the weather was “as hot as the last train car going to Auschwitz.” Later Clayton-Thomas apologized for his poor choice of words.
Still in 1995, Jimmy Keyes, a founding member of the New York doo-wop quintet The Chords, died following an operation for an aneurysm. He was 65. The Chords’ “Sh-Boom” was a top-10 pop hit in 1954, a rarity for a black vocal group at the time. But their fame was shortlived. Mercury Records rushed out a cover version by a white group, The Crew Cuts, and heavy radio play by white stations pushed that record to number-one on the charts.
Still in 1995, Oasis and R.E.M. performed at Slane Castle in Dublin. More than 75,000 attended.
In 1996, the parents of a 15-year-old murder victim Elsye Pahler sued the band Slayer. The suit contended that the band’s lyrics were “satanic” and inspired three teenage boys to rape, torture and stab the girl to death. Her body was found near her home in Arroyo Grande, California in March 1996. The suit was delayed until 2000 until the killers’ trial ended and the suit was thrown out. The parents filed a second suit, but it too was dismissed.
Also in 1996, Scottish folk singer Donovan was forced to postpone a comeback tour of the U-S because of a conviction for marijuana possession thirty years earlier in Britain.
In 1999, in an unfortunate case of history repeating, East Village art-rockers Jon Spencer Blues Explosion found that its equipment has been stolen. The theft, which occurred in Vancouver, echoed that of N.Y. avant-garde rockers Sonic Youth, who had a van full of their vintage and customized gear stolen from outside their hotel room in Orange County, Calif. over the July 4 weekend.
In 2000, Oasis appeared at London’s Wembley Stadium, and the concert was broadcast live around the world on TV.
In 2001, the hostess of early TV’s Ding Dong School Dr. Frances Horwich, known to her young viewers as “Miss Frances,” died of heart failure at age 94.
In 2002, Vancouver’s CKVU signed off at 6 a.m. and City TV signed on to channel 10, cable 13. It was branded after Toronto’s City TV with an emphasis on local programming; over 27 hours a week. The first new show was a live 3-hour program called “Breakfast Television.”
In 2004, jazzman Illinois Jacquet, the tenor saxaphone player with the bands of Count Basie, Lionel Hampton, Charles Mingus and Cab Calloway, suffered a fatal heart attack at age 81. His 1942 solo on Hampton’s “Flying Home” was critically acclaimed as the first ever R & B sax solo.
In 2005, a Superior Court judge in Los Angeles issued a permanent injunction banning two members of the Doors — keyboardist Ray Manzarek and guitarist Robby Krieger — from using the band’s name and any likeness of late front man Jim Morrison to promote a renewed version of the band. They’d been touring without Doors drummer John Densmore under the name The Doors of the 21st Century, and Densmore sued.
Also in 2005, Eugene Record, the leader of the Chicago-based vocal group The Chi-Lites, died in Chicago after losing a long battle with cancer. Record was 64.
Still in 2005, country singer Mindy McCready attempted suicide by ingesting two unidentified substances and drinking alcohol at a hotel in Indian Rocks Beach, Florida.
In 2006, Johnny Cash was at No.1 on the Billboard album chart with ‘American V: A Hundred Highways.’ Released posthumously on July 4, the vocal parts were recorded before Cash’s death, but the instruments were not recorded until 2005.
In 2007, Welsh singer Paul Potts started a three week run at No.1 on the UK album chart with ‘One Chance.’ Potts became the winner of the first series of ITV’s ‘Britain’s Got Talent’ show.
Also in 2007, Ja Rule and Lil Wayne were arrested after a concert in Manhattan on charges of carrying illegal firearms. The rappers were arrested separately, Rule had been stopped for speeding when a weapon was discovered in his car, and officers who arrested Wayne for smoking marijuana also found a pistol in his vehicle.
In 2008, actress Estelle Getty, who in the 1980’s & early 90’s played Sophia Petrillo on The Golden Girls TV sitcom, died of natural causes 3 days short of her 85th birthday.
In 2010, after suffering breathing problems in the Alps, 70-year-old US singer Al Jarreau was hospitalized in France, forcing the cancellation of four upcoming concerts.
In 2011, actor Tom Aldredge, who had supporting roles in a trio of cable TV’s acclaimed series ‘Boardwalk Empire,’ ‘Damages’ and ‘The Sopranos,’ succumbed to lymphoma in a hospice in Florida at age 83.
In 2012, the man who for 23 years played popular Seattle children’s TV clown J.P. Patches, Chris Wedes lost his long battle with cancer at age 84. The show ran on KIRO-TV twice every weekday for 13 years (plus Saturdays), then for the next 8 years ran mornings only, and finally for the last 2 years only on Saturday mornings—for a total of more than 10,000 hours on air.
In 2013, actor Dennis Farina, the former Chicago police officer who played coiled, hot-tempered characters in movies and TV shows like ‘Law & Order’ and ‘Police Story’, died from a blood clot in his lung while battling lung cancer, at age 69.
Also in 2013, estranged Cheap Trick drummer Bun E Carlos sued the band for hundreds of thousands of dollars, saying they had no right to keep using the band’s name without him.
In 2014, 40-year sportscaster with CFRB Toronto, Bill Stephenson, who had started his career in BC at CJAV/CKDA/CKWX, and was an early voice of the BC Lions and the Vancouver Mounties baseball club, died at age 85.
In 2016, The Tragically Hip launched their farewell tour following news that frontman Gord Downie had been diagnosed with terminal brain cancer. The trek began at the Save-On-Foods Centre in Victoria, B.C.
In 2017, Bobby Taylor, the veteran singer and producer who brought The Jackson 5 to Motown in the late Sixties, succumbed to leukemia and cancer at age 83. He was the lead singer of Bobby Taylor and the Vancouvers.
Today’s Birthdays
Actor Orson Bean (Desperate Housewives, Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman, One Life to Live) is 92.
Actress Louise Fletcher (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine) is 86.
Singer Chuck Jackson is 83.
Actor Terence Stamp (Smallville) is 82.
Ontario-born game show host Alex Trebek (Jeopardy) is 80.
Singer George Clinton is 79.
Singer-actor Bobby Sherman (Here Come the Brides) is 77.
Actor Danny Glover (Touch, ER, Queen, Lonesome Dove) is 74.
Singer Don Henley (The Eagles) is 73.
Actor-comedian-director Albert Brooks (The Simpsons, Weeds, Hot Wheels) is 73.
Composer Alan Menken (Tangled: the Series, Galavant, Total Drama, Canadian Idol, Hercules) is 71.
Singer/actress Lonette McKee (Third Watch) is 66.
Jazz guitarist/composer Al Di Meola is 66.
Actor Willem Dafoe is 65.
R & B singer/songwriter Keith Sweat is 59.
Actress Joanna Going (Kingdom, House of Cards, Search for Tomorrow, Another World) is 58.
Actor Rob Estes (90210, Suddenly Susan, Melrose Place, Silk Stalkings) is 57.
Singer Emily Saliers of the Indigo Girls is 57.
Actor-comedian David Spade (Rules of Engagement, 8 Simple Rules, Just Shoot Me) is 56.
Actor John Leguizamo (Bloodline, ER, The Kill Project) is 56.
Actor Adam Godley (Powers, Suits) is 56.
Actor Patrick Labyorteaux (JAG, Little House on the Prairie) is 55.
Actress Irene Bedard (Into the West) is 53.
Actor Rhys Ifans (Elementary) is 53.
Bassist Pat Badger of Extreme is 53.
Actress Diana Maria Riva (Man with a Plan) is 51.
Playboy Playmate/actress Angela Little (Larry the Cable Guy’s Christmas TV Movies) is 48.
Actor Stephen Mangan (Episodes) is 48.
Montreal-born actor Colin Ferguson (You’re the Worst, Cedar Cove, Eureka, Haven) is 48.
Actor/voicist Jaime Camil (Jane the Virgin, Elena of Avalor) is 47.
Musician Daniel Jones (Savage Garden) is 47.
Montreal-born singer Rufus Wainwright is 47.
Actress Franka Potente {Copper, The Shield) is 46.
Quebec-born actress Karen Cliche (Flash Gordon, Young Blades, Mutant X, Adventure Inc., Vampire High) is 44.
Ontario-born actress A.J. Cook (Criminal Minds, Tru Calling) is 42.
Actress Candace Kroslak (Ocean Ave., Days of Our Lives) is 42.
Actress Lauren Bittner (Hart of Dixie) is 40.
Actor Josh Lawson (House of Lies) is 39.
Actor Clive Standen (Vikings, Camelot) is 39.
Regina-born actress Sarah Lind (Edgemont, Human Cargo, Mentors) is 38.
Actress Sharni Vinson (Home & Away) is 37.
Actress Amy Paffrath (Hollywood Friends, Hollywood 411) is 37.
Actor Blake Harrison (Prime Suspect 1973, Bob the Builder) is 35.
Actor Keegan Allen (Pretty Little Liars) is 31.
Actress Camila Banus (Days of Our Lives, One Life to Live) is 30.
Actress/singer Selena Gomez (The Wizards of Waverly Place, Shake it Up) is 28.
Actor Skyler Gisondo (Wet Hot American Summer: Ten Years Later, Santa Clarita Diet) is 24.
Actress Madison Pettis (Jake & the Never Land Pirates, The Fosters, Life with Boys, Cory in the House) is 22.
Vancouver-born actress Alisha Newton (Heartland) is 19.
Chart Toppers
1948
You Can’t Be True, Dear – The Ken Griffin Orchestra (vocal: Jerry Wayne)
Woody Woodpecker Song – The Kay Kyser Orchestra (vocal: Gloria Wood & The Campus Kids)
It’s Magic – Doris Day
Bouquet of Roses – Eddy Arnold
1957
Teddy Bear – Elvis Presley
Love Letters in the Sand – Pat Boone
It’s Not for Me to Say – Johnny Mathis
Bye Bye Love – The Everly Brothers
1966
Hanky Panky – Tommy James & The Shondells
Wild Thing – The Troggs
You Don’t Have to Say You Love Me – Dusty Springfield
Think of Me – Buck Owens
1975
Listen to What the Man Said – Wings
The Hustle – Van McCoy & The Soul City Symphony
I’m Not in Love – 10cc
Touch the Hand – Conway Twitty
1984
When Doves Cry – Prince
Dancing in the Dark – Bruce Springsteen
Ghostbusters – Ray Parker Jr.
Just Another Woman in Love – Anne Murray
1993
Weak – SWV (Sisters With Voices)
Can’t Help Falling in Love – UB40
I’ll Never Get Over You (Getting Over Me) – Expose
Chattahoochee – Alan Jackson
2002
Hot In Herre – Nelly
Complicated – Avril Lavigne
Days Go By – Dirty Vegas
Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue (The Angry American) – Toby Keith
2011
Party Rock Anthem – LMFAO featuring Lauren Bennett & GoonRock
Give Me Everything (Tonight) – Pitbull featuring Ne-Yo, AfroJack & Nayer
Rolling in the Deep – Adele
Honey Bee – Blake Shelton
Today in Broadcast History compiled by Ron Robinson
