DYR Today, August 3

“Born Today”

1963 – The Beatles played their final performance as at The Cavern Club in Liverpool. The fee for their first performance ever at The Cavern Club had been £5. For their final one, the fee was £300.
1963 – “Fingertips, Part 2” by Stevie Wonder topped the R&B chart. Stevie was only 12 years old when he improvised this song on a Motown package tour. This was the first live recording to hit #1 in the United States.

1963 – “Blowin’ in the Wind” by Peter, Paul, & Mary ruled Easy Listening chart
1963 – The Beach Boys released “Surfer Girl.” This was the first song Brian Wilson wrote or produced.
1963 – Allan Sherman released “Hello Muddah, Hello Fadda”
1964 – The Beatles documentary, Follow the Beatles, was shown on BBC in the United Kingdom. The documentary covered the group as they filmed A Hard Day’s Night
1968 – Sonny & Cher, Alice Cooper, Country Joe and the Fish, and others played at the premiere for the two-day Newport Pop Festival in Costa Mesa
1968 – Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass’ The Beat of the Brass stole #1 on the Album chart
1968 – “Hello, I Love You” by The Doors became #1 on the charts for two weeks. This was one of the biggest leaps to #1 in the Rock Era (9-1). ‘Hello I Love You’ was in the Top 5 simultaneously with Jose Feliciano’s version of ‘Light My Fire.” This gave The Doors two songs written by the group in the Top 5 at the same time.

1968 – Herb Alpert’s “This Guy’s in Love With You” stayed at #1 for the ninth week in a row on the Easy Listening chart.

1971 – Paul McCartney formed a new band called Wings. The band was made up of him, his wife Linda, and former Moody Blue guitarist, Denny Laine.

1973 – Dave Loggins’ “Please Come To Boston” hit #1 on the Easy Listening chart. The song was also nominated for a Grammy in the category of Best Male Pop Vocal Performance
1973 – Stevie Wonder released album Innervisons. Wonder played almost every instrument in six of the nine tracks featured on this album. Some singles from the album were, “Higher Ground” and ‘”Living for the City” and “He’s Misstra Know-It-All.”
1974 – Labelle released the hit single “Lady Marmalade.” The song was infamous for its provocative chorus “voulez-vous coucher avec moi (ce soir)?” which translates to “do you want to sleep with me (tonight)”

1974 – “Feel Like Makin’ Love” by Roberta Flack rose to #1 on the R&B chart
1974 – “Annie’s Song” by John Denver remained #1, holding off Elton John’s “Don’t Let the Sun Go Down On Me”
1985 – Madonna hits #1 in the UK with her single ‘Into The Groove’. The track was taken from the movie ‘Desperately Seeking Susan’ which featured Madonna and Rosanna Arquette. ‘Into The Groove’ is Madonna’s best selling single in the UK- it sold over 850,000 copies.

1985, Tears For Fears started a three week run at No.1 on the US singles chart with ‘Shout’, the duo’s second US No.1.
1987 – Def Leppard released Hysteria. This is the band’s best-selling album to date, selling over 23 million copies worldwide and generating seven hit singles. Apparently, the title of the album refers to drummer Rick Allen’s 1984 car accident and the media coverage surrounding it.
1989 – The Rolling Stones recorded the video for “Mixed Emotions.” The video matched the blithe nature of the song, which is a contrast from the band’s previous video, “One Hit (to the Body)” which was filmed during a time when Mic Jagger and Keith Richards were amidst awkward relations with each other.

1991 – Metallica’s world premiere at Madison Square Garden in New York City to launch their self-titled album. Kurt Cobain and Krist Novoselic from Nirvana both attended, as well as many more artists.
1991 – “Summertime” by DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince (Will Smith) hit #1 on the R&B chart. This song earned the group their second Grammy and peaked at #4 on the Billboard Hot 100.

1991 – Bryan Adams’ “(Everything I Do) I Do It For You” became the #1 AC song.
1996 – Alanis Morissette’s Jagged Little Pill remained #2 for best album for 58 weeks.
1996 – “Macarena” by Los Del Rio began its 14 week run as #1 on the US singles chart. THe song sold over 11 million copies worldwide and was ranked as the #1 Greatest One Hit Wonder of All Time by VH1 in 2002.
1999 – Patsy Cline received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Before her death, she was at the height of her career and is considered to be one of the most influential and successful female vocalists of the 20th century. Some of her most preeminent hits during her lifetime were “Walkin’ After Midnight,” “I Fall to Pieces,” and Willie Nelson’s “Crazy.”

1973 – The Eagles, Jim Croce, and Ike & Tina Turner were featured on the ABC television show In Concert, which was set on the campus of UCLA in Westwood.

1969 – Carl Wilson (Beach Boys) was indicted for failure to report for civilian duty in lieu of serving two years in the army.
1949 – The National Basketball Association (NBA) was formed. The league was formed by the the Basketball Association of America and the National Basketball League.