APRIL 4
This was the week that was in matters musical...in 1998, tabloids fly off supermarket racks when George Michael gets popped performing "a lewd act" in a Beverly Hills public loo...this week marks the debuts of two bands that though miles apart in styles,
cast long, influential shadows: in '69, art rockers King Crimson break through with a gig at London's Speakeasy...four years later, glamrockers Queen do the same at the city's Marquee Theatre...in 1985, Billboard's #1 pop entry is "We Are The World"...the feelgood ditty is penned by Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie and is performed by just about all of popdom's glitterati...in 1974, the #1 spot is owned by Elton John's "Benny and the Jets"...the tune first comes out as the B-side of "Candle in the Wind" and then takes on a life of its own..."Candle" in turn has its second heyday when it becomes the theme song for Princess Di's mourners...this week in '54, Bill Haley and The Comets wax "(We're Gonna) Rock Around The Clock" marking
what many believe is the beginning of the rock era...in 1961, a folksinger from Minnesota opens for John Lee Hooker at
New York's Gerde's Folk City...his name is Bob Dylan... this week in 1957, Ricky Nelson sings on his family's sitcom "The
Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet"...with good looks and an innocuous crooning style, his whitebread makeover of FatsDomino's "I'm Walking" leaves teens all over America swooning...according to some, it marks the first incursion of rock on national TV...1979-Siouxsie and The Banshees play a charity concert at London's Rainbow Theatre...their fans go berserk and cause so much damage that once the costs are paid out, there's precious little left over for charity...on April 7, 1994, Courtney Love is busted on drug charges following a reported overdose..she and the cops are unaware that Kurt Cobain is dead in the couple's greenhouse...it's not until April 8th that an electrician discovers the body...Cobain had shot himself on the 5th...in 1966, Jan Berry, half of the singing duo Jan & Dean, is severely injured when he wipes out his 'Vette...ironically, some of Jan & Dean's
biggest hits such as "Dead Man's Curve" revolve around fast cars...and that was the week that was...
 
APRIL 12
This is the week that was in matters musical...1967, The Rolling stones give their first performance behind the Iron Curtain...the
concert at Warsaw's Palace of Culture breaks into a riot when 7,000 people are locked out...commie cops use tear gas to
clear out the fans who refuse to leave...1965, "Girl from Ipanema" wins a Grammy for Stan Getz and Astrud Gilberto...that
same year, The Beatles win Best New Artist of the Year...1940, Glenn Miller is "In the Mood" to top the charts...1999, a week following the $50 million wrongful death suit filed by three of her daughters, Tammy Wynette's year-dead corpse is dug up and
autopsied...the suit charges that her husband George Richey and Wynette's doctor kept her strung out on narcotics and failed to give her proper medical attention...the medical examiner finds inadequate evidence to support this claim...1973, the number one
pop toe-tapper is "Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree" by Tony Orlando and Dawn...1951, Les Paul and Mary
Ford top the charts with "How High the Moon"...this week in 1946, Skip Spence is born in Ontario...he grows up to help found Jefferson Airplane and sing lead with Moby Grape...this same week in 1999, he dies of lung cancer in Santa Cruz, CA, where
he was a ward of the county...George Michael ticks off Sony this week in 1995, by giving the single "Jesus for a Child" a
one-shot charity airing in London...the stunt raises $112 grand and loses Michael his recording contract..he signs on with
DreamWorks...1972, Electric Light Orchestra first meets the world at the Greyhound Club in Surrey, England (or The Fox &
Greyhound in Croydon, depending on your reference)...1998, postwar country music fans grieve the loss of Rose Maddox,
who dies two years after releasing an original CD that wins her a Grammy nomination...1970, Paul McCartney releases his first
solo album, "McCartney"...it is carefully timed to coincide with the release of the Beatles' "Get Back"...Felix Pappalardi,
producer of Cream and bassist with Mountain, is gunned down in his New York apartment this week in 1983...his wife is
charged with second degree murder...later she gets four years after claiming she shot him while he gave her a lesson in how to
use the gun...in the middle of the night...1956, Buddy Holly releases his first single, "Blue Days, Black Nights"...Wayne Fontana
and the Mindbenders top the charts this week in 1965 with "Game of Love"...four years later MC5 gets dropped by Elektra
after placing an ad reading "**** Hudsons" in a Detroit newspaper...Hudsons is a local record shop that refuses to stock
MC5 albums...and that was the week that was...

April 18
This is the week that was in matters musical ... 1955, Alan Freed stages his first rock 'n' roll show at Brooklyn's Paramount Theater and contrary to usual practice, there is no color bar...1956, Nat King Cole is attacked and beaten after a show in
Birmingham, Alabama .. also in 1956, Elvis plays Las Vegas for the first time, but doesn't go over well (his two-week appearance is ended after one week) and The Coasters sign with Atlantic Records ... 1961, The Beatles debut at the Cavern Club in Liverpool, England, and Elvis makes his last stage appearance for nearly eight years at Bloch Arena in Hawaii ... also in 1961, Bob Dylan earns a $50 session fee for playing harmonica on Harry Belafonte's "Midnight Special" ... and the 1961 No. 1 Billboard Pop Hit is "Runaway" by Del Shannon. Shannon is also the first artist to put a Lennon and McCartney song
on the American charts. The song is "From Me to You" and it hits the charts in 1963, before the release of the Beatles debut American single, "I Wanna Hold Your Hand" ... in 1969, John Lennon officially changes his middle name from Winston to
Ono, and Paul McCartney denies that "Paul is dead," the hot rumor of the day ... in 1964, the Rolling Stones release their debut album ... 35 years or so later, in 1999, their No Security arena tour grosses a cool 64 million for 33 shows ... in 1977, Elvis records for the last time at The Civic Center in Saginaw, Michigan, and Studio 54, the center of the disco universe, opens in New York ... 1981, Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash, and Carl Perkins perform together in West Germany and the concert is later released as the LP "The Survivors" ... 1980, The English Beat releases Britain's first digitally recorded single, "Mirror in the Bathroom" ... 1981, John Phillips is sentenced to eight years after pleading guilty to drug dealing but actually spends only 30 days behind bars ... 1996, tickets go on sale for the KISS reunion tour, the first time in fifteen years that the '70s stars are together again on stage in original makeup ... and that was the  week that was in music.

April 25
This was the week that was in matters musical...this week in 1969 erotic lithographs by John Lennon are seized by police
at a London art gallery...the pix are returned after a court finds they are "unlikely to deprave or corrupt"...in '76 garage band
extraordinaire,The Ramones, releases its eponymously-titled debut album...in 1963 Andrew Loog Oldham and his boss Eric Easton catch The Rolling Stones'gig at Richmond's Crawdaddy Club...the next day the pair become the group's managers...in '68 the hippie musical "Hair" debuts on Broadway...1970, Allman Brothers road manager "Twiggs" Lyndon is arrested for murder following the shooting of a club manager over a contract dispute...in 1967 Brian Wilson abandons his magnum opus
"Smile" after a neighboring house burns down while he is recording the track "Fire"...R.E.M. makes its TV series debut on
Fox's "Party of Five" this week in '99...in '94 the historic San Francisco Fillmore reopens...first acts include Ry Cooder and
David Lindley, Smashing Pumpkins, and American Music Club...in '99 Clinton drug war officials release a study documenting that illicit drug and alcohol references are found in the lyrics of 27% of the top hits of '96-97..this week in 1983 Michael Jackson's "Beat It" with a featured Eddie Van Halen guitar solo is the #1 pop hit...in '74 that spot belongs to Grand Funk Railroad's cover of "The Loco-motion," a dance song that rides the charts three times, originally for Little Eva, then in 1988 for Kylie Minogue who takes it to #3...in '76, Bruce Springsteen is escorted away by guards after attempting to scale Graceland's fence to see Elvis Presley...in 1984 drummer Mick Fleetwood files for bankruptcy...back in '56 Elvis scores his 1st chart topper with "Heartbreak Hotel"...and that was the week that was.