News, Deaths & Drama for Friday 18th July 2014: 1953 - Truck driver Elvis Presley made his first ever recording when he paid $3.98 at the Memphis recording service singing two songs, My Happiness and Thats When Your Heartaches Begin. The so-called vanity disc, was a gift for his mother. It would surface 37 years later as part of an RCA compilation called Elvis - the Great Performances. 1960 - Brenda Lee went to No.1 on the US singles chart with Im Sorry it made No.12 in the UK. Seeking publicity the 4 11 tall singer was once billed as a 32-year- old midget and had the nickname Little Miss Dynamite. 1964 - The Four Seasons started a two week run at No.1 on the US singles chart with Rag Doll, the groups fourth No.1 and a No.2 hit on the UK chart. Co-writer Bob Gaudio said that he got the inspiration for the song from a young girl in tattered clothes that cleaned his car windows at a stop light. 1964 - The Rolling Stones appeared on the US chart for the first time when their cover of Buddy Hollys Not Fade Away peaked at No.48. 1966 - Bobby Fuller leader of The Bobby Fuller Four was found dead in his car in Los Angeles aged 22. Fuller died mysteriously from gasoline asphyxiation, while parked outside his apartment. Police labelled it a suicide, but the possibility of foul play has always been mentioned. Had the 1966 US No.9 single I Fought The Law written by Sonny Curtis of Buddy Hollys Crickets and covered by The Clash. 1970 - UK BBC Radio 1 DJ Kenny Everett was sacked after he joked on air that the wife of the conservative transport minister Mary Peyton had crammed a fiver into the examiners hand, when taking her driving test. 1972 - Members from Sly and the Family Stone were arrested after police found two pounds of marijuana in the groups motor home. 1973 - Bruce Springsteen played the first of four nights at Maxs Kansas City in New York City, New York, supported by Bob Marley and The Wailers who were on their first ever North American tour. 1974 - The US Justice Department ordered John Lennon out of the country by September 10th. The Immigration and Naturalization Service denied him an extension of his non-immigrant visa because of his guilty plea in England to a 1968 marijuana possession charge. The US Court of Appeal would overturn the deportation order in 1975 and Lennon was granted permanent resident status the following year. 1978 - Def Leppard made their live debut at Westfield School, Sheffield, England in front of 150 students. 1988 - Nico died after suffering a minor heart attack while riding a bicycle on holiday with her son in Ibiza Spain. The German born singer-songwriter and keyboard player with Velvet Underground, had also worked as a fashion model and actress. 1988 - Ike Turner was sentenced in Santa Monica, California to one year in jail for possessing and transporting cocaine. Police had stopped Turner, former husband of Tina Turner, in August 1987 for driving erratically and found about six grams of rock cocaine in his car. 1991 - The first night of the Lollapalooza tour at The Compton Terrace, Phoenix, featuring, Living Colour, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Janes Addiction, Nine Inch Nails, Henry Rollins Band and The Butthole Surfers. 1992 - Bobby Brown married Whitney Houston at her New Jersey estate who was dressed in a $40,000 Marc Bouwer wedding gown. Those in attendance included Stevie Wonder, Gloria Estefan, Natalie Cole, Patti LaBelle and Freddie Jackson. After years of making tabloid headlines, she would file for divorce in September, 2006. 1998 - The Beastie Boys went to No.1 on the UK album chart with Hello Nasty, only the second rap album to make No.1 in the UK, the first being Wu-Tang Clan. 2001 - Kiss, added another product to their ever-growing merchandising universe: the Kiss Kasket. The coffin featured the faces of the four founding members of the band, the Kiss logo and the words Kiss Forever. Pantera guitarist Dimebag Darrell was buried in one after he was shot and killed on-stage in Dec 2004. 2002 - Rapper Mystikal and two other men were arrested on suspicion of raping a 40-year-old woman in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Mystikal, (real name Michael Tyler), was charged with the offence as well as one of extortion after giving himself up to police, he was subsequently released on $250,000 (£161,000) bail. 2007 - Paul Simon filed a law suit against Rhythm USA Inc. a Georgia-based subsidiary of a Japanese firm, claiming the company never had his permission to sell wall clocks that played ‘Bridge Over Troubled Water’. The suit claimed that as one of the best known songs throughout the world, a proper licensing agreement would earn at least a $1 million licensing fee.
Posted on: Fri, 18 Jul 2014 10:25:12 +0000