MAY 4

ROCK ‘N’ ROLL AT CAPITOL RECORDS IS 50 YEARS OLD TODAY!
1956 - Gene Vincent and His Blue Caps record the single "Be-Bop-A-Lula" at Owen Bradley's Studio in Nashville, Tennessee for Capitol Records. The session was produced by Ken Nelson and take #12 was used for the single. "Be Bop A Lula" was the second tune recorded that day, "Race with the Devil," was recorded first, and it later became Gene's second single. Capitol’s first rock ‘n’ roll record was rush-released and would be in stores within 2 weeks. “Be-Bop-A-Lula” would influence a generation of rockers around the world including John Lennon’s first band The Quarrymen.

HAPPY BIRTHDAYS!
1928 - Musician (trumpet, trombone, other horns) and bandleader Maynard Ferguson is born in Montreal, Canada. He would go on to play in Stan Kenton’s band, win Down Beat magazine reader's poll for trumpet in 1950, '51 and '52, and later form his own big band, which in the 1970's turned in a jazz-rock direction.
1937 - Dick Dale (born Richard Monsour), “King of the Surf Guitar”, is born in Boston, Massachusetts. His first full-length album, “Surfer’s Choice”, was picked up by Capitol Records in 1962 and distributed nationally.
1942 - Nickolas Ashford, producer, songwriter, and singer in the Capitol Records duo Ashford & Simpson, is born in Fairfield, South Carolina
1952 - Jacob Miller of the Capitol recording group Inner Circle is born in Madeville, Jamaica

ON THIS DAY IN CAPITOL HISTORY
1945 - Stan Kenton's recording of "Tampico", with June Christy on vocals, becomes his first million selling record.
1947 –Johnny Mercer sings, "Huggin' and Chalkin'" on the Armed Forces radio show “Command Performance”
1959 - Judy Garland's album "The Letter" is released
1959 - The first Grammy Awards were presented by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. Capitol artists Louis Prima and Keely Smith win Best Group or Chorus Vocal Performance with the single "That Old Black Magic", The Kingston Trio win Best Country and Western Performace with the single "Tom Dooley", Billy May wins Best Orchestra Performance with the album "Billy May's Big Fat Brass", Mereith Wilson wins Best Original Cast Album - Broadway or Television with "The Music Man", Felix Slatkin conducting The Hollywood Bowl Symphony wins Best Classical Performance - Orchestra with "Gaite Parisienne", The Hollywood String Quartet wins Best Classical Performance - Chamber Music with "Beethoven: Quartet No. 13", Roger Wagner Chorale win Best Classical Performance - Operatic or Choral with "Virtuoso", Stan Freberg wins" Best Documentary or Spoken Word Recording with "The Best Of The Stan Freberg Show", David Seville wins Best Comedy Recording and Best Recording for Childern with "The Chipmunk Song" and Ted Keep wins Best Engineered Recording- Novelty with "The Chipmunk Song" and Frank Sinatra wins "Best Album Cover" with his art direction of his album "Only The Lonely"
1963 - The Beach Boys' "Surfin' USA" debuts on the US album charts.
1964 – The Beatles single “Can’t Buy Me Love” is released
1964 - The Kingston Trio's last album for Capitol Records, "Back In Town", recorded during a stint at hungry i in San Francisco that started on March 23 1964, is released
1974 - Grand Funk Railroad's cover single of "Loco-motion" is #1 on the charts for the first of a two week stay
1977 - "The Beatles At The Hollywood Bowl" album is released
1979 – A congratulatory ad for “Phantasm” star Angus Scrim (The Tall Man) appears in the Hollywood Reporter. Angus Scrim is the screen name for Rory Guy, Grammy winning writer of liner notes for Angel and Capitol Records, whose office was on the 5th floor of The Capitol Tower. Ron Waite has a great article online about a visit to Rory/Angus in the Tower with a young fan of the movie.
1982 - Duran Duran's first single "Hungry Like A Wolf" is released in the U.K.
1982 – Duran Duran's second album, “Rio”, produced by Colin Thurston, was released worldwide
1992 - Dudu Zulu, a principal member of Johnny Clegg & Savuka, was shot and killed on May 4, 1992 in his native Zululand as he was en route to his home.
1998 - Robbie Williams first U.S. album "The Ego Has Landed", culled from his first 2 UK albums, is released.

ON THIS DAY NOT IN CAPITOL HISTORY
1886 - Chichester Bell and Charles S. Tainter are granted a patent on the gramophone
1929 - Audrey Hepburn, Academy Award-winning actress, who introduced the Johnny Mercer/Henry Mancini song “Moon River” in the film “Breakfast At Tiffany’s”, is born Edda Kathleen van Heemstra in Brussells, Belgium
1945 - Miles Davis records for the first time in a session with a band led by Herbie Fields
1958 - Keith Haring, artist, is born in Reading, Pennsylvania
1970 – Students Allison Krause, Sandra Lee Scheuer, Jeffrey Glenn Miller and William K. Schroeder were shot down by National Guard members during an anti-Vietnam War demonstration on the Kent State University Campus in Ohio
2006 - I saw Kent McCord working on his website on a 12" iBook outside a coffee shop next to the Virgin MegaStore on Sunset and Crescent Heights.