JULY 6

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!
1915 - LaVerne Andrews, singer, who recorded for Capitol Records (1956-1959) both as a solo artist and with the group The Andrews Sisters, is born Laverne Sophie Andrews in Minneapolis, Minnesota

ON THIS DAY IN CAPITOL RECORDS HISTORY
1947 - Johnny Mercer, Luana Patten and Bobby Driscoll start the first of two sessions for the record "Mickey Mouse And The Beanstalk", released by Capitol Records, with arranger and conductor Billy May. The next session is held on the next day, July 7, 1947
1970 - Capitol Records releases Buck Owens' album "The Kansas City Song"
1976 - Grand Funk Railroad's Capitol Records album "Grand Funk" is certified Gold by the R.I.A.A.
1979 - Capitol Records artist (1976-1979) Minnie Ripperton makes her last televised appearance on an episode of "The Merv Griffin Show" that airs on this date. She performs the song "Memory Lane", featuring her enunciating the phrase "Oh Why", high in the seventh octave. She will die six days later on July 12, 1969 of breast cancer at Cedars-Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles.
1998 - Roy Rogers, singer, actor and Capitol Records recording artist, dies in his Apple Valley home in Victorville, California of congestive heart failure at age 86

ON THIS DAY NOT QUITE IN CAPITOL RECORDS HISTORY
1957 - In between sets at a show that 16 year old John Lennon was doing with his band, The Quarry Men, at the St. Peter's Church Fete in Woolton Parish, Liverpool, England, a mutual friend, Ivan Vaughan, introduces him to 15 year old Paul McCartney. After showing John how he tunes his guitar along with a few new guitar chords, and singing all the lyrics of Eddie Cochran's "Twenty Flight Rock", Lennon invites McCartney to join his band.
1961 - The first issue of "Mersey Beat" magazine is released and features The Beatles on its cover
1964 - Trombonist Grachan Moncur III, with Wayne Shorter on tenor saxophone, Herbie Hancock on piano, Cecil McBee on bass and Tony Williams on drums, records the tracks "Gnostic", "Thandiwa", "The Twins", and "Nomadic" for his Blue Note album "Some Other Stuff" with producer Alfred Lion and recording engineer Rudy Van Gelder at the Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey
1964 - United Artists releases The Beatles' first movie "A Hard Day's Night" worldwide
1964 - ATCO Records releases The Beatles' single "My Bonnie" with "Nobody's Child" on the flip side
1973 - Otto Klemperer, conductor, father of actor Werner Klemperer (Colonel Klink in "Hogan's Heroes"), and EMI Classics artist, dies in Zürich, Switzerland at age 88 and is buried in the Israelitischer Friedhof — Oberer Friesenberg, also in Zürich
1986 - Pink Floyd's compilation album "A Collection Of Great Dance Songs", originally released by Columbia in the U.S., but re-released by Capitol Records in 2000 (I replaced the legal lines and stock numbers and reformated the artwork to fit into Capitol's packaging templates), is certified Platinum by the R.I.A.A.

ON THIS DAY NOT IN CAPITOL RECORDS HISTORY
1854 - John Phillip Sousa, composer and leader of the Marine Corps. band, is born in Washington, DC, USA
1925 - Bill Haley, singer, guitarist, and bandleader, is born William John Clifton Haley in Highland Park, Michigan
1925 Merv Griffin, singer, composer, talk show host, television game show producer, and real estate magnate, is born Mervyn Edward Griffin, Jr. in San Mateo, California
1971 - Louis Armstrong, trumpet player, singer, band leader and actor, dies of a heart attack in Corona, Queens, New York at age 69
1976 - 50 Cent, rapper, is born Curtis James Jackson III in South Jamaica, Queens, New York