DECEMBER 15

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!
1911 - Stan Kenton, pianist, bandleader, and Capitol Records artist, is born Stanley Newcomb Kenton in Wichita, Kansas
1946 - Carmine Appice, singer, songwriter and drummer for the bands Vanilla Fudge, Cactus, The Rod Stewart Band, Beck, Bogart & Appice, and Capitol Records band King Cobra (1986-1988), is born on Staten Island in New York

ON THIS DAY IN CAPITOL RECORDS HISTORY
1944 - The Pied Pipers' Capitol Records Single "The Trolley Song" is #2 on the U.S. Pop singles chart
1944 - Stan Kenton and His Orchestra's single "Everytime We Say Goodbye" enters the top 40 of the U.S. Pop singles charts
1947 - Ray Bauduc and his Bobcats (Nate Kazebier on trumpet, Brad Gowans on valve trombone, Matty Matlock on clarinet, Eddie Miller on tenor saxopone, Stan Wrightsman on piano, Nappy Lamare on guitar, Morty Corb on bass, and Bauduc on drums), records the tracks "Susie" and "Down In Honky Tonk Town" (which will be released together as a single by Capitol Records), as well as "When My Sugar Walks Down The Street" and "Li'l Liza Jane" (also later released together as a single by Capitol) which has a vocal that may have been done by Nappy Lamar, in Los Angeles, California.
1955 - It is reported that Tennessee Ernie Ford's Capitol Records single "Sixteen Tons", the flip side of "You Don't Have To Be A Baby To Cry"", has sold more than 2 million copies in the less than two months since it's October 17, 1955 release, making it the most successful single, and the most sucessful "B-Side", ever recorded to that date
1958 - Capitol Records group The Kingston Trio give a concert in El Paso, Texas that is recorded by Capitol and later released as part of the Bear Family box set "The Kingston Trio: The Guard Years"
1960 - Ferlin Husky's Capitol Records single "Wings Of A Dove" is #1 on the U.S. Country singles charts
1964 - Capitol Records releases The Beatles' album "Beatles '65" in the United States
1965 - Capitol Records releases Peter and Gordon's single "A World Without Love" with "Nobody I Know" on the flip side as part of its green labled Starline series
1967 - The Beatles' Capitol Records album "Magical Mystery Tour" is certified Gold by the R.I.A.A.
1968 - Sonny James' Capitol Records single "Born To Be With You" is #1 on the U.S. Country singles charts
1969 - John Lennon and Plastic Ono Band (Featuring George Harrison, Delanie and Bonnie, Keith Moon and Billy Preston) make their debut UK concert appearance at the "War Is Over" UNICEF benefit concert at The Lyceum in London, England. It will be Lennon's last live performance in England. On the same day posters and billboards, paid for by John and Yoko, go up around the world stating "WAR IS OVER! (If You Want It)".
1984 - Duran Duran's Capitol Records single "The Wild Boys" is #2 on Billboard's Hot 100 Singles chart

ON THIS DAY NOT QUITE IN CAPITOL RECORDS HISTORY
1957 - Alto saxophonist Lou Donaldson (with Donald Byrd on trumpet, Curtis Fuller on trombone, Sonny Clark on piano, Jamil Nasser (aka George Joyner) on bass, and Art Taylor on drums) records the tracks "Groovin' High", "Strollin' In", "Sputnik", and "Dewey Square", with producer Alfred Lion and recording engineer Rudy Van Gelder, for Donaldson's 1958 Blue Note album "Lou Takes Off". Blue Note's catalog is currently owned by Capitol's parent company EMI Music and Blue Note Records is currently a division of Capitol Records, Inc.


ON THIS DAY NOT IN CAPITOL RECORDS HISTORY
1939 - The David O. Selznick/MGM motion picture "Gone With The Wind" premieres at Loew’s Grand Theatre in Atlanta, Georgia
1943 - Fats Waller, pianist, pipe organist, singer, songwriter, and bandleader, dies of pneumonia at age 39 aboard a train in Kansas City Missouri that's heading to New York City
1944 - The plane transporting 40 year old US Army Major and bandleader Glenn Miller, along with other military personnel, takes off from Bedford, England, is seen starting to cross the English Channel, but does not land at its destination in Paris, France. Their whereabouts are still unknown. The most recent theory was that the plane was destroyed when it flew below returning bombers that had to drop their unused bombs before landing, but other sources suggest that Miller landed and was later either killed later during a spy mission or died of a heart attack in a French bordello. None of these theories have been proved for certain, so far.
1966 - Walt Disney (born (Walter Elias Disney), animator, film producer, studio and entertainment park founder, dies of lung cancer in Burbank, California at age 65 and is later not cryogenically preserved below the Pirates of the Caribbean ride in Disneyland, but is cremated on December 17, 1966 at Forest Lawn Memorial Park and Mortuary in Glendale, California. His ashes are buried in the cemetery's Court of Freedom section.