OCTOBER 20, 2007

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!
1937 - Wanda Jackson, singer, songwriter, guitarist, and Capitol Records artist (1956-1973), is born Wanda Jean Jackson in Maud, Oklahoma, and is still performing and touring the world.

ON THIS DAY IN CAPITOL HISTORY
1947 - An article in the magazine Time gives sales of just one of Capitol Records Bozo Record Reader albums as reaching 1,000,000 units at $3.50 (that's approx. $20 to $30 a unit in 2006 dollars depending on which inflation calculator you use)
1950 - Ray Anthony and His Orchestra's Capitol Records single "Harbor Lights", with "Nevertheless" on the flip side, debuts on Billboard's singles chart where it will spend 15 weeks, peaking at #15
1963 - The Beach Boys record the track "Little Saint Nick" at Western Studios in Los Angeles, California which will be released in two versions by Capitol Records. The album version (originally on the band's Capitol Records album "The Beach Boys' Christmas Album") has overdubs that add glockenspiel, celeste and sleigh bells to the recording that do not appear on the single version (which had the track "The Lord's Prayer" on the flip side and later became the flip side of "Frosty The Snowman" on a Capitol Records Starline single). There have also been two different stero mixes created by Capitol since 1992.
1965 - The Beatles begin recording the track "We Can Work It Out" for their soundtrack album "Help!" in Studio 2 at EMI's studios on Abbey Road in London, England with producer George Martin, recording engineer Norman Smith and second engineer . Sessions for the track will finish on October 29, 1965.
1965 - The Beatles' Capitol Records single "Yesterday", with "Act Naturally" on the flip side, is certified Gold by the R.I.A.A.
1969 - Capitol Records releases Buck Owens' single "Big In Vegas" with "White Satin Sheets" on the flip side
1969 - Apple Records release John Lennon and Yoko Ono's album "The Wedding Album" and The Plastic Ono Band's single "Cold Turkey" that has a picture sleeve whose front is an X-Ray of a skull wearing Lennon's round wire-rimmed glasses, with "Don't Worry Kyoko (Mummy's Only Looking For A Hand In The Snow)" on the flip side. Both releases are distributed by Capitol Records in the United States.1983 - Merle Travis (born Merle Robert Travis), singer, songwriter ("Sixteen Tons", "Dark as a Dungeon", etc.), guitarist ("Travis picking"), Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame inductee, Country Music Hall of Fame inductee, actor, and Capitol Records artist (1946-1968), dies at age 65 at a hospital after suffering a massive heart attack at his Tahlequah, Oklahoma home the day before. His body is later cremated and his ashes scattered around a memorial erected to him near Drakesboro, Kentucky
1987 - Capitol Records releases The Beatles' album "Abbey Road" on CD for the first time
1988 - Duran Duran, as part of a nine city Caravan Club tour, perform in the Capitol Records parking lot in Hollywood, California
1998 - Capitol Records Nashville releases Deana Carter's album "Everything's Gonna Be Alright" which she co-produced with Chris Farren

ON THIS DAY NOT QUITE IN CAPITOL RECORDS HISTORY
1957 - Tenor Saxophonist Hank Mobley (with Art Farmer on trumpet, Pepper Adams on baritone saxophone, Sonny Clark on piano, Paul Chambers on bass, and Philly Joe Jones on drums) records the tracks "Gettin' Into Something", "Tune Up", "Poppin'", "East Of Brooklyn", and "Darn That Dream" with producer Alfred Lion and recording engineer Rudy Van Gelder, at The Van Gelder Studio, in Hackensack, New Jersey for Blue Note Records. Blue Note's catalog was sold to Liberty Records which was sold to EMI Music, the parent company of Capitol Records.

ON THIS DAY NOT IN CAPITOL RECORDS HISTORY
1944 - General Douglas MacArthur, who later would have some of his speeches released on a Capitol Records album, returns to the Phillippines fulfilling a promise to its residents
1962 - Bobby "Boris" Pickett's Parrot Records (a subsidiary of London Records) single "Monster Mash" hits #1 on Billboard's Hot 100 Singles chart. The tracks on the single were arranged and produced by Gary Paxton and originally released on his GARPAX label which Pickett took around to radio stations to build interest before he was signed to Parrot.
1964 - Before his clients, The Beatles, give two performances at the Caird Hall, Dundee, England, their manager, Brian Epstein, produces his first recording session. The session, held at IBC Studios, London, England, is for Rory Storm and the Hurricanes, whose drummer had been Ringo Starr before he joined The Beatles (Ringo is at this session but doesn't play on it). Rory (aka Alan Caldwell)'s sister Iris had been George Harrison's first girlfriend when they were 14. The group recorded the tracks "America" from the U.S. musical "West Side Story" (which would be the A-Side of the group's only released single), a cover of The Everly Brothers' "Since You Broke My Heart" (which would be the single's flip side), as well as "Ubangi Stomp" and "I'll Be There". There's an online reference to other tracks being recorded at the session. If anyone knows for sure if any additional tracks were recorded, and what they were, please leave a comment.
1977 - The band Lynyrd Skynyrd's plane crashes, killing six band members and back-up singers