SEPTEMBER 9, 2008

HAPPY BIRTHDAYS!
1929 - Stu Phillips, television and motion picture score composer, record producer, and creator, producer and conductor of the Capitol Records group The Hollyridge Strings, is born. Thanks to Stu for the corrections and he has a great website at http://www.stuwho.com/ with accurate information, unlike many of the refernce sites' listings for him.
1942 - Artie Kornfield, songwriter ("Dead Man's Curve"), co-organizer and co-producer of the 1969 Woodstock Art Fair and Music Festival, and who, at age 21, became Capitol Records youngest Vice President, is born Arthur Lawerence Kornfeld in Brooklyn, New York
1949 - Billy Preston, singer, pianist, keyboards player, motion picture actor (as a child in "S. Louis Blues" as the young W.C. Handy which was played as an adult by Nat "King" Cole, who had young Billy on his television show to perform a duet, and later he was in the 1978 motion picture "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band"), and Apple and Capitol Records solo artist and session player with The Beatles as a group and as solo performers, is born William Everett Preston in Houston, Texas

ON THIS DAY IN CAPITOL RECORDS HISTORY
1959 - The Four Freshmen begin three straight days of sessions for their Capitol Records album "Voices And Brass" at The Capitol Tower Studios in Hollywood, California
1964 - Arranger Johnny Richards (with musicians Bob McCoy, Jerry Kail, and Ray Copeland on trumpets; Burt Collins on trumpet and flugelhorn; Jiggs Whigham, Bill Watrous, and Tom McIntosh on trombones; Ray Starling on mellophonium; Jay McAllister on tuba; Jerry Dodgion on alto saxophone; Frank Perowsky on tenor saxophone; Joel Kaye on baritone saxophone and piccolo; Shelly Russell on bass saxophone; Johnny Knapp on piano; Chet Amsterdam on bass; Ronnie Bedford on drums; and Warren Smith on percussion), records the tracks "Get Me To The Church On Time", "On The Street Where You Live", "I Could Have Danced All Night", "Wouldn't It Be Loverly", "Show Me", "The Rain In Spain", "I've Grown Accustomed To Her Face", and "With A Little Bit Of Luck" for his Roulette Records album "My Fair Lady - My Way" with producers Hugo & Luigi, and recording engineer Bob Arnold, at Capitol Records' New York City studios. Capitol Records currently owns the Roulette catalog.
40 Years Ago Today In 1968 - Capitol Records, in a press release on this day, states that The Beatles' single "I Want To Hold Your Hand" has sold nearly 5 million copies in the United States, making it the best selling single of the 1960s. This was before the R.I.A.A. created the Platinum Single award.
40 Years Ago Today In 1968 - Capitol Records artists Buck Owens and The Buckaroos play at The White House for President Johnson
1971 - Apple Records, with distribution by Capitol Records in the United States, releases John Lennon's album "Imagine"
35 Years Ago Today In 1973 - Helen Reddy's Capitol Records single "Delta Dawn", with "If We Could Still Be Friends" on the flip side, is #1 on Billboard's Hot 100 singles chart
30 Years Ago Today In 1978 - A Taste of Honey's Capitol Records single "Boogie Oogie Oogie", with "World Spin" on the flip side, hits #1 on Billboard's Hot 100 Singles chart and will eventually sell more than 2 million copies, becoming Capitol's first Platinum single
1979 - Norrie Paramor, pianist, record producer (26 number #1 hits on the U.K. singles charts), composer, arranger, orchestral conductor, recording director for EMI's Columbia Records (where he produced hit singles for Cliff Richards, The Shadows, and Frank Ifield among others), and recorded one of the biggest selling albums in Capitol Records' "Capitol of the World" import series - "In London in Love" (which featured soprano Patricia Clark), dies of cancer at age 65.
20 Years Ago Today In 1988 - Garth Brooks' debut Capitol Records Nashville single "If Tomorrow Never Comes", with "The Dance" on the flip side, debuts on Billboard's Country Singles chart
1990 - Wilson Phillips' SBK Records single (distributed by Capitol Records) "Release Me", with "Eyes Like Twins" on the flip side, is #1 on Billboard's Hot 100 singles chart
15 Years Ago Today In 1993 - Helen O'Connell, singer (with Jimmy Dorsey and His Orchestra), dancer, actress, wife of Capitol Records artist and arranger Frank DeVol, and a Capitol Records solo artist, dies at age 73 in San Diego, California
2001 - VH1 premieres the documentary "Behind The Music: Blind Melon" about the Capitol Records group
5 Years Ago Today In 2003 - Capitol Records group Coldplay's frontman Chris Martin delivers the "Big Noise" petition calling for fairer trade policies to the World Trade Organization (WTO) at it's meeting in Cancun, Mexico
2004 - Capitol Records Nashville artists The Jenkins perform at a special gathering of Capitol Hill VIPs and members of Congress in Washington D.C. put together by the MUSIC Coalition (Music United for Stong Internet Copyright) to celebrate digital music done legally.

ON THIS DAY NOT QUITE IN CAPITOL RECORDS HISTORY
1942 - Inez Foxx, singer and member of the United Artists Records duo Charlie (her brother) and Inez Foxx (best remembered for the single "Mockingbird" with "Hurt By Love" on the flip side), is born in Greensboro, North Carolina
1956 - The Rock And Roll Trio (Johnny Burnett on vocals and acoustic guitar, Dorsey Burnette on bass guitar, Paul Burlison on lead guitar and newly added drumer and cousin of Carl Perkins, Tony Austin) appear as finalists on the Ted Mack Original Amateur Hour at Madison Square Garden.
1956 - The Goons' (Peter Sellers, Spike Milligan, and Harry Secombe) Decca U.K. (distributed by Capitol's parent company EMI in the U.K.) single "Ying Tong Song", with "Bloodnok's Rock n' Roll Call" on the flip side, enters the UK singles chart at #9
1959 - Capitol Records co-founder Johnny Mercer appears on NBC-TV's "Kraft Music Hall"
1964 - Arranger and conductor Johnny Richards (with Bob McCoy, Jerry Kail, and Ray Copeland on trumpets; Burt Collins on trumpet and flugelhorn; Jiggs Whigham, Bill Watrous, and Tom McIntosh on trombones; Ray Starling on mellophonium; Jay McAllister on tuba; Jerry Dodgion on alto saxophone; Frank Perowsky on tenor saxophone; Joel Kaye on baritone saxophone and piccolo; Shelly Russell on bass saxophone; Johnny Knapp on piano; Chet Amsterdam on bass; Ronnie Bedford on drums; and Warren Smith on percussion) record the tracks "Get Me To The Church On Time", "On The Street Where You Live", "I Could Have Danced All Night", "Wouldn't It Be Loverly", "Show Me", "The Rain In Spain", "I've Grown Accustomed To Her Face", and "With A Little Bit Of Luck" at Capitol Records' New York City recording studio with producers Hugo and Luigi and recording engineer Bob Arnold. Roulette Records will release the tracks on Richards' album "My Fair Lady - My Way"
1966 - Greg Kane, keyboardist with the Circa Records (a division of Virgin Records) group Hue And Cry, is born in Coatbridge, Scotland. While a designer at Virgin Records America, I adapted the group's UK packaging for U.S. release on Virgin Records America, as well as designing promo items and advertising.
1972 - Over three sets, drummer Elvin Jones (with David Liebman on flute, soprano saxophone and tenor saxophone; Steve Grossman on saxophone and tenor saxophone; and Gene Perla on bass) records the tracks (Set No. 1) "Brite Piece", "New Breed", "Sambra", "My Ship", "Taurus People", (Set No. 2) "Fancy Free", "I'm A Fool To Want You", "Sweet Mama", "The Children, Save The Children", (Set No.3), "The Children's Merry-Go-Round March", "Small One", "P.P. Phoneix", and "For All The Other Times" live at The Lighthouse in Hermosa Beach, California with producer George Butler and recording engineer Dino Lapas. The tracks will appear on the Blue Note Records albums "Live At The Lighthouse, Volume One" and "Live At The Lightouse, Volume Two". Blue Note's catalog is currently owned by Capitol Records.
1995 - Chynna Phillips, member of the former SBK Records group Wilson Phillips, marries actor William Baldwin. Phillips' former Wilson Phillips partners, Carnie and Wendy Wilson, are also present at the ceremony.
2002 - Former Capitol Records artist Anne Murray is inducted into the Canadian Country Music Artists Hall Of Fame at the 2002 Canadian Country Music Artists Awards ceremony held in Calgary, Canada

ON THIS DAY NOT IN CAPITOL RECORDS HISTORY
1894 - Arthur Freed, vaudevillian, Broadway and motion picture composer (best known for "Singing In The Rain"), associate motion picture producer ("The Wizard Of Oz"), and motion picture producer (had his own "unit" at M-G-M which created "Singing In The Rain", "An American In Paris", "Gigi", and many more), is born in Charleston, South Carolina.
1839 - Astronomer John Herschel takes the first glass plate photograph and would go on to coin the terms "photography", "negative", and "positive", and discover sodium thiosulphite as a fixer of silver halides
1956 - Elvis Presley appears on CBS-TV's "Toast of the Town" (with actor and future Capitol Records artist Charles Laughton filling in for the show's normal host, the ailing Ed Sullivan), for the first time and 54,000,000 viewers (82.6 percent of the U.S. television audience) tune in to watch Presley sing "Don’t Be Cruel" and "Ready Teddy"
50 Years Ago Today In 1958 - The first stereo two-channel records are issued,­ by Audio Fidelity in the United States and Pye in Britain, using the Westrex "45/45" single-groove system