FEBRUARY 21, 2010

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!
1951 - Vince Welnik, keyboardist with the Capitol Records band The Tubes and The Grateful Dead, is born in Phoenix, Arizona

ON THIS DAY IN CAPITOL RECORDS HISTORY
1957 - Buck Owens signs a recording contract with Capitol Records in Los Angeles, California
1966 - Capitol Records releases The Beatles' single "Nowhere Man" with "What Goes On" on the flip side
1967 - The Beatles record tracks for their song "Fixing A Hole" at EMI's Abbey Road Studios in London, England
40 Years Ago Today In 1970 - John Ono Lennon's Apple Records single "Instant Karma! (We All Shine On)", with Yoko Lennon Ono's "Who Has Seen The Wind?" on the flip side, enters the U.S. Pop singles charts one day after being released and just 26 days after being recorded
1987 - Crowded House's Capitol Records single "Don't Dream It's Over", with "That's What I Call Love" on the flip side, enters the top 40 of Billboard's Hot 100 Singles chart
1988 - Tanya Tucker (with with Paul Davis and Paul Overstreet)'s Capitol Records single "I Won't Take Less Than Your Love", with "Heartbreaker" on the flip side, is #1 on the U.S. Country Singles charts
20 Years Ago Today In 1990 - Bonnie Raitt's Capitol Records album "Nick Of Time" wins the Grammy for Album Of The Year
20 Years Ago Today In 1990 - Paul McCartney, Polygram, Parlophone, Vee-Jay, Swan, Capitol, Apple, Columbia and Capitol (again) Records artist, is honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 32nd annual Grammy Awards ceremony
2007 - Al Viola, mandolin player, guitarist, member of the Page Cavanaugh Trio, session musician for motion pictures (most notably the mandolin solo in the soundtrack for "The Godfather"), and a Capitol Records and Liberty Records session musician at many sessions for Frank Sinatra, Nat "King" Cole, Frank Zappa and with Bobby Troup, dies of cancer at age 87 at his home in Studio City, California. I was able to talk to Al briefly at Bill Miller's wake in 2006 and he was a very approachable guy and was still performing until late January 2007 at Spazio, a jazz supper club, in Sherman Oaks, California

ON THIS DAY NOT QUITE IN CAPITOL RECORDS HISTORY
45 Years Ago Today In 1965 - Gary Lewis and The Playboy's United Artists Records single "This Diamond Ring" is still #1 on Billboard's Hot 100 Singles chart
1982 - "Murray The K" Kaufman, disc jockey at Radio WINS in New York City and early United States supporter of The Beatles (aka "The Fifth Beatle"), dies of cancer at age 60 in Los Angeles, California

ON THIS DAY NOT IN CAPITOL RECORDS HISTORY
1977 - Members of the band KISS have small quantities of their blood taken after their apperance at the Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale, New York which will later be mixed with the red ink used for the band's pseudo-autobiographical Marvel Comics comic book
2003 - Tom Glazer, singer and songwriter (best known for "On Top of Spaghetti" [1963]) dies in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania at age 88