MARCH 28, 2010

HAPPY BIRTHDAYS!
120 Years Ago Today In 1890 - Paul Whiteman, (aka "The King of Jazz") violinist, bandleader (who's members included future Capitol Records co-founder Johnny Mercer as a vocalist and future Capitol Records artists Bing Crosby [also as a vocalist] and Jack Teagarden on trombone), commissioned George Gershwin's "Rhapsody In Blue" and premiered it in 1924 with Gershwin on piano, motion picture actor, radio show host, music director for the ABC Radio Network, and Capitol Records artist whose first single for the label, "I Found A New Baby" with "The General Jumped At Dawn" on the flipside, was also Capitol Records' first released single, is born in Denver, Colorado.
80 Years Ago Today In 1930 - Bill Hughes, trombonist who worked in sessions with Capitol Records artists Frank Sinatra and Nat "King" Cole, as well as Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughn, Carmen McRae, Tony Bennett, Billy Eckstein, Sammy Davis, Jr., Lena Horne, Rosemary Clooney, is born in Dallas, Texas

ON THIS DAY IN CAPITOL RECORDS HISTORY
1946 - Jo Stafford, with Nat "King" Cole on piano, records the tracks "Ridin' On The Gravy Train", "I'll Be With You In Apple Blossom Time" (which will be released as the flip side of Cole's Capitol Records single "This Is Always"), "Baby, Won't You Please Come Home?", and "Cindy" (which she co-wrote with Johnny Mercer and her future husband Paul Weston and will be released as a single by Capitol Records with "I've Never Forgotten", also with Cole on piano, on the flip side)
1948 - Capitol Records artist Nat "King" Cole marries future Capitol Records artist Maria Ellington, who will also be the mother of future Capitol Records artist Natalie Cole.
60 Years Ago Today In 1950 - Dean Martin records the tracks "Choo'n Gum" and "I Don't Care If The Sun Don't Shine" which will be released together as a single by Capitol Records
1953 - Les Baxter and His Orchestra's Capitol Records single "April In Portugal" enters the top 40 of the U.S. Pop singles charts
1964 - The Beatles' Capitol Records single "Can't Buy Me Love" enters the top 40 of Billboard's Hot 100 Singles chart
1974 - The Capitol Records group The Raspberries break up
2000 - Capitol Nashville releases John Berry's compilation album "Greatest Hits"

ON THIS DAY NOT QUITE IN CAPITOL RECORDS HISTORY
95 Years Ago Today In 1915 - Jay Livingston, pianist, Academy Award winning composer (with partner Ray B. Evans) of such songs as "Buttons and Bows", "Mona Lisa", "Silver Bells", "Silver Bells", "Tammy" and the theme song for the television show "Bonanza" and many others), motion picture actor, one-time brother-in-law of Capitol Records artist Betty Hutton, and brother of former Capitol Records Vice-President, President, and Chairman Of The Board Alan Livingston, is born in McDonald, Pennsylvania. If anyone knows Jay's middle name, please leave a comment.
90 Years Ago Today In 1920 - Actors Douglas Fairbanks, Sr. and Mary Pickford, two of the four founders of United Artists Pictures (the others being Charlie Chaplin and director D.W. Griffith), get married. United Artists would later start a record label, United Artists Records, whose catalog is currently owned by EMI Music Group, Capitol Music Groups parent company.
1942 - Neil Kinnock, politician and vice president of the U.K. Gene Vincent Fan Club, is born in Tredegar, South Wales
1948 - John Evan, keyboard player with the Chrysalis Records group Jethro Tull, is born John Spencer Evans, in Blackpool, Lancashire, England
1958 - W.C. Handy (born William Christopher Handy), composer, guitarist, cornet player, a founder of Black Swan Records (the first black-owned record company), whose life was the basis of the motion picture "St. Louis Blues" which stars Capitol Records artist Nat "King" Cole as Handy, dies of acute bronchial pneumonia at age 84 before the movie is released later the same year, and is later buried in the Woodlawn Cemetery in Bronx, New York
1962 - Ged Grimes, percussionist, bassist, keyboard player and vocalist with the Virgin Records America group Meet Danny Wilson, is born Gerard Grimes. If anyone knows for sure where, please leave a comment.
1964 - Jan & Dean's Liberty Records single "Dead Man's Curve", with "The New Girl In School" on the flip side, enters the top 40 Billboard's Hot 100 Singles chart where it will peak at #7. Liberty Records catalog is currently owned by EMI Music Group, the parent company of Capitol Music Group.
1966 - Gary Lewis and The Playboys record the track "Green Grass" which will be released as a single by Liberty Records with "I Can Read Between The Lines" on the flip side
1969 - Frank Loesser, composer, dies in New York City, New York at age 58