MAY 3, 2010

HAPPY BIRTHDAYS!
1903 - Bing Crosby, singer, radio, motion picture, radio, and television actor, and a Decca and Captiol Records artist, is born Harry Lillis Crosby at 1112 North "J" Street in Tacoma, Washington
1912 - Virgil Fox, organist and Capitol Records artist, is born
60 Years Ago Today In 1950 - Mary Hopkin, singer (best known for "Those Were The Days") and Apple Records artist distributed by Capitol Records in the United States, is born in Pontardawe, Wales
55 Years Ago Today In 1955 - Steve Jones, singer, disc jockey, and guitarist with the EMI and Virgin Records band The Sex Pistols, is born

ON THIS DAY IN CAPITOL HISTORY
1947 - The Pied Pipers with Paul Weston and His Orchestra's Capitol Records single "Mam'selle" debuts at #10 on Billboards Best Selling Retail Records chart
1947 - Merle Travis' Capitol Records single "So Round, So firm, So Fully Packed" is #1 on the U.S. Country singles charts
1952 - Kay Starr's Capitol Records single "Wheel Of Fortune" is still #1 on Billboard's Best Selling Retail Records chart, Ella Mae Morse's Capitol Records single is still #3, and Jane Froman's Capitol Records single "I'll Walk Alone", with orchestra conducted by Sid Feller, debuts at #19
1968 - Capitol Records band The Beach Boys begins its US tour, with special guest Mahareshi, in New York City, New York
1969 - Margaret Young, popular comedienne and singer in the 1920s, Capitol recording artist in 1949, and aunt of Capitol artist Margaret Whiting, dies in Inglewood, California at age 69. She was born Margaret Youngblood. There's some biographical info and a link to a sound file of Ms. Young singing on Mike Scaife's UK Website "The Great Song Stylists".
1971 - Capitol Records band Grand Funk Railroad hold their first press conference with six journalists attending
1976 - Capitol Records band Wings end their "Wings Over America" tour after a three-night stand at The Forum, in Los Angeles, California or start their tour in Fort Worth, Texas marking Paul McCartney's first time back on a U.S. stage in a decade
1977 - Helmut Köllen, bassist, acoustic guitarist, vocalist and writer for the Capitol band Triumvirat, after a long day in the studio recording, is accidentally killed at age 27 by carbon monoxide poising while sitting in his car listening to a cassette tape of the day's tracks in his garage. A solo album named by his friends after one of his favorite Beatles' songs, "You Won't See Me", is released posthumously later that year by Harvest/EMI Records in Germany. Russ Schenewerk has written a great biographical article about Triumvirat and Köllen.
30 Years Ago Today In 1980 - Bob Seger and The Silver Bullet Band's Capitol Records album "Against The Wind" is #1 on Billboard's Top 200 Albums chart
1988 - Poison's album "Open Up And Say...Ahh!" is released on Enigma Records, and distributed by Capitol Records. The album was produced by Tom Werman after Kiss' Paul Stanley had to bow out after scheduling conflicts. The album was recorded and mixed at Conway Recording Studios in Los Angeles and contains the #1 hit "Every Rose Has It's Thorn".
1998 - Garth Brooks' Capitol Records Nashville single "Two Pina Coladas" is #1 on the U.S. Country singles charts

ON THIS DAY NOT QUITE IN CAPITOL RECORDS HISTORY
1936 - Future Capitol Records artist Joe DiMaggio plays his first major league baseball game in Yankee Stadium against the St. Louis Browns
45 Years Ago Today In 1965 - The Beatles spend the day filming scenes for their United Artists movie "HELP!" on Salisbury Plain with the assistance of the British Army's Third Tank Division
1976 - Carmen McRae (on vocals, with concertmasters Gerry Vinci and David Frisina; Buddy Childers, Bobby Shew, Al Aarons, Snooky Young, Oscar Brashear, and Blue Mitchell on trumpet; Lew McCreary, George Bohannon, Kenny Shroyer, Maurice Spears, Grover Mitchell, and Ernie Tack on trombone; Bill Perkins, Lanny Morgan, Harry Klee, Abe Most, Bill Green, Jerome Richardson, Ernie Watts, Don Menza, Pete Christlieb, and Jack Nimitz on reeds; Artie Kane and Marshall Otwell on piano; Joe Sample, Dave Grusin, and Ian Underwood on keyboards; Larry Carlton and Dennis Budimir on guitar; Joe Mondragon, Chuck Berghofer, and Wilton Felder on bass;, Harvey Mason on drums; and Victor Feldman and Larry Bunker on percussion) begins recording tracks for her United Artists Records album "Can't Hide Love" with producer by Dale Oehler, executive producer George Butler, and mixing engineer Hank Cicalo assisted by Milt Caliceis, at A&M Recording Studios, Los Angeles, California
1994 - August Anna Brooks, daughter of Liberty Records (later renamed Capitol Records Nashville) artist Garth Brooks, is born
1997 - Former Capitol Records band Katrina & the Waves win the forty-second Eurovision Song Contest, held in Dublin, Ireland, for the United Kingdom singing "Love Shine a Light"

ON THIS DAY NOT IN CAPITOL HISTORY
1919 - Betty Comden, lyricist (best known as partner to composer Adolph Green), is born in Brooklyn, New York
1933 - James Brown, "The Godfather of Soul", is born in Barnwell, South Carolina
1956 - "Most Happy Fella", a musical by Frank Loesser, opens at The Imperial Theatre in New York City, New York
50 Years Ago today In 1960 - "The Fantasticks", by composer Harvey Schmidt and writer-lyricist Tom Jones, opens off-off-Broadway at the Sullivan Street Playhouse and would run continuously for the next 40 years, becoming the world's longest running musical. Its hit song, "Try To Remember", is introduced by Jerry Orbach, later better remembered for his stint on TV's "Law & Order" and as the voice of Lumier in the Walt Disney animated feature "Beauty And The Beast".
1962 - Paul Robert Nielsen, my brother and one-time DJ in Buffalo, New York, is born in Chicago, Illinois
1972- Bruce Springsteen records 12 songs at an acoustic solo demo session for CBS talent scout John Hammond in New York City which eventually leads to his signing to the label
1998 - Gene Raymond, actor (lead in "Flying Down to Rio", the first film to team Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers) and one-time husband of singer and actress Jeanette MacDonald, dies at age 89

BTW - It's also my brother Paul Nielsen's 48th birthday.