APRIL 1, 2011

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!
1910 - Harry Carney, pianist, clarinet, alto and baritone saxophone player and member of Capitol Records artist Duke Ellington and His Orchestra, is born in Boston, Massachusetts
1928 - Jane Powell, singer, motion picture actress (including "Seven Brides For Seven Brothers" with lyrics by Capitol Records co-founder Johnny Mercer), and Capitol Records artist (soundtrack to the motion picture "3 Sailors And A Girl"), is born Suzanne Lorraine Burce in Portland, Oregon
60 Years Ago Today In 1951 - Henry Gross, singer, songwriter, founding member of Sha Na Na, solo Capitol Records artist, is born in Brooklyn, New York
1972 - Allen and Albert Hughes, music video directors, filmmakers, and founders of Underworld Records (distributed by Capitol Records in 1993), are born in Detroit, Michigan

ON THIS DAY IN CAPITOL RECORDS HISTORY
1947 - Stan Kenton and His Orchestra have their last session for the Capitol Records Transcription Service
1953 - Capitol Records acquires Cetra-Soria's 1947-1953 library of complete Opera recordings from the label's founder, Dario Sorta, who had licensed the recording in the U.S. from Italian label Cetra. Sorta and his wife, Dorle Jarmel Soria, will then become co-founders and co-managing directors of Angel Records in the United States, distributing classical recordings from Capitol Records' future parent company, EMI. In 1958, after EMI bought Capitol Records, the Soria's will sell Angel Records to Capitol.
1953 - Frank Sinatra is signed to Capitol Records by Alan Livingston with a 1 year contract with no advance and has to cover his own recording costs. Sinatra angrily turns down initial offering of A & R management by Dave Dexter, Jr., who had years earlier written some bad reviews of Sinatra for Down Beat Magazine, and instead is assigned to Voyle Gilmore who will eventually make Nelson Riddle Sinatra’s new arranger, ousting long-time Sinatra arranger Axel Stordahl.
1969 - The Beach Boys sue Capitol Records for $2,041,446.64 in royalties and producer's fees for Brian Wilson. The band also announces it's starting its own label, Brothers Records.
1973 - Freddie Hart's Capitol Records single "Super Kind Of Woman", with "Mother Nature Made A Believer Out Of Me" on the flip side, is #1 on the U.S. Country singles chart
1973 - John Lennon, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr announce that they have split with manager Al Klein, whose contract with them and Apple Records had ended the day before, March 31, 1973
1998 - Capitol Records gets many calls after an April Fool's prank takes place on L.A. station KROQ-FM's "Kevin & Bean" morning show. What seemed like a fistfight takes place between the hosts and Radiohead's Thom Yorke after jibes about Yorke's lazy eye. In fact, Yorke is not even in the Los Angeles studio. He was played by "'Kevin And Bean"'s voice guy Ralph Garman, along with edits from a couple of acoustic numbers Radiohead had recorded in the KROQ studio on a previous visit. Many thanks to Bean for the accurate information about this prank.
2004 - Paul Atkinson, veteran record executive, VP of A&R Catalog at Capitol Records, and guitarist for The Zombies, dies in his sleep after a long battle with cancer and kidney disease at age 58

ON THIS DAY NOT QUITE IN CAPITOL RECORDS HISTORY
50 Years Ago Today In 1961 - Guitarist Grant Green, with Ben Tucker on bass and Dave Bailey on drums, records the tracks "No. 1 Green Street", "'Roun1883d About Midnight", "Grant's Dimensions", "Green With Envy", and "Alone Together" for his second Blue Note Records album "Green Street"
5 Years Ago Today In 2006 - I started this blog. Five years of fun and learning. Can you believe it? :)

ON THIS DAY NOT IN CAPITOL RECORDS HISTORY
1883 - Lon Chaney, Sr., motion picture actor who would regularly give rides to extras waiting at the corner of Hollywood and Vine (with a few reports of it happening even after his death), is born Leonidas Frank Chaney in Colorado Springs, Colorado