DECEMBER 10, 2011

HAPPY BIRTHDAYS!
1914 - Dorothy Lamour, motion picture actress, singer, and Capitol Records artist (in duets with fellow Capitol Records artist Bob Hope), is born Mary Leta Dorothy Slaton in New Orleans, Louisiana
1924 - Ken Albers, arranger, trumpet player, mellophone player, and bass singer with the Capitol Records group The Four Freshmen, is born in Pitman, NJ
60 Years Ago Today In 1951 - Johnny Rodriguez, singer, songwriter, television actor, and Capitol Records artist (1987) is born in a four room house in Sabinal, Texas, that he will share with his parents and 9 older siblings.

ON THIS DAY IN CAPITOL RECORDS HISTORY
1947 - Pianist Mel Powell records the tracks "Anything Goes" (with Bumps Meyer on tenor saxophone, Red Calendar on bass, and Lee Young on drums), "Way Down Yonder In New Orleans" (with Jake Porter on trumpet, Meyer on tenor saxophone, Calendar on bass, and Young on drums), "You Go To My Head" (a piano solo by Powell), "You Better Not Mess With Me" (with Porter on vocals and trumpet, Meyer on tenor saxophone, Calendar on bass, and Young on drums), "If Dreams Come True" (with Jake on trumpet, Meyer on tenor saxophone, Calendar on bass, and Young on drums), "There's A Small Hotel" (with Calendar on bass and Young on drums), and "Hallelujah" (with Meyer on tenor saxophone, Calendar on bass, and Young on drums), in Los Angeles, California. All tracks released as singles by Capitol Records, except "You Better Not Mess With Me" and "If Dreams Come True" which are released as a single by Pausa Records.
1955 - Tennesse Ernie Ford's Capitol Records single "Sixteen Tons" is still #1 on Billboard's Pop singles chart and Dean Martin's Capitol Records single "Memories Are Made Of This" is #2
1959 - The Kingston Trio record the track "The Mountains O' Mourne", with Nick Guard doing lead vocal, for their Capitol Records album "Sold Out"
1963 - Buck Owens' Capitol Records single "Love’s Gonna Live Here" is #1 on the Country singles charts
45 Years Ago Today In 1966 - The Beach Boys' Capitol Records single "Good Vibrations" peaks at #1 on Billboard's Hot 100 Singles chart where it will stay for one week
1967 - The Steve Miller Blues Band signs with Capitol Records for $750,000 (an unheard of amount at the time for an "unknown" band signing their first contract). Capitol will later run a trade ad with a photo of Miller asking who is this man and why did Capitol pay him so much?
1969 - Jim and Irene Croce record the as yet unissued track "Gunga Din" in New York City, New York for Capitol Records.
35 Years Ago Today In 1976 - Capitol Records releases Wings' album "Wings Over America"
15 Years Ago Today In 1996 - Faron Young, singer, guitarist and Capitol Records artist, dies from a self-inflicted gunshot wound that occured the day before. Later, per his request, Young is cremated and his ashes spread over Old Hickory Lake in Tennessee.
1999 - Rick Danko, bassist and singer for the Capitol Records group The Band, dies at his home in Woodstock, New York at age 56

ON THIS DAY NOT QUITE IN CAPITOL RECORDS HISTORY
1893 - Lew Brown, lyricist and part of the songwriting team of DeSylva, Brown and Henderson with Capitol Records' co-founder Buddy DeSylva, is born Louis Brownstein in Odessa, Russia
1900 - The Gramophone Company Ltd. transfers its business to a newly incorporated company, registered as The Gramophone & Typewriter Ltd. The company would later become EMI, Capitol Records parent company.
1949 - Antoine "Fats" Domino records his first tracks for Imperial Records, including "The Fat Man", one of the earliest rock and roll records. Imperial's catalog is currently owned by Capitol Records' parent company, EMI Music.
1965 - Parlophone Records releases comedian and actor Peter Sellers' single "A Hard Day's Night" (arranged and conducted by George Martin), with "Help" on the flip side, in the U.K. Sellers and Martin had worked together earlier on recordings by the cast of the BBC Radio series "The Goon Show".
2005 - Patricia Lynn Yearwood and former Capitol Records Nashville artist Troyal Garth Brooks are married at their home near Claremore, Oklahoma. It was Brooks' second marriage and the third for Yearwood.

ON THIS DAY NOT IN CAPITOL RECORDS HISTORY
1963 - Frank Sinata, Jr., son of former Capitol Records artist Frank Sinatra, is released unharmed by his kidnappers after his father pays their $240,000 ransom demand. The kidnappers were subsequently apprehended and convicted. Later, a motion picture called "Stealing Sinatra" is made about the events.
1967 - Three days after the release of his Stax Records single "(Sittin' On) The Dock Of The Bay", singer Otis Redding, age 26, and The Bar-Kays (Redding's backup group who had their own hit, "Soul Finger", in June 1967) members Ronald Caldwell (keyboard player, age 19), Carl Cunningham (drummer, age 18), Phalon Jones (saxophonist, age 18), and James King (guitarist, age 18) are killed in the crash of a private plane in Lake Monona, near Madison, Wisconsin. Ben Cauley, The Bar-Kays' trumpet player, survives the crash and will briefly reform the group with James Alexander, the band's bass player (who had not been on the plane), and replacements for the other members.
20 Years Ago Today In 1991 - Alan Freed, the disc jockey credited with giving "Rock 'N' Roll" its name, is posthumously (Freed died January 20, 1965) awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame