DECEMBER 24, 2011

HAPPY BIRTHDAYS!
95 Years Ago Today In 1916 - Sid Feller, trumpet player, pianist, arranger, songwriter, record producer, conductor, head in-house arranger for Capitol Records (1951-1955 with artists Peggy Lee, Jackie Gleason, Nancy Wilson, Dean Martin, Matt Monro, Jane Froman, and others), ABC Records (1955-1965 most notably with Ray Charles, whose band he would conduct on the road even after leaving ABC), music director for "The Flip Wilson Show" and other TV series, is born Sidney Harold Feller in New York City, New York
1929 - Stoney Edwards, singer, songwriter ("Two Dollar Toy", "The Cute Little Waitress", "Blackbird (Hold Your Head High)", and more), guitarist, and Capitol Records artist (1971-1976), is born Frenchey Edwards in Seminole, Oklahoma. According to an article on Hillbilly-Music.com, Edwards was once refused entrance to a party in the early '70s at the Capitol Records offices in Los Angeles because of his race (African-American, American Indian, and Irish) which may have had some influence on his writing the song "Blackbird" (not to be confused with The Beatles' song of the same name).
1944 - Mike Curb, musician, Lieutenant Governor of California, race car owner, president MGM Records, founder of the singing group The Mike Curb Congregation, record producer (most notably the Academy Award winner "You Light Up My Life") and founder of Curb Records, some of whose releases are distributed by Capitol Records and which also releases compilation albums using tracks from Capitol Records and EMI Music's catalog, is born in Savannah, Georgia

ON THIS DAY IN CAPITOL RECORDS HISTORY
1953 - Dean Martin, with Dick Stabile conducting the studio orchestra, re-records the track "I'd Cry Like A Baby" with new arrangement by Gus Levine after not getting a successful take on August 13, 1953 using an arrangement by Nelson Riddle. The Capitol Records single, with "Hey Brother, Pour The Wine" on the flip side, will peak at #21 after it is released in March 1954.
1965 - The Beatles' Capitol Records album "Rubber Soul" is certified Gold by the R.I.A.A. just two and a half weeks after its release
1967 - The Beatles' Capitol Records single "Hello Goodbye", with "I Am The Walrus" on the flip side, is #1 on Billboard's Hot 100 Singles chart
1979 - Capitol Records releases Weird Al Yankovic's single "My Bologna" with "School Cafeteria" on the flip side.
1988 - Poison's Capitol Records single "Every Rose Has Its Thorn" is #1 on Billboard's Hot 100 Singles chart

ON THIS DAY NOT QUITE IN CAPITOL RECORDS HISTORY
1893 - Harry Warren, composer ("I Found A Million Dollar Baby In A Five-And-Ten Cent Store", "Shuffle Off To Buffalo", "Forty-Second Street", "Lullaby of Broadway" [his first Academy Award winner], "She's A Latin From Manhattan", "Jeepers Creepers" [with lyrics by Capitol Records co-founder Johnny Mercer], "You Must Have Been a Beautiful Baby", "Chattanooga Choo Choo", "I've Got a Gal in Kalamazoo", "On the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe" [with lyrics also by Mercer], "Serenade in Blue", "I Had the Craziest Dream", "Highland Fling" [lyrics by Ira Gershwin], Dean Martin's Capitol Records hit "That's Amore", and many more), is born Salvatore Guaragna in Brooklyn, New York
1922 - Ava Gardner, actress and one time wife of Capitol Records artist Frank Sinatra (as well as Mickey Rooney and Artie Shaw), is born Ava Lavinia Garnder in Brogden, Johnston County, North Carolina
1965 - Trumpeter Don Cherry records the tracks for his Blue Note album "Complete Communion" which will be released in 1966 on vinyl and in 2000 on CD. Blue Note's catalog is currently owned by EMI Music and Blue Note Records is currently a division of Capitol Records, Incorporated.
1984 - Peter Lawford (born born Peter Sidney Lawford), motion picture actor, one time husband of Patricia Kennedy and brother-in-law of John and Robert Kennedy, and member of The Rat Pack (which included Capitol Records artists Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, and Sammy Davis, Jr.), dies of cardiac arrest complicated by kidney and liver failure at age 61.

ON THIS DAY NOT IN CAPITOL RECORDS HISTORY
125 Years Ago Today In 1886 - Michael Curtiz, circus performer, actor, and motion picture director ("The Adventures of Robin Hood", "Casablanca", "White Christmas", and many others), is born Manó Kertész Kaminer in Budapest, Hungary
105 Years Ago Today In 1906 - Reginald A. Fessenden, Canadian-born radio inventor (and discoverer of the superheterodyne principle which is the basis for all modern radio receivers), becomes the first person to broadcast a music program over radio when he speaks a little verse then, on violin with a female singer, plays "O Holy Night", and concludes with a speech, live via a transmitter in Brant Rock, Massachusetts
1997 - Tishiro Mufuni, actor, dies at 77