Time to take a look back into this day in rock history: December 17
Washington DC disc jockey James Carroll at WWDC is the first to broadcast a Beatles record on American radio. He plays “I Want To Hold Your Hand,” a record brought back from England by his stewardess girlfriend after a visit to the UK. The song is an immediate hit and played daily on the hour. It wasn’t officially released in the US and Capitol Records even considers legal action but decides to release the single earlier than planned. Carroll jumps on the Beatlemania bandwagon as soon as the band visits the nation’s capitol.
In support of their first single, MC5 plays Detroit’s Grande Ballroom.
Rush has a deep connection to Cleveland, The band played the Agora on this date in 1974.
Elvis Costello angers Saturday Night Live’s Lorne Michaels when he goes “off script” and performs the song “Radio Radio” which he was specifically told not to perform resulting in EC being banned from the show. Costello would later say he was inspired to do the last-minute song change after a similar incident years before when Jimi Hendrix stopped playing his hit “Hey Joe” on Lulu’s BBC show. Hendrix halted that song saying, “We’d like to stop playing this rubbish and dedicate a song to the Cream regardless of what kind of group they might be. I’d like to dedicate this to Eric Clapton, Ginger Baker, and Jack Bruce. ” He then did his own take on “Sunshine of Your Love.”
Frank Zappa is memorialized with a statue in Vilnius, the capital of the Republic of Lithuania. It was the brain child of Zappa fan club President Saulius Pauksty.
2021
Blood Sweat and Tears were among a star studded lineup at Warren’s Robins Theater in 2021.
Poster courtesy of Raw Sugar Studio
2022
Former Doobie Brother / Steely Dan / “just about everyone” sideman Jeff “Skunk” Baxter brought his long musical legacy to the Kent Stage.Poster courtesy of Raw Sugar Studio
