Time to take a look back into this day in rock history: February 1
Big Joe Turner records the original version of “Shake, Rattle and Roll” and it does well on the Billboard R&B chart, but not so much on the pop side. Some of the lyrics border on sexual innuendo. Bill Haley cleans them up, and five months later records the song as a chart hit.
1968
Earl Scheib’s nightmare! John Lennon sends his famed psychedelic Rolls Royce to the United States. It would later be displayed at Cleveland’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
The inspiration for the song “Truckin”, the Grateful Dead and Fleetwood Mac with Peter Green play what’s called a “bust fund” benefit they are targeted in a New Orleans drug bust. Here’s how Jerry Garcia described it.
1974
Double lead guitars and a young opening act about to explode worldwide at the Allen Theater.Poster courtesy of Raw Sugar Studio
Noted disc jockey and host of TV’s “Soul Train”, Don Cornelius, dies of an apparent self inflicted gun shot wound to the head in his Los Angeles home. He was 75, and would be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2023.
2014
Alternative country with the late Justin Townes Earle at the Kent Stage.Poster courtesy of Raw Sugar Studio
