Time to take a look back into this day in rock history: January 1
Country troubador Hank Williams dies in the back seat of a car as he’s driven to a gig at the Memorial Auditorium in Canton, Ohio. Doctors say he died form hemorrhaging in his heart and the insufficiency of his right ventricle possibly the result of heavy drinking and drugs to kill back pain.
Thanks, but no thanks. The Beatles audition for Decca Records in London recording five songs: Searchin'”, “Three Cool Cats”, “The Sheik of Araby”, “Like Dreamers Do” and “Hello Little Girl”. Brian Epstein is told guitar groups are on the way out and Decca signs Brian Poole and the Tremeloes instead. Decca’s Dick Rowe, who rejected the Beatles, will live with that decision the rest of his life.
Monty Python parodies Rowe in their send up with the imaginary band the Rutles in “All You Need is Cash”. George Harrison plays a reporter and asks a record executive who passes on the Rutles, “What does it feel like to be an asshole?” (That’s cleaned up in the American version.)
The Doors lip synch their first single “Break on Through” on KTLA’s “Shebang show. The song doesn’t do much on the charts because some radio programmers believe they reference drug use in the Lyrics “she gets high” in the middle of the song. Uh…they were.
One of the founding fathers of the British blues scene, Alexis Korner, dies of lung cancer at age 55. As the leader of Blues Incorporated he helped boost the careers of Charlie Watts, Long John Baldry, Jack Bruce, Ginger Baker and many others.
She made her mark in the fifties with songs like “Tennessee Waltz” and “(How Much is That) Doggie in the Window?” Patti Page died on this date at age 85. When she recorded the song “Confess” in 1947 there was a background singers strike, so she ended up recording her own background vocals.
