Chapter 01 — Today in music
On a day like today July 12
1962
The Rolling Stones debut at the Marquee: sixty years of touring start today
On July 12, 1962, a group billed as 'The Rollin' Stones' played for the first time at London's Marquee Club, with Jagger, Richards and Brian Jones running through Chicago blues before a skeptical jazz crowd. Nobody that night would have bet the band would still be touring in the next century. Rock's greatest marathon began in a club on Oxford Street.
The Rolling Stones
1920
Paul Gonsalves is born, and saves Duke Ellington with twenty-seven straight choruses
On July 12, 1920, Paul Gonsalves was born in Boston, tenor saxophonist in Duke Ellington's orchestra. At the 1956 Newport festival, with the band in decline and the audience drifting away, Ellington sent him out to improvise between two halves of an old piece. Gonsalves played twenty-seven choruses in a row, people started dancing on their chairs, and Ellington's career came back to life on the spot: weeks later he was on the cover of Time.
Paul Gonsalves
Duke Ellington
1943
Christine McVie is born, the melodic calm inside hurricane Fleetwood Mac
On July 12, 1943, Christine McVie was born in England — Fleetwood Mac's keyboardist and songwriter. While the band burned through dramas, she delivered the catalog's most serene, perfect melodies: 'Songbird', 'Everywhere', 'Don't Stop'. Without her artisanal balance of British blues and Californian pop, 'Rumours' would just be the chronicle of a shipwreck.
Christine McVie
Fleetwood Mac
1979
The night rock blew up disco: chaos at Comiskey Park
On July 12, 1979, Chicago's Comiskey Park hosted 'Disco Demolition Night': rock DJ Steve Dahl blew up a crate full of disco records between two baseball games. Some 7,000 attendees stormed the field, lit bonfires and caused such destruction that the White Sox had to forfeit the second game by official ruling. The night became a symbol of the cultural war between rock and disco, and hastened the dance genre's commercial decline.
Steve Dahl
1986
"Who's Johnny" takes a song written for a robot to number one
On July 12, 1986, "Who's Johnny" topped Billboard's rhythm and blues chart. It was the theme from a comedy about a military robot that becomes self-aware, and in almost any other voice it would have been a forgettable commission. El DeBarge, fresh from leading the sweetest family group on eighties Motown, sang it in falsetto with a conviction that lifted it clear of the film. It was his only number one as a solo artist.
El DeBarge
1895
Oscar Hammerstein II is born: the lyricist who taught songs to tell stories
On July 12, 1895, Oscar Hammerstein II was born in New York — the man who turned the musical into something more than a parade of loose numbers. He wrote "Ol' Man River" and, with Richard Rodgers, "Oklahoma!" and "The Sound of Music", works in which every song pushes the plot rather than pausing it. He was also the mentor of a teenage neighbour named Stephen Sondheim, whose lyrics he corrected until the boy learned to write them.
Oscar Hammerstein II
Stephen Sondheim
1942
Swamp Dogg is born: the soul singer who refused to be respectable
On July 12, 1942, Jerry Williams Jr. was born in Virginia. He recorded for years as a well-behaved singer until, in 1970, he renamed himself Swamp Dogg and released "Total Destruction to Your Mind". From then on he wrote about politics, drugs and domestic disasters with comic-book humour, and posed for his sleeves astride a giant white rat. The industry never knew what to do with him; fifty years later he was still recording with young artists.
Swamp Dogg
1947
Jimmie Lunceford dies signing autographs, and his band never believed it was natural
On July 12, 1947, Jimmie Lunceford collapsed while signing autographs at a record shop in Seaside, Oregon, and died at 45. He led the most disciplined and spectacular big band of the swing era, one that could dance choreography while playing. His musicians always suspected the lunch served hours earlier at a restaurant that had refused to seat them, though nothing was ever proved. Without him the orchestra fell apart within a few years.
Jimmie Lunceford
1954
Elvis quits the truck and signs with Sun Records: a revolution is born
On July 12, 1954, a 19-year-old Elvis Presley quit his truck-driving job at Crown Electric and signed his first recording contract with Sun Records. A week earlier he had recorded 'That's All Right' in an improvised session that convinced Sam Phillips he was facing the artist capable of uniting Black and white music. That signature set in motion the most influential career in rock and roll history.
Elvis Presley
Sam Phillips
1996
Jonathan Melvoin dies and the Smashing Pumpkins hit bottom
On July 12, 1996, Jonathan Melvoin, touring keyboardist for the Smashing Pumpkins, died in New York of a heroin overdose at 34. Son of Wrecking Crew keyboardist Mike Melvoin and brother of Wendy of Prince and the Revolution, he was accompanying the band on the 'Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness' tour. His death precipitated the firing of drummer Jimmy Chamberlin and marked the darkest moment of Billy Corgan's band. Songs like Sarah McLachlan's 'Angel' were born from the tragedy.
Jonathan Melvoin
The Smashing Pumpkins
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