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June 3, 2010

Grand Funk Sells Out … Elvis Stamped Out … Sinead Comes Out …

This is the week that was in matters musical…

1958, Jerry Lee Lewis' producer, Sam Phillips, forces the rocker to sign an apologetic letter to his fans … Phillips then runs it as a full-page ad in Billboard trying in vain to bolster Lewis' plummeting reputation in the fallout from his marriage to 14-year-old second-cousin Myra … the letter doesn't help much … the Killer's career will remain in the toilet until he reinvents himself as a country star in the 1960s …

1964, Ringo Starr comes down with acute tonsillitis days before a Beatles world tour is to begin … his replacement is session drummer Jimmy Nichol who thereby becomes a Beatle for 11 days …

1965, The Yardbirds' "For Your Love" enters the Billboard Hot 100 at #84 … the song stays on the charts for 12 weeks, peaking at #6 … the record marks Eric Clapton's last session with a band he feels is growing too pop …

1969, multi-instrumentalist-turned-druggy and founder of The Rolling Stones, Brian Jones, announces he's leaving the band because he doesn't agree with its musical direction … word is The Stones have had their fill of Jones and probably forced him out since drugging and mental instability have prevented The Stones from touring the U.S. … hot blues guitarist Mick Taylor has already been lined up to fill the position and steps in as soon as Jones steps out … within three weeks Jones will be found dead on the bottom of his pool … years later The Stones will joke about pranks played on him, such as having Jones record overdubs with no tape running … Tommy, The Who's rock opera, hits #2 in the U.K. and #4 in the U.S. … Blind Faith makes its live debut at a free concert in London's Hyde Park … an estimated 150,000 people attend the show … the group, consisting of Eric Clapton, Ginger Baker, Steve Winwood, and Ric Grech, will disband the following October after a U.S. tour that Winwood describes as "vulgar, crude, disgusting (and) lacking in integrity" …

1972, Grand Funk Railroad sells out its concert at Shea Stadium within 72 hours … this breaks the previous box-office record there, held by The Beatles …

1974, king of the big keyboard sound, Rick Wakeman, parts ways with Yes to pursue a solo career … he will rejoin the band for 1977's Going for the One, setting the pattern for decades of on-again/off-again relations … this same day, the Who sells out a four-night stand at Madison Square Garden in three days, two months before the show … in the innocent world of 1974, that's a big deal …

1979, Chuck Berry performs for President Jimmy Carter at the White House … just a month later he'll be sentenced to four months on tax evasion charges …

1988, a birthday bash held in London for Nelson Mandela features performers Stevie Wonder, Dire Straits, and Simple Minds …

1990, 25 years to the day after their father Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys owned the top of the pops with "Help Me Rhonda," Wilson Phillips, the trio composed of Carnie and Wendy Wilson together with Chynna Phillips, owns the same spot on the Top 100 chart with their single, "Hold On" …

1991, Bruce Springsteen weds singer-songwriter Patti Scialfa, who has been singing backup vocals with the Boss' E-Street Band for the past four years …

1992, after more than one million votes on the Elvis likeness to be used on a postage stamp are received, Priscilla Presley announces from the Graceland lawn that the '50s-era King prevailed … fans had a choice between the young Elvis and the portly, chops-bearing King in his Vegas years … young Elvis took home 851,200 votes while the Vegas King garnered 277,723 …

1994, Falcons wide receiver Andre Rison's Atlanta mansion burns to the ground … it's later determined that his girlfriend Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes of the R&B girl group TLC committed the arson in a fit of pique …

1998, a judge in the Appellate Division of the New York Supreme Court hears opening arguments in a suit brought by '60s girl group The Ronettes against their former producer, Phil Spector, charging him with breaching their 34-year-old contract by failing to pay royalties … in 2002 the reclusive studio guru is finally ordered to pay the girls $2.9 million plus interest … meanwhile, across the Atlantic, Sir Paul McCartney is joined by his former bandmates George Harrison and Ringo Starr as well as Pete Townshend, Elton John, and other rock luminaries to mourn the death of Linda McCartney … attendees at the private service held at St. Martin in the Fields church in London sing "Let it Be" and the Brodsky Quartet performs "The Lovely Linda" and "Calico Skies," songs Sir Paul wrote for his late wife …

2000, Rolling Stone Ronnie Wood enters Priory Clinic, a rehab center in London, to deal with his alcohol addiction … Sinead O'Connor outs herself in an article that appears inCurve magazine …

2003, singer-songwriter Barry Manilow, notable for his hook-ridden melodies and outsized proboscis, manages to break that organ when he walks into a bedroom wall at his Palm Springs, California, home … evincing a sense of humor in recalling the accident, Manilow says, "I veered to the left instead of the right and slammed right into the wall. I may have to have my nose fixed and, with this nose, it's going to require major surgery." … Chester Bennington, lead singer for Linkin Park, is hospitalized with severe back and abdominal pains in Los Angeles … plans for festival dates in Europe are scrapped as a result … early reports indicate Led Zeppelin's three-disc live album How the West Was Won will debut at #1 on the U.S. album chart … rapper 50 Cent's Get Rich or Die Tryin'ends up at #2 …

2006, multi-platinum songstress Norah Jones has been signed to appear in the movie My Blueberry Nights… the film will open to unanimously harsh reviews …

2008, Kurt Cobain's widow, Courtney Love, reports his ashes were stolen from her Los Angeles home … AC/DC's next studio album will be exclusively sold at Wal-Mart stores in the United States, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal …

Arrivals:

June 3: Memphis Minnie, gritty-voiced blues singer with a percussive guitar style (1896), Jimmy Rogers, guitarist with Muddy Waters (1924), June Abbit aka Joe Abbit, Sr. of The 5 Royales (1932), Curtis Mayfield (1942), Michael Clark, drummer with The Flying Burrito Brothers and The Byrds (1943), John Paul Jones of Led Zeppelin (1946), Ian Hunter of Mott the Hoople (1946), Byrds drummer Michael Clarke (1946), Dave Alexander, Stooges bassist (1947), T. Rex percussionist Mickey Finn (1947), Suzi Quatro (1950), Deniece Williams (1951), Lynyrd Skynyrd keyboardist Billy Powell (1952), David Cole, producer of C+C Music Factory (1962), Kerry King of Slayer (1964), Phish bassist Mike Gordon (1965), No Mercy's Ariel (1971), Cuban jazz musician Gabriel Hernandez (1971)

June 4: Freddy Fender, born Baldemar Huerta (1937), Roger Ball of Average White Band (1944), Gordon Waller of Peter & Gordon (1945), Michelle Phillips of The Mamas and the Papas (1945), El DeBarge (1961), Brian McKnight (1969), Stefan Lessard of The Dave Matthews Band (1974)

June 5: jazz pianist Pete Jolly (1932), Floyd Butler of The Friends of Distinction (1941), Freddie Stone of Sly & The Family Stone (1946), Badfinger's Tom Evans (1947), Laurie Anderson (1947), keyboardist Frank Esler-Smith of Air Supply (1948), soul singer Ronnie Dyson (1950), Nicko McBrain of Iron Maiden (1952), Peter Erskine (1954), Kenny G (1956), Richard Butler of The Psychedelic Furs (1956), Mark Wahlberg (1971), Aaron "P-Nut" Wills of 311 (1974), Sebastien Lefebvre of Simple Plan (1981)

June 6: Chess Records session drummer S.P. Leary (1930), Levi Stubbs of The Four Tops (1936), Gary U.S. Bonds (1939), The Byrds' Clarence White (1944), Tom Araya, lead vocalist-bassist of Slayer (1961), James Schaffer of Korn (1970)

June 7: Dean Martin (1917), Welsh crooner Tom Jones (1940), Steve Torbert of New Riders of the Purple Sage (1948), Prince born Prince Roger Nelson (1958), Ecstacy of Whodini (1964), Eric Kretz of Stone Temple Pilots (1966), Dave Navarro of Jane's Addiction and Red Hot Chili Peppers (1967)

June 8: Nancy "Boots" Sinatra (1940), Sherman Garnes of Frankie Lymon & the Teenagers (1940), Jesse Bolian of the Artistics (1941), Jon Lord of Deep Purple (1941), Three Dog Night's Chuck Negron (1942), Boz Scaggs (1944), Uriah Heep's Mick Box (1947), Bonnie Tyler aka Gaynor Hoskins (1953), Simply Red's Mick Hucknall (1960), Duran Duran's Nick Rhodes (1962), Rob Pilatus of the faux pop duo Milli Vanilli (1965), Alex Band of The Calling (1981)

June 9: songwriter Cole Porter (1891), Les Paul born Lester Polfus (1915), R&B singer and Russian roulette-ist Johnny Ace born John Marshall Alexander Jr. (1929), operatic soul singer Jackie Wilson (1934), Wild Jimmy Spruill (1934), Deep Purple's Jon Lord (1941), Jimi Hendrix Experience drummer Mitch Mitchell (1947), Dean Felber of Hootie & The Blowfish (1967), Dean Dinning of Toad the Wet Sprocket (1967)

Departures:

June 3: blues belter Koko Taylor (2009), Louis Prima saxman Sam Butera (2009), Richard Sohl of The Patti Smith Group (1990), The Duprees' Joe Santollo (1981), rock journalist Ralph Gleason (1975), Mississippi Fred McDowell (1971)

June 4: folk singer John Hartford (2001), Ronnie Lane of The Small Faces (1997), Herman's Hermits guitarist Lek Leckenby (1994), Stiv Bators of Dead Boys (1990), jazz-blues pianist Todd Rhodes (1965)

June 5: guitarist Robert Quine (2004), Ramones founder and bassist Dee Dee Ramone (2002), singer Mel "The Velvet Fog" Torme (1999), Ernie Wilkins, jazz saxophonist and arranger for Count Basie (1999), pop and country singer Conway Twitty born Harold Lloyd Jenkins (1993), Tejano accordionist Narciso Martinez (1992), ex-Steely Dan drummer Jimmy Hodder (1990), bluesman "Sleepy" John Estes (1977)

June 6: Billy Preston (2006), former Animals keyboardist Dave Rowberry (2003), Pariah bassist Sims Ellison (1995), smooth saxophonist Stan Getz (1991), British Decca A&R man Dick Rowe (1986)

June 7: Tommy Perkins of Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys (2003), James Eugene "Rosy" McHargue, singer and reedman for the Benny Goodman Orchestra (1999), Schwann Recording Catalog editor William Schwann (1998), producer-songwriter Jerry Capehart (1998)

June 8: jazz vocalist Nellie Lutcher (2007), guitar and amp builder to the stars Dan Armstrong (2004), punker Root Boy Slim (1993), session drummer Yogi Horton (1987), blues and jazz shouter Jimmy "Mr. Five-By-Five" Rushing (1972)

June 9: folksinger Walter Pardon (1996), '60s R&B singer Arthur Alexander (1993), jazz and blues singer Clarence "Big" Miller (1992)

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