... and a couple more December 4 birthdays – Eddie Heywood (1915) – Jazz pianist (“Canadian Sunset”). Tommy Morgan (1932) – session harmonica player. Bob Mosley (1942) – bassist for Moby Grape. Terry Woods (1947) – The Pogues. Vinnie Dombroski (1962) – vocalist for Sponge. Jay-Z (aka Shawn Carter, 1969) – rapper/producer/label executive.
December 4 R.I.P. – Benjamin Britten (1976) – heart failure. Age 63. British classical composer. Frank Zappa (1993) – prostate cancer. Age 52. Bernie Dwyer (2002) – lung cancer. Age 62. Drummer for Freddie and The Dreamers. December 4 album releases – The Beatles – Beatles For Sale (1964) UK The Yardbirds – Five Live Yardbirds (1964) UK The Rolling Stones – December’s Children (And Everybody’s) (1965) U.S. Robert Wyatt – End Of An Ear (1970) Wishbone Ash – Wishbone Ash (1970) Stephen Stills – Stephen Stills Live (1975) Foreigner – Inside Information (1987) December 4 events – 1927 – Duke Ellington’s newly-expanded big band begins a three-and-a- half year residency at Harlem’s Cotton Club. 1944 – Eddy Arnold and The Plowboys record four songs, including "Cattle Call," at Arnold’s first recording session at WSM Radio studios in Nashville. 1953 – Tony Bennett records “There’ll Be No Teardrops Tonight” at CBS Studios in New York City. 1954 – Billboard magazine announces that DJ Alan Freed can no longer use the moniker “Moondog” after Supreme Court Justice Carroll G. Walter rules in favor of New York street musician Louis T. Hardin, who claims ownership of the name. 1956 – Elvis Presley arrives at Sun Studios unannounced, interrupting a Carl Perkins session featuring Jerry Lee Lewis on piano. A short time later, Johnny Cash arrives at the studio, and the four musicians gather around the piano and sing songs familiar to them all. Sam Phillips records the “group,” who will be dubbed the “Million Dollar Quartet” the following day in the Memphis Press-Scimitar. 1957 – DJ Allen Brooks of radio station CKWS in Kingston, Ontario, Canada, plays Elvis Presley's new Christmas album in its entirety and invites listeners to call in their opinion, since many radio stations have banned the album because of the implied impropriety of “Elvis the Pelvis” singing religious songs. Of 800 callers, all but 56 approve of Presley's album. 1957 – Danny and The Juniors and Jimmy Dee and The Offbeats appear on American Bandstand. 1958 – At the request of Dick Clark, Lloyd Price re-records “Stagger Lee,” as well as a version of “Lawdy Miss Clawdy” and “Where Were You (On Our Wedding Day)?” 1960 – Jackie Wilson makes his debut appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show, performing “Lonely Teardrops,” “To Be Loved” and “Alone At Last.” 1961 – Gene Chandler releases his single, “Duke Of Earl” b/w “Kissin’ In The Kitchen.” 1962 – The Beatles make their London television debut on the children’s program Tuesday Rendezvous. Filmed in Studio 4 at Wembley Studios, the group lip-synchs to “Love Me Do” and “P.S. I Love You.” 1965 – Jacques Brel makes his American stage debut in concert at Carnegie Hall in New York City. 1965 – The Animals, The Moody Blues and The Brian Auger Trinity, featuring Long John Baldry, Rod Stewart and Julie Driscoll, all appear on Part 1 of Shindig Goes To London. 1966 – Diana Ross and The Supremes and Gary Lewis and The Playboys appear on The Ed Sullivan Show. Also on the show is singer Lainie Kazan. 1969 – President Richard Nixon, Vice-President Agnew and 40 U.S. governors view "simulated acid trip" films and listen to rock music in an attempt to comprehend the generation gap. 1969 – The Rolling Stones wrap up three days of recording sessions at Muscle Shoals in Alabama, completing the tracks “Brown Sugar,” “Wild Horses” and “You Gotta Move” for their next album. 1971 – The Montreux Casino in Switzerland burns down during a concert by Frank Zappa and The Mothers of Invention after a fan sets the venue on fire with a flare gun. The fire becomes the subject of the Deep Purple song “Smoke On The Water.” 1971 – Don McLean’s “American Pie” enters Billboard’s Hot 100. 1976 – EMI record plant packers go on strike, refusing to package The Sex Pistols’ single “Anarchy In The UK.” 1979 – U2 appears at the Hope and Anchor in Islington, London. Mistakenly called “The U2s,” they play to only nine people and the show ends abruptly when The Edge breaks a guitar string. 1980 – Prince plays the first night of his Dirty Mind Tour at Shea’s in Buffalo, New York. The tour is the first to feature Lisa Coleman on keyboards. 1980 – Led Zeppelin officially calls it quits in a press release, which reads: "We wish it to be known that the loss of our dear friend, and the deep respect we have for his family, together with the deep sense of undivided harmony felt by ourselves and our manager, have led us to decide that we could not continue as we were. – Led Zeppelin” 1985 – Singer Connie Francis is arrested aboard a Delta airliner for smoking four cigarettes while the No Smoking sign is on during a re- fueling stop in Atlanta. As she is escorted off the plane, she kicks the police officer, incurring another charge of battery. She is booked and released on $1,100 bail. 1987 – Madonna files for divorce from actor Sean Penn. She changes her mind the following week, and then changes it again in January 1988 for good. 1988 – Roy Orbison makes his last concert appearance at the Front Row Theater in Highland Heights, Ohio. 1991 – Country act The Judds play their final concert together at the Murphy Center in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. The concert is filmed for a television special. 1991 – Paula Abdul receives a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. 1999 – Rapper Jay-Z is released from jail on $50,000 bail after a stabbing incident at a party in New York City the previous night. 2001 – KISS’ Gene Simmons releases his book KISS And Make-Up. In the evening, the group is one of the honorees at the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences Heroes Award ceremony in New York. 2002 – In an interview with Diane Sawyer on the ABC news program Primetime, Whitney Houston admits that drink and drugs nearly killed her, and that she is addicted to sex. Houston also tells Sawyer that her business is sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll, and that she got into the lifestyle after missing out on partying when her career took off when she was 18. 2004 – Michael Jackson provides his DNA to the Santa Barbara Sheriff’s Department following a second raid on his Neverland Ranch. 2006 – Christie’s in New York holds another rock ‘n’ roll auction, selling Paul McCartney’s handwritten lyrics to “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer” for $192,000 to a Texas bookstore owner. Also auctioned off is a guitar owned by Jimi Hendrix, a notebook of lyrics written by Bob Marley, and a poem written by Jim Morrison.
