Pick a Day

12 OCTOBER

In Music History

1969 Russ Gibb, a DJ at WKNR in Detroit, takes a call from a listener who tells him that if you play The Beatles song "Revolution 9" backwards, a voice says, "Turn me on, dead man." Gibb plays the record in reverse on the air, and the phone lines light up with astonished listeners offering more clues as to why Paul McCartney might be dead. For about a week, Gibb entertains a stream of rumors on the show, as ratings explode and the story goes national. Other clues include a voice at the end of "Strawberry Fields Forever" that says "I Buried Paul" (actually John Lennon saying "Cranberry Sauce") and the cover of the Sgt. Pepper album, where Paul is wearing an armband that says "OPD" - "Officially Pronounced Dead."

1969 Martie Maguire (of Dixie Chicks) is born Martha Elenor Erwin in York, Pennsylvania.

1968 Big Brother and the Holding Company's LP Cheap Thrills hits #1.

1966 The Moody Blues split up, with Denny Laine signing a solo deal with their label, Deram. The group re-forms a month later with new members Justin Hayward and John Lodge.

1966 Sammy Davis, Jr. appears as a guest star on today's "The Clock King's Crazy Crimes" episode of ABC-TV's Batman.

1963 "Sugar Shack" by Jimmy Gilmer & the Fireballs hits #1 in America, where it stays for five weeks, longer than any other song in 1963.

1962 Little Richard headlines a package bill at the Tower Ballroom in New Brighton, England, where he meets The Beatles for the first time, who are also on the bill.

1957 Little Richard renounces rock and embraces God, telling the crowd at his show in Sydney, Australia: "If you want to live for the Lord, you can't take rock 'n' roll, too. God doesn't like it." After the tour, Richard gives up secular music, gets ordained as a minister, and records Gospel. He doesn't return to rock until 1962.

1956 Massively influential DJ Alan Freed's second film, Don't Knock The Rock, starring Little Richard, Bill Haley, and the Treniers, opens in New York.

1955 Chrysler introduces the world's first in-car sound systems -- vinyl record players, complete with an assortment of classical records, mounted under the dashboard.

1948 Rick Parfitt (vocalist/guitarist for Status Quo) is born in Woking, Surrey, England.

1944 At Frank Sinatra's show at the Paramount Theater in New York City, police are called in to control the crowd, which is mostly teenage girls. Performances go on one after another, and many audience members refuse to leave, which leads to the tensions in what was dubbed the "Columbus Day Riot."

1942 Melvin Franklin (bass singer for The Temptations) is born David Melvin English in Montgomery, Alabama.

1942 Louis Armstrong gets married for the fourth time, to Lucille Wilson. This one takes: they're together until his death in 1971.

1935 R&B singer Sam Moore (of Sam & Dave) is born Samuel David Hicks in Miami, Florida.