#1 R&B Song 1959: “I Want To Walk You Home,” Fats Domino
Born: Jazz musician Leroy “Slam” Stewart, 1914
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1959 The Isley Brothers charted pop with “Shout” (#47) their first of forty-six Top 100 hits over a forty-two-year period. The record would soon sell more than a million copies. It never made the R&B charts, however, as it was considered to be a more rock ‘n’ roll standard.
1963 Martha & the Vandellas’ “Heat Wave” peaked at #4 pop while reaching #1 R&B for four weeks and selling more than a million copies. Martha started out earning $35 a week as a secretary at Motown for Smokey Robinson and the writers of “Heat Wave,” Holland-Dozier-Holland.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lfJGZzf8kRw
1969 The Fifth Dimension performed on The Woody Allen TV Special on CBS.
1980 Bob Marley collapsed while jogging in Manhattan’s Central Park and was later told he had cancer.
1984 James Brown married Modell Rodriguez.
1991 Diana Ross performed the last of three sellout shows at New York’s Radio City Music Hall, grossing more than $650,000 (not a bad weekend’s work).
1996 A remixed hip-hop version of Roberta Flack’s 1973 hit, “Killing Me Softly With His Song,” hit #1 on the Hot Dance Music chart. The remix release was motivated by the success of the Fugees’ cover of “Killing Me” from earlier in the year.
1996 The Harlem Boys Choir, Babyface, Vanessa Williams, Seal, and Elton John, among others, entertained at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas at the Agassi Slam for Children, a benefit concert held by tennis star Andre Agassi.
Ann
