#1 R&B Song 1983: “All Night Long (All Night), Lionel Richie
Born: Hadda Brooks, 1916; Eugene Daughtry (the Intruders), 1939; Randy Jackson, 1961
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1902 The Dinwiddie Colored Quartet recorded for the first time, consequently becoming the first Black voices on record. They sang a pop song and five spirituals for the Victor Talking Machine Company’s Monarch Records in Camden, NJ. Originally known as the Old South Quartet, they formed their group in 1898, and disbanded in 1904. The group consisted of Sterling C. Rex (tenor), J. Clarence Meredith (tenor), Harry B. Cruder (bass), James Mantell Thomas (bass).
1952 R&B group the Diamonds (Atlantic) recorded their initial four sides, including the exquisite debut disc “A Beggar For Your Kisses” ($1,500).
1955 The first R&B show held at Carnegie Hall in New York included Etta James & the Peaches, the Five Keys, Gene & Eunice, the Clovers, and Big Joe Turner.
1977 The disco group Chic charted for the first time with “Dance, Dance, Dance (Yowsah, Yowsah, Yowsah)” on their way to #6 R&B and pop. The group, helmed by producers Bernard edwards and Nile Rodgers, were originally a ’60s rocck band called New World Rising and then a rock-fusion aggregation, the Bi Apple Band, before freaking out altogether as Allah & the Knife-Wielding Punks (no kidding!) for a short time. A return to sanity soon followed with the much more acceptable Chic.
1979 Michael Jackson’s album Off the Wall reached # 3 and would go on to sell more than 10 million copies around the world.
1983 Lionel Richie Day was proclaimed by he mayor of Lionel’s hometown, Tuskegee, AL.
1991 Interstate highway 55 in Jackson, MS, was renamed B.B. King Freeway.
1997 The O’Jays filed a copyright infringement suit for $1.5 million against rapper Master P for his use of their 1978 hit “Brandy” in his “I Miss My Homies.”
Ann
