ON THIS DAY IN BLACK MUSIC HISTORY: NOVEMBER 23

#1 R&B Song 1968:   “Who’s Making Love,” Johnnie Taylor

 

Born:   Ruth Ettig, 1907; Gloria Lynn, 1931; Betty Everett, 1939

 

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1936   Legendary blues artist Robert Johnson recorded his first session at the Gunter Hotel in San Antonio, TX, for American Record Corporation’s Vocalion label. Some of the eight classics recorded included “I Believe I’ll Dust My Broom,” “Kind Hearted Woman Blues,” “Sweet Home Chicago,” “Travelin’ Riverside Blues,” “Cross Road Blues,” and “Terraplane Blues.” His first and most successful 78 RPM single would soon be “Terraplane Blues” backed with “Kind Hearted Woman Blues.”

 

 

1967   Aretha Franklin appeared in New York’s Thanksgiving Day Parade on the Lady in the Show Float.

 

1968   Marvin Gaye’s “I Heard It Through the Grapevine” charted on its way to #1 both pop and R&B for seven weeks, becoming his biggest pop hit. Gaye started out in 1957, with a vocal group called the  Marquees, on a single titled “Wyatt Earp.” The group, discovered by Bo Diddley, became the new Moonglows when they auditoned for Moonglows leader Harvey Fuqua outside a performance of the original Moonglows at a Washington, DC, theater. After hearing the Marquees, Fuqua fired his old vocalists and replaced them with Gaye’s group.

 

1973   Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes, the O’Jays, and the Stylistics performed at San Francisco’s famed Cow Palace.

 

1985   Rapper LL Cool J (James Todd Smith, whose stage name stands for “Ladies Love Cool James”) charted with “I Can’t Live Without My Radio,” reaching R&B #15.

 

1991   Patti LaBelle sang her favorite song, “Over the Rainbow,” on CBS-TV’s Party for Richard Pryor. She recorded the standard twice as a single, once with the Bluebelles and once solo; neither of the stirring renditions charted. Also performing were the Pointer Sisters and Bobby Womack.

 

1991   Seal reached #8 in Britain with the “Killer” EP, featuring Jimi Hendrix’s “Hey Joe.” The promo clip featured the first ever 3D video.

 

1995   Junior Walker (born Autry DeWalt Walker), the master sax player who charted twenty-six times with and without his soul group the All-Stars, died today of cancer in Battle Creek, MI. His group was named when an enthusiatically inebriated man jumped up at a show and proclaimed, “These guys are all stars.” Junior was sixty-four.

 

From the book, “On This Day In Black Music History”, by Jay Warner.