#1 Song 1963: “He’s So Fine,” the Chiffons
Born: Harmonica blues man Big Walter “Shakey” Horton, 1917
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1956 Alan Freed’s Easter show at the Brooklyn Paramount featured the Flamingos, the Platters, Frankie Lymon & the Teenagers, the Cleftones, the Valentines, and the Royaltones.
1957 Legendary recording honcho George Goldner started the Gone label, future home of acts like the Dubs, the Channels, the Shells, the Velours, and the Bobbettes.
1959 “I’ts Just a Matter of Time” by Brook Benton peaked at #3 on the pop charts. The deep baritone ballad characteristics of the song would set the style for Benton’s hits throughout his career. Benton had already been a successful songwriter with hits like Nat King Cole’s “Looking Back” and Clyde McPhatter’s “A Lover’s Question” in 1958.
1963 Fats Domino, who had fifty-eight R&B hits and fifty-nine pop charters through 1962 on Imperial Records, signed with ABC-Paramount Records. Not his best move, as it turned out he had only seven more chart records during the remainder of his recording career through 1968, with none reaching higher than #24 R&B (“Red Sails in the Sunset”).
1963 Martha & the Vandellas charted with “Come and Get These Memories,” reaching #6 R&B and #29 pop, and becoming their first of twenty-four pop hits through 1974. the group was first called the Del Phis but became the Vandellas after backing Marvin Gaye on “Hitch Hike.” The name “Vandellas” came from a combination of Detroit’s Van Dyke Street and Martha’s favourite singer, Della Reese.
1991 Patti LaBelle performed on Bob Hope’s Yellow Ribbon Party in honor of returning troops from the first Gulf War.
1992 The Marvelettes, the Supremes, the Temptations, the Four Tops, Jimmy Ruffin, Martha & the Vandellas, and Edwin Starr all sang at the Wembley Arena, Wembley, London.
1996 Mariah Carey’s “Always Be My Baby” charted on its way to #1. It was her seventeenth hit in six years, eleven of which were #1.
Ann
