ON THIS DAY IN BLACK MUSIC HISTORY: JUNE 8

#1 R&B Song 1968:   “Ain’t Nothing Like the Real Thing,” Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell

Born:   Sherman Garnes (the Teenagers), 1940

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1946   The King Cole trio featuring Nat Cole charted with (Get Your Kicks On) Route 66,” reaching #3 R&B and #11 pop. It was their twelth hit, all but one of which reached the Top 5. The “failure” was a B-side titled: “I Realize Now,” which “only” made #9. (The song was first recorded by Nat King Cole and written by Bobby Troupe. Troupe may be better known as the actor who played “Dr. Joe Early” on the TV series “Emergency!”. His real-life wife, singer/actress Julie London, played “Nurse Dixie McCall” on the same show.)

1956   The Cadillacs drove into Detroit for a three-day performance at the Motorama, while in New York, Clyde McPhatter made his last appearance with the Drifters at the Apollo Theater.

1959   An obscure group called the Parliaments had their first single, the beautiful, plaintive ballad “Lonely Island” issued on the Flipp Label. Though the record went nowhere, the New Jersey doo-wop group would develop into one of the funkiest aggregations to ever storm a stage, Parliament/Funkadelic, with brain trust George Clinton at the helm just as he was on that “Lonely Island” debut.

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1985   The Mary Jane Girls peaked at #7 pop for three straight weeks (#3 R&B) with the infectious dance hit “In My House,” which was written and produced by Rick James.

1991   Diana Ross showed another side of her talents when she filled in for a British disc jockey on BBC-Radio in London for a week.

1996   The Fugees with lead vocalist Lauryn Hill reached #1 in England with “Killing Me Softly,” a remake of Roberta Flack’s hit from 1973. A week later it became the first single to reach #1 in Germany in its first week on the charts. In contrast, it never made the U.S. pop or R&B Top 100 lists, though it did reach #2 in pop airplay.