#1 R&B Song 1957: “C.C. Rider,” Chuck Willis
Born: Eugene Mumford (the Larks, the Dominoes), 1925, Garland Green, 1942
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1957 The Flamingos signed with Decca Records and the Velours’ “Can I Come Over Tonight” ($200) was issued.
1960 John Lee Hooker performed at the second annual Newport Folk Festival in Newport, RI, while the Flamingos, the Five Satins, Sonny Boy Williamson, and Marv Johnson played the Apollo Theater in New York.
1964 Sam Cooke headlined a two-week stay at New York’s famed Copacabana Club. Cooke had previously played the Copa in 1958 but as an opening act to Jewish comedian Myron Cohen.
1966 Percy Sledge, Sam & Dave, Patti LaBelle & the Blue Bells, Garnett Mimms, and Otis Redding began a grueling one-nighter’s tour schedule of forty-six performances in Greensboro, NC.
1978 Rick James debut album Come Get It! charted, reaching #3 R&B and #13 pop. James ‘s first recordings were made in Toronto, Canada, in June of 1975 when he recorded a prophetic one-off single for Quality entitled “I (Wanna Be a) Hollywood Star” under the name Gorilla.
1978 Janice Marie Johnson led A Taste of Honey onto the charts with “Boogie Oogie Ooogie.” It finally stopped “boogying” at #1.
1989 Aretha Franklin and Whitney Houston’s duet “It Isn’t, It Wasn’t, It Ain’t Never Gonna Be” was released. It became Franklin’s seventy-second chart rider (#41) and Houston’s twelth, though it was the only single of her fourteen that did not reach the Top 5.
1995 Michael Jackson’s HIStory: Past, Present and Future, Book I album debuted at #1 in England and would be #1 in America within two weeks.
Ann
