Tommy’s Coffee Break Calendar for April 27th

Today you got a teen-age girl makin' history; a moderately bizarre Dead set; and the birthday of one of England's most underrated who came to a tragic end...

4/27/1963 (52 years ago today) - How can we not mention her?: Today's the start of a three week run at Number One on the U.S. singles chart for "I Will Follow Him" by none other than the fantastically-named Little Peggy March, age 15 years, 1 month, 13 days. At the time, she was the youngest female singer ever to have a U.S. #1.

4/27/1971 (44 years ago today) - Headlining at the Fillmore East in New York City, it's probably the most legendary classic line-up of The Grateful Dead. Let's throw in a smidge of weird, though: The Beach Boys also appear on stage with the Dead and together they perform a short set of...Beach Boys songs! OK, actually, since it's 1971, it was likely a pretty cool scene; if that happened today, well, we kinda don't wanna even go there, so we'll this one slide people...

4/27/1947 - Born this date, Badfinger main man-singer-songwriter-guitarist Peter Ham. It's unbelieveable that Badfinger weren't a more successful band: they had the chops, the looks, a pair of multi-talented songwriters and critically acclaimed albums. Four worldwide hits between 1970-'72: "Come And Get It" (written and produced by Paul McCartney), "No Matter What", "Day After Day" (produced by George Harrison) and "Baby Blue" (produced by Todd Rundgren), all bona-fide classics. Pete Ham's "Without You" became a Number One hit and Grammy Award winner for Harry Nilsson. Their story, though, has been played out many times before: bad management, ridiculous record distribution, financial ruin. Lucky for us, Badfinger's albums still sound fantastic, especially the magical and absolutely perfect "Wish You Were Here" (1974), their final LP which was withdrawn from the market by their label a mere seven weeks after its release, effectively cutting off the bands income. Sadly, Pete Ham committed suicide three days before his 28th birthday in 1975.

What do you have to say about the daily Calendar? Comments and anything else, please -- we'd love to hear from y'all on our web site and on the WBLM Facebook and Twitter pages with the hashtag #TommysCoffeeBreak.

"Guess that's all I have to say/Except the feeling just gets stronger everyday...", xoxo!