Tommy’s Coffee Break Calendar for August 17th

'60's and '70's {truly} classic albums that became chart-toppers, and a b'day for a woefully overlooked singer (she's great, trust us)...

8/17/1968 (48 years ago today) - The Doors start four weeks at No. 1 with their third studio album "Waiting For The Sun". Pretty solid: in addition to the chart-topping pop-slice "Hello, I Love You", the LP featured some of the bands darkest pseudo-goth psychedelia -- "Five To One" (featuring Jim Morrison's classic "No one here gets out alive" moaning) and "The Unknown Soldier" certainly provided shivers, while "Not To Touch To The Earth" and "My Wild Love" were the stuff of nightmares. Somewhat underrated in their catalog, go back for a fresh re-listen; nobody else ever sounded like these guys!

8/17/1974 (42 years ago today) - Eric Clapton begins four weeks at No. 1 on the LP chart with his near-perfect comeback release "461 Ocean Boulevard". After recovering from a three-year addiction to heroin, Eric went for a slightly more laid-back approach to his blues-based reportoire by incorporating reggae and country-shuffles into his style, rather than the flat-out-turn-it-up-to-eleven jamming-heroics he had become famous for. The result has a worldwide smash hit, selling over two million and featuring the No. 1 single "I Shot The Sheriff" (which introduced many of us to a previously unknown exotic artist known as Bob Marley). It was also one of the first "pop music" albums to be released in the USSR. Not a bad track on here...

8/17/1964 - Happy Birthday to singer-songwriter Maria McKee, 52 years old today. Perhaps best known for her stint as leader of the cowpunk/country rock band Lone Justice in the early 1980's, she's been working steadily since on a critically praised solo career, along with providing backing vocals on records by U2, Steve Earle, Robin Zander, The Dixie Chicks, Counting Crows and Robbie Robertson plus a boatload of movie soundtrack work (including "Pulp Fiction" and "Streets Of Fire"). She's the real deal as you are about to find out here:

Share your sky comma's with the Calendar here on our web site and on the WBLM Facebook and Twitter pages with the hashtag #TommysCoffeeBreak.

"Disillusion has an edge so sharp/It tears at your soul/And leaves a stain upon your heart...", xoxo!