Tommy’s Coffee Break Calendar for February 21st

Zep channel Penniman! -- Sad end for Flo... -- Best metal album ever? Could be...

2/21/1971 (49 years ago today) - They only issued a few of 'em you know: Led Zeppelin released "Rock And Roll" (b/w "Four Sticks") as a single here in the U.S.; it would stall out at just No. 47 on the chart -- The song was the result of a spontaneous jam while they were trying to finish up the "Four Sticks" session; apparently, while John Bonham banged out the intro to Little Richard's "You Keep A-Knockin'", Jimmy Page picked up on it, added the now legendary-riff, and with the tapes rolling, Zep finished the song fifteen minutes later. Magic!

2/21/1976 (44 years ago today) - They had such a fantastic history, it's hard to believe it ended this way for one of The Supremes: Florence Ballard passed away on this date from cardiac arrest at age 32 -- Flo was one of the founding members of (quite possibly) the most successful girl group of all-time, having sung on sixteen Top 40 singles, including ten Number One hits! The debate continues to this day: back in 1967, did she leave The Supremes of her own accord or was she "removed" (per order of Diana Ross or Motown chairman Berry Gordy)? After losing an $8 million lawsuit against Motown records, she struggled with alcoholism and depression and was living on welfare when she died. An American show-biz tragedy that most music fans remain unaware of...

2/21/1986 (34 years ago today) - Metallica released their third album, the highly influential "Master Of Puppets", considered by many in the metal community to be the best metal album ever made!!! Unfortunately, it was the last Metallica album featuring bassist Cliff Burton -- He was the band's second bassist (having joined in 1983) and he played on Metallica's first three now-legendary LP's, the first two being "Kill 'Em All" (1983) and "Ride The Lightning" (1984), both also setting damn high standards for the genre -- Cliff died in an accident when the band's tour bus over-turned in Sweden while on the road to promote the album; he was only 24.

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"No matter what you do or say/I'm gonna love you anyway...", xoxo!