Tommy’s Coffee Break Calendar for January 30th

Best Number One ever? -- Best name change ever? -- Marty's birthday (and, no, it's not McFly)....

1/30/1961 (56 years ago today) - It's the best version of an all-time classic, without a doubt: The Shirelles become the first girl group to have a Number One on the U.S. singles chart with the totally fantastic "Will You Love Me Tomorrow". Well worth seeking out: 1975's "The Very Best Of the Shirelles" collection on United Artists, part of that label's re-issue campaign of the mid-70's -- it's also got "Soldier Boy", "Dedicated To The One I Love", "Mama Said" and "Baby It's You". The Shirelles were the bomb, kids...

1/30/1973 (44 years ago today) - Best idea they ever had, and they had quite a few: After changing the name of the band from "Wicked Lester", Gene Simmons, Paul Stanley, Ace Frehley and Peter Criss make their debut as "Kiss" at The Popcorn Club in Queens, New York. Stanley is credited with coming up with the name, while Frehley designed the original version of the now-classic KISS logo. They're off...!

1/30/1942 - Happy Birthday to Jefferson Airplane founding member and lead vocalist Marty Balin, 75 years old today. Even though he hung around for the early days of Jefferson Starship (his "Miracles" song was a highlight of 1975), it was Marty's somewhat eerie-folk-psychedelia that defined the best Airplane stuff of the late Sixties, especially on the classic "Surrealistic Pillow" album, where his contributions included "Today", "Plastic Fantastic Lover", "3/5 Of A Mile In Ten Seconds" and the sublimely beautiful "Comin' Back To Me". Still a great album...

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

"So tell me now/And I won't ask again...", xoxo!