A legendary heavy band debuts; a really underrated artist is having a birthday; and a classic '60's single makes U.K. history...

The Animals
The Animals, early 1964; Eric Burdon front and center. (Photo: Potter/Express/Getty Images)
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7/13/1964 (51 years ago today) - The Animals make it to Number One on Great Britain's singles chart with "The House Of The Rising Sun" which, by the way, the band recorded in just one take! The single was the very first U.K. chart-topper to have a playing time of more than four minutes; interestingly, it also became the first song since 1962 by a British band to reach No. 1 in America that was not written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney (insert "Wow!" here).

7/13/1968 (47 years ago today) - Black Sabbath play their first gig...sort of. At this point in time the group was known as Mythology, and only Tony Iommi (guitar) and Bill Ward (drums) were in this pre-Sabbath line-up (the other members, now lost to history, were vocalist Chris Smith and bassist Neil Marshall). The bands stage debut takes place at a small backstreet blues club known as The Queen's Hotel in Silloth, England. Rough bootlegs of this performance are out there online, though the set has never been issued on CD.

7/13/1942 - Happy Birthday James Joseph McGuinn III, 73 years old today. Giant-sized mega-well-deserved props to the much-taken-for-granted Roger McGuinn, best known for lead vocals and lead guitar with The Byrds who certainly were one of the very few American acts that kept The Beatles on their toes back in the day. Currently Roger does most of his work via the internet with his critically acclaimed "Treasures From the Folk Den" series, helping keep real folk music traditions alive. Plus Tom Petty probably never would have done much at all had it not been for Mr. McGuinn's influence, just throwing that out there...

Thoughts on the Calendar? Go for broke right here on our web site and on the WBLM Facebook and Twitter pages with the hashtag #TommysCoffeeBreak.

"Nowhere is there warmth to be found/Among those afraid of losing their ground...", xoxo!

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