Tommy’s Coffee Break Calendar for July 20th

Today you got Elvis paying his dues; then there's what's probably the most notorious drum solo of the Sixties; and Happy Birthday to Eric Clapton's favorite guitarist!

7/20/1954 (61 years ago today) - Well, ya gotta start somewhere: There's a brand new drug store in Memphis, Tennessee, and for the grand opening festivities, a group calling themselves The Blue Moon Boys perform live (for the first time ever, it turns out). The line-up of the band is Elvis Presley, Scotty Moore and Bill Black, and they do their set from the back of a flatbed truck. The boys got their name from a tune they had just recorded two weeks earlier, "Blue Moon Of Kentucky". (Now wishing for a time machine for Christmas...)

7/20/1968 (47 years ago today) - 'Bup-bup-bup-bup-bup-bup-takka-takka-bup-bup!' : Iron Butterfly's second album debuts on the Billboard chart with the title track, "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida", filling up all 17 minutes of Side Two, mostly made up of Ron Bushy's drum solo (which will be imitated across grammar school desktops for the next year or two). It's the bands moment of glory, no doubt, as the LP goes on to sell over four million copies in the U.S. alone. Psychedelic, baby!!!

7/20/1947 - Happy Birthday Carlos Santana, 68 years old today. In the late '60's/early '70's, no other musician was leading a band that fused melodic-blues-based guitar with Latin and African rhythms, plus incorporating all kinds of exotic percussive instruments never really used so dynamically before in any kind of rock. Ahhh, in other words: Total Mind-Blowing Innovation!!! Some numbers: 10 Grammys, three Latin Grammys, No. 15 on Rolling Stone's 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time (we think he should be Top Ten, just sayin'...). Throw a few classic prog-and-jazz-fusion albums in there, too: Well done, Carlos!!!

Let us know your thoughts and comments on the Calendar right here on our web site and on the WBLM Facebook and Twitter pages with the hashtag #TommysCoffeeBreak. "Shine on the one that's gone and left me blue...", xoxo!