Tommy’s Coffee Break Calendar for March 31st
3/31/1958 (58 years ago today) - Chuck Berry releases one of the true all-time great singles, "Johnny B. Goode". Six weeks from now, it peaks at No. 8 on the chart. The song's original lyrics referred to Johnny as a "colored boy", but Berry shrewdly altered the line to "country boy" to ensure radio play. A nod and a wink, apparently.
3/31/1967 (49 years ago today) - It's the first night of a 24-date tour of England for an unusual combination of acts -- all expected to share the same stage are The Walker Brothers, Cat Stevens, Englebert Humperdinck, and The Jimi Hendrix Experience! Jimi decides he needs to do something...extraordinairy to stand out from the other artists (no, really!) so on this night he sets his Fender Stratocaster on fire for the very first time. Impression: made!
3/31/1976 (40 years ago today) - Led Zeppelin release their seventh studio album "Presence"; despite mixed reviews, it goes to No. 1 in England and America where it slowly, slowly ends up selling around 3 million copies, an extremely low figure in the band's discography -- only the outtake album "Coda" would sell less. Jimmy Page somewhat stubbornly refers to "Presence" as the bands "most important" recording. OK, we admit the passing of time has done this piece of work an incredible favor: most of the songs are, indeed, wicked cool vintage Zep ("Achilles Last Stand", "Tea For One" and especially "Nobody's Fault But Mine" and "For Your Life"). Time to re-think this one. Great cover, too!
Share your thoughts and dreams with the Calendar here on our web site and/or the WBLM Facebook and Twitter pages with the hashtag #TommysCoffeeBreak.
"You wanna do it/Do it when you wanna...", xoxo!
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