Tommy’s Coffee Break Calendar for May 21st

Today you got another 1970's Festival we wish we could have been at; one of Stevie Wonder's funkiest hits; and the birthdate of an influential American music pioneer...

5/21/1972 (43 years ago today) - "The 2nd Annual British Rock Meeting" gets underway in Germersheim, West Germany, a quintessential classic line-up of early '70's rock if there ever was one: get ready for performances from The Doors, Pink Floyd, Faces, The Kinks, Humble Pie, Rory Gallagher, Uriah Heep, Buddy Miles, Strawbs, Spencer Davis, Status Quo, Country Joe McDonald and Brinsley Schwarz. Now that's a festival...

5/21/1977 (38 years ago today) - One of Stevie Wonder's funkiest creations ever, the impossible-to-resist "Sir Duke", starts a three week run at Number One on the U.S. singles chart; the tribute to Duke Ellington makes it to No. 2 in the U.K.

5/21/1904 - Born on this date, the legendary American music icon Fats Waller -- his real name was Thomas Wright Waller, the youngest of 11 children (only five survived childhood) who began playing piano at age six; by 14, he was already gigging and composing! Fats was definitely an early 20th century keyboard master of American jazz and blues, whose songwriting, live-onstage-comedic talents and Harlem stride style playing basically laid the groundwork for modern jazz piano, notably his classic compositions "Ain't Misbehavin'" and "Honeysuckle Rose" which have been inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. It was while working with one of the first inter-racial bands in American history that Fats contracted pneumonia and died on a cross-country train trip outside Kansas City; he was 39 years old.

Thoughts on the Calendar? Let us know right here on our web site and on the WBLM Facebook and Twitter pages with the hashtag #TommysCoffeeBreak.

"No one to talk with/All by myself/No one to walk with/But I'm happy on the shelf...", xoxo!