Blues legend gets props -- Another reason why 1967 was one of the best ever -- Taking a look at one of the world's biggest bands before they were famous...

Sonny Boy Williamson
Big influence on '60's rockers: Sonny Boy Williamson, Nov. 1964. (Photo: Pace/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
loading...

5/25/1965 (55 years ago today) - Blues harmonica master, singer-songwriter Sonny Boy Williamson died in his sleep; he was 53 years old -- Born Alex Miller in Tallahatchie County, Mississippi, he became well known as a unique harp stylist who first recorded with Elmore James on "Dust My Broom" -- Some of his most popular songs, like "Don't Start Me To Talkin'", "Help Me" and "Bring It On Home", have been covered by The Yardbirds, The Animals, Ten Years After, Van Morrison, Aerosmith and Jimmy Page -- Sonny's got one of the best urban legend stories in music: While on tour in England in the early 1960's, he supposedly set his hotel room on fire while trying to cook a rabbit in a coffee percolator. So he was a rock star, too!

5/25/1967 (53 years ago today) - One of the definitive albums of the era goes to No. 1 on the Billboard album chart: "Bookends" becomes Simon & Garfunkel's second chart-topping LP, a bona-fide landmark recording, from the classic black-and-white photo of the two on the front (no names, no title) to the back cover which one of the first in rock to feature all the lyrics to the songs. "Mrs. Robinson", "At The Zoo", "Fakin' It", "A Hazy Shade Of Winter", Good Lord, really just about perfect from start to finish...

5/25/1978 (42 years ago today) - A music-biz impressario is left quite impressed by the band he's just finished checking out at the Project Arts Centre in Dublin, Ireland, so Paul McGuinness signs on to become the manager for this group who have only been together for two years -- In 1976, they were known as Feedback; in '77, they called themselves The Hype. Not long after hooking up with their new manager, the band decides to change their name one last time...to U2.

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

"Orangutans are skeptical/Of changes in their cages...", xoxo!

 

More From 102.9 WBLM