Tommy’s Coffee Break Calendar for May 4th

Today it's classic singles -- one from the '50's, one from the '60's -- and a '70's protest that ends tragically, eerily familiar to some of today's headlines...

5/04/1956 (59 years ago today) - It's one of John Lennon's all-time favorites: Gene Vincent records the classic "Be-Bop-A-Lula" at Owen Bradley's studio in Nashville, Tennessee; Owen was more famous for his Country & Western work with Ernest Tubb, Kitty Wells and Roy Acuff, but he did have an ear for what would grab your attention on the radio, and this one was a bulls-eye! The song went Top 20 in the U.S. and the U.K. with Gene Vincent coyly noting that he wrote the lyrics after reading a "Little Lulu" comic strip. Yeah, right...

5/04/1967 (48 years ago today) - It's the last record they made calling themselves The Young Rascals: the title track of their third album, "Groovin'", hits Number One on the U.S. singles chart and stays there for four consecutive weeks. The Rascals record label boss, Atlantic main-man Jerry Wexler, didn't like the song though and was against releasing it; celebrity DJ Murray The K heard the track and convinced everybody involved it should come out as a single. Presto! By the way, this is a really overlooked album: eight songs were released as singles(!), including the classics "How Can I Be Sure?", "You Better Run" (covered by Pat Benatar on her debut) and "A Place In The Sun". We say the time is ripe for re-assessment of The Rascals gifts...

5/04/1970 (45 years ago today) - The more things change, the more they...: It's  demonstration time at Kent University, where thousands of students are protesting for an end to the war in Vietnam. National Guard troops are called in which results in the killing of four students, with eleven more wounded. The incident inspires Neil Young to write the CSN&Y classic "Ohio". So, can you or can't you recite the First Amendment? If not, you better look it up...

What do you think about the Calendar? Let us know here on our web site and on the WBLM Facebook and Twitter pages with the hashtag #TommysCoffeeBreak.

"How can you run when you know...?", xoxo.