Tommy’s Coffee Break Calendar for November 28th

We got a song about Death at the top; we take a look at what happens when you ask a rocker to fake it; and we celebrate the birthday of an artist who a lot of you associate with Disney, but naturally we prefer his earlier, twisted, dark and cynical works, now those were the days...

11/28/1964 (52 years ago today) - The Shangri-Las went to No. 1 with the definition-of-a-real-classic single "Leader Of The Pack". When released in England, however, the song was "denied airplay" by the BBC (so, censored, then) because of its "gruesome subject matter". Weirdly though, in subsequent years, it ended up on the U.K. charts three times: No. 11 in 1965 (with no radio help), No. 3 in 1972 (by which time the ban had been lifted), and once again at No. 7 in 1976. There's a lesson in there somewhere, we just don't know what it is...

11/28/1991 (25 years ago today) - This is absolutely one of our favorite stories: Nirvana record a performance of "Top Of The Pops" in London; when asked to lip-sync "Smells Like Teen Spirit" to a pre-recorded tape, Kurt Cobain protested by singing an octave lower (claiming it was a tribute to Morrissey of The Smiths), then, after attempting to eat his microphone(!), he changed some lyrics, most notably exchanging the opening lines "Load up on guns, bring your friends" to "Load up on drugs, kill your friends". High five's all around, please!!!

11/28/1943 - Happy Birthday to one of the great American talents, singer-songwriter-pianist Randy Newman, 73 years old today. Although best-known in recent years for his Academy and Grammy Award winning Disney work ("If I Didn't Have You" from 2002's "Monsters, Inc." and "We Belong Together" from 2011's "Toy Story 3" which makes us cry every time we watch it but we keep going back anyway,...), it was Randy's cult-status and 1970's string of unique albums that make him super special: if you've never heard "12 Songs" (1970), "Sail Away" (1972) and (especially) "Good Old Boys" (1974), you're missing out on some of the most brilliant-and-funny-and-sad-and-happy-and-deadly-right-on music that's ever been made. Seriously, you need to sit down and listen to this stuff.

Share your cynicism with the Calendar here on our web site and on the WBLM Facebook and Twitter pages with the hashtag #TommysCoffeeBreak.

"...just sing about Jesus and drink wine all day/It's great to be an American...", xoxo!