Tommy’s Coffee Break Calendar for September 14th

Time almost runs out on Little Richard...Thousands of Stones fans show up at a gig, but the venue only holds a few hundred(!!!)...Props for The Queen Mother of Nashville (and it's probably not who you think it is)...

9/14/1955 (60 years ago today) - Here's why you take lunch breaks: Little Richard's in a New Orleans studio, ready to begin two days of recording. Unfortunately, things are not going well...at all. There's no mojo, no inspiration, nadda. Richard and his producer Bumps Blackwell decide to take a much needed break for lunch at the Dew Drop Inn where there is a piano over by the bar. Then it happens -- possibly out of frustration more than anything else, Richard starts bangin' away like crazy, making it up as he goes along and screaming out some definitely lewd lyrics. With only 15 minutes remaining for them to work with on the studio clock, Richard goes bonkers singing "A-wop-bop-a-loo-bop, A-lop-bam-boom!!!" "Tutti Frutti" is born.

9/14/1981 (34 years ago today) - The Rolling Stones attempt a secret pre-tour warm-up show in Worcester, Mass. at the Sir Morgan's Cove Club, capacity 350. Billing themselves as Little Boy Blue & The Cockroaches fools absolutely no one -- a local radio station can't help but announce The Stones have arrived and 4,000 fans show up to try and get into the club! Police are called in to control the streets surrounding the venue; eleven fans are arrested, which is not too bad when you consider that The Stones are gettin' ready to tour behind "Tattoo You", one of their best records in years...

9/14/1914 - Born on this date, the songwriter known as "The Queen Mother Of Nashville", Mae Boren Axton. She wrote over 200 songs including a co-writing credit on Elvis' "Heartbreak Hotel"; one of her two sons, Hoyt Axton, became famous on his own (Hoyt wrote the Three Dog Night classics "Joy To The World" and "Never Been To Spain", as well as "The Pusher" by Steppenwolf and the "No No Song" by Ringo). Mae went on to work with Mel Tillis, Reba McEntire, Willie Nelson, Eddy Arnold, Tanya Tucker and many more country greats. She passed away in 1997, having drowned in her hot tub at home in Tenneessee after suffering a heart attack; she was 82 years old.

Your thoughts and suggestions for the Calendar are mucho appreciated right here on our web site and on the WBLM Facebook and Twitter pages with the hashtag #TommysCoffeeBreak.

"And though it's always crowded/You can still find some room/For broken hearted lovers to cry there in the gloom...", xoxo!