Tommy’s Coffee Break Calendar for April 12th
4/12/1969 (49 years ago today) - You heard it absolutely everywhere, even in your sleep: The 5th Dimension start six weeks at No. 1 on the singles chart with their super-slickified-and-altogether-all-too-peppy cover of the broadway "Hair" show-stopper "Aquarius/Let The Sunshine In". Their sound was coined "Champagne Soul" (remember "Up, Up And Away"?), so in retrospect, we guess things could've been worse, but not by much...
4/12/1975 (43 years ago today) - In an interview with Playboy Magazine, David Bowie announced his second career retirement, saying "I've rocked my roll. It's a boring dead end. There will be no more rock 'n' roll records from me. The last thing I want to be is some useless f----ing rock singer". Of course, in '75, Bowie was so coked-up he was capable {incapable?} of saying and doing anything as long as it was unpredictable, so...Touche!!!
4/12/1940 - Born on this date, keyboardist-bandleader-composer Herbie Hancock -- Started his career with The Miles Davis Quintet where he was a major influence in redefining the role of a jazz rhythm section -- Went on to cross-over and achieve success with mainstream pop audiences, most notably 1973's "Head Hunters" LP and 1983's "Future Shock" which featured the massive dance hit "Rockit" -- Interestingly, Hancock won the Grammy Award for Album Of The Year in 2008 with his tribute to Joni Mitchell, "River: The Joni Letters": it was only the second jazz album ever to win that award(!), after "Getz/Gilberto" back in 1965. Happy Birthday to a genuine hepcat, 78 years old today...
Share your diddyboppin' with the Calendar here on our web site and on the WBLM Facebook and Twitter pages with the hashtag #TommysCoffeeBreak.
"Mystic crystal revelation/And the mind's true liberation...", xoxo!