Tommy’s Coffee Break Calendar for April 8th

Today you get some Motown, a close call for a Stone, and a birthday for an oft-overlooked guitar ace...

 4/08/1964 (55 years ago today) - At Detroit's Motown studios, The Supremes record one of their all-time best: "Where Did Our Love Go" would soon become the first of an unprecedented 12 U.S. No. 1 singles, thus making the group that started out in Detroit back in 1959 as The Primettes, Motown's most commercially successful act -- that's a fact! The Supremes were awesome!!!

4/08/1998 (21 years ago today) - An extremely close brush with Mr. Grim Reaper for Ronnie Wood of The Rolling Stones: While on board a boat that was exploring the islands off Rio De Janeiro, Brazil, one of the vessel's engines caught fire and all 12 passengers had to be rescued by some journalists who happened to be nearby. In the nick of time, just as everyone got off safely, the boat exploded and was completely demolished!!! Eee-gads!!! Lest we forget, Ronnie can really play, kids (he's probably quite underrated), just check out his fantastic pedal steel guitar work on this Stones classic:

4/08/1947 - Happy Birthday to Yes guitarist-extraordinaire Steve Howe, 72 years old today -- Steve began playing guitar at age 12; by age 16, he was already making records, first with The Syndicats, then U.K. psychedelic pioneers Tomorrow. By this time his finesse was beyond belief as he became a founding member of prog-rock legends Yes. (He's also been with Asia, GTR, and has released 19 solo albums!) Steve's also been voted Best Overall Guitarist in "Guitar Player" magazine five years in a row (1977-'81); why he doesn't show up more often on Top Ten Guitarists lists is baffling to us, frankly...

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

"...Now that you got me/You wanna leave me behind...", xoxo!