Tommy’s Coffee Break Calendar for August 21st

Today you've got a landmark recording in American music history; a bit of "weirdness" on the singles chart; and the birthday of one of England's most significant and popular rock icons...

8/21/1961 (54 years ago today) - Patsy Cline recorded the classic Willie Nelson song "Crazy"...while on crutches!!! Two months earlier, she was involved in a head-on collision and went hurtling straight through the car windshield -- unsurprisingly, she had some difficulty hitting the high notes at first due to her broken ribs! Yeah, damn kids today go right to auto-tuning...c'mon...

8/21/1968 (47 years ago today) - Tommy James & The Shondells hit No. 1 in Britain for the second time with the single "Mony Mony". Insert peculiar twist right here: In 1987, Billy Idol's version of the song replaced another Tommy James classic on the Billboard Hot 100 -- "I Think We're Alone Now", covered by Tiffany. Cats and dogs...falling from the sky...

8/21/1952 - John Graham Mellor was born on this date -- singer-songwriter-guitarist and occasional actor Joe Strummer that is, and The Clash simply could never have existed without him (as the Lennon to Mick Jones' McCartney. Well, sort of.) Joe's spontaneous ad-libs on Clash records are legendary ("Vacuum cleaner sucks up budgie!") and the band was easily voted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame in January 2003. One of the most influential personalities of the British punk movement no doubt, and in his memory, family and friends established The Joe Strummer Foundation which helps promote new artists. By the way, your musical library is null and void if you do not own a copy of the "London Calling" album, you do realize that don't you? We're big fans of "Sandanista!", too...

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"She's seen the ads/She thinks it's nice/Better work hard/I seen the price...", xoxo!