Tommy’s Coffee Break Calendar for January 13th

Which classic single hit No. 1 twice? -- Here's what happens when your audience are prisoners (quite literally) -- When Boz is a no-show, Bruce gets some good press...

1/13/1962 (58 years ago today) - Chubby Checker made his return to No. 1 on the U.S. singles chart with "The Twist" -- Here's the deal: it was the same version that had already reached the top spot back in September of 1960, making it the only record in American chart history to reach No. 1 on two separate occasions. Whoopie pies all around, if you please...

1/13/1968 (52 years ago today) - What you'd call a captive audience: Johnny Cash recorded his performance for a forthcoming live album at Folsom Prison, just outside of Sacramento, California, and 2,000 inmates went bonkers for The Man In Black. When this live update of his 1956 "Folsom Prison Blues" was released as a single, it became (arguably) the most famous recording of Johnny's career...

1/13/1970 (50 years ago today) - Important note: this was five years before Jon Landau wrote that he had "seen the future of rock and roll and its name is Bruce Springsteen":  At the legendary Matrix Club in San Francisco, Bruce's band Steel Mill is scheduled to open for Boz Scaggs. Just before showtime though, Boz cancelled due to illness; Steel Mill got the go-ahead and played their set anyway. Rock critic Philip Elwood was there to review the Scaggs show, and instead ended up writing a highly favorable review of Steel Mill's performance for The San Francisco Examiner. Audience members will (soon enough) get to say they saw Bruce before he ever even made a record, which is officially cool, no doubt.

Share your "Oh my's" with the Calendar here on our web site and on the WBLM Facebook and Twitter pages with the hashtag #TommysCoffeeBreak.

"Take me by my little hand/And go like this...", xoxo!