Tommy’s Coffee Break Calendar for March 3rd

An afternoon with Zep... -- A No. 1 we absolutely cannot recall... -- A birthday we just have to mention...

3/3/1969 (51 years ago today) - ...plus, The Moody Blues, Free, and Deep Purple were also on the bill: The U.K.'s Radio 1 "Top Gear" program is ready to record an afternoon session at London's Playhouse Theatre -- It also happens to be Led Zeppelin's first-ever performance for the BBC, and they blaze through testicle-crushing versions of "Communication Breakdown", "I Can't Quit You Baby", "You Shook Me" and "Dazed And Confused". You don't want to come on after these guys, really...

3/3/1979 (41 years ago today) - The Bee Gees hit No. 1 on the album chart with "Spirits Having Flown", their second chart-topping LP in America, with the hit single apparently being a song called "Tragedy" -- Hand-to-God-for-the-life-of-us, we don't remember anything about this record. Couldn't tell ya a freakin' thing about it; even after we looked it up...nothing! Zilch. Zero. Nadda. Did anybody out there actually go out and buy this one, 'cause we can't place it at all...

3/3/1932 - Born on this day, blues-legend/singer-songwriter Herman "Junior" Parker, best remembered for his honeyed-velvet-smooth voice, and for writing one of the most important contributions to the rockabilly genre, "Mystery Train", which Elvis recorded at Memphis' Sun Studios -- Junior was the real deal, no doubt about it, having cut his chops playing with Sonny Boy Williamson and Howlin' Wolf before becoming a member of an ad hoc Memphis group, The Beale Streeters (whose members also included Bobby 'Blue' Bland and B.B. King). Guaranteed to make you go "Wow, man!" are "Feelin' Good" and "Love My Baby" (both from 1953), absolutely well worth seeking out -- Junior passed away during surgery for a brain tumor on November 18, 1971; he was 39 years old.

Share your whatcha-got's with the Calendar here on our web site and on the WBLM Facebook and Twitter pages with the hashtag #TommysCoffeeBreak.

"With no one to love you/You're goin' nowhere...", xoxo!