Why Chuck Berry’s Creepy/Why Memphis’ Sun Studios Rules!

Here comes the Sun (studio) -- Chuck gets to see the sun (again) -- Props for a legendary Motown man -- It's gettin' close to the weekend so we're going easy on you for today's Nov. 19th Coffee Break Calendar...

11/19/1955 (65 years ago today) - You can definitely call this one of the blueprints for the entire movement, and then some...: On this date, Carl Perkins recorded "Blue Suede Shoes" at Sun Studios in Memphis, Tennessee -- Though now too lightly thought of as "just a standard", at the time no one else had blended blues, country and pop in quite this way -- It ends up spending 16 weeks on the Cash Box Best Selling Singles List, and Elvis would perform it three different times on national TV. Funky-but-chic side-note: the track was also recorded by George Jones, Eddie Cochran, John Lennon and...Lawrence Welk!!!

11/19/1979 (41 years ago today) - Chuck Berry was released from prison after serving a four-month sentence for tax evasion. Not his first-go-round: in 1959, Chuck spent two years behind bars for taking 14-year-old Janice Escalanti across state lines for "immoral purposes", while later on, 48-year-old Hosana Huck, a former cook at his restaurant, discovered Chuck had been filming her when she went to the bathroom there. (Neither victim was white, still the most important kind of victim to many in the world of so-called justice.) -- Bob Dylan and Mick Jagger may sing his praises, but there's no gettin' around it: Chuck Berry was a pervert. End of story. Well, okay, several incredibly long chapters anyway, with a ton of footnotes...

11/19/1927 - We like checking in with the "Those Who Also Served" Dept.: Born on this day, African-American musician and keyboardist Joe Hunter, best known as one of the industry's premier veteran session players and band leader for The Funk Brothers, who carved out and crafted the "Motown Sound" -- Joe performed with Marvin Gaye, Smokey Robinson, Martha & The Vandellas and many other acts on the Motown label between 1959 and 1964 {insert a well-deserved "WOW!" right there}; he passed away at his home in Detroit, February 2, 2007, age 79.

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

"Now go, cat, go!...", xoxo!