Tommy’s Coffee Break Calendar for September 12th

Classic TV show takes off! -- This band's tenth studio album earns 'em a lawsuit! -- A drummer's drummer celebrates a b'day...

9/12/1966 (53 years ago today) - Did your set have rabbit ears?: NBC-TV airs the very first episode of "The Monkees" -- It precedes "I Dream Of Jeannie" on the network's Monday evening line-up (which, back then, started at 7:30 pm, not 8:00 like today). The debut show is titled "Royal Flush" in which the boys rescue Princess Bettina, Duchess of Harmonica(!) from her evil Uncle, Archduke Otto. Good 'nuff to start what turns out to be a 58 episode run...

9/12/1989 (30 years ago today) - Aerosmith release studio LP No. 10 and it turns out to be a mega-smasheroo: "Pump" boasts some of the bands strongest material ever:"Young Lust" and "Monkey On My Back" totally kill it, plus future rock radio staples "Love In An Elevator", "The Other Side", "Janie's Got A Gun" and "What It Takes". Fantastic! And, under the heading "Nice try, guys", the (very) small rock band named Pump went ahead and sued Aerosmith and their management company for "service mark infringement". Our boys won. Quite easily.

9/12/1952 - Happy Birthday to one of the all-time great drummers to ever grace the planet, Rush founding member-and-lyricist Neal Peart, 67 years old today -- Unquestionably near the top of the list of percussionists whose talent can best be described as beyond belief! And much as we admire Geddy and Alex on bass and guitar, when Rush comes on, you pretty much find yourself doing more air-drumming than anything else. Well, we do...

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"Sometime you gotta scratch that itch/So whatchya gonna do about it...", xoxo!