The Memphis DJ That Changed The World, Plus Bad Company’s Debut

Mott The Hoople meets King Crimson, along with props for a pioneering DJ (they used to exist) and an actual bona-fide soul legend (yes, a real one!) -- Today's Coffee Break Calendar is gonna make your Monday much better, kids...

9/28/1968 (52 years ago today) - One of rock 'n' roll's truly trail blazing disc jockeys passed away on this date: the legendary Daddy-O Dewey Phillips was just 42 years old when he died after having a heart attack -- You could most definitely make a strong case for the argument that the rock generation movement got underway when Dewey decided to play Elvis on the radio: July 5, 1954 was the very first time "That's All Right" and "Blue Moon Of Kentucky" hit the airwaves, so a kind of an A-bomb moment, really. Thanks, Dewey...

9/28/1974 (46 years ago today) - You didn't really think a group featuring former members of King Crimson and Mott The Hoople would make such a straight-forward/meat-and-potatoes rock record that would turn into a classic debut album...but they did, and the self-titled Bad Company LP hit No. 1 on this date -- Singer Paul Rodgers and drummer Simon Kirke had been with Free, while guitarist Mick Ralphs had just quit Mott and bassist Boz Burrell parted ways with King Crimson: they hadn't even been together for a year when they topped the charts with the very first release on Led Zeppelin's Swan Song label -- Lean 'n' mean at only four songs per side(!), "Bad Company" might total less than 35 minutes but it remains a convincing piece of work...

9/28/1938 - Born on this date, Benjamin Earl Nelson who would become famous as Ben E. King, one of America's all-time great soul and R&B singers -- He started out as lead vocalist with The Drifters (that's Ben on "Save The Last Dance For Me", "There Goes My Baby" and "This Magic Moment") before going solo in 1960 where he recorded several tracks that defined the pre-Beatles era: the original versions of "Spanish Harlem" (which Aretha Franklin had a field day with), "I (Who Have Nothing)" (becoming one of Tom Jones' career-defining hits) and, most notably, the so-perfect-it-must-have-been-made-in-Heaven single "Stand By Me" (hitting The Top Ten in 1961 and again in 1987!). Ben E. passed away five years ago on April 30 at age 76, leaving behind some of the most classic, emotionally moving radio-fare that's ever been heard...

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"Go and have your fun...", xoxo!