Tommy’s Coffee Break Calendar for September 28th

Today we remember an actual disc-jockey pioneer along with a bona-fide soul legend; then you got the remnants of Mott and Crimson making an LP...

9/28/1968 (47 years ago today) - One of rock 'n' roll's trail blazing disc jockeys passed away on this date -- the legendary Dewey Phillips was only 42 years old when he died after having a heart attack. You could make the argument that it all started when Dewey decided to play Elvis on the radio: July, 1954, was the very first time "That's All Right" and "Blue Moon Of Kentucky" hit the airwaves. Kind've an A-bomb moment, really....

9/28/1974 (41 years ago today) - You wouldn't have thought that a band featuring ex-members of Mott The Hoople and King Crimson would make such a straight-forward/meat-and-potatoes rock record that would turn into 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 left Mott and bassist Boz Burrell quit King Crimson. They were together for less than a year when they topped the charts with the LP, coincidentally the first record to be released on Led Zeppelin's Swan Song label. Lean-and-mean at only four songs per side, less than 35 minutes long total. Still sounds brilliant!

9/28/1938 - Benjamin Earl Nelson was born on this date -- Ben E. King went on to become one of America's all-time great soul & R&B singers. He started out as lead vocalist with The Drifters (that's Ben E. on "Save The Last Dance For Me", "There Goes My Baby" and "This Magic Moment") before going solo in 1960 where he recorded several more classics that defined the pre-Beatles era: the original version of "Spanish Harlem", "Young Boy Blues", "I (Who Have Nothing)" (later to also be a hit for Tom Jones) and, most notably, the absolutely perfect "Stand By Me" (which would go Top Ten in 1961 and again in 1987!). Ben E. just recently passed away this year at the Hackensack University Medical Center on April 30th; he was 76 years old.

Comments for the Calendar can left here on our web site and on the WBLM Facebook and Twitter pages with the hashtag #TommysCoffeeBreak.

"My mama, she done told me/Papa done told me too...", xoxo!