This Week in
Rock History
Feb. 19 (1940) — William Robinson Jr. is born in Detroit, Mich. Smokey Robinson will become the founder and front man of the Miracles, one of the original acts signed by Motown Record Corp. The group will produce 25 Top 40 hits with Robinson as lead vocalist, principal songwriter and producer, including a 1970 No. 1, “The Tears of a Clown.”
Feb. 19 (1966) — Lou Christie’s “Lightning Strikes” reaches No. 1 on the Billboard pop chart. A plea for a sexual double standard — “Listen to me, baby, it's hard to settle down/Am I asking too much for you to stick around” — it will remain atop the chart for only one week, and Christie won’t record another Top 10 hit.
Feb. 25 (1957) — Buddy Holly and the Crickets record their first charting single, “That’ll Be the Day,” in a Clovis, N.M., studio. The song is a No. 1 hit, and is considered a rock classic — but is not the first version Holly and his band recorded.
This Week in
Rock History
Jan. 4 (1986) — Phil Lynott, bassist and lead vocalist of the U.K. band Thin Lizzy, dies at age 36 from complications caused by his drug and alcohol dependency. Born in the English Midlands of an Irish mother and a Guianese father, he was raised in Dublin, where he helped found the multiracial band, which pioneered the twin-guitar, heavy metal sound which influenced groups like Def Leppard, Iron Maiden and Metallica. Lynott was the main songwriter for the band, penning hits like “The Boys Are Back in Town” and “Jailbreak.”
Jan. 8 (1966) — ABC-TV airs the final episode of the network’s Shindig!, the musical variety series that had debuted 16 months earlier. The show was conceived as a replacement for Hootenany, the ratings for which had tanked after the British Invasion rock and roll phenomenon superseded the folk music it featured. Shindig! showcased many popular and influential performers — the Beach Boys, James Brown, Bo Diddley, the Supremes, among them — and its house band, the Shin-diggers/Shindogs, included Delaney Bramlett, James Burton, Glen Campbell, Billy Preston and Leon Russell.