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
Feb. 24 (1969) — Johnny Cash records a live performance of the Shel Silverstein song “A Boy Named Sue” at California’s San Quentin State Prison. Released as a single, it becomes The Man in Black’s biggest Billboard Hot 100 hit, and his only Top Ten, spending three weeks at No. 2 — kept from the top spot by the Rolling Stones’ “Honky Tonk Women.”
Feb. 28 (1964) — Recording sessions begin for what will be soul music legend Sam Cooke’s 13th and final studio album, Ain’t that Good News. The LP included “A Change Is Gonna Come,” a song based on Cooke’s personal experiences with racial discrimination that will become an anthem of the civil rights movement. The album features the first music Cooke had recorded since the death of his 18-month son six months earlier; 10 months later, the artist will be shot and killed by the manager of a Los Angeles, Calif., motel.