This Day In Music - June 29

 This Day In Music - June 29

1943: Little Eva (Eva Narcissus Boyd) born in Belhaven, North Carolina. The song "The Loco-Motion" was written for her by the famous song writing team Gerry Goffin and Carole King, who had hired Eva as a babysitter. It may be they penned the tune when they heard Eva singing around the house, but King later said that they knew about their babysitter’s great voice before they hired her. It was still the song that took Eva from obscurity to stardom - https://youtu.be/eKpVQm41f8Y .

1943: Roger Spear (multi-instrumentalist of The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band) is born in Hammersmith, London, England - https://youtu.be/zrii_MILuvE .

1947: Eric Wrixon, musician with the Northern Irish band Them who had the 1965 hits 'Baby, Please Don't Go' and 'Here Comes The Night' with Van Morrison on lead vocals. Morrison quit the band in 1966 and went on to a successful career as a solo artist. He was also a founding member of Thin Lizzy. He died on 13 July 2015 aged 68 -https://youtu.be/aXD1B2651X8 .

1948: Twin brothers Derv and Lincoln Gordon of The Equals are born in Jamaica. They had the 1968 No.1 & No.32 single 'Baby Come Back' written by Eddy Grant - https://youtu.be/1f3o7OcYRIU .

1948: Ian Paice, Deep Purple's drummer and founding member, is born in Nottingham, England. He has been the band's only constant member since its foundation. They scored the 1970 No.2 single 'Black Night' and the 1973 No. 4 single 'Smoke On The Water'. Paice has also worked with Whitesnake and Gary Moore - https://youtu.be/LCnebZnysmI .

1951: Billy Hinsche of Dino, Desi & Billy is born in Manila, Philippines. After moving to Beverly Hills, he meets future bandmates Desi Arnaz Jr. and Dean Paul Martin - https://youtu.be/ZuVg_t8ZxR0 .

1953: Colin Hay (Men At Work) born in Saltcoats, Scotland. He came to prominence as the lead vocalist of the band Men at Work and later as a solo artist. Hay's music has been used frequently by actor and director Zach Braff in his work, which helped a career rebirth in the mid-2000s. Hay has also been a member of Ringo Starr's Ringo Starr & His All-Starr Band - https://youtu.be/XfR9iY5y94s .

1956: Johnnie Ray records "Just Walkin' In The Rain." - https://youtu.be/8uCsvWgmjwg .

1957: Robert Derwent Garth Forster is an Australian singer-songwriter, guitarist and music critic, born in Brisbane, Queensland. In December 1977 he co-founded an indie rock group, The Go-Betweens, with fellow musician, Grant McLennan. In 1980 Lindy Morrison joined the group on drums and backing vocals - https://youtu.be/8M_P_xX9Cmw .

1959: James Randall Freud born in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia (b. Colin Joseph McGlinchey, d. 4 November 2010). Freud was an Australian rock musician-songwriter and member of Models during the 1980s; he wrote their two most popular singles, "Barbados" and "Out of Mind, Out of Sight". On 4 November 2010, Freud was found dead at his home in Hawthorn, Melbourne. A statement by Michael Gudinski, whose Mushroom Records launched Freud's solo career and that of Models, said: "James' battle with alcoholism has been well chronicled. His two books on his recovery and five years' sobriety were best-sellers and gave a lot of people who were suffering the same affliction comfort and hope. Unfortunately, James has succumbed to his disease and taken his own life this morning." - https://youtu.be/k5EZmJoNeYs .

1960: Disco singer Evelyn "Champagne" King is born in The Bronx, New York City - https://youtu.be/nTpNN0zTmTs .

1961: Del Shannon was at No.1 on the UK singles chart with 'Runaway.' His only No.1 and the first of 14 Top 40 hits - https://youtu.be/0S13mP_pfEc .

1962: The Contours release "Do You Love Me." - https://youtu.be/3EoI-6lQFIE .

1964: Touring Australia, The Beatles played two shows at the Festival Hall, Brisbane. Over 8,000 fans had waited until after midnight to greet the group as they landed at Brisbane Airport.

1967: Keith Richards was found guilty of allowing his property to be used for the smoking of marijuana and was sentenced to one year in jail and was fined. Mick Jagger was found guilty of illegal possession of pep pills and was sentenced to three months in jail.

1969: Frederick Earl (Shorty) Long, singer, songwriter, musician and producer for Motown Records, drowned when his boat capsized off Sandwich Island in Ontario, Canada. He was 29 years old - https://youtu.be/UYQ1DSotWLg .

1969: Crosby, Stills & Nash release their self-titled debut album, lighting a path for '70s bands like America and the Eagles with rich harmonies and mysterious lyrics. All three members made it big with other bands but then soured in those environments. Crosby was with The Byrds before getting booted in 1967; Stills was with Buffalo Springfield until their demise in 1968; Nash founded The Hollies in 1962 but split in 1968, eager to make music that held more weight. None of them wanted a repeat, so they agreed that Crosby, Stills & Nash would be leaderless and optional - they would all be free to work on solo albums or other projects, and would work together when it suited them - https://youtu.be/0AkYLtegF1M .

1974: Gordon Lightfoot's "Sundown" hits #1 in . He's the second Canadian artist to top the chart in 1974, following Terry Jacks with "Seasons In The Sun." - https://youtu.be/kv8zyBi4ZXk .

1974: Charles Aznavour was at No.1 on the singles chart with 'She', the French singers only No.1. At the time it made Aznavour the oldest living male chart-topper in the UK charts (at fifty years old) - https://youtu.be/e1uqfO2-oJA .

1975: Folk singer Tim Buckley dies of a drug overdose at age 28. His son is the singer Jeff Buckley.

1977: Walk Right In (Dr Hook) moves to #1 on the chart - https://youtu.be/K1e_12DOKZI .

1978: Nicole Scherzinger (of The Pussycat Dolls) is born Nicole Prascovia Elikolani Valiente in Honolulu, Hawaii - https://youtu.be/3BBsF7VIQyo .

1979: Lowell George (Little Feat) died of a heart attack caused by a cocaine overdose at age 34. His band, Little Feat, broke up just months earlier.

1985: Mick Jagger and David Bowie record "Dancing in the Street" at the legendary Abbey Road Studios in London for the Live Aid charity. They shoot the video the same day - https://youtu.be/HasaQvHCv4w .

1987: Tiffany (Tiffany Renee Darwish) released her self-titled debut album - https://youtu.be/w6Q3mHyzn78 .

1988: Got To Be Certain (Kylie Minogue) moves to #1 on the charts - https://youtu.be/5cYQfqwjMVY .

1991: Jason Donovan had his third No.1 single with 'Any Dream Will Do' a song written by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice for the 1968 musical Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat - https://youtu.be/VfNMhu9wdl0 .

1998: The Cup Of Life (Ricky Martin) moves directly to the #1 spot on chart https://youtu.be/dZDj2CnG5dE .

1998: George Harrison announces that he is undergoing chemotherapy for throat cancer, with assurances that, "I'm not going to die on you folks just yet." He succumbs to the disease three years later.

1998: German pianist Horst Jankowski dies of lung cancer at age 62 - https://youtu.be/zQqHCb16MNg .

1999: Art of Noise released "The Seduction of Claude Debussy." https://youtu.be/47h8T-JkBqM .

1999: Leif Garret was arrested during a sting operation at an apartment in Los Angeles, CA. He pled guilty to drug possession on August 14, 1999 - https://youtu.be/QJ9-8jvEYFc .

2002: Rosemary Clooney dies of lung cancer at age 74. Clooney had the 1954 No.1 single 'This Ole House', appeared in the 1954 movie White Christmas with Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye. Her nephew, George Clooney was a pallbearer at her funeral - https://youtu.be/IFUEC4bo3ZA .

2007: Apple's new device, the iPhone, is released, integrating music into a phone for the first time. When Apple introduced the iPod in 2001, it made digital music portable, but also added another device to the pockets of the tech-savvy. The iPhone does everything the iPod can do, but it also takes pictures, accesses the internet, and does everything a phone can do - no more lugging around a cell phone, PDA, MP3 player and camera.

2015: Like I’m Gonna Lose You (Meghan Trainor ft John Legend) moves to #1 on the charts - https://youtu.be/2-MBfn8XjIU .

2020: Benny Mardones of "Into The Night" fame dies at 73 after a long battle with Parkinson's disease - https://youtu.be/4aWhn0Hc8ps .