Tommy Ramone (born Thomas Erdelyi), the drummer from the Ramones, was born today in 1949. He was active in the band for the first four years of the band's existence (1974 to 1978), and was the last surviving original member of the Ramones. He played on and co-produced their first three albums, Ramones, Leave Home, Rocket to Russia, and the live album It's Alive. His final show as a Ramones drummer was at the Johnny Blitz benefit event at CBGB's in New York in 1978. He died on July 11, 2014, at age 65.
Also, in:
1961 - Bob Dylan achieved his dream of meeting his idol Woody Guthrie when Guthrie was on weekend release from the hospital where he was being treated for Huntington's disease. Dylan told him, "I was a Woody Guthrie jukebox." Guthrie gave Dylan a card which said: "I ain't dead yet."
1967 - Jimi Hendrix and The Who appeared at The Saville Theater, London, England. 20 year-old future Queen guitarist Brian May was in the audience.
1969 - Fleetwood Mac reached No. 1 on the U.K. Singles Chart for the only time with the instrumental, "Albatross".
1977 - Rose Royce's "Car Wash" hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. It was the group's debut single and one of the most notable successes of the 1970s disco era, and was the theme of the 1976 movie "Car Wash". The song was also covered in 2004 by Christina Aguilera and Missy Elliott, as a part of the "Shark Tale" soundtrack.
1977 - Aerosmith reached the top ten on the Billboard Hot 100 Singles Chart for the second time as "Walk This Way" peaked at number ten.
1983 - Australian group Men At Work went No. 1 on the British and American singles and album charts simultaneously with "Down Under" and Business As Usual.
1992 - American blues singer/guitarist/bassist Willie Dixon died of heart failure. He wrote the classic songs "You Shook Me", "I Can't Quit You Baby", "Hoochie Coochie Man", "I Just Want to Make Love to You" and "Little Red Rooster". Dixon was a major influence on The Rolling Stones, Cream, The Yardbirds and Led Zeppelin.
1998 - Paul Simon's musical "The Capeman" opened in New York.
2006 - Arctic Monkeys went No. 1 on the U.K. album chart with their debut album Whatever People Say I Am That's What I'm Not.
2014 - More than 100,000 people signed a petition to deport Canadian citizen Justin Bieber out of America. The campaign followed his arrest earlier this month for drunk driving and driving without a valid license.
2015 - Taylor Swift was seeking to trademark phrases including "this sick beat" and "we never go out of style" in the United States. Other phrases she wanted to protect included "nice to meet you, where you been" and "party like it's 1989".
2019 - Singer, songwriter James Ingram died after a long battle with brain cancer age 66. He was a two-time Grammy Award-winner and charted eight Top 40 hits on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100. He had two No. 1 singles, the first, a duet with fellow R&B artist Patti Austin, 1982's "Baby, Come to Me" and "I Don't Have the Heart", which became his second No. 1 in 1990. He also recorded the song "Somewhere Out There" with Linda Ronstadt for the animated film An American Tail.
Birthdays:
James Jamerson, bassist who played with The Funk Brothers on many Motown hits by The Temptations, Marvin Gaye, The Four Tops, Martha And The Vandellas, was born today in 1936.
Jonny Lang is 39.
