1934 Doc Green (Drifters) 1942 Buzz Clifford (Babysittin’ Boogie) 1950 Robert ‘Kool’ Bell (Kool and the Gang) 1951 Johnny Ramone (Ramones)
Number 1 In The Charts On October 8
1955 Four Aces: ‘Love Is A Many Splendoured Thing’ US 45 1964 Roy Orbison: ‘Oh Pretty Woman’ UK 45 1977 David Soul: ‘Silver Lady’ UK 45 1988 U2: ‘Desire’ UK 45 1994 R.E.M : Monster : UK LP 1994 Boyz II Men : II : US LP
Various Music Events On October 8
1957 Jerry Lee Lewis records ‘Great Balls of Fire’ at Sun Studios, Memphis
1964 Roy Orbison becomes the first American to top UK singles chart since Elvis Presley on 1 August 1963
1976 Sex Pistols sign to EMI Records for £40,000
1980 Bob Marley collapses on stage during a Wailers concert in Pittsburgh – his last performance
1981 Madness begin UK tour in Bradford
1983 Tom Waits’s ‘Swordfish Trombone’ hits UK LP chart
1988 Phil Collins scores his thirteenth consecutive American Top 10 hit as ‘A Groovy Kind of Love’ moves from No. 14 to No. 6
1992 The U.S. Postal Serviceissues a commemorative stamp booklet that includes rock legends Bill Haley, Buddy Holly, Elvis Presley and Ritchie Valens plus R&B stars Clyde McPhatter, Otis Redding and Dinah Washington.
1994 On pay-per-view television “A Tribute To Elvis” features U2,Chris Isaak, Iggy Pop, Melissa Etheridge, Cheap Trick, and Tony Bennett.
Have a groovy vintage retro day!
- Retro Rebirth
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1989 Cancer sufferer/San Francisco Giant pitcher Dave Dravecky breaks arm on mound 1989 Frederik de Klerk becomes president of South Africa 1989 Giorgio Lamberti swims world record 200m free style (1:46.69) 1989 U.S. Venus probe Magellan launched from Space shuttle 1989 In 2nd start since after cancer treatment, Giants Dave Dravecky breaks his pitching arm while throwing to Tim Raines 1988 “Ain’t Misbehavin’” opens at Ambassador Theater New York City for 176 performances 1988 At 4PM LILCO consumers used a record 3,813 megawatts 1988 New York City begins $70 million program to rebuild 900 Bronx apartments 1987 U.S. beats Cuba in Pan-Am baseball 1986 President Reagan decides to support a replacement for Challenger 1985 Anti-apartheid lawyer Bulelani Ngcuka marries in South Africa 1985 Iraqi air raid on Iran oil-island Kharg 1983 Ramones guitarist Joey Ramone, beaten in fight-undergoes brain surgery 1982 Beth Daniel wins LPGA WUI Golf Classic 1982 Equatorial Guinea adopts constitution 1981 Botham scores a century in 86 balls vs. Australia at Old Trafford 1981 Robin Leamy of U.S. swims record 7.98 kph for 50 m
Retro Events For The Decade 1970
1979 Andrew Young resigns as United Nations ambassador 1978 House of Representatives approves (233-169), 39-month extension for ERA 1977 England regain cricket Ashes by taking a 3-0 series lead over Australia 1977 SS chief Kappler escapes from prison hospital in Rome 1976 Jane Blalock wins LPGA Wheeling Golf Classic 1975 Bangladesh military coup under Khondakar Moustaque Ahmed 1975 Joanne Little acquitted of murder charges 1974 France performs nuclear test at Muruora Island 1974 Hurricane/floods ravage Bangladesh, 4,000 killed 1974 Longest team (6) trampoline bouncing marathon (1,248 hours (52 days)) 1974 South Korean President Park Chung-Hee escapes assassination 1973 Black September kills 3 wounds 55 Athens 1973 David Storey’s “Cromwell,” premieres in London 1973 U.S.S.R. performs nuclear test 1971 Charles Lismont wins Helsinki marathon (2:13:09.0) 1971 KVRL (now KRIV) TV ch 26 in Shreveport-Texarkana, LA (NBC) begins 1971 President Nixon announces 90-day freeze on wages, prices and rents 1971 Sandra Haynie wins LPGA Len Immke Buick Golf Open 1970 Patricia Palinkas becomes 1st woman pro football player (Orlando)
Retro Events For The Decade 1960
1969 Woodstock Music and Art Fair opens in New York State (Max Yasgur’s Dairy Farm) 1968 Romanian president Ceausescu visits Prague 1968 U.S.S.R. performs nuclear test at Sary Shagan U.S.S.R. 1967 Pope Paul VI publishes constitution Regimini Ecclesiae Universae 1966 Radio Free Asia (South Korea) begins radio transmission 1965 47th PGA Championship: Dave Marr shoots a 280 at Laurel Valley Golf Club Pennsylvania 1965 Beatles play to 55,000 at Shea Stadium 1965 Mary Mills wins LPGA St. Louis Golf Open 1965 Japanese community of San Francisco holds Masanori Murakami Day at Candlestick Park to honor 1st Japanese player to play in major leagues 1964 Fred Trueman takes 300th Test Cricket wicket (Neil Hawke) 1964 Mayor Daley declares “Ernie Banks Day” in Chicago 1964 Phillies triple-play New York Mets 1964 Ralph Boston of U.S., sets then long jump record at 27′ 3″ 1963 Fulbert Youlou, resigns as President of Congo-Brazzaville 1962 Netherlands and Indonesia signs accord about New Guinea 1962 Shady Grove Baptist Church burned in Leesburg Georgia 1960 CFL’s Calgary Stampeders move into McMahon Stadium 1960 Chicago Bears beat New York Giants 16-7 in Toronto (NFL expo) 1960 Congo (formerly Congo/Brazzaville) declares Independence from France 1960 Mil Brave Lew Burdette no-hits Philadelphia Phillies, 1-0
Retro Events For The Decade 1950
1958 25th NFL Chicago All-Star Game: All-Stars 35, Detroit 19 (70,000) 1958 Buddy Holly weds Maria Santiago 1958 Marshal Boelganin resigns as director of Staatsbank 1958 Soviet Marshal Bulganin resigns as director of State Bank 1957 David Simons reaches 30,942 m in Man High 2 balloon 1955 WXEX TV channel 8 in Richmond-Petersburg, Virginia (ABC) begins 1954 Alfredo Stroessner names himself president of Paraguay 1954 WCHS TV channel 8 in Charleston-Huntington, WV (ABC) begins 1952 19th NFL Chicago All-Star Game: Los Angeles 10, All-Stars 7 (88,316) 1952 9″ of rain fall creates a 20′ wave in Lynmouth, England killing 34 1950 8.6 earthquake in India kills 20,000 to 30,000 1950 Ezzard Charles TKOs Freddie Beshore in 14 for heavyweight boxing title 1950 Indians make their 1st triple play at Cleveland Stadium 1950 Indies Constitution goes into effect 1950 Joseph Pholien becomes Belgian premier 1950 President Sukarno proclaims unity of Indonesia 1950 Rotterdam harbor strike begins
Have a groovy vintage retro day!
- Retro Rebirth
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In the mid-’70s the Ramones shaped the sound of punk rock in New York with simple, fast songs, deadpan lyrics, no solos, and an impenetrable wall of guitar chords. Twenty years later, with virtually all of their peers either retired or having moved on to forms other than punk, Joey and Johnny Ramone, the band’s core, continued adamantly to parlay the same determinedly basic sound. The cultural importance of the Ramones became most apparent in 2001, when leader Joey Ramone was eulogized not only in the rock press but the New York Times and other general media.
The group formed in 1974 after the foursome graduated or left high school in Forest Hills, New York. The original lineup featured Joey on drums, Dee Dee sharing guitar with Johnny, and Tommy as manager, but they soon settled on their recording setup.
Their name and pseudonym came via Paul McCartney, who had briefly called himself Paul Ramon back when the Beatles were the Silver Beatles. The Ramones gravitated toward the burgeoning scene at CBGB, where their 20-minute sets of rapid-fire, under-two-and-a-half-minute songs earned them a recording contract before any of their contemporaries except Patti Smith.
In 1976 Ramones was a definitive punk statement, with songs like “Beat on the Brat,” “Blitzkrieg Bop,” and “Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue”- 14 of them, clocking in at under 30 minutes. The group traveled to England in 1976, giving the nascent British punk scene the same boost they had provided to New Yorkers. Before the year was out, Ramones Leave Home had been released. As throughout its career, the band toured almost incessantly.
With their next two singles, the group began to soften their sound slightly. “Sheena Is a Punk Rocker” and “Rockaway Beach” made explicit their debt to ’60s AM hit styles such as bubblegum and surf music, and both made the lower reaches of the Top 100. They were included on Rocket to Russia, which also contained their first ballad, “Here Today, Gone Tomorrow.” At this point Tommy quit the group, preferring his behind-the-scenes activity as coproducer, “disguised” as T. Erdelyi (his real name).
His replacement was Marc Bell, henceforth dubbed Marky Ramone. He was formerly one of Richard Hell’s Voidoids and before that a member of Dust, who recorded a pair of albums during the ’60s. His first LP with the Ramones, Road to Ruin, was their first to contain only 12 songs and their first to last longer than half an hour. Despite their glossiest production yet, featuring acoustic guitars and real solos, its two singles, “Don’t Come Close” and a version of the Searchers’ “Needles and Pins,” failed to capture a mass audience. Neither did their starring role in Roger Corman’s 1979 movie Rock ’n’ Roll High School.
As the 1980s began, the Ramones tried working with noted pop producers Phil Spector (End of the Century) and 10cc’s Graham Gouldman (Pleasant Dreams), but commercial success remained elusive. After Subterranean Jungle, Marky Ramone departed, to be replaced by ex-Velveteens Richard Beau. As Richie Ramone, the drummer played on four albums, before Marky returned in 1987. Too Tough to Die, with Eurythmic Dave Stewart producing the pop single “Howling at the Moon,” recaptured some of their ’70s energy, and “Bonzo Goes to Bitburg” off Animal Boy offered cutting political satire. However, the remainder of the decade too often found them parodying their earlier strengths.
In 1989 the Ramones gained their widest exposure with the title track to the soundtrack for Stephen King’s Pet Sematary, but also underwent their most significant internal shift. Dee Dee departed, first to record, as Dee Dee King, a rap album, Standing in the Spotlight, and then to form the rock group Chinese Dragons. His post-Ramones career included publishing the autobiography Poisoned Heart: Surviving the Ramones and, in the late ’90s, playing with his wife, Barbara, and Marky Ramone in the Ramones spinoff unit, the Ramainz. A heroin addict and substance abuser for 14 years, Dee Dee had been the Ramones’ truest punk (going solo, he also joined AA); his departure signaled the end of an era, if not a style. AWOL from the marines at the time he enlisted in the band, C.J. Ramone infused youthful energy – he was 14 years younger than Joey and Johnny – but the band’s sound remained the same.
Mondo Bizarro, with a guest appearance by Living Colour guitarist Vernon Reid and songs that attacked both drugs and the PMRC’s Tipper Gore, ushered the band into the ’90s, their influence by then apparent in such rowdy outfits as Guns n’ Roses and the Beastie Boys. In 1994 they persevered with Acid Eaters, a tribute to ’60s idols like the Animals and Rolling Stones. With Joey sober since the start of the decade and Marky in recovery from alcoholism, they continued their relentless touring for two more years until their final show in August 1996. Marky formed Marky Ramone and the Intruders and has released two albums to date. Joey went on to manage the Independents, a horror-punk-ska band, to act in the indie film Final Rinse, and, in 1999, to co-produce a Ronnie Spector EP, She Talks to Rainbows. In 2001 he announced he had been diagnosed with lymphoma six years earlier and was undergoing treatment for the disease. He died that year. Little Steven Van Zandt presided over an all-star party on what would have been Joey’s 50th birthday, a month after his death. The U.S. Congress proclaimed May 19, 2001, Joey Ramone Day. After being inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in March 2002, fellow Ramones Dee Dee and Johnny soon passed away; Dee Dee from a heroin overdose on June 5, 2002 and Johnny from prostate cancer on September 15, 2004.
The Ramones – I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend (1980) Live Video
Ramones Discography – Studio albums
* Ramones (1976) * Leave Home (1977) * Rocket to Russia (1977) * Road to Ruin (1978) * End of the Century (1980) * Pleasant Dreams (1981) * Subterranean Jungle (1983) * Too Tough to Die (1984) * Animal Boy (1986) * Halfway to Sanity (1987) * Brain Drain (1989) * Mondo Bizarro (1992) * Acid Eaters (1993) * ¡Adios Amigos! (1995)
Have a groovy day
Peace and Love, Retro Rebirth
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