This Day in Music
On this day in music, March 16, 1970, 24-year-old Motown star Tammi Terrell lost her battle with brain cancer. Born Thomasina Winifred Montgomery in Philadelphia, Terrell began her career as a teenager, recording as Tammy Montgomery for the Wand, Try Me, and Checker labels and performing as a backup singer for James Brown. Although she scored a couple of solo hits, she is best remembered for a series of hit duets with Marvin Gaye, including two US R&B No.1s from 1968, “Ain’t Nothing Like The Real Thing” and “You’re All I Need To Get By,” as well as the enduring Top 40 hit, “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough.”
In 1968, Otis Redding’s “(Sittin’ On) The Dock Of The Bay,” became the first posthumous single to top the Billboard Hot 100. Nicknamed the “King of Soul,” Redding recorded the iconic hit days before a plane crash took his life on December 10, 1967. The song, which also topped the R&B chart, remained at No.1 for five weeks and earned two awards at the 1969 Grammys.
In 1977, A&M terminated its contract with the Sex Pistols and halted production of the punk band’s debut single, “God Save The Queen,” after a violent altercation between the band and Bob Harris, host of BBC 2’s flagship rock show The Old Grey Whistle Test. The controversy prompted A&M to end their association with the band, though they paid them off with £75,000.
In 2015, 62-year-old Andy Fraser, who served as the bass guitarist and occasional pianist with the British blues-rock band Free, died of a heart attack. The London-born musician co-founded the band in 1968 at the age of 15 and co-wrote their biggest hit, 1970’s “Alright Now.” Following his departure from Free in 1973, Fraser formed a new band, Sharks. He also wrote Robert Palmer’s 1978 US and UK hit, “Every Kinda People.”
In 1964, The Beatles’ sixth single “Can’t Buy Me Love” racked up advance sales in America
of a record-breaking 2,100,000 copies. On its release, the song topped Billboard’s Hot 100 and became the Fab Four’s third consecutive US chart-topper.
In 2019, surf-rock pioneer, guitarist Dick Dale, died of heart failure at the age of 81. Born Richard Anthony Monsour in Boston, Dale was famed for his much-imitated staccato picking technique which defined the sound of his most famous record, 1962’s Eastern-tinged “Misirlou,” a track that enjoyed a revival after director Quentin Tarantino featured it on the soundtrack to his 1994 hit movie Pulp Fiction.
In 1965,The Rolling Stones topped the UK singles chart for the third time with “The Last Time,” which had the distinction of being the band’s first British No.1 written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards.
BORN ON MARCH 16
1936: Fred Neil
1942: Jerry Jeff Walker
1954: Nancy Wilson (Heart)
1959: Flavor Flav (Public Enemy)
1966: H.P. Baxxter (Scooter)
1972: Andrew Dunlop (Travis)
