On this day in music, March 25, 2022, fans around the globe were stunned to learn of the sudden death of Taylor Hawkins, the Foo Fighters’s charismatic drummer. The 50-year-old musician, who had complained of chest pains, was in Bogotá, Colombia for the Estéreo Picnic festival, where he and his bandmates were due to perform that evening. Originally from Texas, Hawkins drummed for Canadian singers Sass Jordan and Alanis Morrissette before joining Foo Fighters in 1997. The high-energy artist appeared on eight of the band’s albums between 1999 and 2021 and in the years immediately preceding his death, played on records by Miley Cyrus, Elton John, and Ozzy Osbourne. Hawkins also cut three albums leading his own group, Taylor Hawkins and the Coattail Riders.
In 1969, John Lennon and Yoko Ono began the first of their two “Beds-in For Peace” protests, beginning with a week-long stint in The Amsterdam Hilton’s Presidential Suite, where they answered questions from the press and promoted world peace. The second bed-in took place at Montreal’s Queen Elizabeth Hotel.
In 2019, influential singer-songwriter Scott Walker died at the age of 76. Born Noel Scott Engel, he adopted his stage name when he moved to Los Angeles and co-founded the Walker Brothers in 1964. The trio based themselves in London, where they scored two No.1 hits: “Make It Easy On Yourself” and “The Sun Ain’t Gonna Shine Any More.” When the trio split in 1968, Walker established himself as a solo artist and producer.
In 1983, Motown Records celebrated its 25th anniversary with Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever, a televised concert from the Pasadena Civic Auditorium in California. The event, which featured performances by some of the label’s most iconic groups, included a one-off reunion by Diana Ross & The Supremes. Michael Jackson stole the show, however, with a performance of “Billie Jean” which featured him doing his famous “moonwalk” dance routine.
In 1972, folk-rock trio America topped the US Hot 100 with their debut single, “Horse With No Name.” The song, which spent three weeks at No.1, was the first of two US chart-toppers by the London-based band; the other was 1975’s “Sister Golden Hair.”
In 2000, *NSYNC set a new world record by selling a million tickets in one day for a tour promoting their third album, No Strings Attached. The tour raked in $42.5 million.
In 1967, Los Angeles band The Turtles scored their sole No.1 on the Billboard Hot 100 with “Happy Together,” which held steady at the top spot for three weeks.
BORN ON MARCH 25
1931: Tom Wilson (Producer)
1942: Aretha Franklin
1947: Elton John
1969: Cathy Dennis
1975: Melanie Blatt (All Saints)
1975: Juvenile
1988: Ryan Lewis (Producer/DJ)
1988: Big Sean
1999: Iann Dior
The Litchfield Downtown Council is promoting an event in downtown Litchfield this Saturday – Downtown Elvis Town – from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Several shops will have special deals and each will have a different Elvis theme.
Darlene Kotelnicki says the themes will be based on different Elvis songs or movies such as “Love Me Tender,” “Viva Las Vegas” and “Jailhouse Rock” and an Elvis impersonator will be walking up and down Sibley Avenue so that shoppers can take their photos with him. She says people can pick up a passport at the Barka Building at the corner of Sibley Avenue and 2nd Street – with the cow and pig in the windows – and get their passport stamped at the participating stores, and then the passports will go into a drawing for prizes at 3 p.m.
Kotelnicki says Terry Shaw will be performing Elvis Presley songs in the Barka Building from 10-to-noon on Saturday and there will be 11 vendors in that building for a pop-up shop on Saturday. She says the next big event for the Litchfield Downtown Council will be the Easter Egg Hunt at the Litchfield Civic Arena on April 4th at 10 a.m.
An event is coming up on Sunday at the Litchfield Christian Church that should get peoples’ minds focused on Holy Week. Tom Stolz will perform a reading of the Gospel According to St. Mark at 6:30 p.m.
Leland and Brenda Fredman are sponsoring the event. A freewill offering will be taken to benefit the Meeker Area Food Shelf. Leland says Tom is his cousin and he says people may recognize his last name as his father, Don Stolz, owned the Old Log Theater.
Fredman says Tom does this same performance at the Chanhassen Dinner Theater, so this will be a chance for people to see it right here in Litchfield. He says Tom does his reading of the Gospel of Mark in the King James Version and that version is public domain so there are no copyright issues if it’s used in a performance.
Each day a business will be featured as “Business of the Day” and every time their commercial is aired be the 7th caller and win a chance to receive KLFD Bucks to be spent at our “Business of the Day” locations.
Monday thru Friday, at 4 pm we will draw out a winner to be put into our final drawing to be held sometime later in April. Once your name has been drawn out daily and put into the final drawing, you are no longer qualified to call in. Otherwise, you can keep calling in once a day to qualify.
