September 16th in The EVOLUTION of ROCK 'n ROLL: Dinah Washington, Johnny Otis, Johnny Burnette and Ringo Starr, Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, Three Dog Night, Rap and a BUNCH of BIRTHDAYS...

September 16^th 1948:

Dinah Washington's Mercury single "Am I Asking Too Much," hits #1 on the R 'n B chart…Don’t have this one in digital, but check out these by the lady…

September 16, 1960:

Johnny Otis hits #2 on the R 'n B chart with "Rockin' Blues"…

September 16, 1960:

Johnny Burnette records the original version of "You're 16", which will rise to #8 in the US… 

   
Fourteen years later, Ringo Starr would take 
the same song to #1…

September 16, 1967: Jimi Hendrix's debut LP, "Are You Experienced?" enters the Billboard Hot 200 album chart, where it will stay for 106 weeks, including 77 weeks in the Top 40. In 2003, Rolling Stone magazine ranked it #15 on their 500 Greatest Albums of All Time and two years later it was selected for permanent preservation in the National Recording Registry at the Library of Congress in the United States…

September 16, 1970: England's Rock and Roll magazine, Melody Maker named Led Zeppelin as England's "Best Group", replacing The Beatles, who had held that honor for eight years. Melody Maker stopped publication in December, 2000 after 73 years…

September 16, 1972: Three Dog Night reach number one on the Billboard Hot 100 for the third time with a song written in 1955 called "Black and White". In the UK however, the record failed to chart at all…

September 16, 1977: Marc Bolan of T. Rex was killed when a car driven by his girlfriend, Gloria Jones, left the road and hit a tree. An investigation would later blame the accident on mechanical failure. Bolan was just weeks away from his 30th birthday…

September 16, 1979:

The first Rap record makes it onto vinyl when the Sugar Hill Gang's "Rapper's Delight" was recorded over the instrumental break from Chic's "Good Times". The single becomes a Disco smash, selling two million copies in the US. Rap has gone on to open up a whole new industry for people who can't sing, write music or play an instrument…

September 16, 2006: 65 year old Bob Dylan held the #1 spot on the US album chart with "Modern Times", making him the oldest living musician to ever top the Billboard album chart…

Born on September 16^th Into 
THE EVOLUTION of ROCK  ‘n ROLL…

September 16^th Birthdays:

1925 - B.B. King

1942 - Bernie Calvert - bassist for
 The Hollies...

1943 - Joe Butler:
 Drummer for The Lovin' Spoonful…

1944 - Betty Kelly: Vocalist for
 Martha and theVandellas…   

1948 - Kenny Jones: Drummer for 
The Small Faces…   

1954 - Frank Reed: Lead vocalist for
 The Chi-Lites...   

 

THE USE OF ANY COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL IS USED UNDER THE GUIDELINES OF "FAIR USE" IN TITLE 17 & 107 OF THE UNITED STATES CODE. SUCH MATERIAL REMAINS THE COPYRIGHT OF THE ORIGINAL HOLDER AND IS USED HERE FOR THE PURPOSES OF EDUCATION, COMPARISON, AND CRITICISM ONLY. NO INFRINGEMENT OF COPYRIGHT IS INTENDED… 

Detroit Blues/Jazz/R&B Legend, Johnnie Bassett dies at 76…

 

Guitarist, singer and songwriter Johnnie Bassett grew up with blues music all around him in his native Florida, then honed his craft in The Motor City…

Check out what he had to say about his “I Can Make That Happen” album…

His unique ability to combine jump blues and Delta stylings, coupled with Motor City grittiness, gives his playing a distinctive sound….

Johnnie was a link to Detroit's musical glory days, during Detroit's vibrant '50s…

having played behind such talents as Little Willie John, John Lee Hooker   

Dinah Washington:

Bassett was also a session guitarist for Detroit's legendary Fortune Records…

He also played on sessions for Smokey Robinson & the Miracles in the late '50s, before Motown was launched….

Bassett was born in Marianna, Fla., on Oct. 9, 1935. The Bassetts moved to Detroit in 1944, and his brother got him his first guitar, a Kay, when he was a student 
at Northwestern High School…

DETROIT'S NORTHWESTERN HIGH SCHOOL--A LOT OF TALENT!!!

.

Bassett took to the guitar, and 
as a teenager started playing at 
talent shows, 
theaters and nightclubs 
around Detroit 
with a friend from school, 
pianist Joe Weaver, 

in a combo they started 
calling Joe Weaver
 & The Blue Notes…

Bassett and the Blue Notes were playing 
hotspots such as Basin Street East 
and the Frolic Showbar before they were 
old enough to drink. 
They'd only been at the Frolic for three weeks 
when they were anointed 
the house band in the mid-'50s.

After Bassett's family moved to Detroit 
in 1944, he made his debut as a guitarist 
with Joe Weaver and the Bluenotes, 
a teenage R&B band. 
The group won local talent contests 
and were hired to back up
 Big Joe Turner

 

Ruth Brown 

and others on their tour stops in Detroit...
As a session guitaris at Fortune Records he 
backed up...

 Nolan Strong and the Diablos, 
   

Andre Williams and the Don Juans:

 and the Five Dollars…

During his Detroit days, he also accompanied 
John Lee Hooker,

 Eddie Burns,

Alberta Adams,  

Lowell Fulson  

AND:

The T.J. Fowler Band

 

In 1994, Bassett received a lifetime achievement award from the Detroit Blues Society. He later recorded an album for the Dutch Black Magic label, I Gave My Life to the Blues (1996)...

Bassett and his band, the Blues Insurgents -- which he'd been fronting since the early 1990s -- have made several U.S., Canadian and European tours in support of LPs including 1997's Bassett Hound

1998's Cadillac Blues…

Johnnie on Detroit Blues in 2008:

Bassett never retired from playing, 
his LIVE musical career only ended with his death,

this morning,   

August 4, 2012…

His genius is recorded and lives on…

“I Can Make That Happen” 

Johnnie’s latest release…

R.I.P. Johnnie 

You ARE a Motor City LEGEND!!!

THE USE OF ANY COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL IS USED UNDER THE GUIDELINES OF "FAIR USE" IN TITLE 17 & 107 OF THE UNITED STATES CODE. SUCH MATERIAL REMAINS THE COPYRIGHT OF THE ORIGINAL HOLDER AND IS USED HERE FOR THE PURPOSES OF EDUCATION, COMPARISON, AND CRITICISM ONLY. NO INFRINGEMENT OF COPYRIGHT IS INTENDED 

R.I.P. Dinah Washington: You Still Got What It Takes

Between 1944 and 1963 Dinah Washington charted more than 50 tunes, most of which landed on the Top Ten of the R&B Charts. Her first hit was “Salty Papa Blues” with  Lionel Hampton’s band backing a very young Dinah.

 
The tune hit #8 on the R&B Chart and was named to Billboard’s “Harlem Hit Parade”

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame listed Dinah’s 1948 recording of “Am I Asking Too Much?”  as one of the 500 songs that shaped rock...

The Dinah Washington & Brook Benton  duet “Baby (You've Got What It Takes)” charted at #1 on the R&B Chart in 1959 and #7 on the Pop Chart that same year...

Dinah’s last charted hit (during her lifetime) was the standard "You're Nobody Till Somebody Loves You"

    

The single  hit #87 on the U.S. Pop Chart in 1962...

On December 14, 1963 Dinah Washington died in Detroit, MI after mixing alcohol and pills.

R.I.P. Dinah Washington…

You Still Got What It Takes!!!