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                        A&E
DENNIS WILSON
 Today in music history - Dec. 28
The Canadian Press
  • In 1842, Calixa Lavallee, the composer of O Canada, was born in Vercheres, Lower Canada (now Quebec). The song, with words by Judge A.B. Routhi-er, was composed for a national convention of French Canadians held in Quebec City in June 1880.
    With the exception of O Canada, Lavallee’s work remains largely unknown. He apparently gave little thought to preserving his compositions, more than half of which have been lost or destroyed. Nevertheless, Lavalle is considered one of Canada’s musical pioneers. He died in Boston in 1891.
  • In 1905, legendary jazz pianist Earl (Fatha) Hines was born in Pittsburgh. Hines led his own big band, and among those he helped to stardom were Dizzy Gillespie, Sarah Vaughan, Charlie Parker and Billy Eckstine. He died of a heart attack at his home in Oakland, Calif., on April 22, 1983.
  • In 1928, Canadian flutist and saxophonist Moe Koffman was born in Toronto. His Swinging Shepherd Blues was an international hit in 1958, and helped to give the flute wider acceptance as a jazz instrument. Koffman died in 2001.
  • In 1937, composer Maurice Ravel, a leading exponent of the impressionist school of music, died in Paris. His best-known work is Bolero, which has gained renewed popularity in recent years after being used as part of the soundtrack of the Bo Derek movie, Ten. Ravel was born in 1875.
  • In 1957, At the Hop by Danny and the Juniors reached the top of the U.S. charts. The song by the Philadelphia street-corner group was originally called Do the Bop, but the title and lyrics were changed at the suggestion of Dick Clark.
  • In 1964, the musical Baker Street, featuring songs by Canadian composers Marion Grudeff and Ray Jessel, premiered in Boston. After revisions and a two-week stint in Toronto, Baker Street opened on Broadway in February 1965.
  • In 1968, the three-day Miami Pop Festival opened. About 100,000 people paid $6 to $7 to see such headliners as Chuck Berry, Fleetwood Mac, Marvin Gaye and the Grateful Dead.
    In 1993, country music hunk Billy Ray Cyrus married Leticia Finley in a secret ceremony...
  • In 1975, a 25-year-old man pointed a pistol at rocker Ted Nugent during a concert in Spokane, Wash. He was disarmed by security men and members of the audience.
  • In 1976, bluesman Freddie King, a major influence on British rock guitarists, died in Dallas of heart failure, a bloodclot and bleeding ulcers. He was 42.
    Among King’s admirers is Eric Clapton, who recorded King’s Have You Ever Loved a Woman? on his Layla album. King recorded more than 75 sides for the Federal label in the 1960s, including the instrumental hit Hideaway. But his biggest success came early in the following decade. King began playing before white rock audiences who had been introduced to the blues by British bands such as Cream, John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers and Chicken Shack.
  • In 1983, The Beach Boys’ drummer Dennis Wilson drowned while swimming off Marina Del Ray, near Los Angeles. He was 39. The city coroner’s office said Wilson had a high level of alcohol in his bloodstream.
    In April, 1986, Wilson’s widow and son were awarded $400,000 in life insurance by a jury which rejected an insurance company’s claims that Wilson had lied about using drugs and alcohol.
    Dennis Wilson was the only regular surfer among The Beach Boys. It was he who suggested to his brother Brian and cousin Mike Love in 1961 that they write a song about his favourite sport. The result was Surfin’, The Beach Boys’ first record.
  • In 1991, nine people died in a crush to get into a charity basketball game featuring rap stars at City College in New York. Twenty-eight others were injured. Police estimated 5,000 people went to the gymnasium, which had a capacity of 2,730. Most of the victims were crushed in a stairwell leading to the basement gym.
    The Heavy D and Puff Daddy Celebrity Charity Basketball Game was supposed to raise money for AIDS education, but a later city report said the promoter could not arrange for anyone to accept the funds.
  The report also said nearly everyone involved in the event showed an “abysmal failure of responsibility,” including police, college officials, organizers, student groups and the crowd itself.
  • In 1992, a son, Adrian Edward Simon, was born to Paul Simon and his wife, singer Edie Brickell. He was Simon’s second child, and Brickell’s first.
  • In 1992, Bruce Springsteen and Jon Bon Jovi showed up at the Stone Pony club in Asbury Park, N.J., to perform with fellow Jersey native, Southside Johnny.
  • In 1993, country music hunk Billy Ray Cyrus married Leticia Finley in a secret ceremony at the singer’s home south of Nashville. The couple had been dating for more than two years and had a one-year-old child, Miley. They filed for divorce twice (2010 and 2013) but reconciled both times.
  • In 1993, Canadian country singer Shania Twain married her producer, Robert Mutt Lange, in Nashville. They divorced in 2008.
  • In 1995, William Lee Golden rejoined The Oak Ridge Boys nearly nine years after he was fired from the band.