Eagle Classic Hitstory July 25 on birminghamseagle.com

On This Day in Eagle Classic Hitstory...

July 25

1943
Drummer Jim McCarty, the missing link between the Yardbirds and the Detroit Wheels, is born in Liverpool, England.

1948
Folk singer Steve Goodman, who wrote "The City of New Orleans," is born in Chicago. Steve Goodman wrote this song in 1970 on a sketch pad after his wife fell asleep on the Illinois Central train, where they were going to visit his wife's grandmother. Goodman wrote about what he saw looking out the windows of the train and playing cards in the club car. He performed the song for Arlo Guthrie in the Quiet Knight, a bar in Chicago, and Guthrie agreed to add it to his repertoire. Goodman died September 20, 1984 at the age of 36 after a long battle with leukemia.

1950
Bassist Mark Clarke of hard-rock legends Mountain and Uriah Heep is born in Liverpool, England.

1951
Verdine White, slaphappy bassist with Earth, Wind & Fire, is born in Chicago.

1958
Thurston Moore, eternal teenager and guitarist with Sonic Youth, is born in Coral Gables, Fla.

1962
The Elvis Presley film Kid Galahad premieres.

1964
Billboard reports England has a hot new band. The Animals debut single "House of the Rising Sun" entered the U.K. chart at #16. The next week, it's at #3 and seven days later it's number one. To promote the group in the U.S., disc jockeys were sent boxes of animal crackers wrapped with special promotional material.

1966
In San Francisco, the Rolling Stones perform their last U.S. concert with Brian Jones.

1966
Eric Clapton plays lead guitar for George Harrison’s "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" on the album The Beatles (also known as "The White Album").

1967
The Beatles and other U.K. rock groups urge the British government to legalize marijuana. Their comments are made in a London Times advertisement signed by all four of the Beatles and their manager, Brian Epstein.

1969
Led Zeppelin play Milwaukee at the Midwest Rock Festival. Former Yardbird Eric Clapton, who is playing with Blind Faith the next day, catches the set by fellow former Yardbird Jimmy Page's new band. "They were very loud," he later remembers. "I thought it was unnecessarily loud. I liked some of it; I really did like some of it. But a lot of it was just too much. They overemphasized whatever point they were making, I thought."

1969
Neil Young makes his first appearance with Crosby, Stills, and Nash at New York's Fillmore East.

1970
Chicago's "25 or 6 to 4" is released.

1971
The Beach Boys enjoy a commercial comeback of sorts with the release of Surf’s Up. The No. 29 position is their highest chart placement since 1966’s Pet Sounds.

1972
Punk poetess Patti Smith goes to see the Rolling Stones and Stevie Wonder at Madison Square Garden and remembers it as: "My brain cracked like an egg. The gold liquid spurted all over the stage. Mick bathed in it. Keith got his feet wet." Mm-hmm.

1980
Kiss unveil their new drummer at New York’s Palladium. The newly christened Eric Carr, born Paul Caravello, is made up to look like a fox after the band decides against the hawk look.

1980
AC\DC releases Back In Black, their first album with Brian Johnson as lead singer.

1984
The body of "Big Mama" Thornton, who recorded the original "Hound Dog," is found in a Los Angeles boarding house. She was 57.

1985
Bob Dylan appears at the 12th World Festival of Youths and Students in Moscow. He performs "Blowin' in the Wind," "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall," and "The Times They Are A-Changin'."

1989
Steve Rubell dies of complications stemming from HIV. He was the mastermind behind Studio 54, and was played by Mike Myers in the movie of the same name.

1990
Comic Roseanne Barr is booed off the field after she screeches a crotch-grabbing rendition of the national anthem at a Padres baseball game in San Diego. President Bush calls the performance "disgusting."
Do yourself a favor and don't click the play button on this one...

1990
To the Boss, a son. Bruce Springsteen and Patti Scialfa become the proud parents of Evan James.

1992
Bryan Adams helps two motorists whose car struck his on a highway in St. Gellen, Switzerland. Adams was traveling from Zurich to Vienna as part of a concert tour when the other car skidded out of control, grazed his car and hit an embankment.

1995
Singer Nina Simone fires a gun at a pair of noisy teenagers playing next door to her home in southern France. She is put on 18 months probation and ordered to seek psychological counseling.

1997
John Berry fills a tall order when he provides music following the weddings of 48 couples at a radio station promotion for WYGY-FM in Cincinnati. Following the ceremony, Berry serenades the couples with his romance-oriented hits, "Your Love Amazes Me" and "I Will If You Will."

1997
On the Grand Old Opry Martina McBride debuts her new single "Broken Wing" with a special guest. Her father, Daryl Schiff (considered a part-time singer) joins her on the stage.

1998
Jazz guitarist Tal Farlow dies of esophageal cancer in New York. He is 77. Farlow worked with such musicians as Charles Mingus, Red Norvo, and Eddie Costa in a career spanning four decades.

1999
At Woodstock 99, all hell breaks loose. Fires fueled by paper plates, pizza boxes, and garbage strewn around everywhere break out during a set by the Red Hot Chili Peppers. The group’s encore is delayed because a remote sound tower begins to burn. A fire truck is brought in to put out the blaze.

2000
Pat DiNizio, frontman of the Smithereens, officially announces that he is running for a U.S. Senate seat for New Jersey on the Reform Party ticket.

2001
Blues singer/songwriter Bonnie Raitt and former Doors drummer John Densmore are among activists arrested after a public protest in Itasca, Illinois, a northwest suburb of Chicago. Raitt and Densmore join with other members of the Rainforest Action Network (RAN) to demonstrate against the forest products company Boise Cascade Corporation, which RAN claims destroys ancient rainforests and tries to limit the free speech rights of its opponents.

2001
Mariah Carey checks herself into an undisclosed hospital, suffering from "extreme exhaustion." She also pulls out of MTV20: Live and Almost Legal, the anniversary event she was due to headline August 1 in New York.

2003
A student film of John Lennon imitating a baboon sells for $53,700 at an auction.

2003
Scottish band Dogs Die in Hot Cars lead singer Craig McIntosh is electrocuted onstage in Dundee.

2003
Singer/guitarist with rising English band The Libertines, Pete Doherty, is arrested for burglary after allegedly breaking into a basement apartment in central London.

2003
Nelly and the St. Lunatics play New York’s Radio City Music Hall during their Up Close and Personal tour.

2003
Iron Butterfly guitarist Erik Braunn dies of heart failure. He was 52.

2003
Mariah Carey kicks off her tour behind her album Charmbracelet at Celine Dion’s venue of choice, The Colosseum at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas.

2005
Megadeth lead singer Dave Mustaine sues his former bassist David Ellefson, alleging he used the name of the group without Mustaine’s permission.

2005
Sony BMG Music Entertainment admits to using payola to get songs by Jennifer Lopez, Good Charlotte, Avril Lavigne, and others on the radio following an investigation by the New York District Attorney’s office.

July 25 Birthdays