Seventies Daily Music Chronicle - March 1974

March 1974
Sunday	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday
					1 Judge Sirica hands down grand jury indictments against seven former Richard Nixon aides involved in the Watergate break-in. On Mar. 26, the same grand jury gives the House Judiciary Committee a secret report regarding possible impeachment of Nixon for his role in the cover-up.	2 Stevie Wonder wins five Grammy Awards, in Los Angeles. The singer takes the honors for Album of the Year (Innervisions), Best Pop Vocal Performance ("You Are the Sunshine of My Life"), Best R&B Song ("Superstition"), Best R&B Vocal Performance ("Superstition"), and Best Engineered Recording (Innervisions). Says Wonder on his five trips to the podium that night: "I would like to thank you all for making this the sunshine of my life tonight." Roberta Flack wins three for "Killing Me Softly With His Song." The Top Five 1. "Seasons in the Sun" - Terry Jacks 2. "The Way We Were" - Barbra Streisand 3. "Spiders and Snakes" - Jim Stafford 4. "Boogie Down" - Eddie Kendricks 5. "Jungle Boogie" - Kool & the Gang
3 Thirteen of 29 professional baseball salary disputes are settled in favor of the players, including the Oakland A's star Reggie Jackson.	4 A heavily coiffed Mia Farrow graces the cover of the first People magazine. Farrow, who is shown biting a string of pearls, is starring in the lavish new Paramount remake of The Great Gatsby opposite Robert Redford. From venerable publishers Time, Inc., People also bows with features on Gloria Vanderbilt and Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. With deep pockets, a 35 cent cover price, and a circulation base of one million, thanks to painstaking pre-launch research and marketing, People proves to be such a smashing success that it spawns several imitators including the bimonthly Us, from the New York Times company (it is later sold to Rolling Stone publisher Jann Wenner).	5 Gregg Allman's first solo album, Laid Back, attains gold status, and sets off rumors that the Allman Brothers are breaking up. Guitarist Dickey Betts will release his own solo album later in the year.	6 The Watergate scandal continues to trigger shock waves. In Washington, D.C., President Nixon finally admits that the Watergate burglars were paid hush money -- edging him even closer to the precipice from which he'll soon fall. Meanwhile, on the other coast Robert Redford pays $450,000 for the film rights to Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward's Pulitzer Prize-winning book All the President's Men, which Redford will adapt into a movie and in two years become the second highest-grossing movie of 1976.	7	8	9 Grand Funk Railroad releases its latest single, a remake of Little Eva's 1962 chart-topper "The Loco-Motion." Grand Funk's revival of the Gerry Goffin and Carole King-penned tune, which becomes the band's crowd-pleasing concert finale, will also reach the No. 1 spot on May 4.
10 David Bowie records an in-concert album titled David Live at the Tower Theatre in Philadelphia. Still a year away from his first #1 and biggest hit, "Fame," Bowie will go on to chart 26 times through 1995 in America. David's first love was art, and before becoming a rock idol, he was an art teacher.	11	12 John Lennon is involved in an altercation with a photographer outside the Troubador club in Los Angeles. Lennon and Harry Nilsson had been heckling comedian Tommy Smothers, and were ejected from the club. Lennon later apologizes.	13	14 The Hawaii state legislature is streaked by hairstylist Gary Rogers, who declares himself "Streaker of the House" and is arrested for "open lewdness."	15 Still under investigation by House and Senate committes, a federal grand jury and a special independent prosecutor, President Nixon announces that he will not resign and will continue to resist demands for White House information about alleged scandals and cover-ups.	16 The Grand Ole Opry moves from the old Ryman Auditorium to the new $28-million Opryland complex, where it resumes regular broadcast and telecasts. Special guest President Nixon performs three songs on the piano and then shuffles offstage to the tune of "Hail to the Chief." Veteran Los Angeles police detective Joseph Wambaugh, Jr., whose novels were the bases for many 1970s films and television programs (1972's The New Centurions, 1973's The Blue Knight, 1977's The Choirboys, 1979's The Onion Field, the Police Story TV series), resigns from the L.A.P.D. due to increased publicity and to pursue his writing career full-time.
17	18 Seven of nine Arab states participating in the U.S. oil embargo agree to end all of the petroleum export restrictions imposed after the Yom Kippur War. No immediate effect on prices appears, however, as petroleum companies continue to rake in the profits.	19 The Jefferson Airplane begin their first tour under the name Jefferson Starship. Included in the lineup is Paul Kantner, Grace Slick, drummer Johnny Barbata, David Freiberg, Peter Kaukonen, Papa John Creach and Craig Chaquico. By next year, the band will coax Marty Balin into returning and set the stage for their 1975 comeback.	20	21	22 CIA estimates of 11,000 Chileans dying as a direct result of the previous fall's military coup are reported.	23 The Top Five 1. "Dark Lady" - Cher 2. "Seasons in the Sun" - Terry Jacks 3. "Sunshine on my Shoulders" - John Denver 4. "Boogie Down" - Eddie Kendricks 5. "Mockingbird" - Carly Simon & James Taylor
24	25	26 David Essex, "England's David Cassidy," enjoys his one and only successful U.S. single, "Rock On" (from the U.S. album of the same name), which turns gold on this date. Essex's overseas popularity mostly stems from his film roles, which include playing Jesus in "Godspell," and the lead roles in "That'll Be the Day" and "Stardust." Comparisons are made to the late James Dean, of which Essex says, "I really loved James Dean, but being David Essex is enough for me right now." Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells turns gold. Part of the work by the British teenage prodigy is used as the score for the film The Exorcist. Heavyweight champion George Foreman defeats Ken Norton in Caracas, Venezuela.	27	28 The Raspberries have split in two. Rolling Stone reports that the rhythm section of Jim Bonfanti and Dave Smalley have left and have formed a band called Dynamite. Original members Eric Carmen and Wally Bryson, meanwhile, plan to continue, and have added drummer Mike McBride and bassist Scott McCarl. Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup dies at the age of 69 from a stroke. Crudup, born in Mississippi, was the composer of "That's All Right (Mama)," which Elvis Presley heard on a jukebox and cut in 1954 as his first record for Sun, eight years after Crudup's own recording of the song. Unfortunately, Crudup was victimized by shady deals through his career and died in poverty. "Credit is all I ever got," he once said. "Hooked on a Feeling" by Blue Swede turns gold. The group's novel version of the B.J. Thomas 1968 hit is best remembered for its "ooga-chugga, ooga-chugga" background chant. It hits Number One in April.	29	30 The Top Five 1. "Sunshine on my Shoulders" - John Denver 2. "Hooked on a Feeling" - Blue Suede 3. "Seasons in the Sun" - Terry Jacks 4. "Bennie and the Jets" - Elton John 5. "Dark Lady" - Cher
31 Three Miami Dolphins: Larry Csonka, Jim Kiick and Paul Warfield, sign lucrative contracts with the newly created World Football League. Various NFL teams go to court in attempts to prevent their players from defecting, but a U.S. District Court decision on May 14 prohibits further NFL injunctions.

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