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March 1975 | ||||||
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1 Winners of the seventeenth annual Grammy Awards for 1974 are announced. Record of the Year is Olivia Newton-John's "I Honestly Love You" (which also wins Newton-John an award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance). Album of the Year is Stevie Wonder's Fulfillingness' First Finale (he wins Best Male Pop Vocal Performance). Song of the Year is "The Way We Were," the theme song from the move of the same title. Paul McCartney and Wings win two awards, one for Best Engineered Nonclassical Recording (Band on the Run) and the other for Best Pop Vocal Group Performance ("Band on the Run"). Thom Bell of Philadelphia International Records wins Best Producer of the Year; one of his productions, MFSB's "TSOP (the Sound of Philadelphia)," wins Best Rhythm & Blues Instrumental Performance. Best R&B Female Vocal Performance is Aretha Franklin's "Ain't Nothing like the Real Thing"; Best R&B Male Vocal Performance is Stevie Wonder's "Boogie On Reggae Woman"; and Best R&B Song is Stevie Wonder's "Livin' for the City." Elvis Presley's "How Great Thou Art" wins Best Inspirational Perforamance. Best Instrumental Composition is Mike Oldfield's "Tubular Bells." Joni Mitchell and Tom Scott win Best Arrangement Accompanying Vocalists for Mitchell's "Down to You." The 22-month American Bicentennial celebration officially begins amid controversy over commercialism, ethnic involvement and the government's role. The Top Five 1. "Best of my Love" - Eagles 2. "Have You Never Been Mellow" - Olivia Newton-John 3. "Black Water" - Doobie Brothers 4. "My Eyes Adored You" - Frankie Valli 5. "Some Kind of Wonderful" - Grand Funk |
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2 After pulling over a late-model Lincoln Continental for allegedly running a red light, Los Angeles police detect the smell of marijuana and arrest Linda McCartney for having six to eight ounces of the drug in her pocketbook. Husband Paul, behind the wheel, is not charged with personal possession, as Linda later is. |
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5 Rocker Rod Stewart and actress Britt Eckland begin a highly publicized romance after meeting at a party given by Joni Mitchell in Los Angeles. |
6 The Average White Band -- all-white Scots playing black-sounding funk music -- earns its first gold record for the instrumental "Pick Up the Pieces," which hit Number One in the pop chart in February. The track was featured on AWB's eponymously titled 1974 debut LP, which also hit Number One in its 43 weeks on the album chart. Tech. Sgt. Leonard Matlovich hand delivers his coming out letter to his Langley Air Force Base commander, becoming the first gay service member to purposely out himself to the military to fight their ban on gays. Matlovich, who won the Bronze Star and the Purple Heart for wounds suffered in Vietnam, will be diagnosed with AIDS in Sept. 1986, living in San Francisco until his death in Los Angeles on June 24, 1988, at age 44. On Memorial Day 1975, his struggle is profiled in a front page story in The New York Times, and the same evening, in Walter Cronkite's CBS evening news broadcast. Three years later, his story is told in the NBC made-for-TV movie Sergeant Matlovich vs. The U.S. Air Force (starring One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest's Brad Dourif as Matlovich). |
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8 The Top Five 1. "Have You Never Been Mellow" - Olivia Newton-John 2. "Black Water" - Doobie Brothers 3. "My Eyes Adored You" - Frankie Valli 4. "Lady Marmalade" - Labelle 5. "Lonely People" - America |
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10 Pres. Thieu of South Vietnam orders the evacuation of the Central Highlands after the fall of Ban Me Thout. Twenty-eight hundred fans get the opportunity to hear the world premiere playback of Blue Jays, the first post-Moody Blues project released by once and future members of the then-defunct group Justin Hayward and John Lodge. The zenith of the so-called event, held at Carnegie Hall, is reached during a standing ovation for the presentation of a huge mock-up of the album's cover. |
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13 After six tumultuous years of marriage, country music's king and queen, George Jones and Tammy Wynette, d-i-v-o-r-c-e. |
14 North Vietnamese attacks focus on Ban Me Thuot, near Saigon. In Cambodia, a communist takeover of Phnom Penh seems likely; Western officials and personnel begin evacuating three days later. |
15 The Top Five 1. "Black Water" - Doobie Brothers 2. "My Eyes Adored You" - Frankie Valli 3. "Lady Marmalade" - Labelle 4. "Have You Never Been Mellow" - Olivia Newton-John 5. "Lovin' You" - Minnie Riperton |
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16 Legendary blues guitarist Aaron "T-Bone" Walker dies of pneumonia in Los Angeles at age sixty-four. Walker, who began recording in 1929, is generally credited with developing the modern-day style of electric-guitar blues playing favored by B.B. King and others. London's Rainbow, which operated since November 1971 as the British capital's answer to the Fillmores, closes down with a concert billed as Over the Rainbow, featuring Procol Harum, John Martyn and Kevin Coyne. |
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19 It's pinball wizardry at the box office as The Who's energetic rock opera Tommy hits theaters. The motion picture adaptation of the 1969 concept album stars the band's Roger Daltrey in the title role, along with standout performances by Ann-Margret as his mother, Tina Turner as the acid queen, and Elton John (replacing Rod Stewart, who later plays the part on the London stage) as the former pinball champ. Reviews are mixed. |
20 South Vietnamese president Nguyen Van Thieu pledges to hold off major advances by the Viet Cong. Two days later, a major military base 40 miles west of Saigon is reported overrun. By month's end, Communist forces will enter South Vietnam's second-largest city, Da Nang, and meet scant resistance. |
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22 Janis Ian, who was discovered by classical conductor-composer Leonard Bernstein, enters the charts with her latest LP Between the Lines. It will become her only #1 of eight Top 200 albums. After months of shuttle diplomacy -- traveling between Middle Eastern capitals, attempting to find a permanent solution to the political impasse after the 1973 war -- Secretary of State Henry Kissinger suspends his efforts, blaming irreconcilable differences between Israelis and Arabs. Two days later, President Ford and Kissinger repledge U.S. efforts to find peace in the Middle East. The Top Five 1. "My Eyes Adored You" - Frankie Valli 2. "Lady Marmalade" - Labelle 3. "Lovin' You" - Minnie Riperton 4. "Black Water" - Doobie Brothers 5. "Have You Never Been Mellow" - Olivia Newton-John |
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23 San Francisco's Kezar Stadium is the site for a Bill Graham-run benefit show entitled SNACK (Students Need Athletics, Culture and Kicks). The show features the Grateful Dead, Tower of Power, Jefferson Starship, Graham Central Station, Joan Baez, Neil Young and "surprise guest" Bob Dylan appearing in an effort to add money to the drained coffers of the San Francisco school system, which recently canceled most sports and after-hours activities becuse of a $3-million budget deficit. The affair raises nearly $200,000, but it's no longer really needed, because the day before the event, an announcement is made that, through a financial adjustment, $2.1 million has been "found." |
24 Heavyweight contender Chuck Wepner (a.k.a. the "Bayonne Blender"), and ex-liquor salesman and security guard, squares off against Muhammed Ali. As expected, Wepner takes a savage beating but gamely battles through, losing on a 15th round TKO, but makes the biggest payday of his life, $100,000 (to Ali's 1.5 million). Watching on closed circuit tonight is a little-known, lightly regarded actor named Sylvester Stallone. Within a week, he cranks out a rags-to-riches boxing screenplay called Rocky, which the following year will deliver a double Oscar shot of best picture and director, catapulting the "Italian Stallion" to star status and spawning five sequels. |
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26 The city of Hue in South Vietnam is captured by the North Vietnamese. Ken Russell's Tommy, which is based on the rock opera by The Who, premieres in London, England. Tommy features Tina Turner and Elton John, and its plot follows a mother abusing her handicapped son who overcomes his disabilities to become a champion pinball player or the "Pinball Wizard." |
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29 North Vietnam overtakes the city of Danang and moves towards the South Vietnamese capital of Saigon. Led Zeppelin registers all six of its albums on the charts simultaneously, a feat never before accomplished in pop history. For the record, coming after its chart-topping current release, Physical Graffiti, are: Led Zeppelin IV at #83; Houses of the Holy at #92; Led Zeppelin II at #104; Led Zeppelin at #116; and Led Zeppelin III at #124. Just weeks after Mardi Gras, Labelle's "Lady Marmalade," already a Number One R&B hit, reaches Number One on the pop chart, where it will stay for one week. The disco anthem about a New Orleans hooker features the French chorus that will become a catch phrase of the disco era: "Voulez-vous couchez avec moi ce soir?" (literally, "Do you want to sleep with me tonight?"). The Top Five 1. "Lady Marmalade" - Labelle 2. "Lovin' You" - Minnie Riperton 3. "Philadelphia Freedom" - Elton John Band 4. "Express" - B.T. Express 5. "You Are So Beautiful" - Joe Cocker |
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