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N0KFQ > TODAY 09.05.14 16:03l 52 Lines 2427 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 19970_N0KFQ
Read: GUEST
Subj: Today in History - May 9
Path: IZ3LSV<IR1UAW<IW2OHX<IQ2LB<DB0ANF<CX2SA<N9PMO<N9PMO<N0KFQ
Sent: 140509/1500Z 19970@N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA BPQK1.4.60
May 9, 1964:
An unlikely challenger ends the Beatles' reign atop the U.S. pop
charts
Following the ascension of "I Wanna Hold Your Hand" to #1 in
early February, the Beatles held the top spot on the Billboard
Hot 100 for three and a half solid months_longer than any popular
artist before or since. Over the course of those months, the Fab
Four earned three consecutive #1 singles (a record); held all
five spots in the top five in early April (a record); and had a
total of 14 songs in the Billboard Hot 100 in mid-April (yet
another record). But just when it seemed that no homegrown act
would ever stand up to the British invaders, one of least likely
American stars imaginable proved himself equal to the task. On
May 9, 1964, the great Louis Armstrong, age 63, broke the
Beatles' stranglehold on the U.S. pop charts with the #1 hit
"Hello Dolly."
In a way, it was entirely appropriate that a titan such as Louis
Armstrong would be the artist to end the reign of the first
foreign group ever to take over the American pop scene. It can be
argued, after all, that Armstrong bears more responsibility for
shaping the course of 20th-century American music than Elvis
Presley and Frank Sinatra combined. Louis Armstrong became one of
jazz music's first individual superstars as a young trumpet
player in the 1920s and 30s, but more than that, he
revolutionized jazz itself by turning it into an individual
improvisational art form. The recordings Armstrong made with his
Hot Five and Hot Seven combos between 1925 and 1927 are widely
credited with creating much of the foundation for the future of
jazz and blues performance and, by extension, of rock and roll.
Armstrong's own statement that "if it hadn't been for jazz, there
wouldn't be no rock and roll," was effectively endorsed by the
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, which inducted Armstrong as an "early
influencer" in 1990.
Of course it wasn't Louis Armstrong the young revolutionary, but
Louis Armstrong the late-career light entertainer who knocked the
Beatles from the top of the pops. By the early 1960s, Armstrong's
most important and influential work was already behind him, yet
his famous charisma and ebullient personality were still enough
to lift a show tune like "Hello Dolly" to the #1 spot on the pop
charts_and over the Beatles--on this day in 1964.
73, K.O. n0kfq
N0KFQ @ N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA
E-mail: kohiggs@gmail.com
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