This Weekend in Music History

April 19th, 1974 - Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band appear at the State Theatre in New Brunswick. Tickets are only $4.50 and the promoter of the event takes a gamble that word-of-mouth will be enough to fill the 550 seats, however, only 250 attended.

April 19th, 1997 - Michael Jackson is at the unveiling of a wax statue of himself at the Grevin Museum of Wax in Paris. Jackson had provided the museum with one of his own outfits with which they dressed the wax figure.

April 20th, 1969 - Session drummer Benny Benjamin dies. He was one of 'The Funk Brothers' and played on many Motown hits in his career, recording with The Four Tops, Temptations, Marvin Gaye, The Supremes and Stevie Wonder.

April 20th, 1981 - John Phillips of The Mamas and the Papas is sentenced to jail after pleading guilty to drug possession charges; the sentence was lifted after 30 days. Phillips started touring the US speaking out against drug use. Soon after he would co-write the #1 Beach Boys hit Kokomo which is probably his most famous, non-”mamas and the papas” work.

April 21st, 1969 - Janis Joplin appeared at The Royal Albert Hall in London. The opening act that night was Yes. Joplin was well known for her performing abilities and her fans referred to her stage presence as electric.

April 21st, 1984 - Phil Collins starts a run at No.1 in the US singles chart with the theme from ‘Against All Odds’. It was Phil’s first US No.1 and lasted 3 weeks. Originally titled “How Can You Just Sit There?”, the song was initially from the sessions for Collins’ debut solo album Face Value, and it was one of about a dozen written for his first wife, who had left him.