The Current

Great Music Lives Here ®
Listener-Supported Music
Donate Now

Today in Music History: The Supremes recorded 'Baby Love'

Publicity photo of the music group The Supremes from the television program The Ed Sullivan Show.
Publicity photo of the music group The Supremes from the television program The Ed Sullivan Show.CBS Television/Public Domain

August 13, 2018

History Highlight:

Today in 1964, The Supremes recorded "Baby Love," written and produced by Motown's main production team Holland-Dozier-Holland. The song went on to be the group's second U.S. chart-topping single. It was also the second of five Supremes songs in a row to go to No. 1 in the United States.

Also, Today In:

1965 - Jefferson Airplane made their live debut at San Francisco's Matrix Club.

1966 - The Lovin' Spoonful started a three-week run at No. 1 on the U.S. singles chart with "Summer In The City." The song features a series of car horns during the instrumental bridge, starting with a Volkswagen Beetle horn, and ends up with a jackhammer sound, in order to give the impression of the sounds of an urban summer.

1971 - John Lennon flew from London's Heathrow Airport to New York, never to return to Britain.

1973 - Lynyrd Skynyrd release their debut album, Pronounced 'Lĕh-'nerd 'Skin-'nerd. It's an impressive set, containing the Skynyrd classics "Tuesday's Gone," "Simple Man" and "Free Bird."

1976 - The Clash made their first public appearance.

1979 - Cheap Trick enjoyed their biggest hit with the live version of "I Want You to Want Me."

1982 - Soul singer Joe Tex died of a heart attack. His biggest hit was "I Gotcha."

1994 - Woodstock '94 was held in Saugerties, N.Y., attended by more than 350,000 fans. The festival featured Green Day, Nine Inch Nails, Aerosmith and the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Tickets cost $135 each.

2002 - Adam Ant pleaded guilty to threatening drinkers at The Prince Of Wales Pub in London in January of 2002. The 1980s pop star had returned to the bar with a starting pistol after being refused entry. He had also thrown a car alternator through the window of the pub.

2007 - Amy Winehouse pulled out of two Rolling Stones gigs in Hamburg, Germany, citing exhaustion. British group Starsailor replaced Winehouse for the shows.

2017 - David Bowie makes a posthumous appearance in the TV series Twin Peaks: The Return. The late singer, who made a cameo appearance as a deranged FBI agent in the cult classic's 1991 prequel, Fire Walk With Me, was supposed to return for the show's revival but died before filming. Director David Lynch used archive footage from the movie to bring Bowie to life in the episode.

Birthdays:

Feargal Sharkey of The Undertones (whose hit song, "Teenage Kicks," inspired the name of our Saturday-morning retrospective show) is 60.

Coincidentally, Michael Bradley, bassist for the Undertones, is 59.

Danny Bonaduce, known for his work on TV's The Partridge Family, is 59.

Highlights for Today in Music History are gathered from This Day in Music, Paul Shaffer's Day in Rock, Song Facts and Wikipedia.