Tony Sheridan and His Pre-Fab Beat Brothers

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In the early 1970s I was rounding out my collection of Beatles LPs, when I stumbled upon one called "The Beatles Featuring Tony Sheridan - In the Beginning, Circa 1960." I considered this a real find! I hadn't been aware of any pre-1963 Beatles recordings, and I had never known the boys to collaborate on vinyl with anyone. Who the heck was Tony Sheridan? Well, if you're a follower of Fab Four history, don't miss this chapter on one of The Beatles' early, influential mentors, who was born on this date in 1940.

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The First Family of Psychedelic Pop

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Who was the youngest person to perform on a U.S. top ten hit record? Thinking Michael Jackson or Jimmy Osmond? No, it was Susan Cowsill, 56 today, of The Cowsills – a family band that proved you could make psychedelic music even while promoting milk for the American Dairy Association. Susan had just turned 9 when she sang background vocals on the group’s “Indian Lake,” which reached #10 on the Billboard charts in 1968. The Cowsills featured siblings Bill, Bob, Barry, John, Paul and Susan, plus mom Barbara. The band was the inspiration behind the ’70 TV sitcom “The Partridge Family.”

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Hey, Pete: So Glad You Didn’t F-F-Fade Away

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"Pete Townshend's suicide note" is how music critic Roy Carr once described The Who's October 1975 release "The Who By Numbers." The band's founder, songwriter and lead guitarist bared his tortured soul on this LP like no other. Yer blogger bought the record at the height of her teenage existential crisis...and needless to say, she loved it.

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Bob Dylan and Scarlet Rivera: Strings of Rolling Thunder

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Man, I can't tell you how many times my shrink has had to listen to me recount this dream: I'm strutting down the street decked out like Joan Jett -- carrying a guitar/amp/tambourine/harmonica - when a car pulls over and a famous, seasoned musician asks me to stop by a recording studio and rehearse with him. Instant stardom, based on nothing more than IMAGE. Hey, it's no more far fetched than grabbing 15 minutes of fame by being anointed "star du jour" by the glam-bam-thank-you-ma'am "American Idol" judges. Being swept off the street by a rock star may be nothing more than a wet dream for yer blogger, but this really did happen to a young violinist named Donna Shea, better known as Scarlet Rivera.

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Liberace in Paradise (Nevada, that is)

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Those of us who embrace the adage "vanity trumps sanity" know it's often necessary to suffer for beauty. But who among the world's leading fashionistas would or could endure the discomfort of performing in an outfit that weighs 200 pounds? Flamboyant pianist-showman Władziu Valentino Liberace, of course. His famous, weighty King Neptune ensemble was one of many extravaganzas on display at the now-defunct Liberace Museum in Paradise, Nevada.

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