October 24, 1962: James Brown Plays His "Live at the Apollo" Concert

October 24, 1962: James Brown plays the Apollo Theater in New York. The concert is recorded for an album titled Live at the Apollo, released on May 1, 1963.

The album was recorded at the foremost African-American-oriented entertainment venue on Earth, during the Cuban Missile Crisis. But Brown and his backing band, the Famous Flames, performed as if there were no tomorrow.

The album lasts just 31 minutes and 31 seconds. And, of course, it doesn't include most of the songs associated with James, such as "I Got You (I Feel Good)," "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag," "It's a Man's Man's Man's Man's World," "Say It Loud (I'm Black and I'm Proud)," "Sex Machine" and "Living In America." All of those came later.

It does include his 1st hit, from 1956: "Please, Please, Please." And it includes his current hit, a reworking of "Night Train," Jimmy Forrest's 1952 rhythm & blues classic that gave football legend Dick Lane his nickname, and also became a mainstay of high school and college marching bands at football games.

In 2015, Rolling Stone magazine named this album the greatest live album of all time. In his 1995 book The Book of Rock Lists, music historian Dave Marsh said that making a great recording and making a great concert require different techniques that often contradict each other, and thus it was easier to name the worst live albums than the best ones. Nevertheless, he chose this as Number 1 on his best list, saying that it would be perfect if you could see Brown dancing.

The Apollo Theater, at 253 West 125th Street, opened in 1913, for white customers and performers only, even as the Harlem neighborhood around it was shifting from a German to a black neighborhood. In 1934, a new owner made it a venue for black customers and performers, and everyone from Duke Ellington to Lizzo has played it since.

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October 24, 1962 was a Wednesday. This was also the day that the film The Manchurian Candidate premiered. I have a separate entry for that event. And Jay Novacek, the tight end on the Dallas Cowboys' 3 Super Bowl wins of the 1990s, was born on this day.

The baseball season had ended 8 days earlier, with the New York Yankees beating the San Francisco Giants in Game 7 of the World Series. Football was in midweek. The NHL season was underway, but no games were scheduled.

There were 2 games played in the NBA. The Chicago Zephyrs beat the Los Angeles Lakers, 118-107 at the Chicago Coliseum. Walt Bellamy scored 42 points. The next season, the Zephyrs became the Baltimore Bullets. In 1973, they moved to Washington. In 1997, they were renamed the Washington Wizards.

And the St. Louis Hawks beat the Cincinnati Royals, 121-114 at the Kiel Auditorium in St. Louis. Oscar Robertson scored 31 points. The Hawks moved to Atlanta in 1968. The Royals became the Kansas City Kings in 1972, and the Sacramento Kings in 1985.

June 20, 1980: “The Blues Brothers” Premieres

Dan Aykroyd (left) as Elwood, and John Belushi as Jake

June 20, 1980: The Blues Brothers premieres, one of the few Saturday Night Live flicks that was turned into a good movie.

SNL castmembers Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi had previously appeared as the Killer Bees, singing blues songs. Belushi, from Wheaton, Illinois, outside Chicago, and Aykroyd, from Ottawa, both loved the blues, but Belushi told show creator and executive producer Lorne Michaels, "I hate the fucking Bees!" So the sketch was reworked into The Blues Brothers, who debuted on April 22, 1978.

Belushi was Joliet Jake, so named because he'd done time at Illinois' Joliet Correctional Center outside Chicago. (One of the most famous prisons in America, it closed in 2002 and is now open to tours.) Aykroyd was his brother Elwood. While Jake sang lead, Elwood could also play a mean harmonica.

While "Blues" was technically their surname, they sang mainly rhythm & blues (R&B) and soul music. They were backed by Booker T. & the M.G.'s: Guitarist Steve "The Colonel" Cropper, bass guitarist Donald "Duck" Dunn," keyboard player Booker T. Jones, and Willie "Too Big" Hall, who became the group's drummer after the original, Al Jackson Jr., was murdered in 1975.

They were also backed by The Memphis Horns, who had worked with the M.G.'s on several hits by performers' on Stax Records in Memphis: "Blue" Lou Marini and Tom "Triple Scale" Scott on saxophone, Alan "Mr. Fabulous" Rubin on trumpet, and Tom "Bones" Malone on trombone.

Those Stax hits included the original 1967 version of "Soul Man," by Sam & Dave. The Blues Brothers made it a hit all over again, wearing black suits, sunglasses and fedoras. Both Jake and Elwood, despite their respective sizes, were fantastic dancers. Having Cropper allowed Jake to yell out what Sam Moore yelled out midway through the original version: "Play it, Steve!"

The act would be extended to a 1980 film, which is still regarded as the best film ever to be made from an SNL sketch. Jake gets out of prison, and is picked up by Elwood, who tells him that the orphanage where they grew up will be closed by the church that runs it unless $5,000 in property taxes are paid to the Cook County Assessor's office, at the Richard J. Daley Center, downtown.

So, Cliché Alert: They get the band back together. Along the way, they meet characters played by music legends Cab Calloway, who sings "Minnie the Moocher"; Ray Charles, who sings "Shake a Tail Feather"; James Brown, who plays a minister and sings "The Old Landmark"; Chaka Khan, who plays Brown's choir leader and sings backup on the song; and Aretha Franklin, who sings "Think."

They manage to put on a show 106 miles from the Daley Center, and get $10,000. On the way back, they are pursued by the Illinois State Police, seeking Elwood for driving with a suspended license, 116 parking tickets, and 56 moving violations; neo-Nazis, whom Jake had dispersed with his wild driving of the Bluesmobile; the Good Ole Boys, a country band whose gig they inadvertently stole; and Jake's ex-fiancée, played by Carrie Fisher, who apparently went nuts and swore revenge after he broke it off.

They manage to get the money delivered with seconds to spare, and are arrested on the spot. The movie ends with the Brothers back in prison, but with the band, Cab, Ray, James, Chaka and Aretha accompanying them as they play "Jailhouse Rock."

Director John Landis got 12 1974 Dodge Monacos to serve as the Bluesmobile. By the time filming was done, exactly none of them were still driveable.

The Dixie Square Mall, south of Chicago in Harvey, Illinois, had already closed by the time the movie came out, so there was no worry about damage. It sat abandoned until finally being demolished in 2012. I wonder if the guy operating the wrecking ball was told to "Hit it!"

For the record: I also hate Illinois Nazis. I also hate Nazis from the other 49 States. And so should you.

Belushi's death in 1982 seemed to kill the act, but Aykroyd later revived it with John's brother Jim Belushi, who became an SNL castmember, and actor John Goodman, a frequent SNL host. Together, the 3 of them played as The Blues Brothers in the halftime show of Super Bowl XXXI in New Orleans in 1997.

In 1998, Blues Brothers 2000, a very weak sequel, was released. Aykroyd again played Elwood, and Goodman again played Mighty Mack McTeer (not related to the brothers), but Jim Belushi was tied to a TV contract, and could not appear again as Zee Blues, leaving it unclear as to why Elwood never previously mentioned this brother.

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June 20, 1980 was a Friday. These Major League Baseball games were played:

* The New York Yankees beat the Oakland Athletics, 15-7 at Yankee Stadium. Luis Tiant, a Yankee in 1979 and 1980, outpitched Steve McCatty. Reggie Jackson, Jim Spencer and Johnny Oates hit home runs for the Yankees. Rookie Rickey Henderson went 1-for-4 with a walk and a stolen base for the A's.

* The New York Mets lost to the Los Angeles Dodgers, 4-3 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. The Mets led, 3-2 with 2 out in the bottom of the 9th, but Pat Zachry allowed singles to Jay Johnstone and Steve Garvey. Jeff Reardon was brought in, and gave up a double to Dusty Baker to lose the game.

* The California Angels beat the Boston Red Sox, 20-2 at Fenway Park in Boston. Despite being the shortest player in baseball at the time, Angel shortstop Freddie Patek went 4-for-6 with 3 home runs and 7 RBIs. Carl Yastrzemski did not play for the Red Sox.

* The Seattle Mariners beat the Baltimore Orioles, 3-1 at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore. Eddie Murray went 0-for-4.

* The Chicago Cubs beat the Atlanta Braves, 4-2 at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium.

* The St. Louis Cardinals beat the Cincinnati Reds, 7-5 at Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati. Johnny Bench went 0-for-4.

* The Detroit Tigers beat the Chicago White Sox, 5-3 at Comiskey Park in Chicago. John Wockenfuss doubled Lance Parrish home with the winning run in the top of the 11th inning.

* The Cleveland Indians beat the Minnesota Twins, 4-3 at Metropolitan Stadium in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota. A leadoff walk to Gary Alexander and a double by Toby Harrah drove in the winning run in the top of the 15th inning.

* The Milwaukee Brewers beat the Kansas City Royals, 10-5 at Royals Stadium (now Kauffman Stadium) in Kansas City. The Brewers won without either Robin Yount or Paul Molitor playing. Nor did George Brett play for the Royals.

* The Texas Rangers beat the Toronto Blue Jays, 5-2 at Arlington Stadium in the Dallas suburb of Arlington, Texas.

* The Houston Astros beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 6-4 at the Astrodome in Houston. Willie Stargell did not play.

* The San Diego Padres beat the Montreal Expos, 4-2 at Jack Murphy Stadium in San Diego. Dave Winfield went 3-for-4 with an RBI.

* And the San Francisco Giants beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 5-1 at Candlestick Park in San Francisco. Mike Schmidt went 0-for-4. Pete Rose went 2-for-4.

April 5, 1968: James Brown at the Boston Garden

April 5, 1968: A concert is held at the Boston Garden. It almost wasn't. That could have been disastrous.

The day before, Dr. Martin Luther King, America's foremost civil rights activist, was assassinated in Memphis. Many American cities broke out in riots. On the first night, Boston's black neighborhood of Roxbury suffered disturbances, but they were largely confined to that one neighborhood.

But James Brown, the black singer known as "The Godfather of Soul" (among many other nicknames, almost as many as Babe Ruth, hence Apollo Creed's affinity for him in the film Rocky IV), was scheduled to give a concert at the Boston Garden the next night. There was a fear that his fans, at that point almost entirely black, might riot at the concert.

So the city government considered canceling the concert, in the interest of public safety. But then, it was suggested that the cancellation might cause a riot. It was a "damned if you do, and damned if you don't" situation. And the Mayor of Boston had to decide.

He was one of the youngest big-city Mayors in the country, only 38 years old, having been elected as a Democrat the previous November, after having served 7 years as the Secretary of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. His father and grandfather had both served as President of the City Council, making them 1st in line to fill a vacancy in the Mayor's office. He was facing the kind of challenge that most Mayors don't face only 3 months into the job. To make matters worse, his name was White. Kevin White.

Tom Atkins, a local NAACP leader, suggested that the concert be broadcast live on WGBH-Channel 2, Boston's station on National Educational Television (NET, which became the Public Broadcasting Service, PBS, in 1970). That way, anybody who didn't have a ticket could stay at home and watch it, instead of going to the streets around the Garden, where the situation might become figuratively, or even literally, inflamed.

White agreed, and met with Brown. Brown was concerned that if this was done, the concert wouldn't sell out. He was expecting $60,000 in gate receipts -- about $504,000 in 2022 money -- which had to be spread among himself and everybody working for him that night. White told him the City of Boston would pay any shortfall of the $60,000, and Brown agreed to let the show go on.

White went to the concert himself, taking the stage first. He reminded the crowd that Dr. King had gotten his doctorate of divinity from Boston University, and had come to love the city and its role in advancing freedom for all Americans, including black Americans. It hadn't always been apparent in recent times: Bill Russell, the great star of the Boston Celtics and by then their head coach, had called it a racist city. Events in the 1970s would deepen this perception nationally.

But White, who might have been the last person many of the fans wanted to see on that stage, spoke with great eloquence, closing with, "So all I ask you tonight is this: To let us look at each other, here in the Garden and back at home, and pledge that, no matter what any other community might do, we in Boston will honor Dr. King in peace."

The concert went on, with only one hitch: A couple of fans, both black, rushed the stage in mid-song, but Brown's bodyguards kept them from reaching him. He stopped his song, and told the fans to "cool it," waited a moment, and resumed.

But that was it. There were no further incidents inside the Garden. WGBH followed their broadcast of the concert with an immediate rebroadcast, then another. And there were no disturbances in Boston that night.

Despite losing many of his fellow Irish-Americans in standing up for the rights of black people, including during the school-busing crisis of 1974, White was re-elected in 1971, 1975 and 1979, leaving office at the beginning of 1984. His 16 years as Mayor tied the Boston record set by James Michael Curley, no 2 of whose 4 terms were consecutive. Thomas Menino would later break White's record, by being elected to 5 terms and serving 20 years.

Brown was elected to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a charter member in 1986, and died in 2006. White died in 2012.

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April 5, 1968 was a Friday. Singer Paula Cole was born.

Baseball season opened the following week. Football was out of season. The Stanley Cup Playoffs were underway, but no games were scheduled.

There were 2 games in the NBA. The Boston Celtics beat the Philadelphia 76ers, 127-118 at The Spectrum in Philadelphia. John Havlicek scored 35 points. And the Los Angeles Lakers beat the San Francisco Warriors, 133-105 at The Forum outside Los Angeles in Inglewood, California. These games were both Division Finals. The Celtics went on to beat the Lakers in the NBA Finals.

There was 1 game in the American Basketball Association Playoffs: The New Orleans Buccaneers beat the Dallas Chaparrals, 104-99 at the Loyola Field House in New Orleans.