Dj Fred’s Rock N’ Roll Factoids For January 26th [VIDEOS]

A couple of rockers crashed their rides, another chased his accountant with a rifle, Ringo hit #1, and Eddie Van Halen was born!

The song had been a big hit for Johnny Burnette in 1960, and then it hit #1 on this date in 1973 for Ringo Starr.  You're Sixteen would be one of two #1 songs for the former drummer of the Beatles, the other being Photograph. I'd say that you could bet $ on it that Ringo will sing both those songs when he appears at the Cross Insurance Center on June 8th.

On this day in 1977, Peter Green, the former Fleetwood Mac guitarist was committed to a mental hospital when he attacked his accountant with a BB gun.  His accountant was only trying to deliver a royalty check.

The tumultuous life of one of the founding members of Lynyrd Skynyrd continued on this day in 1986, when guitarist Allen Collins crashed his car while driving drunk.  The accident killed his girlfriend, and left him paralyzed from waist down.  Collins would never play onstage with Skynyrd again.  He died due to chronic pneumonia on January 23rd, 1990.

Billy Joel lost control of his Mercedes while traveling in the Hamptons on this day in 2003.  The high end care skidded for over one hundred yards before crashing into a tree. With car crashes also in 2002 and 2004, wife Christie Brinkley actually wondered out loud to the press if their daughter should be riding with him. Joel suffered only minor injuries in the crashes and would eventually check himself into a substance abuse and psychiatric center in Connecticut. Billy recently performed on the Jimmy Fallon program with hilarious results!

Corky Laing, the fabulous drummer with Mountain was born on this day in 1948.  One has to wonder exactly how many times the following song has been played by some unknown neighborhood band in a garage on a Saturday night. By the way, the song features more than enough cowbell.

Eddie Van Halen was born on this day in 1955, which makes him 55 now, and after his cancer scare a few years ago he's damn glad that he is!  Van Halen rocked the Bangor Waterfront last year to fabulous reviews, and as of right now he hasn't killed David Lee Roth, so who knows, they may come back again someday. Van Halen are the I-95 Band Of The Day!