DJ Fred’s Rock N’ Roll Factoids For January 15th [VIDEOS]

It was this day in 1965 that The Who released their first single.  The group freely ,  acknowledged that the song resembled two other big hits.

In the song's liner notes, Pete Townsend even made mention how I Can't Explain started out sounding like Louie Louie by The Kingsmen with the first couple of chords, he also said it resembled All Day And All Of The Night by The Kinks.  By the way, Jimmy Page, a little known session rhythm guitarist  at the time can also be heard on the song.

On this night in 1967 the Rolling Stones appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show.  Sullivan made the band change the lyric to their hit song Let's Spend The Night Together to "let's spend some time together." During the performance Mick Jagger rolled his eyes when singing the lyric. Another moment in rebellious rock n' roll history.  Later that year Jim Morrison would totally piss off Ed Sullivan, more on that later.

On this day in 1969, George Harrison threatened to quit the Beatles.  A five hour meeting was held between the band members that day.  Harrison was concerned about the lack of live performances and the recording of the Let It Be album.  A whole bunch of weed was smoked, and everything turned out okay, for a while.

Beginning on this day in 1972, American Pie by Don McLean began a four week run at #1.  The song was so long that it's still playing now.

This week in 1977 saw Hotel California by The Eagles at #1 on the album chart.  Don Henley said the song was about ""a journey from innocence to experience...that's all".  Guitarist Don Felder came up with the lick for the song, and played it well, until the assh**e was thrown out of the band.

On this night in 1982 The Police kicked  off their 119-date Ghost In The Machine Tour at the Boston Garden.  The Go- Gos opened the show.  We got the beat baby!

Harry Nilsson died on this day in 1994.  Nilsson's biggest songs were Without You and 'Everybody's Talkin' from the film Midnight Cowboy. Harry was everyone's favorite drinkin' buddy, including John Lennon's.  An interesting side note, both Mama Cass Elliot and  Keith Moon died in his London apartment.  Don't ever stay there.

Ronnie Van Zant, the original lead vocalist and founding member of Lynyrd Skynyrd was born on this day in 1948.  Van Zant died in a plane crash in  Baton Rouge, Louisiana on October 20th 1977, which also killed two other members and the band's manager. Johnny Van Zant, Ronnie's brother, is now the current lead singer for the band.