This was written by the Motown songwriters Barrett Strong and Norman Whitfield, and produced by Whitfield. It was first recorded by The Undisputed Truth, but Whitfield also had The Temptations record it, with much greater success.
September 3, 1964 -
The Animals charted No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 with their hit The House Of The Rising Sun, on this date.
The melody is a traditional English ballad, but the song became popular as an African-American folk song. It was recorded by Texas Alexander in the 1920s, then by a number of other artists including Leadbelly, Woody Guthrie, Josh White and later Nina Simone. It was her version The Animals first heard. No one can claim rights to the song, meaning it can be recorded and sold royalty-free. Many bands covered the song after it became a hit for The Animals.
September 3, 1973 -
The Rolling Stones released their hit, Angie, on this date.
Keith Richards wrote this song in Switzerland after the Exile on Main St. album had been approved by the record company, but before it was released. Angie was one of the first songs The Stones recorded for Goat's Head Soup, which they first attempted in Jamaica at the Dynamic Sounds studio in Kingston. They got very little done at these sessions, arriving nightly with armed escort and locking the doors until they were done for the day. Much of the album was done at sessions in Los Angeles and London under more hospitable conditions.
September 3, 1982 -
Amy Heckerling's coming of age teen comedy (written by Cameron Crowe), Fast Times at Ridgemont High, went into general release on this date.
For his masturbation scene, Judge Reinhold brought a large dildo to work with, unbeknown to the rest of the cast. Phoebe Cates' look of horror and disgust is very real.
September 3, 1983 -
One of the songs that defined MTV in the 80s, Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This) by the Eurythmics, gave them their only US chart topper.
In 1978, Squeeze had a UK hit with Take Me I'm Yours, which features the line "Dreams are made of this" in the chorus.
Marilyn Manson recorded the song in 1995, giving a much darker tone to the song.
(In Manson's auto-biography, he related to this song by mentioning that he met people who wanted to be abused by him; and who wanted to use him as well.)
September 3, 1982 -
Culture Club released their third single, Do You Really Want To Hurt Me?, is released in the UK, on this date.
This was Culture Club's first single released in the United States. It was a huge and unlikely hit for the British band, who embarked on an American tour in 1983 to gain traction in that country. The song crossed over to Adult Contemporary radio, where most listeners had no idea the lead singer dressed like a girl. MTV, whose library was mostly British bands when they launched, had acclimated their US audience to guys in makeup, so Culture Club wasn't so shocking on the channel and the group developed a huge audience of young people who liked the sound and the look.
September 3, 2006 -
Justin Timberlake (featuring Timbaland) song SexyBack hit No.1 in the UK on this date.
There is a certain self-awareness in the song, as at different points we hear "Take it to the bridge" and "Take it to the bridge" introducing those sections. This keeps the song lighthearted and also makes it clear that the song structure is a focal point. James Brown did this a lot, telling his band and the listeners what was coming next.
Another unimportant moment in history
Today in History:
On September 3, 301, during an epic game of hide-and-seek, St. Marinus the Stonemason ran up Mount Titano in Italy to hide from the Roman Emperor Diocletian.
He started his own country to pass the time,
and Most Serene Republic of San Marino survives to this day.
On September 3, 1189, Richard Lionheart, an enthusiastic french speaking sodomite (which was technical illegal in England,) was crowned King of England on this date.
When Richard finally returned to English soil he discovered there had been Intrigues, some of which involved his brothers. He therefore crossed the Channel and defeated France before dying from an arrow wound to the neck inflicted by an 11 year old boy.
He had only produced one son, and the most crushing defeat of Richard's tragic life was his discovery that the child was a little bastard.
September 3, 1838 -
Frederick Douglass escaped slavery disguised as a sailor on this date. Later he wrote about his experiences in a book called The Narrative Life of Frederick Douglass, the title of which may have diminished the effectiveness of his disguise.
(Publishers thought the original title The Narrative Life of a Muscular and Barechested Black Guy Wearing Snug Fitting Sailor Pants with No Underwear would have limited appeal outside certain fetishist circles.)
September 3, 1856 -
Happy Skyscaper Day - Form follows function
It's the birth anniversary of Louis H. Sullivan, often called the 'father of modern skyscrapers'.
September 3, 1928 –
In San Francisco, Philo Farnsworth demonstrates a television system featuring his Image Dissector camera tube to the press for the first time.
The system delivered 20 pictures per second, enough to convince the eye it was looking at motion rather than a series of stills. The San Francisco Chronicle lauded the achievement under the headline: “S.F. Man’s Invention to Revolutionize Television,” and the story was picked up by wire services and papers nationwide. (By 1938, three-fourths of all patents dealing with television were by Farnsworth.)
September 3, 1935 -
Sir Malcolm Campbell became the first person to drive a car more than 300 miles per hour on this date.
Campbell achieved a speed of 301.337 miles per hour at Utah's Bonneville Salt Flats. It was also the first time traffic cop adds "Wow!" to the usual "Do you know how fast you were going?"
September 3, 1939 -
Germany continued its invasion of Poland even though Britain had asked it very nicely to stop. This upset the British sensibility. They declared war on Germany. France followed suit six hours later quickly joined by Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and Canada, making this the official launch of World War II in Europe on this date.
The King’s Speech of George VI (portrayed in the 2010 film The King's Speech,) was broadcast to the people of Britain upon that country’s Declaration of War against Germany. Unprepared to become king, he accepted the role suddenly and reluctantly after his brother took a wife and abdicated the throne. A stutterer from the age of 8, it was almost impossible for him to pronounce the letter ‘k’, but thanks to a last-ditch speech therapist, Australian Lionel Logue (who was in the room during this radio broadcast), King George met the moment and offered great solace to the British people during a terrifying time—a feat that few thought him capable of, due to his years of stuttering.
At the mercy of his greatest weakness—public speaking—he conquered the task with great dignity, after practicing with Logue, who taught him where to pause and breathe during the speech. You can detect one of the techniques used to overcome the stutter, when he uses a very brief “a-” before some of the more difficult words.
September 3, 1965 -
Carlos Irwin Estévez, actor, recovering substance abuser and noted former panderer is another year older today.
Say what you want about Charlie; he seems to know how to live on his own terms and makes it work.
September 3, 1976 -
The unmanned spacecraft Viking 2, the second mission to Mars, landed at Utopia Planitia on the planet and begins transmitting pictures and soil analyses, on this date.
The lander houses instruments to examine the physical and magnetic properties of the soil, analyze the atmosphere and weather patterns of Mars, and to seek out evidence of the presence of life, be it past or present. It took 16,000 pictures in 1,281 days before its batteries died.
September 3, 2004 -
A siege on a Russian school ended with more than 300 people dead, many of them children. The school had been taken hostage by Chechen terrorists on September 1st.
To bring an end to the hostage situation, the Russian military (purportedly under direct order from President Vladimir Putin, who was able to use the crisis to consolidate more power for the Russian Presidency) stormed the school with explosives. 334 hostages died and several hundred others were injured or missing.
Hey, today is the start of the Labor Day weekend. Please remember what your old doctor always tells you -
And so it goes
