Some Music February 29 Trivia

Unfortunately, when I think of any connections between February 29 and pop music, the first thing that comes to mind is that Davy Jones died on this date in 2012. Davy Jones was a member of The Monkees, the band that starred in a sitcom from 1966-1968 and several hit records during that time period. While their peak period of success lasted only two years, their music and TV shows have endured over the years. Sadly, another Monkee, Peter Tork, died in February 2019. The other two Monkees, Mike Nesmith, who shares Davy Jones' December 30 birthday, and Micky Dolenz, are still performing. Dolenz even appeared in my neck of the woods a week ago, but I wasn't able to attend that show. I have seen him perform multiple times in recent years.

Davy Jones sang lead on a few of the Monkees' hit records, including "A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You", which was written by Neil Diamond.

The other Monkees didn't want to do this song, so they walked out ("guys, don't you walk out, we've got a song to sing", to paraphrase some lyrics to this song). The Monkees were trying to get more control over their music, including playing their own instruments. So not only was Davy Jones singing lead on this record, he was the only Monkee singing on it. The other voices are said to belong to Carole King (whose own recording career hadn't taken off yet) and Neil Diamond himself.

Another famous Monkees song with Davy Jones on lead vocal is "Daydream Believer" (not to be confused with another of their hits, "I'm a Believer", on which Micky sang lead and which was also written by Neil Diamond).

This one features all four Monkees, probably with Micky, Mike, and Peter playing instruments.

A fact you may not know about Davy Jones is that before he came to the U.S. from his native England, he played the Artful Dodger in the original stage production of Oliver! in London. He then reprised his role in the original Broadway production of this musical. But when it was time to make the movie version, he was probably too busy with the Monkees to be the Artful Dodger once again. The role went to another English actor/singer, Jack Wild. The producers of the Oliver! movie must have done a lot of things right because it got the Best Picture Oscar for 1968. Unfortunately, Jack Wild died on March 1, 2006. Yes, just like Davy Jones, he passed away on the day after February 28. And just like Davy, he was born on the 30th of the month, in September.

There was once a Major League baseball player named Davy Jones. He was an outfielder who played in 1901-1904, 1906-1913, and 1918 for six different teams including the Pittsburgh Rebels of the short-lived Federal League. This Davy Jones was born and died on the 30th of the month: He was born on June 30, 1880, and died on March 30, 1972.

Speaking of Oliver!, Davy Jones and other cast members appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show on February 9, 1964. This particular episode of this show is most famous for being the one in which the Beatles made their American TV debut. February 1964, like February 2020, had five Saturdays. This only happens every 28 years. Thus it also happened in 1992 and will happen again in 2048. Since 1962, the Billboard charts have had Saturday dates. During the height of Beatlemania, their song "I Want to Hold Your Hand" held down the #1 spot on the Hot 100 all five weeks in February 1964.

In 1960, the Billboard charts bore Monday dates, and February 29 fell on a Monday that year. The #1 song that week was "The Theme From 'A Summer Place'" by Percy Faith.

Now on to music people born on February 29. Adam Sandler noted in "The Chanukah Song" that Dinah Shore lit candles on the menorah. Every four years, she could have blown out the candles on her birthday cake, since she was born on February 29, 1916. Here's her biggest hit record, "Buttons and Bows", which won the Best Song Oscar for 1948, when it was sung by Bob Hope in The Paleface.

Gretchen Christopher of the group the Fleetwoods was born on February 29, 1940. Here is one of the group's biggest hits, "Come Softly to Me".

In the classical music field, composer Gioachino Rossini was born on February 29, 1792. One of his most famous compositions is the "William Tell Overture". This piece has been adapted into several popular music pieces, including:

The theme song to the radio and TV show The Lone Ranger:

A hit song by Patti Page, "Now That I'm In Love":

The song "Happy Anniversary" performed on The Flintstones:

The instrumental break of "The Lone Teen Ranger", performed by Paul Simon under the name of Jerry Landis, a few years before he had hits as half of Simon and Garfunkel:

And finally a superb guitar instrumental by Glen Campbell:

Some Baseball February 29 Trivia

February 29 doesn't fall during the baseball season, but it does fall during spring training. There have probably been some newsworthy items such as free agent signings, veterans cut, someone ending a holdout, or significant injuries on this date, but I'll just focus on births and deaths of major league players.

So far, there have only been 14 major leaguers who were born on February 29. I am a longtime fan of 20th and 21st century baseball who generally hasn't followed 1800s baseball. I also don't always understand newly prominent statistics such as WAR, OPS, and WHIP. But I hope to learn more about these areas as I grow my blog. Two of these 14 players only appeared in the 1800s. I do know that the higher the WAR, the better, and that negative WAR values are possible.

I have come up with a composite full name taken from some of the major leaguers born on February 29:

Albert "Al" Leonard Long

This covers 5 of the 14 players born on Leap Day.

Albert "Al" - This name covers both extremes, the Leap Day baby with one of the longest Major League careers and one with one of the shortest. Third baseman Al Rosen, born in 1924, appeared in 1,044 games from 1947-1956, all with the Cleveland Indians. His best season was 1953, when he won the American League MVP award. As of now, Rosen is the only Jewish Major Leaguer who was born on February 29. Righthander Al Autry, born in 1952, appeared in only one game, in September 1976. Starting the second game of a doubleheader for the Atlanta Braves against the Houston Astros, he went five innings and gave up three runs, all earned, for a 5.40 career ERA. Fortunately for him, the Braves had scored four runs by then. That 4-3 lead stood, so Autry won his only game in the majors. Autry had been a prospect with the Kansas City Royals for a few years before being traded to the Braves a year earlier, spending some spring training camps with one of the Royals' top pitchers at the time, Steve Mingori, who was born on February 29, 1944.

Leonard - This name covers the two Leap Day babies with the highest career WAR so far, the aforementioned Al Rosen and Pepper Martin, born Johnny Leonard Roosevelt Martin in 1904, while Theodore Roosevelt was President of the United States. Martin played in 1928, 1930-1940, and 1944, all for the St. Louis Cardinals. He was mainly an outfielder, playing all three positions, but like Rosen, he played third base, too. He was a member of the Cardinals' Gashouse Gang of players in the 1930s.

Long - Sometimes it is a long time between the births of two Leap Day babies who become Major League ballplayers. There were none born in 1964, 1968, or 1972. But Long also happens to be the last name of both the sole player born on February 29, 1960, and the only one born on February 29, 1976. Righthander Bill Long, born in 1960, pitched in 1985 and 1987-1991, mainly for the Chicago White Sox and also for the Chicago Cubs and the Montreal Expos. Outfielder Terrence Long, born in 1976, played in the majors from 1999-2006. He was the runner-up for Rookie of the Year in 2000 with the Oakland A's, after a brief debut with the New York Mets the previous year. He also played for the San Diego Padres, Kansas City Royals, and New York Yankees. Terrence Long is so far the only African-American Major Leaguer born on February 29.

The only two Leap Day babies to have appeared in the Major Leagues since Terrence Long were both born in 1992. Lefthander Gerardo Concepcion appeared in three games for the 2016 Cubs, although he was no longer on the active roster for their historic World Series win that year. A native of Cuba, Concepcion is the only Hispanic Major Leaguer born on February 29 as of now. Righthander Stefan Crichton appeared in the majors for the Baltimore Orioles in 2017 and the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2019. He is in training camp with the Diamondbacks this spring, so his big league career could continue in 2020 or later. I don't know where Concepcion is following his release by the Cubs in 2017.

Only one Major Leaguer has died on February 29, Ernie Courtney, who passed away 100 years ago today in 1920. (I hope I don't jinx anyone by saying this!) He played in 1902-1903 for four different teams and then in 1905-1908 for the Philadelphia Phillies. His primary positions were third base, first base, and left field.

Some sources, including his Wikipedia entry, show the death date for Lena Blackburne (born Russell Aubrey Blackburne on October 23, 1886, in Clifton Heights, PA, not far from Philadelphia) as February 29, 1968. Baseball Reference, which I used to find data for this article, shows it as February 28, 1968. In addition to his playing career as an infielder with the Chicago White Sox, Cincinnati Reds, Boston Braves, and Philadelphia Phillies and his time spent as a manager and coach with a few teams, his claim to fame is that he discovered a special use for the clay from the Delaware River to take the shine off of baseballs before each game. This method is still used today.

Leap Year Beginning

Welcome to my new blog. I thought February 29 would be a good day to start it, although I may regret it if I want to mark my first anniversary next year. I hope it will last through a first year.

The baseball elements of this blog will contain a lot of trivial baseball curiosities, such as players with the same name, from the same hometown, or with the same birthday.

I am also going to cover popular music from 1955 until sometime in the 1985-1988 time frame. I stopped following the hits of the day by 1989 for various reasons. The last new song I remember is "The Living Years" by Mike + the Mechanics, although I know a handful of ones from later, including "Who Let the Dogs Out", "The Macarena", and "Happy" by Pharrell Williams. I may sometimes talk about pre-1955 songs, including classical music.

No, this is not going to be about Neil Diamond and only Neil Diamond! But one focus of this blog that I have planned is on other artists' recordings or other performances of songs he's written. Another is on other artists' recordings of songs he didn't write but has recorded or performed somewhere (such as in concert or on TV), especially original versions and versions that were hits by other artists.

My focus will be less on the most popular artists and more on lesser-known or less-highly-regarded artists than most pop/rock music writers. I have long said that I find Tommy James and the Shondells to be more fascinating than Bob Dylan. This line should give you some indication of what I want to say in this blog. But artists such as the Beatles and Elvis Presley will show up here simply because I do have things to say about them. In fact, just as I plan to do with Neil Diamond, I plan to have a focus on other artists' recordings or performances of songs any of the Fab Four wrote and a focus on other artists' recordings of songs the group recorded but were not written by any of them. I have a special bit of Elvis trivia planned for March 24 if this blog lasts that long.

I'll also cover other topics that may interest me (and I hope you, too). I am not what you'd consider to be a film buff, and I am not much of a reviewer/critic. But I am on the verge of finishing up a project I began in July 2017 of watching every Best Picture Oscar winner. I'll have some comments on these films, as well as those in another project I've been pursuing of watching one person's opinion of the 25 Best Baseball Movies. I've been watching those in roughly descending order, starting with #25. I have five films to go in each category. The DVDs from Netflix for both Eight Men Out and Spotlight are sitting in my living room, waiting for me to watch them in the coming days. I have other movie projects planned, plus I'll be catching up with others I've missed or want to see again. In addition to these two projects, I just completed a mini one in the past several days of watching both the original (1960) and remake (1986) versions of [The] Little Shop of Horrors. This was for a program sponsored by the Abington Township Library System in Montgomery County, PA.

I'll probably put in things related to NFL football, NHL hockey, and NBA and WNBA basketball. I don't have enough interest in soccer (some of you may call this "football"), golf, tennis, boxing, wrestling, auto racing, and college and most Olympic sports. I may take an interest in Olympic baseball this year and will be rooting for the Israeli team. Consider this blog to be an oasis from the constant coverage of March Madness when it comes up in a few weeks and the Olympics this summer.

I am a longtime member of Toastmasters International and will probably say a few things in support of this organization. Toastmasters, in the new Pathways program, has an elective presentation on creating a blog that I may do in the next few months if I keep this blog going.

Some things you won't find in this blog:

• Politics and some other sensitive issues
• Religion
• Stories about all the bad stuff that's happened in my life, assuming there were bad things that happened, unless they relate to something covered by one of the other topics. An example would be something like (made up example), "This is one of my all-time favorite Elton John songs, but unfortunately, I associate it with the first time I ever got fired from a job."

That's enough for now. This should get better once I get the hang of making entries. If I have enough time later, I will make a post with some Leap Day trivia.