"Crimson and Clover" entered the U.S. charts on December 14, where
it stayed for 16 weeks on Billboard Hot 100 and 15 weeks on Cash Box
Top 100. Following a performance of the song on The Ed Sullivan Show
on January 26, it became number one on February 1, 1969, a position
held for one week on Cash Box Top 100 and two weeks on both Billboard
Hot 100.

The single has sold 5 million copies, making it Tommy James and the
Shondells’ best selling song. In 2006, Pitchfork Media named it the 57th
best song of the 1960s.

Tommy James and the Shondells on the Ed Sullivan
Show in 1969.

–

Tommy James (born Thomas Gregory Jackson) turned 69 in April.

Alan Willis Thicke (Alan Willis Jeffery)
 (March 1, 1947 – December 13, 2016)

Thicke starred as Dr. Jason Seaver in the ABC series "Growing
Pains," which aired from 1985 until 1992. He apparently suffered
a fatal heart attack.

SANDY KOZEL

 
2016 Leaf Pop Century Auto Autograph Silver.

Richard Wayne "Dick" Van Dyke is 91 years old today.

He served as a radio announcer in the United States Army Air Corps during
World War II and later transferred to the Special Services as an entertainer.

Joseph Mascolo (March 13, 1929 – December 8, 2016)

Joseph Mascolo, who played crime lord and patriarch Stefano DiMera on
NBC’s “Days of Our Lives” starting in 1982, died on Thursday. He had been
battling Alzheimer’s disease. Soap Opera Digest named him the all-time best
villain.

 
ED DANAHUE