Eldon Shawn

Forty years ago today, Eldon Shawn entered the Regency Street studio of Dexter Philpot, sat down at the piano and banged out that grand anthem, "Burn Down Old Michigan." Luckily, Dexter had turned on the tape recorder, so a generation was to be "turned on" to a new "sound."

Unfortunately, around the same time, a group simply called "The Group" was putting the finishing touches on their own generational anthem, simply called "The Night They Burned Old Delaware Down." It was to rocket to Number One and stay there for seventeen weeks, so depriving Mr. Shawn of his rightful glory. His song did make it to number six one week, however.