1957, Elvis Presley was rushed to a Los Angles hospital after swallowing a porcelain cap from one of his front teeth, which then lodged its-self in one of his lungs.

1960, The Silver Beats (John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Stu Sutcliffe, and Tommy Moore) performed at Lathom Hall, Seaforth, Liverpool. They played a few songs during the “interval” to audition for promoter Brian Kelly. Also appearing are Cliff Roberts & the Rockers, The Deltones, and Kingsize Taylor & the Dominoes. This is the only occasion on which the group uses the name “Silver Beats”, quickly changing it back to “Silver Beetles”.

1968, John Lennon and Paul McCartney appeared on NBC-TV’s Tonight Show with guest-host Joe Garagiola sitting in for Johnny Carson. The conversation included some light hearted banter about meditation, the forming of Apple Corps. and song writing.

1976, 33 year old Keith Relf, former lead singer for The Yardbirds, was electrocuted while tuning a guitar which was not properly earthed. The accident happened in his West London home where he was found by his eight year old son, still holding the plugged-in electric guitar. The Yardbirds had the hits ‘For Your Love’, ‘Heart Full of Soul’, and ‘Shapes of Things’.

1983, Spandau Ballet scored their first and only UK No.1 album with ‘True.’ The title track from the album spent four weeks at No.1 on the UK singles charts and reached No.2 in the US. Other singles from the album included ‘Gold’ (a No.2 UK hit and a Top 30 hit in the U.S.), ‘Lifeline’, and ‘Communication’.

1988, Led Zeppelin reunited for the Atlantic Records 40th anniversary party at Madison Square Garden, New… Continue reading >

1967, The Monkees second album ‘More Of The Monkees’, went to No.1 on the UK charts. In 1967 only four albums reached No.1; ‘The Sound Of Music’ which spent 17 weeks at No.1, The Beatles ‘Sgt Pepper’s’, 25 weeks at No.1 and The Monkees first and second albums spent 9 weeks at No.1.

1967, The Supremes scored their 10th US No.1 single with ‘The Happening’; it made No.6 in the UK. It was the last single to be released as the Supremes, from now on they were known as Diana Ross and the Supremes.

1968, John Lennon and Paul McCartney gave a series of interviews to help launch Apple Corps in the US.

1969, Led Zeppelin became the first major British rock group to appear in Hawaii, when they appeared at The Civic Auditorium, Honolulu. A review in the Honolulu Advertiser stated: ‘The showmanship exceeded any rock performance here to date. I wondered before the concert if Led Zeppelin could sound as good as their Atlantic album – they sounded better’.

1970, The world premiere of The Beatles film ‘Let It Be’ took place in New York City. The film which was originally planned as a television documentary features an unannounced rooftop concert by the group, their last performance in public. Released just after the album, it was the final original Beatles release.

1974, Forty-three people were arrested and more than fifty were injured after youths started throwing bottles outside a Jackson Five concert at RFK stadium in Washington DC.

1976, Kiss played the fist UK date on their current Alive World Tour at the Free Trade Hall in Manchester, England.

1978, Yvonne Elliman went to No.1 on the US… Continue reading >

1958, The Everly Brothers started a four-week run at No.1 in the US with ‘All I Have To Do Is Dream’. Written by the husband and wife songwriting team Felice and Boudleaux Bryant, the track was recorded in just two takes.

1961, The Beatles, in Hamburg, West Germany, signed a recording contract with producer Bert Kaempfert. That evening they played at The Top Ten Club, Reeperbahn, Hamburg.

1962, Billboard Magazine reported that last year’s most-played jukebox record was ‘Big Bad John’ by Jimmy Dean. The second most-played was Chubby Checker‘s ‘The Twist’.

1963, Bob Dylan walked out of rehearsals for the US TV Ed Sullivan show after being told he couldn’t perform his song Talking John Birch Paranoid Blues due to it mocking the US military and segregation. CBS officials asked Dylan to substitute it for another song, but the singer reportedly said: ‘No, this is what I want to do. If I can’t play my song, I’d rather not appear on the show’.

1965, The Rolling Stones recorded ‘(I Can’t Get No), Satisfaction’ at RCA Hollywood studios. Keith Richards had come up with the guitar riff in the middle of the night a week earlier. It gave the band their first number 1 single in the US.

1967, Pink Floyd appeared at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, London, giving a special concert Games For May – Space Age Relaxation For The Climate Of Spring. This was reportedly the first show to include loudspeakers placed at the back of the hall to give a ‘sound in the round’, ie quadraphonic, effect. The sound system, developed by EMI technicians, was stolen after the show and not recovered for some… Continue reading >

1963, The Beatles started a 30 week run at No.1 on the UK album charts with their debut album ‘Please Please Me’, making it the longest running No.1 album by a group ever. The bands follow up ‘With The Beatles’ replaced it at the top of the charts on 7th December 1963 and stayed there for 21 weeks.

1964, during a UK tour The Rolling Stones were refused lunch at The Grand Hotel, Bristol, where they were staying because they were not wearing jackets and ties. The following day the Daily Express ran the story with the headline, ‘The Rolling Stones gather no lunch.’

1965, Roger Miller was at No.1 on the US Country charts with ‘King Of The Road.’ The song has been covered by many other artists, including George Jones, Dean Martin, Boxcar Willie, Randy Travis, the Statler Brothers, and Rufus Wainwright & Teddy Thompson. The Proclaimers had a UK No.9 hit with their version of the song in 1990.

1967, The Bee Gees made their Top Of The Pops debut performing ‘New York Mining Disaster’ on the UK TV show.

1974, Led Zeppelin attended Elvis Presley’s show at the Los Angeles Forum in California. After a shaky start to the show, Elvis stopped the band and jokingly said: “Wait a minute…if we can start together fella’s, because we’ve got Led Zeppelin out there, lets try to look like we know what we’re doing.”

1978, At the end of their News Of The World 46 date tour, Queen played three sold-out nights at Wembley Arena, London, England.

1981, Jamaican singer-songwriter Bob Marley died of lung cancer and a brain tumour aged 36. Had the 1981 single… Continue reading >

1960, The Silver Beetles (John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Stuart Sutcliffe, and Tommy Moore) auditioned for promoter Larry Parnes and singer Billy Fury for a job as Fury’s backing group. Parnes was also looking for backing group’s for his lesser-known acts, and The Silver Beetles were selected as backing group for singer Johnny Gentle’s upcoming tour of Scotland. The group had changed its name from ‘The Beatals’ to ‘The Silver Beetles’ after Brian Casser (of Cass and the Cassanovas) remarked that the name ‘Beatals’ was “ridiculous”. He suggested they use the name ‘Long John and the Silver Beetles’, but John Lennon refused to be referred to as ‘Long John’.

1964, Bob Dylan arrived in Britain for his first major UK tour including a show at London’s Royal Festival Hall on the 17th of this month.

1965, The Rolling Stones recorded a version of ‘(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction’ at Chess Studios in Chicago, with Brian Jones on harmonica. The group re-recorded it two days later at RCA Studios in Hollywood, with a different beat and the Gibson Maestro fuzzbox that Keith Richards had recently aquired, adding sustain to the sound of the guitar riff.

1967, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards appeared at Chichester Crown Court, Sussex, charged with being in possession of drugs, they elect to go to trial pleading not guilty and were both granted £100 bail.

1969, The Turtles gave a special performance at the White House as guests of Trica Nixon. Stories circulate concerning members of the group allegedly snorted cocaine on Abraham Lincon’s desk.

1969, Led Zeppelin made their first appearance on the UK album chart when the bands debut album charted… Continue reading >

1964, Chuck Berry began his first ever UK tour at The Astoria Theatre, London, supported by The Animals, The Swinging Blue Jeans, Karl Denver and the Nashville Teens.

1964, Gene Vincent and the Shouts appeared at The Rhodes Centre, Bishop’s Gate, England. The poster advertised that the first 50 girls would be admitted free; tickets cost six shillings and six pence, ($0.94).

1965, During a UK tour Bob Dylan played the first of two sold out nights at London’s Royal Albert Hall. All four members of The Beatles were in the audience.

1966, The Doors played at the Whisky A Go Go, West Hollywood, California auditioning for the position of the venues house band.

1970, Guess Who started a three-week run at No.1 on the US singles chart with ‘American Woman’, it was the group’s sixth Top 30 hit and only chart topper. The song was born by accident when guitarist Randy Bachman was playing a heavy riff on stage after he had broken a string, the other members joined in on the jam. A fan in the audience who had recorded the gig on tape presented it to the group after the show and they developed it into a full song.

1973, Mick Jagger added $150,000 of his own money to the $350,000 by The Rolling Stones January benefit concert for victims of the Nicaraguan earthquake.

1974, Bonnie Raitt played two shows at Harvard Square Theatre in Cambridge, Massachusetts; opening act was Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band. Rolling Stone critic John Landau saw Springsteen and wrote ‘I have seen rock & roll’s future and his name is Bruce Springsteen’.

1978, Fee Waybill of The Tubes,… Continue reading >

1954, BBC radio in the UK banned the Johnny Ray song ‘Such a Night’ after listeners complain about its ‘suggestiveness’. Ray was famous for his emotional stage act, which included beating up his piano, and writhing on the floor.

1964, The Beatles had held the No.1 position on the US singles chart for fourteen weeks with three No.1’s in succession. ‘I Want To Hold Your Hand’ for seven weeks, ‘She Loves You’ for two weeks and ‘Can’t Buy Me Love’, for five weeks.

1965, Shooting of the promotional film for Bob Dylan’s Subterranean Homesick Blues took place at the side of the Savoy Hotel in London. Actors in the background were Allen Ginsberg and Bob Neuwirth. The cards that Dylan held up to the camera were painted by Alan Price and Joan Baez.

1969, John Lennon, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr signed a business management contract with Allen Klein and his company ABKCO, but Paul McCartney refused to sign, continuing to let the Eastmans represent his interests.

1974, UK keyboard player Graham Bond committed suicide after throwing himself under a London tube train at Finsbury Park station, aged 36. It took police two days to identify his body which was crushed beyond all recognition. Briefly a member of Blues Incorporated, a group led by Alexis Korner, before forming the Graham Bond Quartet, with a lineup of Bond on vocals and organ, Ginger Baker on drums and Jack Bruce on bass.

1976, Abba scored their third UK No.1 single with ‘Fernando’, the song went on to become ABBA’s biggest selling single, with sales over 10 million. And also on day Abba started a nine-week run at No.1… Continue reading >

1966, The Mamas and the Papas started a three week run at No.1 on the US singles chart with ‘Monday Monday’, it made No.3 in the UK. The group was reported, as saying they all hated the song except for its writer John Phillips. 1967, Jimi Hendrix played two shows at London’s Saville Theatre. Ringo Starr, Brian Jones and members of The Beach Boys and The Moody Blues were in the audience. 1967, Pearls Before Swine begin recording an album called ‘One Nation Underground’. The LP included a song called ‘Miss Morse’, which would be banned in New York when it was discovered that lead singer Tom Rapp was singing F-U-C-K in Morse code. After disc jockey Murray The K played the record on the air, local Boy Scouts correctly interpreted the chorus and phoned in a complaint. 1972, The Rolling Stones released the second album on their own label, ‘Exile on Main Street’ featuring two hit singles, ‘Tumbling Dice’ and ‘Happy’. In 2003, the album was ranked No. 7 on Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the 500 greatest albums of all time, the highest of any Stones album on the list. 1974, Led Zeppelin held a party at the Four Seasons Hotel in New York City for the launch of their new label Swan Song. Other label signings including, Scottish singer Maggie Bell (whose album Suicide Sal was the labels fourth release), and British supergroup, Bad Company also attended. 1977, The Eagles went to No.1 on the US singles chart with ‘Hotel California’, the group’s fourth US No.1, a No.8 hit in the UK. 1978, 90,000 tickets were sold in eight hours for Bob Dylan‘s forthcoming London… Continue reading >

1965, In their Clearwater, Florida hotel room, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards worked out the opening guitar riff of ‘Satisfaction’, following Richard’s purchase of a Gibson fuzz-box earlier that day.

1966, Working at Abbey Road studios in London, The Beatles recorded overdubs on ‘I’m Only Sleeping’ and worked on various mixes of the track. The song features the then-unique sound of a reversed guitar duet played by Harrison who perfected the part with the tape running backwards so that, when reversed, it would fit the dreamlike mood.

1972, The Tyrannosaurus Rex double album ‘Prophets, Seers And Sages And The Angels Of The Ages / My People Were Fair And Had Sky In Their Hair But Now Their Content To Wear Stars On Their Brows’ went to No.1 in the UK. The longest title of an album ever at the time.

1973, Paul Simon set out

on his first tour without partner Art Garfunkel, using The Jesse Dixon Singers as a back- up group on stage. Simon’s tour of America and Europe was recorded and released as ‘Live Rhymin’.

1978, The soundtrack to Saturday Night Fever started an 18 week run at No.1 on the UK album chart, also No.1 in the US. The album, which features seven… Continue reading >

1956, Elvis Presley scored his first US No.1 single and album when ‘Heartbreak Hotel’ went to the top of the charts. His debut album also went to No.1.

1962, The soundtrack to West Side Story went to No.1 on the US album chart. It went on to spend a total of 54 weeks at the No.1 position.

1963, On a recommendation by George Harrison, Dick Rowe Head of A&R at Decca records, (and the man who turned down The Beatles), went to see The Rolling Stones play at Crawdaddy Club, London. The band were signed to the label within a week.

1966, Manfred Mann were at No.1 on the UK singles chart with ‘Pretty Flamingo’. The recording features future Cream bassist Jack Bruce, who briefly joined the band in 1965. On their Top Of The Pops appearance, singer Paul Jones performed whilst standing on one leg.

1968, Buffalo Springfield split up. Richie Fury formed Poco and Stephen Stills teamed up with David Crosby and Graham Nash in Crosby Stills & Nash.

1969, The Beatles single ‘Get Back’ was released in the US. John Lennon claimed in 1980 that “there’s some underlying thing about Yoko in there”, claiming that Paul McCartney looked at Yoko Ono in the studio every time he sang “Get back to where you once belonged.”

1972, The first day of the three day Bickershaw Festival, Wigan, England, with The Grateful Dead, Dr John, Donovan, The Kinks, Captain Beefheart, Hawkwind, America, Family, Country Joe MacDonald, Wishbone Ash, New Riders Of The Purple Sage, Brinsley Schwarz and the Flamin Groovies.

1973, David Bowie scored his first UK No.1 album when ‘Aladdin Sane’ started a five-week… Continue reading >