Number6
07-20-2006, 08:28 PM
1953
18 year-old Elvis Presley visited the Memphis Recording Service to record "My Happiness" as a gift for his mother. The so-called vanity disc, which cost Presley $3.98, was his first recording. It would surface 37 years later as part of an RCA compilation called "Elvis - the Great Performances".
1954
Sun Records releases the first Elvis Presley single, "That's All Right Mama". Only about 7,000 original copies were pressed, but the disc became a local Memphis hit.
Elvis Presley performed on one what was probably the smallest stage of his career when he appeared on the back of a flatbed truck outside a Memphis drugstore for its grand opening. Elvis was then a member of The Blue Moon Boys trio with Bill Black and Scotty Moore, who took their name from a song they had recorded just 2 weeks previously, "Blue Moon of Kentucky".
1956
Billboard Magazine calls Elvis Presley "the most controversial entertainer since Liberace." The article also notes that Ed Sullivan, who once said Presley would never appear on his show, just signed the singer for three appearances.
1958
"Hard Headed Woman" by Elvis Presley was the top tune on the Billboard chart. At the time, the King was in Fort Hood Texas, doing basic training in the US Army.
The final Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts show airs on CBS. The program helped launch the careers of Connie Francis, Tony Bennett, Pat Boone and The McGuire Sisters.
1959
The Coasters record "Poison Ivy" at the Atlantic studios in New York. The song would become their sixth consecutive Billboard Top Ten hit.
1960
Hank Ballard and the Midnighters become the first group to place three records at the same time on The Billboard Hot 100 - "Finger Poppin' Time", "Let's Go, Let's Go, Let's Go" and "The Twist".
Roy Orbison saw his first record, "Only The Lonely" climb into the top 5 in the United States after The Everly Brothers and Elvis both turned the song down. Over the next six years, The Big O would have 22 top 40 hits.
15 year old Brenda Lee had the number one hit in the US with "I'm Sorry", a tune that was recorded in the last ten minutes of a session and originally meant to be the "B" side of "That's All You Gotta Do". The song reached #12 in the UK.
1961
Motown Records releases The Supremes' second single, "Buttered Popcorn" with "Who's Loving You" on the flip side. The record, featuring Florence Ballard on lead vocal, would be a total flop.
Following his success as a songwriter, penning Bobby Vee's "Rubber Ball" and Rick Nelson's "Hello Mary Lou", Gene Pitney makes his first appearance on American Bandstand, singing "Every Breath I Take".
1963
The Beatles' first US album, "Introducing The Beatles" is released by Vee-Jay Records.
Jan & Dean's "Surf City" tops Billboard's singles chart just two weeks after its release. The pair had recorded the song in a converted garage underneath their apartment in Bel Air, California.
Lesley Gore released "Judy's Turn To Cry", the follow up to her number one hit, "It's My Party". The record was a continuation of the original story and it too became a Top 5 hit in the US.
1964
The Four Seasons scored their fourth US number one hit with "Rag Doll". Co-writer Bob Gaudio said that he got the inspiration for the song from a young girl in tattered clothes that cleaned his car windows at a stop light.
The Supremes' "Where Did Our Love Go?" is released and enters Billboard's Hot 100. It would stay on the chart for 14 weeks and becomes the group's first number one hit.
The Rolling Stones chart in the US for the first time when a cover of Buddy Holly's "Not Fade Away" peaks at #48.
1965
Rolling Stones' Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and Bill Wyman appear in a London courtroom and are found guilty of "insulting behavior" for urinating against a London gas station wall. They argued that the owner had refused to give them the key to the men's room, but they are fined five pounds each.
The Lovin' Spoonful release their first record, "Do You Believe in Magic". It will reach #9 on the US pop chart.
Bob Dylan's "Like a Rolling Stone" is released by Columbia records. It turns out to be his biggest hit ever, climbing to number two in the US and number four in the UK.
"Papa's Got a Brand New Bag" by James Brown was released. It would go on to sell over 2 million copies and receive the Grammy Award for best R&B recording.
The Miracles' "Tracks of My Tears" is released. It will reach #16 in the US.
1966
Eric Clapton formed a new band he called "Cream", along with two former members of the Graham Bond Organisation, bassist Jack Bruce and drummer Ginger Baker. The trio lasted just 2 years, but left us with some classic rock tunes like "Sunshine of Your Love" and "White Room". To this day, Clapton says he does not look back on those days with great fondness, but many fans feel that he was at his best at this point.
The Lovin' Spoonful release "Summer In The City". Although they would place seven straight songs in Billboard's Top Ten, this would be their only number one.
Tommy James and The Shondells started a two week run at #1 on the US singles chart with "Hanky Panky", a song first recorded by The Raindrops. A Pittsburgh DJ had begun playing the two year old recording and regional record sales had reached over 80,000. James called the members of his now defunct band, but they were no longer interested. He recruited a group called The Raconteurs to be the new Shondells and took the master tape of Hanky Panky to Roulette Records, who released it. Despite being a huge hit in the US, it could only reach #38 in the UK.
Bobby Fuller, who was still riding high on the success of "I Fought The Law", is found dead in his car in Hollywood on July 18th. The incident is ruled a suicide but evidence suggests foul play, as his clothes and lungs contain gasoline. Fuller was just 22 years old.
51 year old Frank Sinatra marries 21 year old actress Mia Farrow. It was his third marriage, her first. Two years later, while Farrow was filming Roman Polanski's Rosemary's Baby, Sinatra sent his lawyer to the movie set to inform his wife that he was filing for divorce.
Johnny Rivers begins recording "Poor Side Of Town".
The Monkees record their TV theme song.
1967
Jimi Hendrix either quit or was fired as the opening act for the Monkees' US tour after only five days. His replacement was Vanilla Fudge.
The Doors perform "Crystal Ship" and "Light My Fire" on American Bandstand.
1968
Hugh Masakela's instrumental rendition of "Grazing In The Grass" reached the top of the Billboard Hot 100. A year later, The Friends Of Distinction would take a vocal version of the song to number 3.
The Beatles' film, Yellow Submarine debuted in theatres this week. The Fab Four weren't originally too keen about the picture, but after seeing elements of the cartoon, liked it enough to make a cameo appearance at the end. The voices in the film were actually actors and not The Beatles themselves, but Ringo Starr says that years later, people were still asking him why he "pushed the button" that created all of the chaos in the animated picture.
Jane Asher announces on a national British TV show, Dee Time, that her engagement to Paul McCartney was off. McCartney reportedly was watching at a friend's home and was surprised by the news. Jane went on to have a successful career in films and on television
1969
Aretha Franklin is arrested for disorderly conduct after creating a disturbance in a Detroit parking lot. After posting 50-dollars bail, she ran down a road sign while leaving the police station.
David Bowie's song, "Space Oddity" was released as a single to coincide with the Apollo 11 moon landing on July 20, 1969. The song failed to crack the charts and was re-released in the UK later in the year. The song didn't catch on in the United States until 1973.
The Spencer Davis Group announces their break-up.
The Rolling Stones' "Honky Tonk Women" is released.
Roy Hamilton, whose version of "Unchained Melody" was the best-selling R&B record of 1955, died of a heart attack on July 20th at the age of 40. He also scored hits with "Don't Let Go" in 1958 and "You Can Have Her" in 1961.
1971
Thirteen days after lead singer Jim Morrison passed away, the Doors are awarded a gold album for "L.A. Woman". The L.P. included "Lover Her Madly" and "Riders on the Storm".
Carole King was having a very good week. Her single "It's Too Late" sat on top of Billboard's singles chart and she received a gold album for "Tapestry". The LP, released four months earlier, was the number one album in the US for 15 weeks and would stay on Billboard's Top 200 album chart for 292 weeks.
John Lennon and Yoko Ono appear on the BBC late night talk show, Parkinson, where John chastises the British media for calling Yoko "ugly" and for saying that she broke up The Beatles.
1972
Smokey Robinson performed his final show with The Miracles before going solo. They had been together since 1959. Throughout the 1970s and '80s, Smokey would continue to make hit records, including "Cruisin'" and "Being With You", while The Miracles would reach #1 in 1975 with "Love Machine".
A bomb explodes under a Rolling Stones equipment truck in Montreal and although no one is hurt, the blast blows out the cones of 30 speakers stored inside. It's never determined who planted the dynamite and the show went on as planned.
1973
Jim Croce's, "Bad Bad Leroy Brown" was the number 1 song in the US. It was taken from his second LP, "Life and Times". Jim said that the Leroy Brown character was inspired by a tough guy that he had met in the army a few years earlier.
1974
The Moody Blues opened their own 32 track recording studio in London. It was the first in Britain to be equipped for quadraphonic recording, a now almost-forgotten form of stereo which required a playback system with four speakers
The US Justice Department ordered John Lennon out of the country by September 10th. The Immigration and Naturalization Service denied him an extension of his non-immigrant visa because of his guilty plea in England to a 1968 marijuana possession charge. The US Court of Appeal would overturn the deportation order in 1975 and Lennon was granted permanent resident status the following year.
1975
Ringo Starr and his first wife, Maureen Cox, are divorced.
Orleans' "Dance With Me" is released. It would go on to climb to number six on Billboard's Hot 100 and has since been played on the radio over four million times.
Paul McCartney scores his fourth, post-Beatles chart topper in the US with "Listen To What The Man Said".
1976
Kenny Loggins and Jim Messina announce that they are dissolving their partnership after a six year run.
Deep Purple announced that at the end of their current tour, they were splitting up. They would reform in 1984.
1977
Barry Manilow had the #1 LP on the Billboard Hot 200 album chart with "Barry Manilow Live".
Shaun Cassidy's remake of the Crystals' 1963 hit "Da Doo Ron Ron" topped the Billboard Hot 100. Shaun would say that he first heard the song when he was in kindergarten and that it was the first record he ever owned.
While on stage in Cohasset, Massachusetts, Tony Orlando shocked the crowd and his group, Dawn, by announcing his retirement from show business. He later suffered a nervous breakdown and spent the next six months in a New York psychiatric hospital.
1978
Steve Martin's novelty tune "King Tut" became a Top Ten hit in the US. Some of the musicians on the track were members of The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band.
John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John are awarded a platinum record for their number one hit, "You're The One That I Want".
Gerry Rafferty, once a member of Stealers Wheel, earns a gold record for "Baker Street".
1979
Little Richard, appearing as Reverend Richard Penniman, speaks at a revival meeting in North Richmond, CA. He warns the congregation about the evils of rock & roll music and declares, "If God can save an old homosexual like me, he can save anybody."
Gary Moore left Thin Lizzy during a US tour and was replaced by former Slick guitarist, Midge Ure.
E.L.O. takes out advertisements in several US magazines dedicating the release of "Don't Bring Me Down" to NASA's Skylab project.
1980
Keith Godchaux, former keyboards player with the Grateful Dead, was killed in a car accident in Marin County, California. Godchaux and his wife, Donna, a background vocalist, had been with the Dead from 1971 until 1979, when they were asked to leave.
Billy Joel scores his first number one hit in the US with "It's Still Rock and Roll To Me", which helped push his "Glass Houses" LP to over 5 million in sales.
1981
Harry Chapin was killed in an accident on the Long Island Expressway on July 16th. Chapin's blue 1975 VW Rabbit burst into flames when it was hit from behind by a tractor-trailer truck. The 38 year old Chapin is best remembered for his top 20 hit "Taxi" in 1972 and "Cat's in the Cradle", a number-one in 1974.
Jefferson Starship are awarded a gold record for "Modern Time". Grace Slick only made a few vocal appearances on the LP because it was nearly finished when she rejoined the group.
1982
"Valley Girl" by Frank Zappa and his 14 year old daughter Moon Unit, enters the Billboard Pop chart at #75. It will peak at #32 in August.
Chicago's "Chicago 16" album enters the Hot 200. The L.P. featured the #1 hit "Hard To Say I'm Sorry".
1986
Santana celebrates their 20th anniversary at a concert in San Francisco that features a jam with all previous members of the band.
1987
A jury in New York ruled that Morris Albert's 1975 composition "Feelings" was plagiarized from "Pour Toi", a song written in 1956 by French composer Lou Lou Geste. The jury ruled that Geste was owed at least a half million dollars in royalties.
1988
Ike Turner was sentenced in Santa Monica, California to one year in jail for possessing and transporting cocaine. Police had stopped Turner, former husband of Tina Turner, in August 1987 for driving erratically and found about six grams of rock cocaine in his car.
A judge in Aiken, South Carolina ordered James Brown to hold a benefit concert for police and abused children as part of a sentence on drug and firearms charges. Brown called the sentence a back-door way of getting him to do a concert for free.
A California appeals court upholds a lower courts' decision to dismiss a case against Ozzy Osbourne and CBS Records. In 1984 a teenager allegedly killed himself after listening to Ozzy's "Suicide Solution".
1989
James Brown was moved to a medium security cell at the Stevenson Correctional Institute after $40,000 in cash and cheques was discovered in his minimum security cell. The Godfather of Soul was serving a six year sentence for a variety of offences that included illegal gun possession, resisting arrest, assault and leading the authorities on a number of car chases. He was paroled in 1990 after serving two years.
1990
Pink Floyd's Roger Waters got a little help from his friends Joni Mitchell, Bryan Adams, The Scorpions, Cyndi Lauper, Van Morrison, The Band, Sinead O'Connor and others for a live performance of Pink Floyd's, "The Wall". The event was held on the west side of the Berlin wall and helped raise money for disaster relief. Over 200,000 fans attended the concert, which was released on CD and in video form later in the year.
BBC's Radio One apologizes to listeners after Madonna repeatedly cursed during a live concert broadcast.
1991
A revamped version of Lynyrd Skynyrd opened its world tour in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Fourteen years earlier, the band was on its way to a concert in Baton Rouge when their private plane crashed, killing three members of the group including lead singer Ronnie Van Zant. The new Lynyrd Skynyrd was fronted by Van Zant's brother Johnny and featured original guitarist Gary Rossington.
James Brown was honored by the state of Georgia for his comeback after a two-year prison term. The proclamation cited the Godfather of Soul for his "unique brand of funk."
1994
More than 54,000 fans packed Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, as Billy Joel and Elton John performed the first of five concerts together.
1995
A judge in Los Angeles threw out a lawsuit against Michael Jackson by five of his former security guards. The guards had claimed they were fired for knowing too much about night time visits by young boys to Jackson's estate. The singer denied any improprieties.
Canadian singer David Clayton-Thomas angered patrons at a Blood, Sweat and Tears concert in the heavily Jewish Detroit suburb of West Bloomfield. Halfway through the show, he remarked that the weather was "as hot as the last train car going to Auschwitz." Clayton-Thomas later apologized, saying he spoke "in the heat of the moment."
Elvis Presley's former doctor, Dr. George Nichopoulous, loses his medical license for being "too liberal" in prescribing addictive drugs. Nichopoulos called the decision "idiotic" and suggested it stemmed from resentment over Presley's death in 1977.
1996
Michael Jackson performs at a birthday party for the Sultan of Brunei and is paid between 15 and 20 million dollars.
John Panozzo of Styx, died of a hemorrhage brought on by alcoholism on July 16th at the age of 48. The band had a string of hits that included "Grand Illusion", "Mr. Roboto", "Come Sail Away" and "Babe".
Scottish folk singer Donovan was forced to postpone a comeback tour of the US because of a 30-year-old marijuana conviction in Britain. American authorities delayed granting him a waiver to enter the country. The tour was designed to promote Donovan's first album of new material in a dozen years.
Chas Chandler, who was the bassist for the Animals as well as Jimi Hendrix's manager, died in a British hospital on July 17th at age 57. He had been undergoing tests related to an aortic aneurysm.
2002
The Rolling Stones crew chief, 54 year old Royden Magee, who had worked with the band for 30 years, died on July 18th during a rehearsal in Toronto. A spokesman for the band said Magee had said that he wasn't feeling well and went to another room to take a nap. The Stones had just finished dinner and resumed rehearsing when they got word that Magee had collapsed and stopped breathing. He was taken by ambulance to nearby Sunnybrook Hospital with no vital signs after suffering an apparent heart attack. He was pronounced dead on arrival. The members of the band said they were devastated by his death.
2004
Nearly half of the 4500 people in the audience walked out of Linda Ronstadt's show with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra at the Aladdin Resort and Casino in Las Vegas after the singer dedicated an encore of "Desperado" to filmmaker Michael Moore and urged the crowd to see his film Fahrenheit 9/11.
Mark Tulin and James Lowe, two original members of the Electric Prunes, filed lawsuits against their record label and music publisher, alleging that the companies failed to pay them $1 million in royalties.
For the first time in his career, Jimmy Buffett had the number one album on Billboard's Hot 200 album chart when "License To Chill" debuted at the top spot during its first week of US sales, selling over 239,000 copies.
2005
British R&B artist Long John Baldry died July 21st after battling a chest infection for four months. He was 64. Baldry was one of the founding fathers of British rock'n'roll in the '60s. Eric Clapton has stated many times that he was inspired to pick up the guitar after seeing Baldry perform.
18 year-old Elvis Presley visited the Memphis Recording Service to record "My Happiness" as a gift for his mother. The so-called vanity disc, which cost Presley $3.98, was his first recording. It would surface 37 years later as part of an RCA compilation called "Elvis - the Great Performances".
1954
Sun Records releases the first Elvis Presley single, "That's All Right Mama". Only about 7,000 original copies were pressed, but the disc became a local Memphis hit.
Elvis Presley performed on one what was probably the smallest stage of his career when he appeared on the back of a flatbed truck outside a Memphis drugstore for its grand opening. Elvis was then a member of The Blue Moon Boys trio with Bill Black and Scotty Moore, who took their name from a song they had recorded just 2 weeks previously, "Blue Moon of Kentucky".
1956
Billboard Magazine calls Elvis Presley "the most controversial entertainer since Liberace." The article also notes that Ed Sullivan, who once said Presley would never appear on his show, just signed the singer for three appearances.
1958
"Hard Headed Woman" by Elvis Presley was the top tune on the Billboard chart. At the time, the King was in Fort Hood Texas, doing basic training in the US Army.
The final Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts show airs on CBS. The program helped launch the careers of Connie Francis, Tony Bennett, Pat Boone and The McGuire Sisters.
1959
The Coasters record "Poison Ivy" at the Atlantic studios in New York. The song would become their sixth consecutive Billboard Top Ten hit.
1960
Hank Ballard and the Midnighters become the first group to place three records at the same time on The Billboard Hot 100 - "Finger Poppin' Time", "Let's Go, Let's Go, Let's Go" and "The Twist".
Roy Orbison saw his first record, "Only The Lonely" climb into the top 5 in the United States after The Everly Brothers and Elvis both turned the song down. Over the next six years, The Big O would have 22 top 40 hits.
15 year old Brenda Lee had the number one hit in the US with "I'm Sorry", a tune that was recorded in the last ten minutes of a session and originally meant to be the "B" side of "That's All You Gotta Do". The song reached #12 in the UK.
1961
Motown Records releases The Supremes' second single, "Buttered Popcorn" with "Who's Loving You" on the flip side. The record, featuring Florence Ballard on lead vocal, would be a total flop.
Following his success as a songwriter, penning Bobby Vee's "Rubber Ball" and Rick Nelson's "Hello Mary Lou", Gene Pitney makes his first appearance on American Bandstand, singing "Every Breath I Take".
1963
The Beatles' first US album, "Introducing The Beatles" is released by Vee-Jay Records.
Jan & Dean's "Surf City" tops Billboard's singles chart just two weeks after its release. The pair had recorded the song in a converted garage underneath their apartment in Bel Air, California.
Lesley Gore released "Judy's Turn To Cry", the follow up to her number one hit, "It's My Party". The record was a continuation of the original story and it too became a Top 5 hit in the US.
1964
The Four Seasons scored their fourth US number one hit with "Rag Doll". Co-writer Bob Gaudio said that he got the inspiration for the song from a young girl in tattered clothes that cleaned his car windows at a stop light.
The Supremes' "Where Did Our Love Go?" is released and enters Billboard's Hot 100. It would stay on the chart for 14 weeks and becomes the group's first number one hit.
The Rolling Stones chart in the US for the first time when a cover of Buddy Holly's "Not Fade Away" peaks at #48.
1965
Rolling Stones' Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and Bill Wyman appear in a London courtroom and are found guilty of "insulting behavior" for urinating against a London gas station wall. They argued that the owner had refused to give them the key to the men's room, but they are fined five pounds each.
The Lovin' Spoonful release their first record, "Do You Believe in Magic". It will reach #9 on the US pop chart.
Bob Dylan's "Like a Rolling Stone" is released by Columbia records. It turns out to be his biggest hit ever, climbing to number two in the US and number four in the UK.
"Papa's Got a Brand New Bag" by James Brown was released. It would go on to sell over 2 million copies and receive the Grammy Award for best R&B recording.
The Miracles' "Tracks of My Tears" is released. It will reach #16 in the US.
1966
Eric Clapton formed a new band he called "Cream", along with two former members of the Graham Bond Organisation, bassist Jack Bruce and drummer Ginger Baker. The trio lasted just 2 years, but left us with some classic rock tunes like "Sunshine of Your Love" and "White Room". To this day, Clapton says he does not look back on those days with great fondness, but many fans feel that he was at his best at this point.
The Lovin' Spoonful release "Summer In The City". Although they would place seven straight songs in Billboard's Top Ten, this would be their only number one.
Tommy James and The Shondells started a two week run at #1 on the US singles chart with "Hanky Panky", a song first recorded by The Raindrops. A Pittsburgh DJ had begun playing the two year old recording and regional record sales had reached over 80,000. James called the members of his now defunct band, but they were no longer interested. He recruited a group called The Raconteurs to be the new Shondells and took the master tape of Hanky Panky to Roulette Records, who released it. Despite being a huge hit in the US, it could only reach #38 in the UK.
Bobby Fuller, who was still riding high on the success of "I Fought The Law", is found dead in his car in Hollywood on July 18th. The incident is ruled a suicide but evidence suggests foul play, as his clothes and lungs contain gasoline. Fuller was just 22 years old.
51 year old Frank Sinatra marries 21 year old actress Mia Farrow. It was his third marriage, her first. Two years later, while Farrow was filming Roman Polanski's Rosemary's Baby, Sinatra sent his lawyer to the movie set to inform his wife that he was filing for divorce.
Johnny Rivers begins recording "Poor Side Of Town".
The Monkees record their TV theme song.
1967
Jimi Hendrix either quit or was fired as the opening act for the Monkees' US tour after only five days. His replacement was Vanilla Fudge.
The Doors perform "Crystal Ship" and "Light My Fire" on American Bandstand.
1968
Hugh Masakela's instrumental rendition of "Grazing In The Grass" reached the top of the Billboard Hot 100. A year later, The Friends Of Distinction would take a vocal version of the song to number 3.
The Beatles' film, Yellow Submarine debuted in theatres this week. The Fab Four weren't originally too keen about the picture, but after seeing elements of the cartoon, liked it enough to make a cameo appearance at the end. The voices in the film were actually actors and not The Beatles themselves, but Ringo Starr says that years later, people were still asking him why he "pushed the button" that created all of the chaos in the animated picture.
Jane Asher announces on a national British TV show, Dee Time, that her engagement to Paul McCartney was off. McCartney reportedly was watching at a friend's home and was surprised by the news. Jane went on to have a successful career in films and on television
1969
Aretha Franklin is arrested for disorderly conduct after creating a disturbance in a Detroit parking lot. After posting 50-dollars bail, she ran down a road sign while leaving the police station.
David Bowie's song, "Space Oddity" was released as a single to coincide with the Apollo 11 moon landing on July 20, 1969. The song failed to crack the charts and was re-released in the UK later in the year. The song didn't catch on in the United States until 1973.
The Spencer Davis Group announces their break-up.
The Rolling Stones' "Honky Tonk Women" is released.
Roy Hamilton, whose version of "Unchained Melody" was the best-selling R&B record of 1955, died of a heart attack on July 20th at the age of 40. He also scored hits with "Don't Let Go" in 1958 and "You Can Have Her" in 1961.
1971
Thirteen days after lead singer Jim Morrison passed away, the Doors are awarded a gold album for "L.A. Woman". The L.P. included "Lover Her Madly" and "Riders on the Storm".
Carole King was having a very good week. Her single "It's Too Late" sat on top of Billboard's singles chart and she received a gold album for "Tapestry". The LP, released four months earlier, was the number one album in the US for 15 weeks and would stay on Billboard's Top 200 album chart for 292 weeks.
John Lennon and Yoko Ono appear on the BBC late night talk show, Parkinson, where John chastises the British media for calling Yoko "ugly" and for saying that she broke up The Beatles.
1972
Smokey Robinson performed his final show with The Miracles before going solo. They had been together since 1959. Throughout the 1970s and '80s, Smokey would continue to make hit records, including "Cruisin'" and "Being With You", while The Miracles would reach #1 in 1975 with "Love Machine".
A bomb explodes under a Rolling Stones equipment truck in Montreal and although no one is hurt, the blast blows out the cones of 30 speakers stored inside. It's never determined who planted the dynamite and the show went on as planned.
1973
Jim Croce's, "Bad Bad Leroy Brown" was the number 1 song in the US. It was taken from his second LP, "Life and Times". Jim said that the Leroy Brown character was inspired by a tough guy that he had met in the army a few years earlier.
1974
The Moody Blues opened their own 32 track recording studio in London. It was the first in Britain to be equipped for quadraphonic recording, a now almost-forgotten form of stereo which required a playback system with four speakers
The US Justice Department ordered John Lennon out of the country by September 10th. The Immigration and Naturalization Service denied him an extension of his non-immigrant visa because of his guilty plea in England to a 1968 marijuana possession charge. The US Court of Appeal would overturn the deportation order in 1975 and Lennon was granted permanent resident status the following year.
1975
Ringo Starr and his first wife, Maureen Cox, are divorced.
Orleans' "Dance With Me" is released. It would go on to climb to number six on Billboard's Hot 100 and has since been played on the radio over four million times.
Paul McCartney scores his fourth, post-Beatles chart topper in the US with "Listen To What The Man Said".
1976
Kenny Loggins and Jim Messina announce that they are dissolving their partnership after a six year run.
Deep Purple announced that at the end of their current tour, they were splitting up. They would reform in 1984.
1977
Barry Manilow had the #1 LP on the Billboard Hot 200 album chart with "Barry Manilow Live".
Shaun Cassidy's remake of the Crystals' 1963 hit "Da Doo Ron Ron" topped the Billboard Hot 100. Shaun would say that he first heard the song when he was in kindergarten and that it was the first record he ever owned.
While on stage in Cohasset, Massachusetts, Tony Orlando shocked the crowd and his group, Dawn, by announcing his retirement from show business. He later suffered a nervous breakdown and spent the next six months in a New York psychiatric hospital.
1978
Steve Martin's novelty tune "King Tut" became a Top Ten hit in the US. Some of the musicians on the track were members of The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band.
John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John are awarded a platinum record for their number one hit, "You're The One That I Want".
Gerry Rafferty, once a member of Stealers Wheel, earns a gold record for "Baker Street".
1979
Little Richard, appearing as Reverend Richard Penniman, speaks at a revival meeting in North Richmond, CA. He warns the congregation about the evils of rock & roll music and declares, "If God can save an old homosexual like me, he can save anybody."
Gary Moore left Thin Lizzy during a US tour and was replaced by former Slick guitarist, Midge Ure.
E.L.O. takes out advertisements in several US magazines dedicating the release of "Don't Bring Me Down" to NASA's Skylab project.
1980
Keith Godchaux, former keyboards player with the Grateful Dead, was killed in a car accident in Marin County, California. Godchaux and his wife, Donna, a background vocalist, had been with the Dead from 1971 until 1979, when they were asked to leave.
Billy Joel scores his first number one hit in the US with "It's Still Rock and Roll To Me", which helped push his "Glass Houses" LP to over 5 million in sales.
1981
Harry Chapin was killed in an accident on the Long Island Expressway on July 16th. Chapin's blue 1975 VW Rabbit burst into flames when it was hit from behind by a tractor-trailer truck. The 38 year old Chapin is best remembered for his top 20 hit "Taxi" in 1972 and "Cat's in the Cradle", a number-one in 1974.
Jefferson Starship are awarded a gold record for "Modern Time". Grace Slick only made a few vocal appearances on the LP because it was nearly finished when she rejoined the group.
1982
"Valley Girl" by Frank Zappa and his 14 year old daughter Moon Unit, enters the Billboard Pop chart at #75. It will peak at #32 in August.
Chicago's "Chicago 16" album enters the Hot 200. The L.P. featured the #1 hit "Hard To Say I'm Sorry".
1986
Santana celebrates their 20th anniversary at a concert in San Francisco that features a jam with all previous members of the band.
1987
A jury in New York ruled that Morris Albert's 1975 composition "Feelings" was plagiarized from "Pour Toi", a song written in 1956 by French composer Lou Lou Geste. The jury ruled that Geste was owed at least a half million dollars in royalties.
1988
Ike Turner was sentenced in Santa Monica, California to one year in jail for possessing and transporting cocaine. Police had stopped Turner, former husband of Tina Turner, in August 1987 for driving erratically and found about six grams of rock cocaine in his car.
A judge in Aiken, South Carolina ordered James Brown to hold a benefit concert for police and abused children as part of a sentence on drug and firearms charges. Brown called the sentence a back-door way of getting him to do a concert for free.
A California appeals court upholds a lower courts' decision to dismiss a case against Ozzy Osbourne and CBS Records. In 1984 a teenager allegedly killed himself after listening to Ozzy's "Suicide Solution".
1989
James Brown was moved to a medium security cell at the Stevenson Correctional Institute after $40,000 in cash and cheques was discovered in his minimum security cell. The Godfather of Soul was serving a six year sentence for a variety of offences that included illegal gun possession, resisting arrest, assault and leading the authorities on a number of car chases. He was paroled in 1990 after serving two years.
1990
Pink Floyd's Roger Waters got a little help from his friends Joni Mitchell, Bryan Adams, The Scorpions, Cyndi Lauper, Van Morrison, The Band, Sinead O'Connor and others for a live performance of Pink Floyd's, "The Wall". The event was held on the west side of the Berlin wall and helped raise money for disaster relief. Over 200,000 fans attended the concert, which was released on CD and in video form later in the year.
BBC's Radio One apologizes to listeners after Madonna repeatedly cursed during a live concert broadcast.
1991
A revamped version of Lynyrd Skynyrd opened its world tour in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Fourteen years earlier, the band was on its way to a concert in Baton Rouge when their private plane crashed, killing three members of the group including lead singer Ronnie Van Zant. The new Lynyrd Skynyrd was fronted by Van Zant's brother Johnny and featured original guitarist Gary Rossington.
James Brown was honored by the state of Georgia for his comeback after a two-year prison term. The proclamation cited the Godfather of Soul for his "unique brand of funk."
1994
More than 54,000 fans packed Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, as Billy Joel and Elton John performed the first of five concerts together.
1995
A judge in Los Angeles threw out a lawsuit against Michael Jackson by five of his former security guards. The guards had claimed they were fired for knowing too much about night time visits by young boys to Jackson's estate. The singer denied any improprieties.
Canadian singer David Clayton-Thomas angered patrons at a Blood, Sweat and Tears concert in the heavily Jewish Detroit suburb of West Bloomfield. Halfway through the show, he remarked that the weather was "as hot as the last train car going to Auschwitz." Clayton-Thomas later apologized, saying he spoke "in the heat of the moment."
Elvis Presley's former doctor, Dr. George Nichopoulous, loses his medical license for being "too liberal" in prescribing addictive drugs. Nichopoulos called the decision "idiotic" and suggested it stemmed from resentment over Presley's death in 1977.
1996
Michael Jackson performs at a birthday party for the Sultan of Brunei and is paid between 15 and 20 million dollars.
John Panozzo of Styx, died of a hemorrhage brought on by alcoholism on July 16th at the age of 48. The band had a string of hits that included "Grand Illusion", "Mr. Roboto", "Come Sail Away" and "Babe".
Scottish folk singer Donovan was forced to postpone a comeback tour of the US because of a 30-year-old marijuana conviction in Britain. American authorities delayed granting him a waiver to enter the country. The tour was designed to promote Donovan's first album of new material in a dozen years.
Chas Chandler, who was the bassist for the Animals as well as Jimi Hendrix's manager, died in a British hospital on July 17th at age 57. He had been undergoing tests related to an aortic aneurysm.
2002
The Rolling Stones crew chief, 54 year old Royden Magee, who had worked with the band for 30 years, died on July 18th during a rehearsal in Toronto. A spokesman for the band said Magee had said that he wasn't feeling well and went to another room to take a nap. The Stones had just finished dinner and resumed rehearsing when they got word that Magee had collapsed and stopped breathing. He was taken by ambulance to nearby Sunnybrook Hospital with no vital signs after suffering an apparent heart attack. He was pronounced dead on arrival. The members of the band said they were devastated by his death.
2004
Nearly half of the 4500 people in the audience walked out of Linda Ronstadt's show with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra at the Aladdin Resort and Casino in Las Vegas after the singer dedicated an encore of "Desperado" to filmmaker Michael Moore and urged the crowd to see his film Fahrenheit 9/11.
Mark Tulin and James Lowe, two original members of the Electric Prunes, filed lawsuits against their record label and music publisher, alleging that the companies failed to pay them $1 million in royalties.
For the first time in his career, Jimmy Buffett had the number one album on Billboard's Hot 200 album chart when "License To Chill" debuted at the top spot during its first week of US sales, selling over 239,000 copies.
2005
British R&B artist Long John Baldry died July 21st after battling a chest infection for four months. He was 64. Baldry was one of the founding fathers of British rock'n'roll in the '60s. Eric Clapton has stated many times that he was inspired to pick up the guitar after seeing Baldry perform.