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Today in Rock History – July 20

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1965, Bob Dylan releases “Like a Rolling Stone.” The single becomes his first major hit, reaching number two on the US charts. The song remained on the charts for twelve weeks. It was recorded on June 15th and 16th at Columbia Studio A, on Seventh Avenue in New York. Then session musician Al Kooper improvised the organ riff for which the track is known.

1967, Jerry Lee Lewis kicks off his first English tour since he was hounded out of the country for being married to his 13-year-old cousin in May 1958.

1968, Cream started a four-week run at number one on the US album chart with Wheels On Fire. It reached the third spot in the UK.

1968, The Who and The Troggs played at the Virginia Beach Dome in Virginia Beach, Virginia

1968, Paul McCartney’s girlfriend Jane Asher announces on British TV that her engagement had been broken off. McCartney met future spouse Linda Eastman on a business trip earlier in June.

1968, Big Brother and the Holding Company and Blue Cheer performed at Patio Gardens in Farmington, Utah.The

1968, Hugh Masekela started a two week run at number one on the US singles chart with “Grazing In The Grass.”

1968, Iron Butterfly’s second album, In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida, entered the album chart for the first time. The album contained the 17-minute title track that filled the second side of the LP which went on sell over four million copies in the US alone.

1968, Jane Asher announced on the national British TV show, Dee Time, that her engagement to Paul McCartney was off. Paul reportedly was watching at a friend’s home and was surprised by the news. She was said to have inspired many of McCartney’s songs, such as “All My Loving,” “And I Love Her,” and “We Can Work It Out.” Jane went on to have a career in films and television as well as becoming a successful author and business woman.

1969, Led Zeppelin performed in front of 2500 fans at Musicarnival in Warrensville Heights, Ohio.

1969, King Crimson played at the Marquee Club, London.

1971, The Allman Brothers Band appear at Century’s Huntington Theater, Huntington, New York.

1971, The Carpenters show Make Your Own Kind Of Music started a six week run on NBC-TV.

1972, The Rolling Stones performed at The Spectrum, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

1973, Led Zeppelin appeared at the Boston Garden, Boston. Tickets were $4.50 – $6.50.

1974, David Bowie appeared live at Madison Square Garden, New York City.

1974, The Ramones decide to make their drummer Joey Ramone the lead vocalist.

1974, Tim Buckley, The Sensational Alex Harvey Band, Mahavishnu Orchestra, Van Morrison, The Doobie Brothers and The Allman Brothers all appeared at Knebworth Park, England.

1975, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band played the opening night on their Born To Run Tour at The Palace Theatre, Providence, Rhode Island. This also saw the live debut of “Miami” Steven Van Zandt as a member of The E Street Band.

1975, The Summerfest concert lineup at Rich Stadium in Buffalo, New York was Judy Collins, Dan Fogelberg, Seals & Crofts, with The Eagles as headliners.

1975, Yes played at Rynearson Stadium, Ypsilanti, Michigan.

1976, Buzzcocks made their live debut supporting The Sex Pistols and Slaughter & The Dogs at The Lesser Free Trade Hall, Manchester. In the audience was, Morrissey, Bernard Sumner, Peter Hook (soon to form Joy Division) and Mark E Smith, (The Fall) and Mick Hucknall. Tickets cost £1.

1977, Led Zeppelin appeared at the Arizona State University Activities Center, Tempe, Arizona.

1979, Van Halen played at the Convention Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

1980, Blue Oyster Cult performed at the Salem Fairgrounds, Salem, Oregon.

1983, ZZ Top played at Richfield Coliseum, Cleveland, Ohio.

1986, Carlos Santana celebrated his 39th birthday, and 20th anniversary in the music business, with a concert in San Francisco. Previous group members were assembled for the event, as 17 of them performed together on stage.

1990, Madonna played the first of three sold out nights at Wembley Stadium, London, England, on her 57-date Blond Ambition World Tour.

1994, The Grateful Dead’s only performance on this date in history took place at Deer Creek Music Center, just outside of Indianapolis, Indiana.

1999, The Rolling Stones reported a gross income of $337 million, (£168m), from almost two years of touring from their Bridges to Babylon and No Security tours. The Stones had played to over 5.6 million people, selling out all but 20 shows.

2000, The Evergreen Ballroom in Lacey, Washington was destroyed by a fire. During the ballroom’s heyday in the 1950s, 60s and 70s, many of music’s greats played there: Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Duke Ellington, Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Ike & Tina Turner and Fats Domino. Glen Campbell had lived in the kitchen at the venue for a while before he became famous.

2009, Jackson Browne settled his lawsuit against US Senator John McCain and the Republican Party after his 1977 hit “Running On Empty” was used without permission in a 2008 McCain presidential campaign ad that aired on TV and the Internet. McCain and the Republican Party apologized for using the song in the ad, and said that McCain himself “had no knowledge of, or involvement in, the creation or distribution of the video.”

2011, Pictures of The Beatles’ first US concert in Washington DC on February 11th, 1964, taken by a then 18-year-old Mike Mitchell, sold at Christie’s auction house for $361,938. Security in those days was very casual and Mitchell was just feet from the band as he snapped the black and white photos which he stored for years in a box in his basement.

2015, American country musician, songwriter and record producer Wayne Carson died at the age of 72 after suffering congestive heart failure. He co-wrote “Always on My Mind,” a hit for Elvis Presley, Willie Nelson and others. He also penned “The Letter,” recorded by The Box Tops, Joe Cocker and Leon Russell, and “Soul Deep.”

Born on July 20: Buddy Knox, singer, songwriter (1933); Kim Carnes, singer; and John Lodge, The Moody Blues (1945); Carlos Santana (1947); Jay Jay French, guitar, Twisted Sister (1952); Paul Cook, drums, Sex Pistols (1956); Michael McNeil, keyboards, Simple Minds (1958); Chris Cornell, vocals, guitar, Soundgarden (1962); and Stone Gossard, guitar, Pearl Jam (1966)

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Today in Rock History – July 16

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Who-1965-live1965, The Who play the Cheltenham Festival in Gloucestersire, England, along with The Yardbirds, Shades of Blue and The Hellions. It is one of the oldest music festivals in Britain, held annually in Cheltenham in June/July since 1945.

1966, Jack Bruce, Ginger Baker and Eric Clapton formed the group Cream. The band is widely regarded as being the world’s first successful supergroup. In their career, they sold more than 15 million albums worldwide. Their music included songs based on traditional blues such as “Crossroads” and “Spoonful”, and modern blues such as “Born Under a Bad Sign”, as well as more eccentric songs such as “Strange Brew”, “Tales of Brave Ulysses” and “Toad”.

1966, Tommy James and the Shondells started a two-week run at number one on the US singles chart with “Hanky Panky,” a song first recorded by The Raindrops. It was a number 38 hit in the UK

1967, Joni Mitchell, Leonard Cohen, Judy Collins, Janis Ian, David Blue, Mike Settle, Tom Paxton and Eric Andersen all appeared at the Newport Folk Festival in Newport, Rhode Island.

1968, Big Brother & the Holding Company and Sly & the Family Stone open the Fillmore West, the new name given to San Francisco’s Carousel Ballroom since Bill Graham took over.

1969, During recordings at Abbey Road studio’s in London The Beatles continued  work on two George Harrison songs, “Here Comes The Sun” and “Something.”  “Here Comes The Sun” was composed at Eric Clapton’s house in Surrey on a “beautiful spring morning” earlier that year.

1970, Pink Floyd recorded a show at the BBC Paris Cinema, in London, England for broadcast on the John Peel Sunday Concert, on BBC Radio 1.

1971, Hawkwind played at Northcote Arms, Southall, England.

1972, Smokey Robinson made his last appearance with The Miracles at a concert in Washington DC.

1972, The Grateful Dead performed at Dillon Stadium in Hartford, Connecticut.

1973, NBC broadcasts David Bowie’s TV special.

1975, The Rolling Stones performed at the Cow Palace, Daly City, California, just outside San Francisco.

1976, The Allman Brothers Band announces it is splitting, shortly after singer Gregg Allman testified against a drug-dealing road manager.

1977, Shaun Cassidy went to number one on the singles chart with “Da Doo Ron Ron,” his only chart topper. Shaun is the half brother of David Cassidy.

1981, US singer-songwriter Harry Chapin, who had success in the ‘70s with “Taxi,” “W-O-L-D” and the chart topping “Cat’s In The Cradle,” is killed aged 38 suffering a cardiac arrest while driving on a New York expressway. His car is hit from behind by a tractor-trailer, causing the gas tank to explode.

1993, The first of the three day Phoenix Festival in England started, featuring Sonic Youth, Faith No More, The Black Crowes, Julian Cope, Pop Will Eat Itself, Radiohead, Living Colour, Manic Street Preachers, Pulp, tickets £49 ($83.)It was held at Long Marston Airfield near Stratford-upon-Avon.

2000, Coldplay went to number one on the UK album chart with their debut release Parachutes. The release spawned the hit singles “Shiver,” “‘Yellow,” “Trouble,” and “Don’t Panic.”  It won the Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Album in 2002.

2000, Matchbox 20 went to number one on the US singles chart with “Bent.” The single was taken from their second album Mad Season.

2007, The White Stripes played their shortest live show ever at George Street, St. John’s, Newfoundland, Canada. Jack White played a single C# note accompanied by a bass drum/crash cymbal hit from Meg. At the end of the show, Jack announced, “We have now officially played in every province and territory in Canada.” They then left the stage and performed a full show later that night in St John’s.

2012, Jon Lord, the former keyboard player with Deep Purple, died aged 71. Lord was a co-founder of Deep Purple in 1968 and co-wrote many of the group’s songs including “Smoke On The Water.” He also played with bands including Whitesnake. He had been receiving treatment for pancreatic cancer since the previous August.

2014, Blues guitarist Johnny Winter died at the age of 70 in Zurich, just days after playing at the Lovely Days Festival in Austria. Winter, who was instantly recognisable by his long white hair, worked with some of the greatest bluesmen, producing three Grammy winning albums for Muddy Waters.

Born on July 16: Tony Jackson, bass, vocals, The Searchers (1940); Desmond Dekker, Jamaican singer,  The Aces (1941); Stewart Copeland (1952); Edward Joel Kowalczyk, Live (1971); Jeremy Enigk, vocalist, guitarist, Sunny Day Real Estate (1974); Luke Hemmings, guitarist, vocalist, 5 Seconds of Summer (1996)

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Today in Rock History – January 23

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searchers-needles-and-pins1964, The Searchers were at number one on the singles chart with the Sonny Bono song “Needles And Pins.”

1965, The Who play the Corn Exchange at Chelmsford and then an all-night rave at the Club Noreik in Tottenham. Opening for The Who at the all-night rave is The Muleskinners featuring future Small Faces’ keyboardist, Ian McLagan.

1966, Big Brother & the Holding Company play their first gig on the second day of the Trips Festival at San Francisco’s Longshoreman’s Hall, this show did not include Janis Joplin, who would join the band in June of that year.

1966, The Who appeared at Coop Hall in Warrington, Cheshire, England.

1967, Pink Floyd spent the first of three days recording the Syd Barrett songs “Arnold Layne” and “Candy And A Current Bun” at Sound Techniques Studios, Chelsea, London with Joe Boyd as producer. According to Roger Waters, “Arnold Layne” was based on a real person, a transvestite whose primary pastime was stealing women’s clothes and undergarments from washing lines in Cambridge.

1968, John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers performed at the Grande Ballroom in Detroit, Michigan

1969, Working at Apple studios in London, The Beatles, with Billy Preston on keyboards, recorded ten takes of a new song called “Get Back.” Alan Parsons makes his debut as the Beatles’ engineer.

1969, Led Zeppelin played at Boston Tea Party in Boston, Massachusetts.

1969, Jimi Hendrix performed at the Sportpalast, Berlin, Germany.

1970, Yes appeared at King’s Hall, Stoke, England.

1971, Steel Mill played their final show when they appeared at the Upstage Club, Asbury Park, New Jersey. Singer Bruce Springsteen formed new bands during the rest of the year, known under such names as the Bruce Springsteen Jam, Dr. Zoom and the Sonic Boom, and finally the Bruce Springsteen Band.

1971, George Harrison became the first solo Beatle to have a number one when “My Sweet Lord”‘ went to the top of the singles charts. The song from his All Things Must Pass album stayed at number one for five weeks.

1971, Dawn started a three week run at number one on the singles chart with “Knock Three Times,” the group’s first chart topper.

1972, Pink Floyd performed Dark Side of The Moon at Guildhall, in Southampton, England. The entire show was filmed by the BBC in an effort to test some new equipment.  However, the film was not supposed to be broadcast, and the tapes were wiped clean.

1974, Bob Dylan and The Band played at the Mid-South Coliseum, Memphis, Tennessee.

1975, Hawkwind appeared at Kings Hall, Derby, England.

1976, The Sex Pistols played at Watford College, Watford, England. The first of 65 gigs for band in 1976.

1976, Roxy Music performed at Konserthaus in Stockholm., Sweden.

1977, Patti Smith broke her vertebrae when she fell off the stage at a gig in Tampa, Florida.

CHicago-Terry-Kath1978, Terry Kath, guitarist with Chicago accidentally shot himself dead while cleaning what he believed was an unloaded gun. Kath’s last words were “Don’t worry it’s not loaded” as he put the gun to his head and pulled the trigger. The guitarist and singer was killed instantly.

1979, Rush played at the Carrier Dome, Syracuse, New York.

1980, Marvin Gaye appeared at the Liverpool Philharmonic, England, with Edwin Starr as support.

1982, The Allman Brothers Band appeared on Saturday Night Live, playing “Midnight Rider,” “Southbound,” and “I’m Leaving.” It was to be their last performance until 1986.

1984, Blue Oyster Cult performed at Sporthalle, Augsburg, Germany.

1986, Ray Charles was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame at the first induction dinner, held in New York City.

1988, Nirvana recorded a 10-song demo with Seattle producer Jack Endino. Sub Pop records boss Jonathan Poneman hears the tape and offers to put out a Nirvana single.

1990, Allen Collins guitarist from Lynyrd Skynyrd died of pneumonia after being ill for several months. Collins who was one of the founding members also co-wrote most of the band’s songs, including “Free Bird,” with late front man Ronnie Van Zant. He survived a plane crash in 1977 that killed two other band members. Collins was behind the wheel in a car accident in 1986 that killed his girlfriend and left him paralyzed from the waist down. He later pleaded no contest to vehicular manslaughter as well as driving under the influence of alcohol.

1994, Rage Against The Machine headlined the Rock For Choice benefit at The Palladium, Hollywood, California. Also appearing were Screaming Trees, Eddie Vedder, Mary’s Danish, 7 Year Bitch, and Green Apple Quick Step.

2000, Santana started a three week run at number one on the US album chart with Supernatural, the album which went on to win eight Grammy awards spent a total of nine weeks atop the charts during this year.

Born on this day: Django Reinhardt, jazz guitarist (1910); Anita Pointer,  The Pointer Sisters (1948); Danny Federici, keyboard, E Street Band (1950); Pat Simmons, guitarist,  The Doobie Brothers (1950); Robin Zander, vocals, Cheap Trick (1953); Earl Falconer, bassist, UB40 (1959); and Nick Harmer, bass guitarist,  Death Cab for Cutie (1974)

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Today in Rock History – October 12

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1965, The Beatles recorded “Run For Your Life” in its entirety, in five takes for their upcoming album Rubber Soul at Abbey Road Studio’s London. John Lennon later admits to lifting two lines from Elvis Presley’s 1955 hit “Baby Let’s Play House.” The group also works on another new Lennon song “This Bird Has Flown,” later known as “Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown.”) The track included George Harrison’s double-tracked sitar part, the first appearance of an Indian instrument on a pop record.

1967, The Doors played at The Surf Club, Nantasket Beach, Massachusetts, supported by Ultimate Spinach.

1968, Big Brother And The Holding Company went to number one on the US album chart with Cheap Thrills. It spent a total of eight weeks in the top spot.

1968, Pink Floyd were at ORTF TV Studios in Paris where footage of the band “larking about on the London underground combined with shots of London landmarks” were used as a backdrop while the band played “Let There Be More Light.” It was broadcast on the arts program A L’Affiche Du Monde.

1968, John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers appeared at the Grande Ballroom, Detroit, Michigan.

1969, The English press announces that Led Zeppelin will receive “the highest fee ever paid to a British group for a one-nighter in this country,” when they appear at London’s Lyceum, though the actual amount is not revealed.

1969, A DJ on Detroit’s WKNR radio station received a phone call telling him that if you play The Beatles “Strawberry Fields Forever” backwards, you hear John Lennon say the words “I buried Paul.” This started a worldwide rumor that Paul McCartney was dead.

1971, Gene Vincent (Vincent Eugene Craddock), died from a perforated ulcer, aged 36. He had the 1956 US number seven and UK number 16 single “Be Bop A Lula.” Vincent appeared in the film, The Girl Can’t Help It with Jayne Mansfield. In 1960, while on tour in the UK, Vincent and songwriter Sharon Sheeley were seriously injured the car crash that killed Eddie Cochran.

1973, Pink Floyd perform at Munchener Olympiahalle at Olympia Park, in Munich, Germany. It was a typical 1973 show, which included Dark Side of the Moon as the second set of their shows. The support act was Fumble.

bay-city-rollers-saturday-night1974, The Bay City Rollers went to number one on the UK album chart with their debut album Rollin. The album included three British chart hits “Remember,” “Shang-a-Lang,” “Summerlove Sensation,” and the debut of “Saturday Night,” which was never a British hit, despite being a number one smash in America.

1974, If You Love Me, Let Me Know by Olivia Newton-John spent its only week at number one on the US album charts.

1974, The who album Odds and Sods is released in the US. Jim Miller in Rolling Stone calls it “flawed but interesting.”

1975, Rod Stewart and The Faces made their final live appearance when they played at Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale, New York.

1975, The Allman Brothers Band appeared Balboa Stadium, San Diego, California. The Marshall Tucker Band was the opening act.

1977, Rod Stewart played at Maple Leaf Gardens, Toronto.

1977, The Grateful Dead performed at Manor Hall in Austin, Texas.

1978, Aerosmith appeared at the Cox Convention Center, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

1978, While living at the Chelsea Hotel in New York City, Sex Pistol Sid Vicious called the police to say that someone had stabbed his girlfriend Nancy Spungen. He was arrested and charged with murder and placed in the detox unit of a New York prison.

1980, Yes performed at the Mid-South Coliseum, Memphis, Tennessee.

1980, The Doobie Brothers played at the Oakland-Alameda Coliseum Arena, Oakland, California.

1981, King Crimson appeared at the Music Centre, Utrecht, in the Netherlands.

1982, Van Halen performed at the Capital Centre, Landover, Maryland.

1985, Ricky Wilson of the B-52’s died of complications from AIDS.

1991, Simply Red’s fourth album Stars went to number one on the UK chart for the first of five times, featuring the singles “Thrill Me,” “For Your Babies,” and the title track “Stars.” The album became the biggest seller of 1991 and 1992 in the UK spending 134 weeks on the chart.

1994, Pink Floyd played the first of a 15-night run at Earls Court, London, England. Less than a minute after the band had started playing “Shine On You Crazy Diamond,” a scaffolding stand holding 1200 fans, collapsed, throwing hundreds of people 20 feet to the ground. It took over an hour to free everyone from the twisted wreckage, ninety-six people were injured, with 36 needing hospital treatment. Six were detained overnight with back, neck and rib injuries. Pink Floyd sent a free T-shirt and a note of apology to all the fans who had been seated in the stand that collapsed. The show was immediately cancelled and re-scheduled.

1997, John Denver was killed when the handmade, experimental airplane he was flying, ran out of gas and crashed off the coast of Monterrey Bay, California. The 53 year old star had scored 15 songs on Billboard’s Top 40 Pop chart, ten of which reached number one on either Billboard’s Adult Contemporary or Country chart.

2005, Motley Crue drummer Tommy Lee suffered minor burns at a concert in Casper, Wyoming during a pyrotechnics explosion. Lee was treated at a local hospital for the injuries to his arm and face, which occurred while he was suspended from a wire thirty feet above the stage.

2008, Oasis went to number one on the UK album chart with Dig Out Your Soul the band’s seventh and final studio album.

Born on October 12: Sam Moore, Sam & Dave (1935); Luciano Pavarotti (1935); Melvin Franklin, vocals, The Temptations (1942);  Rick Parfitt, vocals, guitar, Status Quo (1948); David Vanian, singer-songwriter, The Damned (1956); Bryn Merrick,  bass, The Damned (1958); Bob Mould, Husker Du (1960);  Martie Maguire, Dixie Chicks (1969); Jordan Pundik,  singer, guitarist New Found Glory (1979)

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