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Today in Rock History – June 28

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1966, The Small Faces appeared live at the Marquee Club in Wardour Street, London. Admission cost $1.05

1967, Pink Floyd performed at The Dance Hall, Eel Pie Island Hotel, Twickenham, England.

1968,The Beatles were at Studio Two at Abbey Road studios, where they recorded “Good Night,” John Lennon’s lullaby for his 5-year-old son Julian. It was said to be inspired by Cole Porter’s “True Love.”   Ringo singing the lead vocal. It was completed after two more sessions in July, and appeared on the White Album.

1968, Ten Years After played at the Fillmore West, San Francisco.

1968, Pink Floyd released their second album A Saucerful Of Secrets in the UK. It is both the last Pink Floyd album on which Syd Barrett would appear, and the only studio album to which all five band members contributed.  That same day the band performed A Saucerful of Secrets for the program Release on BBCTV2. It would air the following evening.  That night, Floyd played for the Students Celebration Dance- The End Of It All Ball,  at the Music Hall in Shrewsbury, England.

1968, The Who performed at the Shrine Auditorium, Los Angeles.

1968, Aretha Franklin appears on the cover of Time magazine.

1969, Fleetwood Mac, Led Zeppelin, Nice, John Mayall, Ten Years After, Taste, Liverpool Scene and Chicken Shack, Keef Hartley, Taste and Savoy Brown, all appeared at The Bath Festival of Blues in England, the DJ was John Peel. Over 12,000 fans attended.

1969, Pink Floyd played at the Winter Gardens Pavilion, Weston-Super-Mare, Somerset, England. Supporting acts were The Ken Birch Band and the Mike Slocombe Combo.

1969, Henry Mancini started a two week run at number one on the US singles chart with “Love Theme from Romeo And Juliet.” The film’s love theme was used as the backing for “Our Tune” by DJ Simon Bates on his BBC Radio 1 show.

1969, Crosby, Stills & Nash release their self-titled debut album.

1970, Ten Years After performed at the Canadian National Exhibition Stadium, Toronto.

1971, Yes appeared at the Whiskey A Go-Go in Hollywood, California.

1972, Pink Floyd played the first of two nights at The Dome in Brighton, England. These were makeup shows for a concert performance at the same venue in January that had to be stopped in the middle of “Money” due to technical difficulties.

1972, Led Zeppelin performed at the Community Arena in Tucson, Arizona. Tickets cost $4 – $6 (£2.67 – £4.)

1973, The Searchers, Gerry & the Pacemakers, Herman’s Hermits, and Wayne Fontana appear at a revival show at New York’s Madison Square Garden.

1974, The Grateful Dead play at the Garden in Boston, Massachusetts.

1975, The Eagles started a five-week run at number one on the US album chart with ‘One Of These Nights’.

1975, Wings went to number one on the UK charts with the album Venus And Mars, featuring the US chart topping single “Listen What The Man Said.”

1975, American singer songwriter Tim Buckley completed the last show of a tour in Dallas, Texas, playing to a sold-out crowd of 1,800 people. This was Buckley’s last ever show, he died the following day of a heroin and morphine overdose at age 28.

1975, Cher marries Gregg Allman.

1977, Elton John achieved a life long ambition when he became the Chairman of Watford Football Club.

1978, The Clash supported by The Specials appeared at Friars, Aylesbury, England.

1980, Roxy Music scored their second number one album with Flesh And Blood. It would return to the top spot again in August for another three weeks, in total spending 60 weeks on the albums chart in the United Kingdom. The album also peaked at number 35 in the United States and number ten in Australia.

1986, Wham! were at number one on the UK singles chart with their fourth and final UK chart topper “The Edge Of Heaven.” Also on this day Wham! played their farewell concert in front of 80,000 fans at Wembley Stadium, London.

1997, Radiohead went to number one on the UK album chart with their third album OK Computer. The British group’s first self-produced album later appeared in many critics’ lists and listener polls for best album of the year, and also won a Grammy for Best Alternative Music Performance.

2005, 2 Pac featuring Elton John was at number one on the UK singles chart with “Ghetto Gospel.” It was written by Tupac Shakur and produced by Eminem. The song uses samples from the Elton John song “Indian Sunset” from his 1971 album Madman Across the Water.

2007, The Spice Girls confirmed they would reform for a world tour to take place in December 2007 and January 2008 with the original line-up, who had not performed on stage since Ginger Spice Geri Halliwell quit in May 1998. The 11 dates announced included a London show on December 15th, eight days after the first date in Los Angeles. Other dates included Cologne, Madrid Beijing, Hong Kong, Sydney and Cape Town. The tour was being put together by Simon Fuller, whose 19 company masterminded the group’s global success more than a decade earlier.

Born on this day: David Knights, Procol Harum (1945);  Steven J. Morse, Dixie Dregs, Deep Purple (1954); Clint Boon, English singer, keyboards, Inspiral Carpets, The Clint Boon Experience (1959);  Charlie Clouser, American keyboard player, songwriter, producer, Nine Inch Nails (1963);  Steve Williamson, English saxophonist, composer, Jazz Warriors (1964); Mark Stoermer,  The Killers (1977); Michael Crafter, Australian singer-songwriter, Confession, I Killed the Prom Queen, Carpathian, Bury Your Dead (1981)

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Today in Rock History – June 6

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1965, Herman’s Hermits play The Ed Sullivan Show.

1965, The Rolling Stones released the single “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” on the Decca label in the US. The song also featured on the American version of the Rolling Stones’ fourth studio album, Out of Our Heads, released that July.

1965, The Who played at St. Joseph’s Hall in London.

1966, Roy Orbison’s first wife, Claudette, was killed when a truck pulled out of a side road and collided with the motorbike that she and her husband were riding on in Gallatin, Texas, she was 25.

1966, The Who head from Sweden to Denmark, flying into Copenhagen. That night Keith Moon and John Entwistle go drinking at the Carousel Club and sit in for a set with The Tremeloes.

1968, Screaming Lord Sutch appeared at the Freehold Hullabaloo in Freehold, New Jersey. Sutch was touring the East Coast in a old custom-painted Rolls Royce hearse. The support band was The Castiles, with Bruce Springsteen on vocals).

1969, Creedence Clearwater Revival and Soul Survivors appeared at the Mid-South Coliseum in Memphis, Tennessee.

1969, Rod Stewart signs as a solo artist to Mercury Records.

1970, Christie were at number one on the singles chart with “Yellow River,” the group’s only chart topper. Written by Jeff Christie for the Tremeloes who turned it down, so he recorded it himself.

1970, Felix Cavaliere & The Rascals played at Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia, Maryland.

1970, Syd Barrett played his first gig since leaving Pink Floyd at the Extraveganza ’70, at London’s Olympia. He was joined on stage by Floyd guitarist David Gilmour.

1970, This is the third of a four night residency for the Grateful Dead at San Francisco’s Fillmore West.

1970, The Doors appeared at the Pacific Coliseum, Vancouver, British Columbia.

1971, John Lennon and Yoko Ono jammed live on stage with Frank Zappa at The Filmore East in New York. Some of these recordings were released in 1972, on John Lennon’s third post-Beatles album, Some Time in New York City.

1971, This date was the last broadcast of The Ed Sullivan Show. Ed’s final musical guests are Gladys Knight & the Pips.

1972, David Bowie releases his album The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars.

1973, King Crimson played at Ellis Auditorium, Memphis, Tennessee.

1974, Billy Swan records his chart topping song “I Can Help.”

1975, Pink Floyd fly to America for a tour. It would end in disaster when an addled Roger Waters spits on the audience. The event would serve as the inspiration for writing The Wall in an attempt to exorcise his demons.

1975, The Rolling Stones appeared at Arrowhead Stadium, Kansas City, Missouri.

1976, Genesis performed at the Hammersmith Odeon in London.

1977, Queen appeared at Earls Court in London, England.

1977, Students at UCLA are shocked when Stevie Wonder appears as a guest lecturer, talking about his experiences with Motown and then performing music by way of illustration.

1978, Bob Dylan performed at the Universal Amphitheater in Los Angeles.

1979, Def Leppard played at Crookes Workingman’s Club in Sheffield. The gig was reviewed in UK music paper Sounds and led to a recording contract with Phonogram Records.

1981, Van Halen appeared at the Seattle Center Coliseum, Seattle, Washington.

1982, Tom Petty, Crosby Stills & Nash, Bob Dylan, Stevie Wonder, Stevie Nicks and Jackson Browne all appeared at The Rose Bowl, Pasadena, California to a crowd of 85,000 fans at the six hour Peace Sunday, We Have A Dream antinuclear concert. Dylan was joined onstage with Joan Baez and duetted with her on “Blowin’ In The Wind” and “With God On Our Side.” The show was partly broadcast on ABC TV’s Entertainment Tonight program on the same day.

1984, Blue Oyster Cult performed at the Agora Ballroom,  a “cavernous” former bowling alley in an industrial area in Hartford, Connecticut.

1986, A&R man Dick Rowe died of diabetes. Rowe became famous for not signing The Beatles to Decca records and made the classic quote “Nobody cares about guitar group’s anymore.” He did however sign The Rolling Stones to Decca.

2003, Keyboard player with The Animals Dave Rowberry died aged 62. He replaced Alan Price who left in 1965. The Animals had the 1964 UK and US number one single “House Of The Rising Sun.”

2006, Billy Preston died of kidney failure. The Grammy-winning keyboard player collaborated with some of the greatest names in the music industry, including the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Nat King Cole, Little Richard, Ray Charles, George Harrison, Elton John, Eric Clapton and Bob Dylan.

Born on June 6: Levi Stubbs, The Four Tops (1936); Gary “US” Bonds (1939); Clarence White, The Byrds (1944); and Steve Vai, guitarist, Frank Zappa, David Lee Roth, Whitesnake (1960)

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Today in Rock History – May 22

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1964, The Beatles arrived back from their first US trip at Heathrow Airport and were greeted by thousands of fans. Also on this day The Beatles scored their second chart topping album with The Beatles Second Album. It displaced Meet The Beatles! from the top of the charts.

1965,  The Beatles’ “Ticket to Ride ” surpassed Herman’s Hermits  “Mrs. Brown, You’ve Got a Lovely Daughter,” on the top spot on the charts.

1965, The Who appeared at the Astoria Ballroom, Rawtenstall, Lancashire, England.  Also an article on The Who appears in Record Mirror featuring short and angry quotes from Pete and Keith. Pete: “This thing about smashing amplifiers; well, if we’ve got a particularly thick audience out in the sticks we do it but sometimes we take the thing down a bit.” Keith: “We had to do something [“Anyway Anyhow Anywhere”] that would get away from all the rubbish that people are buying.”

1967, Jimi Hendrix played at Kulttuuritalo in Helsinki, Finland.

1967, Florence Ballard appears with the Supremes for the last time on The Tonight Show.

1968, Gary Puckett And The Union Gap were at number one on the singles chart with “Young Girl.” The song which was about under-age sex was their only chart topper.

1968, Pink Floyd performed at the Hotel Billard Palace, Antwerp, Belgium.

1968, Frank Sinatra appeared at Oakland Coliseum, California backed by a full orchestra. The concert was a Democratic Party fundraiser.

1969, John Lennon and Paul McCartney pick up another prize at the  Ivor Novello awards in London, winning A-Side Which Achieved the Highest Certified British Sales, 1968 for “Hey Jude.”

1970, The Byrds and Mason Proffit played at The Warehouse in New Orleans, Louisiana.

1970, The Allman Brothers Band headlined at the Grand Opera House in Macon, Georgia.

1970, Litter, The Bob Seger System, and Mountain performed at the Aragon Ballroom in Chicago

1971, The Rolling Stones album Sticky Fingers started a four-week run at number one on the charts, the group’s second chart topping album, the set featured “Brown Sugar,” “Bitch,” and “Wild Horses.” The artwork for Sticky Fingers, which, on the original vinyl release, featured a working zipper that opened to reveal cotton briefs, was conceived by American pop artist Andy Warhol. The cover, a photo of Joe Dallesandro’s crotch clad in tight blue jeans, was assumed by many fans to be an image of Mick Jagger. The album also features the first usage of the “Tongue and Lip Design” created by John Pasche.

1971, The Faces appeared at Liverpool Stadium in Liverpool, Merseyside, England.

1972, Pink Floyd, Donovan, New Riders of the Purple Sage, Buddy Miles and Carlos Santana, Tom Paxton and Memphis Slim, Dr. John The Night Tripper and Spencer Davis with Sneeky Pete and Gene Clark played at The Amsterdam Rock Circus 1972, Olympisch Stadion, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

1973, David Bowie appeared at the Odeon Theatre (Romford), in London.

1974, The Who performed at Guildhall, Portsmouth, England.

1975,  The Eagles headlined at the Capital Centre, Landover, Maryland.

1976, During a European tour The Rolling Stones played at Earls Court in London.

1976, Wings started a five week run at number one on the singles chart with “Silly Love Songs,” McCartney’s fifth chart topper since leaving The Beatles.

1976, KISS appeared at The Olympia Theatre, Paris.

1977, Television kicked off their first UK tour at the Apollo Theatre, Glasgow, Scotland, Blondie were the support act.

source: LedZeppelin.com

1977, Led Zeppelin performed at the Tarrant County Convention Center, Fort Worth, Texas.

1979, Rush appeared at Chateau Neuf, Oslo, Norway.

1980, U2 kicked off their 23-date 11 O’Clock Tick Tock tour at The Hope & Anchor in London.

1980, Black Sabbath played at the Apollo Theatre, Manchester, England.

1982, The Grateful Dead performed at the Greek Theatre, at The University of California at Berkeley.

1983, ZZ Top appeared at the Birmingham-Jefferson Convention Complex, Birmingham, Alabama.

1984, Van Halen performed at the San Diego Sports Arena, San Diego, California.

1991, Wil Sinnott from The Shamen drowned while swimming off the coast of La Gomera when he was pulled under by strong currents. The Shamen were in Tenerife filming a video for their new single “Move Any Mountain.”

2000, Travis swept the board at the Ivor Novello awards. Singer Fran Healy won two awards for Best Contemporary Song for the single “Why Does It Always Rain On Me,” and Songwriter Of The Year for the Travis album The Man Who.

2004, Morrissey appeared at the M.E.N. arena Manchester, England on his 45th birthday. It was Morrissey’s return to his home city Manchester after an absence of 12 years and the 18,000 tickets sold out in only 90 minutes. During the set Morrissey performed five Smiths songs.

2005, Dave Matthews Band were at number one on the US album chart with Stand Up. The album entered the chart at No.1 with sales of 465,000. Features the singles “American Baby,” “Dreamgirl,” and “Everybody Wake Up.”

Born on this day: Bruce Rowlands, Fairport Convention (1941); Calvin Simon, Funkadelic (1942); Bernie Taupin (1950); Morrisey (1954); and Dan Roberts, bass, Crash Test Dummies (1967)

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Today in Rock History – May 1

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hermans-hermits1965, Herman’s Hermits started a three week run at number one on the US singles chart with “Mrs Brown You’ve Got A Lovely Daughter.”

1966, The Beatles played a 15-minute live set on stage for the last time in the UK when they appeared at the NME Poll Winners concert at Wembley Empire Pool. The Beatles set included five songs: “I Feel Fine,” “Nowhere Man,” “Day Tripper,” “If I Needed Someone,” and “I’m Down.” Also on the bill, The Spencer Davis Group, The Fortunes, Herman’s Hermits, Roy Orbison, Cliff Richard, The Rolling Stones, The Seekers, The Small Faces, Dusty Springfield, The Walker Brothers, The Who, and The Yardbirds.

1967, 32 year-old Elvis Presley married 21 year-old Priscilla Beaulieu, a girl he first met in 1959 when she was just 14 years old. When Elvis got out of the army in 1960, Beaulieu moved into the singer’s Graceland mansion with her family’s blessing. The wedding ceremony took place at the Aladdin Hotel in Las Vegas and although the marriage license was only $15, the wedding cake cost $3,500. The couple divorced after five years of marriage on October 9, 1973.

1967, The FBI arrested The Beach Boys’ Carl Wilson on charges of avoiding the military draft and refusing to take the Oath of Allegiance. He was later released and joined the rest of the band in Ireland for a British tour.

1969, Bob Dylan recorded an appearance for The Johnny Cash Show at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, Tennessee. After two solo numbers from Dylan, Johnny Cash joined him for a rendition of “Girl From The North Country.” In this prime time show, Cash enjoyed booking contemporary performers as guests, such as Neil Young, Kenny Rogers and The First Edition, James Taylor, Ray Charles, and Eric Clapton would perform on his program.

1970, Pink Floyd appeared at the Civic Center in Santa Monica, California.

1970, Led Zeppelin performed at Crawford Hall, University of California- Irvine.  Tickets were $4 (£2.67.) Lee Michaels was the support act.

1970, The Jimi Hendrix Experience played the first of 13 shows in May, when they appeared at the Milwaukee Auditorium.

1970, The Grateful Dead played at Alfred College in Alfred, New York.

1972, Pink Floyd performed the first of two nights at New York’s Carnegie Hall.

 1973, In the US, Washington DC, proclaimed a “Marvin Gaye Day.”

 1974, The Carpenters performed at the White House, at the request of President Nixon.

led-zeppelin-presence1976, Led Zeppelin started a two-week run at number one on the US album chart with Presence, the group’s fifth chart topping album.

1976, The Bellamy Brothers went to number one on the US singles chart with “Let Your Love Flow. It was the duo’s only number one.

1977, The White Riot Tour kicked of at the Roxy in London with The Clash, The Jam and The Buzzcocks.

1978, David Bowie’s world tour stoped at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto.

1979, Elton John became the first pop star to perform in Israel. In three weeks time he also became the first Western solo pop performer to tour Russia.

1980, The South African government banned Pink Floyd’s single “Another Brick In The Wall” after black children adopted the song as their anthem in protest against inferior education.

1984, Fleetwood Mac drummer and founder member Mick Fleetwood filed for bankruptcy. It was reported that the drummer had spent thousands of dollars of cocaine a month, and had refused to listen to financial advisers, buying up several homes, a $400,000 (£267,000) spread in Hawaii and a $1.8 (£1.2) million farm outside Sydney, Australia.

1986, American songwriter and producer Hugo Peretti died aged 70. Wrote and produced many classic hits including, “Can’t Help Falling In Love,” “Twistin’ The Night Away,” “Shout,” “The Hustle,” and “You Make Me Feel Brand New.”

1997, The house where Kurt Cobain committed suicide went up for sale. The asking price for the five-bedroom house built in 1902 was $3 (£2) million. The carriage house where the Nirvana guitarist died had been demolished.

2005, Coldplay became the first British band to have a new entry in the US Top 10 singles chart since The Beatles. Coldplay’s  single “Speed Of Sound” entered the chart at number eight, only the second time a UK band has achieved the feat. The Beatles managed it with “Hey Jude” in 1968.

2005, Bruce Springsteen went to number one on the UK album chart with Devils & Dust the American singer songwriter’s sixth UK chart topper.

2015, Mark Ronson and Bruno Mars gave The Gap Band a writing credit on their huge hit “Uptown Funk,” due to its similarities with their 1979 track “Oops Up Side Your Head.” “Uptown Funk” which had topped the UK chart for seven weeks, and the US chart for 14, originally had six songwriters but was now credited to The Gap Band as well.

Born on May 1: Little Walter, bluesman (1930); Judy Collins (1938); Rita Coolidge (1944); Nick Fortune, The Buckinghams (1946); Ray Parker, Jr (1954); Johnny Colt, The Black Crowes (1966); Tim McGraw American country singer, actor (1967); D’arcy Wretsky-Brown, bass, Smashing Pumpkins (1968);

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Today in Rock History – April 11

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1964, The Beatles set a new chart record when they had 14 songs on the Billboard Hot 100. The songs ranged from “Can’t Buy Me Love” at number one to “Love Me Do” at number 81.

1965, Performing at the New Musical Express poll winners concert, at London’s Wembley Empire Pool, England, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Tom Jones, Freddie and the Dreamers, The Animals, The Kinks, Herman’s Hermits, Moody Blues, Them, Cilla Black, The Seekers and Donovan.

1966, Buffalo Springfield made their live debut at The Troubadour in Hollywood, California. The folk rock band are renowned both for their music and as a springboard for the careers of Neil Young, Stephen Stills, Richie Furay and Jim Messina. Buffalo Springfield were among the first wave of North American bands to become popular in the wake of the British invasion.

1967, During a 18-date European tour The Rolling Stones played two shows at the Olympia Theatre in Paris, France

1968, Janis Joplin and Big Brother & the Holding Company perform on ABC’s Hollywood Palace.

1970, Peter Green quit Fleetwood Mac while on tour in Germany, to avoid breach of contract he agreed to finish the current tour.

1970, The Beatles started a two week run at No.1 on the singles chart with ‘Let It Be’. It became the group’s 19th No.1 in 6 years.

1973, The Beach Boys appeared at the Omni Coliseum in Atlanta, Georgia. The Beach Boys were at a very low ebb in popularity in America and this show proved a financial disaster for the promoter, with less than 3,000 tickets sold for the 16,000 capacity venue. Opening act was Mothers Finest and middle of the bill was Bruce Springsteen who played a 60-minute set.

1974, David Bowie Arrives in New York on the SS France. Checks into the Sherry Netherlands Hotel on 5th Avenue. During his stay in New York Bowie spent time putting together a new tour band and seeing live music, particularly black artists such as The Temptations, The Spinners and Marvin Gaye at venues in Harlem such as the Apollo Theatre.

1976, During a tour of Australia, Queen appeared at the Entertainments Centre in Perth.

1977, Alice Cooper played to an audience of 40,000 in Sydney, Australia, the largest crowd to attend a rock concert in the country’s history. After the show Cooper was placed under house arrest at his hotel until he posted a bond for $59,632. That amount was the sum that a promoter claimed to have paid Cooper for a 1975 Australia tour he never made. The two settled when it was found that the promoter did not fulfill his part of the agreement either.

1981, Eddie Van Halen married actress Valerie Bertinelli, co-star of the 1980’s television hit, One Day at a Time. The two had met eight months earlier when Bertinelli’s brother took her to a Van Halen concert in Shreveport, Louisiana.

1992, Def Leppard scored their second UK chart topping album with Adrenalize, the follow-up to the multi million selling Hysteria album.

1994, Oasis released their first single “Supersonic,” which peaked at  number 31 on the UK charts. However, over time it has amassed sales of over 215,000, making it their 13th biggest selling single ever in the UK. “Supersonic” was also the band’s first single to chart in the United States, where it peaked at number eleven on the US Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart.

2006, June Pointer, the youngest of the four Pointer Sisters who went from teenage Gospel singers to the top of the Pop charts with such hits as “Fire,” “Slow Hand,” and “I’m So Excited,” died of cancer at the age of 52.

2014, Nirvana were enshrined to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, alongside the likes of KISS and Beatles manager Brian Epstein. REM’s Michael Stipe inducted the group, saying, “Nirvana tapped into a voice that was yearning to be heard. Nirvana were kicking against the mainstream. They spoke truth and a lot of people listened.”

Born on April 11: Neville Staples, The Specials (1956); Stuart Adamson, Big Country (1958); Nigel Pulsford, Bush (1965); Joss Stone, singer (1987)

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Today in Rock History – November 5

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1965, The Who released the single “My Generation” in the US. While the UK release would reach the second spot, the song barely rippled in the US peaking at number 74 on the Billboard Hot 100.

1965, The Doors appeared at the Pioneer Club Boat Ride, Los Angeles, California.

1966, The Monkees were at the top of the Billboard singles chart with “Last Train To Clarksville,” the group’s first number one. It was later revealed that due to filming commitments on their TV series, none of the group had played on this or most of the group’s early recordings.

1967, Pink Floyd played two shows, afternoon and evening at The Cheetah Club, in Venice, California. Smokestack Lightning and The Candymen were support.

1967, Bee Gee Robin Gibb was a passenger on a train which crashed in South East London in England killing 49 people and injuring 78. Robin was treated for shock after the accident.

1968, Herman”s Hermits singer Peter Noone married Mirellie Strasser in London.

1969, Led Zeppelin performed two shows,  7 pm and  9:30 pm at Memorial Hall, Kansas City, Missouri.  The group’s stage equipment was sent to San Francisco from their show in Ontario, Canada the night before, in preparation for their dates at Winterland. On this night in Kansas City, they played with rented P.A.’s and amps from Mission Music.

1970, More £1 ($1.60)  Backtrack LP’s are by The Who released in the U.K. Backtrack 8 is a reissue of A Quick One (mono), Backtrack 9 is The Who Sell Out and Backtrack 14: The Ox is a collection of Who songs all written by John Entwistle.

1970, Led Zeppelin III was released in the UK on Atlantic records. The album peaked at No.1 on both the UK and US charts. It has now been certified 6 times Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for US sales in excess of 6 million copies.

1970, The Grateful Dead played the first of four days at the Capitol Theater in Port Chester, New York.

1971, Elvis Presley kicked off a 15-date North American tour at the Metropolitan Sports Center in Minneapolis. Announcer Al Dvorin uttered the well known phrase, “Elvis has left the building” at the end of the show. He was asked to make the announcement in an effort to quiet the fans who continued to call for an encore.

1971, Pink Floyd appear at Assembly Hall, Hunter College, New York.

1971, Yes performed at the Whiskey A Go-Go, Los Angeles.

1972, Roxy Music appear at Top Rank, Birmingham, England.

1973, Ronnie Lane’s Slim Chance played their first gig in a circus tent on Clapham Common, London.

1973, King Crimson performed at Rhine Halle, Düsseldorf, Germany.

1973, The wear on The Who caused by the complicated Quadrophenia material explodes into violence on stage. At the performance at the Odeon Theatre in Newcastle, Pete loses it during “5:15” when the tapes come in too slow. He attacks road manager Bobby Pridden, drags him over the soundboard, starts ripping up the tapes, before announcing to the audience that he will never play live again and stalking offstage. The curtain drops only to go back up ten minutes later as The Who with Pete come back onstage and perform a set of oldies.

1974, Black Sabbath perform at Hordern Pavilion, Sydney, Australia.

1975, Rush played at The Rafters, Battle Creek, Michigan.

1977, The manager of the Virgin record store in Nottingham, England was arrested for displaying a large poster advertising the new Sex Pistols album, Never Mind The Bollock’s, Here’s The Sex Pistols. London stores banned the album after police warned they could be fined under the 1898 indecent advertising act.

1978, Eric Clapton appears at Pabellon Deportivo Del Real Madrid, Madrid.

1979, Mick Jagger’s divorce from Bianca was finalized. The couple had married in St Tropez in 1971.

1979, Blue Oyster Cult played the first of four sold out nights at London”s Hammersmith Odeon.

1982, England’s Channel 4 TV’s The Tube had its first showing. Presented by Paula Yates and Jools Holland, the show featured The Jam and an interview with Mick Jagger. The first live act on the show was local band Toy Dolls. The show ran until 1987 and was named after the plexiglass tunnel which led down into Studio Five at Tyne Tees TV, the place where all the stars from the 80’s subsequently appeared.

1983, Billy Joel was at number one on the UK singles chart with “Uptown Girl,” which remained at the top of the chars for five weeks. The song was initially written about his relationship with his then-girlfriend Elle Macpherson, but it ended up also becoming about his soon-to-be wife Christie Brinkley, both women being among the most well-known supermodels of the 1980’s.

1986, Bobby Nunn of The Coasters died of heart failure in Los Angeles. He had the 1958 US number one single “Yakety Yak,” as well as the 1959 US number two and UK number six single “Charlie Brown.”

1988, “The Locomotion,” became the first song to reach the US Top five in three different versions, when Kylie Minogue’s reached number three on the US chart.  It was composed by songwriters Gerry Goffin and Carole King, and is notable for appearing in the American Top 5 three times, each  in a different decade. The first appearance was for Little Eva in 1962, followed by Grand Funk Railroad in 1974.

1994, Sheryl Crow scored her first UK Top ten single when “All I Wanna Do” entered the charts at number four. The US singer songwriter went on to become the first US female to score six UK hits off her debut album Tuesday Night Music Club.

1995, Producer Butch Vig’s new band Garbage made their US live debut when they played at The 7th Street Entry in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Vig produced Nirvana’s album Nevermind.

2000, U2 went to No.1 on the UK album chart with All That You Can’t Leave Behind, the Irish group’s 8th UK top album. Creed were at number one on the US singles chart with “With Arms Wide Open.”

2003, Bobby Hatfield of The Righteous Brothers was found dead in hotel room in Michigan, 30 minutes before he was due on stage, aged 63. The autopsy report from the Kalamazoo County Medical Examiner gave the opinion that Hatfield suffered a sudden, unexpected death due to acute cocaine toxicity. The Righteous Brothers had the 1965 UK and US number one single “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin,” and the 1990 UK number one single “Unchained Melody,” first released in 1965.

2005, Guitarist Link Wray died aged 76. Wray was credited with inventing “fuzz” guitar after punching a hole in a speaker giving him a distorted guitar sound. Famous for his 1958 US number 16 single “Rumble” which was banned on several radio stations, on the grounds that it glorified juvenile delinquency. A rare feat for a song with no lyrics.

2014, The funeral for Jack Bruce was held in London, attended by Eric Clapton, Ginger Baker and noted musicians Phil Manzanera, Gary Brooker, Vernon Reid and Nitin Sawhney among others. Dozens assembled at the Golders Green Crematorium paying a last tribute singing “Morning Has Broken,” “Strawberry Fields Forever,” and “Theme for an Imaginary Western.” The Scottish-born bass player and singer had died in October as a result of liver disease.

Born on November 6: Ike Turner (1931); Art Garfunkel (1941); Gram Parsons (1946); Peter Noone (1947); Peter Hammill, singer, guitar, keyboards, Van Der Graff Generator (1948); Bryan Adams (1959) and Jonny Greenwood, guitar, keyboards, Radiohead (1971); and Ryan Adams, singer, songwriter (1974)

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Today in Rock History – August 7

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1965, Herman’s Hermits went to number one on the singles chart with “I’m Henry VIII I Am.” The single was only released in the US. Singer Peter Noone once interviewed Elvis Presley for UK music paper New Musical Express.

1965, Mike Smith of the Dave Clark Five suffered two broken ribs when he was pulled off the stage by a fan in Chicago.

1965, The Turtles’ remake of Bob Dylan’s “It Ain’t Me Babe” was released. It reached the eighth spot on the US charts, and became the title of their first album as The Turtles.

1968, The Who performed at the Wollman Skating Rink Theater in New York City.

1969, During a North American tour Led Zeppelin appeared at the Berkeley Community Theatre, California.

1970, Ten Years After, Jethro Tull, Cactus, Grand Funk, Alice Cooper, The Youngbloods, and others played at the  Strawberry Fields Festival, held at Mosport Park in Bowmanville, Ontario, Canada.

1970, The Goose Lake International Music Festival was held in Leoni, Michigan. Over 200,000 fans attended the three day festival. Acts who appeared included Mountain, Chicago, Bob Seger, John Sebastian, James Gang, Stooges with Iggy Pop, Brownsville Station, MC5, Rod Stewart and the Flying Burrito Brothers

1971, Hawkwind appeared at Under The Arches in London.

1971, The Bee Gees started a four week run at number one on the Billboard singles chart with “How Can You Mend A Broken Heart?” It was the group’s tenth hit, and first chart topper.

1971, The Who were to have played the Yale Bowl in New Haven, Connecticut but it is canceled by the local government, due to the concert’s proximity to a planned Black Panther rally. Instead, The Who play one more night in Boston.

1972, Yes performed at the PNE Coliseum, Vancouver, Canada.

1974, Peter Wolf from The J Geils Band married actress Faye Dunaway in Beverly Hills the marriage ended in divorce five years later.

1975, ZZ Top plays the Calderone Concert Hall, Hempstead, New York.

1976, Elton John and Kiki Dee were at number one on the US singles chart with “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart,” giving Elton his sixth chart topper. It was written by Elton John without Bernie Taupin under the pseudonym “Ann Orson” and “Carte Blanche.”

1976, Elton also headlined the annual Summerfest concert at Rich Stadium in Buffalo, New York. Supporting acts were John Miles and Boz Scaggs.

1976, UK music weekly Melody Maker gave The Sex Pistols their first front cover.

1977,  AC/DC played at the Hollywood Sportatorium, Pembroke Pines, Florida

1978, Aerosmith appeared at Comiskey Park in Chicago.

1979, Chicago performed at Hersheypark Arena, Hershey, Pennsylvania.

1980, The Allman Brothers Band headlined at the Greek Theatre, Los Angeles.

1981, Bruce Springsteen played at the Capital Centre, Landover, Maryland.

1982, Dexy’s Midnight Runners were at number one on the UK singles chart with “Come On Eileen,” their second and last chart topper. It was the Best-selling single of 1982 and the song won Best British Single at the 1983 Brit Awards. The “Eileen” as featured in the video is Máire Fahey, sister of Siobhan Fahey, former singer with Bananarama and Shakespeare’s Sister. The American singer Johnnie Ray, mentioned in the opening lyrics, was also featured in the video using old film footage. The song was used in the films Tommy Boy (1995), This Is England (2006), Get Him to the Greek (2010), Take Me Home Tonight (2011), The Perks of Being a Wallflower (2012,) and the TV shows Spaced and Hindsight.

1982, The Grateful Dead play the first of two nights at Alpine Valley Music Theatre in East Troy, Wisconsin.

1982, Fleetwood Mac started a five-week run at number one on the US album chart with Mirage. The band’s third US chart topping album.

1984, American soul singer Esther Phillips died from liver and kidney failure in Carson, California in 1984, at the age of 48. She had the 1975 hit single “What A Difference A Day Makes.”

1993, Pete Townshend appears at the Brooklyn Academy of Music during his Psychoderelict tour.

1997, Garth Brooks played to the largest crowd ever in New York’s Central Park. An estimated one million people attended the live concert with an additional 14.6 million viewing live on HBO.

2001, Harmonica player Larry Adler died aged 87. Known for his original collaborations with George Gershwin, Kate Bush, Sting, and Vaughan Williams, and his own virtuoso performances.

2008, Elvis Presley’s peacock jumpsuit, was sold at auction for $300,000 (£187,500), making it the most expensive piece of Elvis memorabilia ever sold at an auction. The white outfit with a plunging V-neck and high collar featured a blue-and-gold peacock design, hand-embroidered on the front and back and along the pant legs.

2011, Marshall Grant, who played bass for Johnny Cash in the Tennessee Two, from 1954 to 1980, passed away at the age of 83. After his time with The Man In Black, Grant managed The Statler Brothers until they retired in 2002, and later wrote an autobiography entitled I Was There When It Happened.

Born on August 7: Felice Bryant, songwriter, Everly Brothers (1925); B.J.Thomas (1942); Kerry Chater, Gary Puckett and the Union Gap (1945); Rodney Crowell (1950); Bruce Dickinson vocals, Iron Maiden (1958); Kristin Hersh,  singer, guitarist, Throwing Muses (1966)

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Song Of the Day by Eric Berman – “I’m Into Something Good” by Herman’s Hermits

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They were the brain child of producer Mickie Most, the man who was also behind The Animals, Donovan, Suzi Quatro and the Jeff Beck Group…and they did have the mildly attractive Peter Noone as a lead singer. Still, it’s hard to believe that Herman’s Hermits gave The Beatles a run for their money during the early days of the British Invasion when they sold over ten million albums and singles over a 12 month period. This song comes from their debut album, “Introducing Herman’s Hermits” that also included the hits “Mrs. Brown You’ve Got A Lovely Daughter,” “Sea Cruise” and “Mother-In-Law.” Here’s a vintage clip of “I’m Into Something Good” from “Shindig!”