1964, The Beatles held the top five places on the US singles chart, with the fifth place – “Please Please Me,” at number four, “I Want To Hold Your Hand,” while at third was “Roll Over Beethoven.” In the second position, “Love Me Do,” and at the top spot, “Can’t Buy Me Love.” They also had another nine singles on the chart, bringing their total to fourteen singles on the Hot 100.
1966, The Who performed at Top Rank Suite in Reading, Berkshire, England.
1967, Jimi Hendrix was the special guest on the first edition of the UK BBC-TV’s Dee Time, along with Kiki Dee and Cat Stevens.
1968, The Temptations played at the Civic Center in Charleston, West Virginia.
1968, Jimi Hendrix, B.B. King, Buddy Guy, Joni Mitchell, Al Kooper and Ted Nugent met up for an all night blues, folk and rock session at The New Generation Club in New York after hearing the news of Martin Luther King’s assassination.
1969, Jethro Tull appeared at The 13th Hour in Evansville, Indiana.
1970, Crosby Stills Nash & Young went to number one on the UK album chart with Deja Vu. They would be number one in America on May 16th.
1970, The Allman Brothers Band performed at Ludlow Garage, a venue which began life as an automobile shop, and later became a music club located in the Clifton neighborhood of Cincinnati, Ohio.
1970, Janis Joplin plays a reunion concert in San Francisco with her old outfit Big Brother & the Holding Company.
1970, Pink Floyd were at EMI Studios in London holding recording sessions for Atom Heart Mother.
1970, Led Zeppelin played at the Coliseum in Indianapolis, Indiana. Ticket prices ranged from $4 to $6 (£2.67 – £4.)
1971, The Grateful Dead perform at the Manhattan Center in New York.
1971, Black Sabbath appeared at the Alexandria Roller Rink, Alexandria, Virginia.
1972, Don McLean’s American Pie enters its seventh and final week atop the US album charts.
1973, The Supremes appeared at the Granada, Tooting, the last date on a 20-date UK tour. The group played two shows at every venue.
1973, In a press release, Atlantic Records announced that shipments of Led Zeppelin’s album Houses of the Holy, released on March 28, were large enough to qualify for gold status. The label also revealed plans for a thirty city tour commencing May 4th.
1974, KISS played at the Nordic Arena, Hartland, Michigan.
1975, Genesis appeared at the Circus Kröne, Munich, Germany during Peter Gabriel’s last tour with the band.
1976, The Sex Pistols played the first night of a residency at the El Paradiso club in Soho, London, England.
1978, David Bowie performed at The Forum, Inglewood, California.
1980, ZZ Top appeared at the New Haven Coliseum, New Haven, Connecticut.
1981, Styx went to number one on the album chart with Paradise Theatre.
1982, “Layla” was on the UK singles chart. The re-released track originally featured on the Derek and the Dominos, album Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs was released in November 1970. Inspired by Clapton’s then unrequited love for Pattie Boyd, the wife of his friend George Harrison, “Layla” is considered one of rock music’s definitive love songs, and features an unmistakable guitar figure played by Eric Clapton and Duane Allman.
1987, U2 entered the US album chart at number seven with The Joshua Tree, making it the highest chart new entry in America for seven years.
1999, The Corrs album Talk On Corners went to number one on the UK album chart for the 10th time. They also had the second position with Forgiven, Not Forgotten. Both albums had spent over a year on the chart. Talk on Corners was the UK’s biggest selling album of 1998 and the ninth best selling album of 1999.
2008, Beyonce Knowles married Jay-Z at his New York apartment. Coldplay’s Chris Martin and his then wife, actress Gwyneth Paltrow, along with Beyonce’s former bandmates in Destiny’s Child, Kelly Rowland and Michelle Williams, all attended the private ceremony.
2008, Procol Harum singer Gary Brooker won back full royalty rights to the band’s worldwide hit, “A Whiter Shade of Pale,” at London’s Court of Appeal. The decision overturned a 2006 ruling that organist Matthew Fisher was entitled to a 40% portion of royalties on the 1967 hit after he argued he had written the song’s organ melody. The court ruled there was an “excessive delay” in the claim being made, nearly 40 years after the song was recorded.
Born on April 4: Muddy Waters (1913); Clive Davis, producer, founder Arista Records (1932); Hugh Masekela (1939); Berry Oakley, Allman Brothers (1948); Pick Withers, English drummer, Dire Straits, Magna Carta (1948); Dave Hill, Slade; Gary Moore, Skid Row, Thin Lizzy (1952); Graeme Kelling, Scottish guitarist, Deacon Blue (1957); Craig Adams, English bass player, songwriter, The Sisters of Mercy, The Mission, The Alarm (1962); Mike Starr, American bass player, Alice in Chains, Sun Red Sun, and Days of the New (1966)
