1965, 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 booked performers 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.
1976, 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.
2023, Canadian singer-songwriter Gordon Lightfoot, whose hits included “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” and “Sundown,” died Monday in Toronto of natural causes. He was 84.
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);
