Rock History May 22
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.
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 number one with sales of 465,000. Features the singles “American Baby,” “Dreamgirl,” and “Everybody Wake Up.”
2023, A blue plaque was unveiled at Bristol Hippodrome, to mark the spot where Eddie Cochran performed his last ever gig. The American rock star was just 21 when he performed there. On the final night of his residency, he was traveling back to Heathrow Airport to catch a flight home to the US when he was killed in a car crash. He died from the injuries he sustained in the crash just outside Chippenham on 17 April 1960.
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)
Get more Today in Rock History.
Black Sabbath, Bob Seger, Buddy Miles, Carlos Santana, Dave Matthews Band, David Bowie, Donovan, Frank Sinatra, Herman’s Hermits, Jimi Hendrix, Kiss, Led Zeppelin, Mason Proffit, Morrisey, Mountain, New Riders of the Purple Sage, Pink Floyd, Tavis, Television, The Allman Brothers Band, The Beatles, The Byrds, The Eagles, The Faces, The Grateful Dead, The Rolling Stones, The Supremes, The Who, Van Halen, Wings, ZZ Top.
