Rock History November 30
1963, The Beatles second album With The Beatles became the first million selling album by a group in the UK.
1968, Glen Campbell started a five-week run at number one on the album chart with “Wichita Lineman.” The song was written by Jimmy Webb, who’s inspiration for the lyrics came while driving through Washita County in northern Oklahoma.
1969, Pink Floyd performed at the Lyceum Ballroom along the Strand in London. Supported by Audience and Cub’s Blues Band.
1969, The Monkees made what would be their last live appearance for fifteen years when they played at The Oakland Coliseum, California.
1969, David Bowie, The Graham Bond Organisation, and Dusty Springfield all performed at a fund raising show in London for youth magazine Rave.
1969, Simon & Garfunkel appear in their first TV special. They screen footage of Bobby Kennedy’s funeral and the Vietnam War, which causes original sponsor AT&T to dissociate itself from the program.
1969, The Rolling Stones played the final night on a 17-date North American tour at the International Raceway Festival, West Palm Beach, Florida. Also appearing, The Moody Blues, Ten Years After, King Crimson, Janis Joplin, The Band, Steppenwolf and Iron Butterfly.
1971, Sly And The Family Stone were at number one on the singles chart with “Family Affair.”
1973, Wings release their single “Hi, Hi, Hi.” However, the BBC bans the record because it declares the lyrics “unsuitable” for broadcast.
1974, Elton John started a ten-week run at number one on the US album chart with his Greatest Hits.
1979, The Grateful Dead appeared at Stanley Theater in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
1982, Michael Jackson’s Thriller album was released. It spent 190 weeks on the UK album chart, becoming the biggest selling pop album of all time, with sales over 50 million copies. Seven singles were released from the album, including “Billie Jean” and “Beat It,” which featured guitarists Eddie Van Halen and Steve Lukather of Toto.
1985, Phil Collins had his fifth number one with “Separate Lives.” The song was taken from the film White Nights.
1989, Manchester bands The Happy Mondays and The Stone Roses both made their debut appearance on UK TV music show Top Of The Pops. The Mondays performed “Hellelujah,” and the Stone Roses played “Fools Gold.”
1997, Metallica were at number one on the US album chart with Reload, the band’s third US chart topping album.
1999, Don “Sugarcane” Harris was found dead in his Los Angeles apartment at the age of 61. The American guitarist and violinist was part of the ’50s duo Don & Dewey. He also worked with Little Richard, John Mayall, Frank Zappa, John Lee Hooker and Johnny Otis.
2003, A block of East 2nd Street in New York City was officially renamed Joey Ramone Place. It is the block where Joey once lived with band mate Dee Dee Ramone, and is near the music club CBGB, where the Ramones played their first gigs. In 2010, it was reported that “Joey Ramone Place,” was New York City’s most stolen sign. The sign had to be moved to 20 feet above ground level.
2006, The sale of Syd Barrett’s final belongings were sold by Cheffins auctioneers in Cambridge, England. The sale of the 77 items raised £119,890. Ten paintings alone raised over £55,000 and two bicycles over £10,000. The sale included such things as the armchair he used to sit in, his home-made bread bin, tools, notebooks and binders, and books. The sale catalog described Barrett, who was fired from Pink Floyd in 1968, as a man with a “total disinterest in materialism.”
2022, Christine McVie, keyboardist and one of the vocalists of Fleetwood Mac, died at age 79 from a ischaemic stroke. She had also suffered from metastatic cancer. McVie was a member of several bands, notably Chicken Shack, performing as Christine Perfect in the mid-1960s blues scene in England. She began working with Fleetwood Mac in 1968, initially as a session musician before joining the band in 1970. Her first compositions with Fleetwood Mac appeared on their fifth album, Future Games.
2023, Singer-songwriter Shane MacGowan, best known as the frontman of Celtic punk band the Pogues best known for the 1987 song “Fairytale of New York,” died at age 65. He was diagnosed in 2022 with encephalitis an inflammation of the brain, and had been hospitalized for it recently.
Born on November 30: Allan Sherman, parody singer (1924); Johnny Horton, singer, and Dick Clark (1929); Paul Stookey, vocals, Peter Paul and Mary (1937); Rob Grill, Grass Roots (1944); Roger Glover, bass, Deep Purple (1945); George McArdale, Little River Band (1954); Billy Idol (1955); and John Ashton, guitar, Psychedelic Furs (1957)
Link to Today in Rock History archive
David Bowie, Dusty Springfield, Elton John, Glen Campbell, Michael Jackson, Phil Collins, Pink Floyd, Simon & Garfunkel, Sly and the Family Stone, The Beatles, The Grateful Dead, The Monkees, The Rolling Stones, The Stone Roses, Wings.
