Today in Rock n' Roll History

[MikeA]

Is pratt the other half of whitney? They built some killer airplane engines. Whitney as in Houston. Hmmm Texas as in Dallas. Dallas, Texas, that's what we pay every year before April 15 ($$s in Taxes). Taxes..okay, I'll shut up now.

[Freypower]

'Prat' in England means someone who can appear a bit of an idiot or is somewhat annoying. My response to the above comments is that for a 'prat' the man has written some great songs. But there you are.

[EagleLady]

No offense but I don't see How Paul is a "pratt" for not showing up, Maybe he didn't want to cause a scene with those he still had issues with..

[Eve]

'Prat' in England means someone who can appear a bit of an idiot or is somewhat annoying.

He did marry Heather Mills.

[Koala]

1957 English singer Frankie Vaughan was at No.1 on the UK singles chart with 'The Garden Of Eden'. (Vaughan recorded a large number of songs that were covers of United States hit songs).

1963 The Beatles made their third appearance on the Radio Luxembourg program ‘The Friday Spectacular’. They chat with the host and play ‘Please Please Me’ and ‘Ask Me Why’.

1966 George Harrison married Patti Boyd at Leatherhead Register Office in Surrey with Paul McCartney as Best man. George had first met Patti on the set of The Beatles movie ‘A Hard Days Night.’

1968 Jimi Hendrix recorded his version of the Bob Dylan song ‘All Along the Watchtower’ at Olympic Studios in London. Rolling Stone Brain Jones and Dave Mason from Traffic both played on the session.

1978 the soundtrack album 'Saturday Night Fever' started a 24 week run at No.1 on the US album charts, it went on to sell over 30 million copies world wide, making it the best selling soundtrack album of all time.


1982 B.B. King donated his entire record collection of over 20,000 discs to Mississippi University's centre for the Study of Southern Culture.

1987 Bruce Springsteen inducted Roy Orbison into the Rock'n'Roll Hall of Fame.

1989 Phil Collins scored his seventh US No.1 single with 'Two Hearts'.

[Freypower]

He did marry Heather Mills.

Yes. A mistake which he has admitted. All of us can occasionally be wrong. Not all the music he has made as a solo artist was all that great either but I prefer to judge him by the majority of his work & actions.

[Koala]

1959 alone with an acoustic guitar and tape recorder in his New York City apartment Buddy Holly made his last recordings, including ‘Peggy Sue Got Married’, ‘Crying, Waiting, Hoping’, ‘That's What They Say’, ‘What To Do’, ‘Learning The Game’ and ‘That Makes It Tough’. The recordings would be overdubbed posthumously and were later released by Coral Records.

1977 Stevie Wonder went to No.1 on the US singles chart with 'I Wish', his 5th US No.1, it made No.5 in the UK.

1977 Wings went to No.1 on the US album chart with 'Wings Over America', Paul McCartney's sixth US No.1 after The Beatles.

1980 this week's US Top 5 singles: No.5, Rupert Holmes, 'Escape, (The Pina Colada Song)', No.4, Smokey Robinson, 'Crusin', No.3, Kenny Rogers, 'Coward Of The County', No.2, Captain and Tennille, 'Do That To Me One More Time', and No.1, Michael Jackson, 'Rock With You.'

1983 The new 24-hour music video network MTV started broadcasting to the West Coast of America after being picked up by Group W Cable, Los Angeles.

1994 Bryan Adams, Rod Stewart and Sting started a three week run at No.1 on the US singles chart with 'All For Love', a No.2 hit in the UK. Taken from the film 'The Three Musketeers'.

[Koala]

1956 Rock 'n' Roll fans in Cleveland aged under 18 were banned from dancing in public (unless accompanied by an adult), after Ohio Police introduced a law dating back to 1931.

1971 George Harrison became the first solo Beatle to have a No.1 when 'My Sweet Lord' went to the top of the UK single charts. The song from his 'All Things Must Pass' album stayed at No.1 for five weeks. The track returned to the top of the UK charts in 2002, following his death.

1977 Patti Smith broke her vertebra when she fell off the stage at a gig in Tampa, Florida.

1986 Ray Charles was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame at the first induction dinner, held in New York City.

1990 Allen Collins guitarist from Lynyrd Skynyrd died of pneumonia after being ill for several months. Collins who was one of the founding members also co-wrote most of the band's songs (including Free Bird), with late front man Ronnie Van Zant. He survived a plane crash in 1977 that killed two other band members. Collins was behind the wheel in a car accident in 1986 that killed his girlfriend and left him paralyzed from the waist down. He later pleaded no contest to vehicular manslaughter as well as driving under the influence of alcohol.

1993 Genesis went to No.1 on the UK album chart with 'Live-The Way We Walk Volume II'.

2005 one of the biggest charity concerts since Live Aid raised £1.25 million ($2 million) for victims of the tsunami disaster in Asia. The concert held at The Millennium Stadium, Cardiff featured Eric Clapton, Manic Street Preachers, Keane, Charlotte Church, Snow Patrol, Embrace, Feeder, Craig David and Liberty X, who appeared before 60,000 fans at the sold-out concert.

[MikeA]

Ahhh, Ray Charles. Nuff said! <sigh>

[Koala]

1958 Elvis Presley was at No.1 on the UK singles chart with 'Jailhouse Rock'. It became the first ever single to enter the chart at No.1 and was Presley's second UK No.1. It went on to sell over 4 million copies in the US.

1969 New Jersey state prosecutors issue a warning to US record dealers that they would be charged with distributing pornography if they were caught selling the John Lennon / Yoko Ono LP ‘Two Virgins’. The front cover of the album showed the pair frontally nude, while the back cover showed them from behind. The album still managed to reach No.124 on the US, but failed to chart at all in the UK, where only 5,000 copies were ever pressed.

1969 The Doors appeared at Madison Square Garden, New York City, They were paid over $50,000 for the gig making them one of the highest paid acts this year.

1980 A billboard was erected on Sunset Strip, West Hollywood, California to promote Pink Floyd’s new album ‘The Wall’. Every day workmen added another brick to the wall until it was finished.

1991 "MTV Unplugged," the network's highly acclaimed acoustic music series, is recorded in Europe for the first time. The Cure and Paul McCartney are the artists captured in performance in London.