Today in Rock n' Roll History

[Koala]

1968 The Beatles went to No.1 on the US album chart with the 'White Album', the group's 12th US No.1 album.

1968 The three day Miami Pop festival took place, the first major rock festival held on the East Coast of the US, with Chuck Berry, The McCoys, Joni Mitchell, Fleetwood Mac, Marvin Gaye, The Turtles, The Box Tops, Steppenwolf, Three Dog Night, Pacific Gas and Electric, Procol Harum, Canned Heat, Iron Butterfly and The Grateful Dead.

1968 Pink Floyd appeared at the two day festival Flight To Lowlands Paradise II, Margriethal-Jaarbeurs, Utrecht, The Netherlands, (replacing Jimi Hendrix). Other acts appearing included Jethro Tull, Jeff Beck, The Pretty Things and the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band.

1998 UK radio station BBC Radio 1 aired the 100 National Anthems, songs voted by listeners. At No.5 Radiohead, 'Creep', No.4 Underworld 'Born Slippy', No.3 The Verve 'Bitter Sweet Symphony', No.2 Nirvana 'Smells Like Teen Spirit', No.1 Massive Attack 'Unfinished Sympathy'.

2005 Pink Floyd were voted the greatest rock stars ever in a survey of 58,000 listeners from UK radio station Planet Rock. Led Zeppelin were voted into second place, 3rd was The Rolling Stones, 4th The Who, 5th, AC/DC, 6th, U2, 7th, Guns N’ Roses, 8th, Nirvana, 9th, Bon Jovi and in 10th place Jimi Hendrix. Listeners also named the 1970s as the golden age of rock, followed by the 1960’s.

[Koala]

1960 Cliff Richard was at No.1 on the UK singles chart with 'I Love You'. The singers fourth UK No.1 and his first Xmas No.1.

1968 Led Zeppelin appeared at the Civic Auditorium, Portland on their first North American tour opening for Vanilla Fudge.

1984 Band Aid were at No.1 on the UK singles chart with 'Do They Know It's Christmas?' and Madonna was at No.1 on the US singles chart with 'Like A Virgin.'

1990 Cliff Richard has his 12th UK No.1 single with 'Saviour's Day', his 13th UK No.1 single and his second Christmas chart topper.

1999 UK music paper The Melody Maker published it's Music of the Millennium Poll of albums placing The Smiths 'The Queen Is Dead' at Number 1.

[Koala]

1978 Emerson Lake and Palmer announced their official break up.

1999 George Harrison and his wife Olivia were attacked when an intruder broke into their home in Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire. Olivia beat off the attacker with a poker and heavy lamp. Harrison who was stabbed in the chest was admitted to hospital and treated for a collapsed lung and various minor stab wounds. His wife, Olivia, was treated for cuts and bruises she had suffered in the struggle with the intruder. Police later arrested Michael Abram from Liverpool who had nursed an irrational obsession with the Beatles.

1999 In the Queen's Millennium Honours list, former Slade singer Noddy Holder was awarded an MBE and guitarist Mark Knopfler was awarded an OBE.

2001 Nickelback went to No.1 on the US singles chart with 'How To Remind Me'.

2002 Diana Ross was arrested for drink driving by the Arizona highway patrol after a motorist called to report a swerving vehicle in the western state of Arizona. When asked to walk in a straight line she fell over, could not count to 30 or balance on one foot. Police said the singer was twice over the drink drive limit with a blood-alcohol of 0.20, the legal limit is 0.08.

[Koala]

1961 The Beach Boys made their live debut using their new name when they appeared at Long Beach Civic Auditorium, California.

1963 The Kinks made their live debut when they played at the Lotus House Restaurant, London.

1966 The Monkees started a 7-week run at No.1 on the US singles charts with the Neil Diamond song 'I'm A Believer'. Also No.1 in the UK in 1967.

1973 Australian band AC/DC made their live debut when they appeared at Chequers Bar in Sydney.

1973 Journey made their live debut at San Francisco's Winterland Ballroom.

1984 Def Leppard drummer Rick Allen loses his left arm in an auto accident.

1985 Ricky Nelson was killed along with six others, when his charted light aircraft crashed in Texas. It's rumoured that freebasing cocaine caused an onboard explosion. Nelson had played himself on his parent's US TV The Adventures Of Ozzie and Harriet.' (1958 US No.1 'Poor Little Fool', 1961 UK No.2 single 'Hello Mary Lou' plus over 30 US Top 40 hit singles).

1994 Rod Stewart performs on Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro for an audience of 4.2 million people. He make into the Guinness Book of World Records for staging the largest outdoor concert in history.

2005 The John Lennon song Imagine was voted the nations favourite song a quarter of a century after his death. A UK radio station conducted the poll of 7,000 listeners. The Beatles were voted into second and third place with 'Hey Jude' and 'Let It Be.'

[Koala]

1926 The first issue of The Melody Maker went on sale priced at 3d. The monthly magazine was for 'all who are interested in the production of popular music'. In the first issue, Dance Band news, a feature on Ukuleles and how to read music by sight.

1968 The entire shipment of John and Yoko's album 'Two Virgins' was seized by authorities in New Jersey due to the full frontal nude photograph of the couple on the cover. The album was eventually wrapped in plain brown paper in record stores.

1969 Led Zeppelin played the first of four nights at the Whisky A Go-Go, Los Angeles during the bands first North American tour. Support group was the Alice Cooper band.

1971 The George Harrison album 'All Things Must Pass' started a seven week run at No.1 on the US album chart, making Harrison the first solo Beatle to score a US No.1 album.

1980 US singer Larry Williams was found dead from a gunshot wound to his head in his Los Angeles, California home aged 45. Williams had the 1957 US No.5 & UK No. 21 single 'Short Fat Fannie.' Also known for 'Bony Moronie' and 'Dizzy Miss Lizzy.' The Beatles, Rolling Stones, Dr. Feelgood, Flying Burrito Brothers, Johnny Winter, Little Richard, The Who, Ritchie Valens and Bill Haley & His Comets all covered his songs.

2005 Green Day were at No.1 on the UK album chart with their seventh album 'American Idiot.' The album went on to be nominated for seven Grammy Awards, winning the Best Rock Album of 2005.

[Koala]

1945 Stephen Stills is born.

1946 John Paul Jones is born.

1963 The Beatles began their first headlining tour with four nights in Scotland appearing at the Two Red Shoes Ballroom, Elgin. Two of the dates were cancelled due to bad weather.

1967 The Bee Gees were at No.1 on the Australian singles chart with the single 'Spickes and Speckes.'

1969 Appearing live on The Lulu show on UK TV, Jimi Hendrix was booked to perform two songs, Voodoo Child, (which is performd in full), then he stopped performing his new single ‘Hey Joe’ after a verse and chorus and instead launched into a version of the Cream song 'Sunshine Of Your Love' as a tribute to the band who had split a few days earlier. Hendrix then proceeded to continuing jamming, running over their allocated time slot on the live show, preventing the show’s host Lulu from closing the show properly.

1972 Two weeks of rehearsals for Pink Floyd’s Dark Side Of The Moon tour began at the Bermondsey in London, England, (the venue was owned by The Rolling Stones).

1974 Bob Dylan and The Band started a 39-date US tour, Dylan's first live appearance for over 7 years. There were more than 5 million applications for the 660,000 tickets.

1976 Bob Dylan's song, 'Hurricane', peaked at No.33 on the Billboard singles chart, helping to cause enough publicity to eventually get former boxer Rubin 'Hurricane' Carter released from jail. The song promoted Carter's innocence and a movie about Carter's life, starring Denzel Washington, was released in 2000.

1987 Aretha Franklin became the first woman inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
　
　
　

[Koala]

1936 Billboard Magazine introduced the first ever-pop music chart that ranked records on national sales; big band violinist Joe Venuti was the first No.1.

1965 The Fender guitar company was bought by CBS for $13 million (£7.6 million).

1968 The University of California, Los Angeles announced that students taking music degrees would have to study the music of The Rolling Stones saying they had made such an important contribution to modern music.

2006 The house where Johnny Cash lived for 35 years was bought by Bee Gees singer Barry Gibb. The rustic house near Nashville, Tennessee went on the market in June 2005 with an asking price of $2.9m (£1.7m). Gibb said he planned to preserve the house to honour the Cash memory. Unfortunately Gibb’s ownership of the house was short-lived. In April 2007, the house burned to the ground. Gibb was having the house renovated when a flammable spray sealer caused fire to break out during construction.

2009 Led Zeppelin singer Robert Plant was voted the Greatest Voice In Rock by listeners of radio station Planet Rock. Plant beat Queen's Freddie Mercury, Free's Paul Rodgers and Deep Purple's Ian Gillan to the top spot in the UK poll.

[Koala]

1959 "It Doesn't Matter Anymore" becomes the last release from Buddy Holly before his death.

1977 Led Zeppelin rehearse at Emerson Lake & Palmer's studio in preparation for a North American tour.

1986 Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers back up Bob Dylan on the first date of a world tour. The successful pairing will continue into the next year.

1998 Sonny Bono dies after skiing into a tree in South Lake Tahoe, Calif. One of his songs was called "Laugh at Me."

[Koala]

1946 Syd Barrett of Pink Floyd is born.

1948 Fairport Convention's Sandy Denny is born in Wimbledon, England. Her definitive folk vocals also graced records by Led Zeppelin and she wrote the classic "Who Knows Where the Time Goes"

1957 Elvis Presley makes his last appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show, the variety program that helped launch him nationwide. He performs for over 20 minutes, singing "Hound Dog," "Don't Be Cruel," "Love Me Tender," "Heartbreak Hotel," "Peace in the Valley," "Too Much" and "When My Blue Moon Turns to Gold Again."


1964 The Rolling Stones kick off their first headlining tour in Harrow, England. Support comes from American girl group the Ronettes, Marty Wilde, and the Swinging Blue Jeans.


1971 In Vancouver, Neil Young performs on Canadian soil for the first time since he left his homeland to join Buffalo Springfield in 1965.


1975 A thousand Led Zeppelin fans, who had been waiting for tickets to go on sale at the Boston Gardens for a February show, riot and cause $30,000 worth of damage to the venue's lobby. Mayor Kevin White cancels the concert.


1975 Pink Floyd begin recording their album-long tribute to Syd Barrett, Wish You Were Here, on the former front man's 29th birthday.

[Koala]

1955 'Rock Around The Clock' by Bill Haley and his Comets, entered the UK chart for the first time.

1964 The Beatles recorded a seven-song appearance for the BBC Radio program Saturday Club. They played ‘All My Loving’, ‘Money’, ‘The Hippy Hippy Shake’, ‘I Want to Hold Your Hand’, ‘Roll Over Beethoven’, ‘Johnny B. Goode’, and ‘I Wanna Be Your Man’. The show was broadcast on February 15, while the Beatles were in the US.

1971 Black Sabbath released 'Paranoid' their second studio album in the US. The album features the band's best-known signature songs, including the title track, 'Iron Man' and 'War Pigs'. The album was originally titled War Pigs, but allegedly the record company changed it to Paranoid, fearing backlash from supporters of the ongoing Vietnam War.

1977 Andy Gibb was at No.1 on the US singles chart with 'I Just Want To Be Your Everything' a song written by his Bee Gee brother Barry.

1989 Kylie Minogue and Jason Donovan started a three-week run at No.1 on the UK singles chart with the Stock, Aitken & Waterman produced 'Especially For You'.

2003 The Beatles Book Monthly closed down after 40 years. Author Sean O'Mahony who set up the magazine in 1963 said there was nothing more to say as the number of things the former Beatles were doing gets less and less as the years go on.