1956, Elvis Presley started a five-week run at No.1 on the US charts with ‘Don’t Be Cruel’. The track went on to become Presley’s biggest selling single, with sales over six million by 1961. This “double-sided hit” which had ‘Hound Dog’ on the B side, became the most successful on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart. One side reached No.1 on the chart, the other No.2. The two titles spent a combined 55 weeks in the Top 100 in 1956-1957.
1961, A group from Hawthorne, California called The Pendletones attend their first real recording session at Hite Morgan’s studio in Los Angeles. The band recorded ‘Surfin’, a song that would help shape their career as The Beach Boys.
1962, The Four Seasons started a five week run at No.1 on the US singles chart with ‘Sherry’, it made No.8 in the UK. They became the first American group to have three No.1’s in succession.
1964, The Beatles on tour in the USA, appeared at the Public Auditorium in Cleveland, Ohio. During the performance a group of fans managed to break through the line of police fronting the stage and get up on-stage. Police ordered The Beatles off-stage in the middle of a song, and the concert only resumed after Derek Taylor got on the PA system and pleaded for order to be restored so that the rest of the performance would not be cancelled by the police.
1965, The Ford Motor Company became the first automaker to offer an 8-track tape player as an option for their entire line of vehicles on sale in the US. Tapes were initially only available at auto parts stores, as home 8-track equipment was still a year away.
1966, The Small Faces were at No.1 on the UK singles chart with ‘All Or Nothing’, their only No.1 hit. According to Kay Marriott, Steve Marriott’s mother, Steve wrote the song about his split with ex-fiancee Sue Oliver, though first wife Jenny Rylance states that Marriott told her he wrote the song for her as a result of her split with Rod Stewart.
1967, Filming continued for The Beatles ‘Magical Mystery Tour’. Lunch was at James and Amy Smedley’s fish and chip shop in Taunton, Somerset with The Beatles being filmed and photographed eating their fish and chips.
1968, The Doors were forced to perform as a trio at a concert in Amsterdam after singer Jim Morrison collapsed while dancing during the Jefferson Airplane’s performance.
1970, US Vice-President Spiro Agnew said in a speech that the youth of America were being “brainwashed into a drug culture” by rock music, movies, books and underground newspapers.
1975, Pink Floyd released their ninth studio album Wish You Were Here in the UK. The album which explores themes of absence, the music business, and former band-mate Syd Barrett’s mental decline peaked at No.1 on both sides of the Atlantic and went on to spend a total of 84 weeks on the chart.
1978, Bob Dylan kicked off his longest and most continuous US tour of his career in Augusta, Maine, playing the first of sixty-five gigs in sixty-two cities.
1979, Led Zeppelin scored their sixth US No.1 album when In Through The Out Door started a seven-week run at the top of the charts. The eighth studio album by Zeppelin, was their final album of entirely new material.
1984, Frankie Goes To Hollywood’s ‘Relax’ became the longest running chart hit since Engelbert Humperdink’s ‘Release Me’, after spending 43 weeks on the UK singles chart.
1990, George Michael scored his second UK No.1 solo album with his second release ‘Listen Without Prejudice Vol. 1’. The album went on to sell over 8 million copies worldwide.
1990, The Steve Miller Band had a UK No.1 with ‘The Joker’ 16 years after it’s first release. The song topped the US Billboard Hot 100 in early 1974. More than 16 years later, it reached No.1 in the UK Singles Chart after being used in “Great Deal”, a Hugh Johnson-directed television advertisement for Levi’s, thus holding the record for the longest gap between transatlantic chart-toppers.
1990, Wilson Phillips had their second US No.1 with ‘Release Me’, a No.36 hit in the UK. The group was made up of Carnie and Wendy Wilson, the daughters of Beach Boys leader Brian Wilson, along with Chynna Phillips, the daughter of Mamas and Papas founder John Phillips.
1994, A reel to reel tape of The Quarry Men appearing at St Peter’s Parish Church garden party Liverpool in July, 1957, sold for £69,000, ($125,000) at a Sotheby’s auction.
1997, A 34 year old man was awarded more than £20,000 by a French court after he lost his hearing when he stood too close to loudspeakers at a U2 concert in 1993.
2003, ABBA tribute acts overtook Elvis Presley impersonators in the battle of British covers singers according to a survey. The Swedish group jumped from third most tributed act in 2001 to top in 2002 with imitators like Abba Fever and Voulez Vous putting on Abba shows. Elvis dropped to number two while The Beatles dropped to three. The Performing Right Society carried out the research.
2004, Ramones guitarist Johnny Ramone (John Cummings) died in Los Angeles after a five-year battle with prostate cancer. Founding member of The Ramones, major influence on many punk and 90’s bands. Scored the 1977 hit single ‘Sheena Is A Punk Rocker’.
2006, The Casbah Coffee Club in Liverpool where The Beatles played their first gig was given a Grade II listed building status after a recommendation from English Heritage. John Lennon, Paul McCartney and George Harrison played in the converted coal cellar of the house in West Derby, in August 1959 as The Quarrymen.
2008, Pink Floyd keyboard player and founder member Richard Wright died aged 65 from cancer. Wright appeared on the group’s first album, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, in 1967 alongside Syd Barrett, Roger Waters and Nick Mason. David Gilmour who joined the band at the start of 1968 said: “He was such a lovely, gentle, genuine man and will be missed terribly by so many who loved him.” In 2005, the full band reunited – for the first time in 24 years – for the Live 8 concert in London’s Hyde Park. Wright had also contributed vocals and keyboards to Gilmour’s 2006 solo album On An Island.
2014, Apple released a tool to remove U2’s new album from its customers’ iTunes accounts six days after giving away the music for free. Some users had complained about the fact that their latest album Songs of Innocence had automatically been downloaded to their devices without their permission.
