Today in Music History Archives

April 4th, 2018

1953, The Stargazers were at No.1 on the UK singles chart with ‘Broken Wings.’ The first record by any British group to reach No.1. Stargazers’ member Fred Dachtler is the father of Clark Datchler of 80’s group Johnny Hates Jazz.

April 3rd, 2018

1955, Elvis Presley (with Scotty Moore and Bill Black), Slim Whitman, Hoot and Curley, Johnny Horton, Tibby Edwards and Floyd Cramer all appeared at the
1956, Elvis Presley appeared on ABC-TV’s ‘The Milton Berle Show’ live from the flight deck of the USS Hancock in San Diego, California. He performed ‘Heartbreak Hotel’ ‘Shake Rattle And Roll’ and ‘Blue Suede Shoes.’ It was estimated that one out of every four Americans saw the show.

April 2nd, 2018

1955, Elvis Presley (with Scotty Moore and Bill Black), Slim Whitman, Hoot and Curley, Johnny Horton, Tibby Edwards and Floyd Cramer all appeared at the Louisiana Hayride broadcast from Shreveport Auditorium in Shreveport, Louisiana, and shown on KWKH Television.

April 1st, 2018

1961, The Beatles began a three-month residency at The Top Ten Club, Hamburg, playing 92 straight nights. The group played for seven hours a night on weekdays and eight hours at weekends with a fifteen-minute break every hour. It was during this visit that Astrid Kirchherr cut Stuart Sutcliffe’s hair into the style destined to become known as the “Beatle haircut” which The Beatles later adopted themselves.

March 31st, 2018

1949, RCA Victor introduced the 45rpm single record, which had been in development since 1940. The 7-inch disc was designed to compete with the Long Playing record introduced by Columbia a year earlier. Both formats offered better fidelity and longer playing time than the 78rpm record that was currently in use. Advertisements for new record players boasted that with 45rpm records, the listener could hear up to ten records with speedy, silent, hardly noticeable changes.