1959, The first edition of Juke Box Jury aired on the BBC. The shows host, David Jacobs, lead a revolving panel of guests in critiquing the week’s top record releases. Although the songs were never played in their entirety, the four judges gave a verdict on whether each would be a “hit” or a “miss”.
1959, ‘The Battle Of New Orleans’ by Johnny Horton went to No.1 on both the Country and Pop charts in the US, where it will stay for two months. The song was originally a poem written by high school teacher James Morriss in 1936, which he put to the music of an old fiddle tune known as ‘The Eighth Of January’. Horton later won a Grammy Award for the song.
1961, Elvis Presley was at No.1 on the UK singles chart with ‘Surrender’, his eighth UK No.1. The song was based on the 1911 Italian song, ‘Return To Sorrento.’
1963, Lesley Gore started a two week run at No.1 on the US singles chart with the Quincy Jones (then a staff producer for Mercury Records) produced ‘It’s My Party’, a No.9 hit in the UK. Dave Stewart and Barbara Gaskin scored a UK No.1 in 1981 with their version of the song.
1964, The Rolling Stones were met by over 500 fans as they arrived on BA flight 505 at Kennedy Airport for their debut US tour. The Stones held a press conference and then guested on the prestigious “5th Beatle”, DJ Murray The K’s radio show. The first date took place on 5th June in San Bernardino, California.
1966, During a 12 hour session at Abbey Road studios, The Beatles added overdubs on ‘Yellow Submarine’, with John Lennon blowing bubbles in a bucket of water and shouting “Full speed ahead Mister Captain!” Roadie Mal Evans played on a bass drum strapped to his chest, marching around the studio with The Beatles following behind (conga-line style) singing “We all live in a yellow submarine.”
1967, David Bowie released his self titled debut studio album. Two singles were released from the album, ‘Rubber Band’ and ‘The Laughing Gnome’. The album’s failure cost Bowie his record contract with Deram Records who dropped him in April 1968.
1967, The Beatles released Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, in the UK. Recorded over a 129-day period beginning in December 1966, the album is widely regarded as one of the greatest of all time and was the first Beatles album where the track listings were exactly the same for the UK and US versions. As of 2011, it has sold more than 32 million copies worldwide, making it one of the best-selling albums in history.
1968, Simon and Garfunkel went to No.1 on the US singles chart with ‘Mrs Robinson’. Featured in the Dustin Hoffman and Ann Bancroft film ‘The Graduate’, the song earned the duo a Grammy Award for Record of the Year in 1969.
1969, The Plastic Ono Band recorded ‘Give Peace A Chance’ during a ‘bed-in’ at the Hotel La Reine in Montreal, Canada. Producer Phil Spector, poet Allan Ginsberg and writer Timothy Leary all sang on the song.
1971, The two-room shack in Tupelo, Mississippi, where Elvis Presley was born on January 8, 1935 was opened to the public as a tourist attraction.
1973, Former Soft Machine drummer Robert Wyatt broke his spine after attempting to leave a party by climbing down a drainpipe and falling three stories. It left Wyatt permanently crippled and confined to a wheelchair.
1975, The Rolling Stones kicked off their biggest ever US tour at Louisiana State University. The tour would take in 45 shows in 26 cities. Guitarist Ronnie Wood joined The Stones on tour for the first time, replacing Mick Taylor.
1977, Bob Marley and The Wailers played the first of four nights at the Rainbow Theatre in London. There were six nights booked at the Rainbow, but the last two shows were cancelled due to a serious toe injury Marley received, (in a friendly football game with French journalists just before the tour’s start in Paris). Subsequently the tour’s second leg in the United States was postponed and then cancelled.
1981, The first issue of the Heavy Metal magazine Kerrang! was published as a special pull-out by UK weekly music paper Sounds. AC/DC had the front cover plus features on Motorhead, Girlschool and Saxon.
1985, Prince & The Revolution started a three-week run at No.1 on the US album chart with Around The World In A Day.
1991, American soul singer David Ruffin died of a drug overdose. After taking a large amount of cocaine Ruffin passed out, a friend drove him to a hospital in Philadelphia, where he later died. With The Temptations, had the 1971 US No.1 & UK No. 8 single ‘Just My Imagination’ and ‘My Girl’ (which Ruffin sang lead vocals). Solo, (1975 US No.9 & UK No.10 single ‘Walk Away From Love’).
1997, Spice Girl Baby Spice arrived back in the UK in a wheelchair after breaking her ankle during a Turkish TV show.
2003, Slipknot bassist Paul Gray was arrested on drugs and drink-driving charges after he collided with a car after going through a red light in his home town of Des Moines, Iowa. Gray, (who wears a pig mask on stage) then tried to write a cheque for $1,000 to the other driver, who then called the police. Gray failed two alcohol tests at the scene and was arrested for possession of marijuana, cocaine and drug paraphernalia, as well drink-driving.
2005, Crazy Frog was at No.1 on the UK singles chart with ‘Axel F’. It started as a mobile phone ring tone, the single is based on Harold Faltermeyer’s film theme, which reached No.2 in 1985.
2006, The 1994 debut album by Oasis, Definitely Maybe was voted the greatest album of all time in a survey to mark 50 years of the Official UK Albums Chart. The Beatles came in second and third place with Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band and Revolver OK Computer by Radiohead was fourth and (What’s the Story) Morning Glory by Oasis was voted fifth.
2007, Contemporary musicians recorded their own versions of songs from the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper album to mark 40 years since it was released. Acts including Oasis, Travis, The Fray, Kaiser Chiefs, Razorlight, Bryan Adams and The Magic Numbers all worked with Geoff Emerick – the engineer in charge of the original 1967 sessions, using the original analogue 4-track equipment to demonstrates the techniques employed for the recording at Abbey Road studios in 1967.
2013, ‘Modern Vampires of the City’ by Vampire Weekend went to No.1 on the US album charts. Their sophomore album ‘Contra’ also debuted at No.1 in
2010, making this the first time an independent rock band had entered at No.1 with two consecutive releases. ‘Modern Vampires of the City’ also shattered the previous record for first week vinyl sales, moving nearly 10,000 units.
2016, Ed Sheeran was revealed as the most-played pop act in the UK in 2015. The singer topped the music royalty body Phonographic Performance Ltd’s (PPL) chart, which is based on TV and radio airplay, adverts and plays in venues like pubs and clubs. Mark Ronson’s ‘Uptown Funk’ was the most-played song of the year, ahead of Ellie Goulding’s ‘Love Me Like You Do’ and James Bay’s’Hold Back The River’.
2017, The sale of Jerry Garcia’s favourite guitar, Wolf, raised millions of dollars for a civil rights group when an auction of the custom-made guitar fetched a total of $3.2m. It was bought at a New York charity concert by Brian Halligan, CEO of marketing group HubSpot and a lifelong fan of the band – or a “Deadhead”. The money raised would go to the Southern Poverty Law Centre.
