1950, The US music show Your Hit Parade premiered on NBC-TV. The program, which featured vocalists covering the top hits of the week, had been on radio since 1935. It moved to CBS in 1958 but was canceled the following year, unable to cope with the rising popularity of Rock ‘n’ Roll.
1961, Bobby Lewis started a seven week run at No.1 on the US singles chart with ‘Tossin’ and Turnin’, the longest running No.1 single of 1961, spending seven weeks at the top of the chart.
1964, 200,000 Liverpudlians took to the streets to celebrate The Beatles return to Liverpool for the northern premiere of the group’s first film ‘A Hard Day’s Night.’ The group were honored in a public ceremony in front of Liverpool Town Hall and as The Beatles stood on a balcony looking at the large crowd gathered below, John Lennon gave a few Nazi “Sieg Heil” salutes. Not everyone appreciated his sense of humor.
1965, The Rolling Stones started a four week run at No.1 on the US singles chart with ‘(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction’, the group’s first chart-topper there. In the UK, the song was initially played only on pirate radio stations because its lyrics were considered too sexually suggestive.
1966, Johnny Tilotson, The Jive Five, The Tymes, The Shangra-Las and local band The Castiles (with Bruce Springsteen on vocals) all appeared at the Surf ‘n See Club in Seabright New Jersey.
1968, Eric Clapton announced that Cream would break-up after their current tour. The group’s third album, Wheels of Fire, was the world’s first platinum-selling double album and Cream are widely regarded as being the world’s first successful supergroup.
1968, The Nice were banned from appearing at London’s Royal Albert Hall after burning an American flag on stage. Two years later, Keith Emerson, leader of the Nice, joined Greg Lake and Carl Palmer in Emerson, Lake and Palmer.
1969, The funeral of Rolling Stone Brian Jones took place in his home town at Hatherley Road Parish Church, Cheltenham. Canon Hugh Evan Hopkins read Jones’ own epitaph, ‘Please don’t judge me too harshly’. Bill Wyman, Keith Richards and Charlie Watts from The Stones attended the funeral.
1972, Harry Nilsson’s eighth album, Son of Schmilsson was released. It featured George Harrison under the name George Harrysong and Ringo Starr, listed as Richie Snare, on some of the tracks. Peter Frampton also played guitar on most of the album.
1974, David Bowie played the first of five dates at The Tower Theatre in Upper Darby, Pennsylvania, the recordings of which made up the David Live album released later that year. The album catches Bowie in transition from the Ziggy Stardust/Aladdin Sane glam-rock era of his career to the ‘plastic soul’ of Young Americans.
1976, One Hit Wonders Starland Vocal Band started a two week run at No.1 on the US singles chart with ‘Afternoon Delight’, it was also their only hit in the UK making No.18 on the chart.
1978, Rolling Stone Bill Wyman was knocked unconscious after falling from the stage during a Stones concert at the Coliseum, St Paul, Minnesota.
1979, Chuck Berry was sentenced to five months in jail after being found guilty of tax evasion.
1984, Session drummer and former member of Derek and the Dominos, Jim Gordon, was sentenced to 16 years to life in prison after being found guilty of murdering his mother. It was after he was arrested that he was properly diagnosed with schizophrenia and, although at the trial the court accepted that Gordon had acute schizophrenia, he was not allowed to use an insanity defense because of changes to California law.
1986, Jerry Garcia of The Grateful Dead went into a five day diabetic coma, resulting in the band withdrawing from their current tour.
1987, Producer and record company executive John Hammond died. He brought Stevie Ray Vaughan, Bob Dylan, Aretha Franklin, Leonard Cohen and Bruce Springsteen to Columbia Records. Hammond also worked as a producer with Bessie Smith, Billie Holiday, Benny Goodman and Count Basie.
1989, David F Pearsall age 18 from Manchester, New Jersey was charged with theft after stealing a guitar at a concert in Riverfront Park belonging to Richie Sambora of Bon Jovi.
2005, The four members of Led Zeppelin were voted the UK’s ideal supergroup after 3,500 music fans were asked to create their fantasy band for Planet Rock Radio. Jimmy Page won best guitarist, followed by Guns N’ Roses’ Slash and Deep Purple’s Ritchie Blackmore. John Paul Jones was named top bassist, with John Bonham, who died in 1980, winning best drummer and Robert Plant beat the late Freddie Mercury to best singer.
2008, The drum skin used on the cover of The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper album sold for £541,250 ($1m) at Christie’s Memorabilia auction in London. Other items sold included John Lennon’s lyrics for ‘Give Peace a Chance’ which sold for £421,250 ($832,257) and a pair of tinted prescription sunglasses belonging to Lennon, which he wore for the cover of the single ‘Mind Games’, sold for £39,650 ($79,000). A rare 1/4 inch reel to-reel master tape recording of the Jimi Hendrix Experience performing at the Woburn Music Festival in 1968 went for £48,050 ($95,000), a Marshall amplifier used by Hendrix in concert fetched £25,000 ($50,000).
2011, A pub in Dundee, Scotland called Lennon’s Bar was forced to change the name of the venue and remove all Beatles memorabilia the former Beatles wife Yoko Ono threatened legal action for copyright infringement.
2015, John Fogerty filed a countersuit alleging that his former bandmates in Creedance Clearwater Revival had breached their contract in which he allowed them to use the name Creedence Clearwater Revisited while touring and playing the music they recorded together four decades ago. Fogerty’s action, claimed that Creedence bassist Stu Cook and drummer Doug Clifford had not paid him in more than three years under terms of the agreement they set up more than a decade ago.
2016, Cliff Richard instructed lawyers to make formal legal complaints to South Yorkshire Police and the BBC over their handling of a police raid on his home in 2014. Police investigating historical sex allegations launched an investigation in 2014, which was filmed by the BBC.
