1959, Alone with an acoustic guitar and tape recorder in his New York City apartment Buddy Holly made his last recordings, including ‘Peggy Sue Got Married’, ‘Crying, Waiting, Hoping’, ‘That’s What They Say’, ‘What To Do’, ‘Learning The Game’ and ‘That Makes It Tough’. The recordings would be overdubbed posthumously and were later released by Coral Records.
1963, The Beatles made their third appearance on the Radio Luxembourg program The Friday Spectacular. The Beatles were interviewed by the host and played two tracks, ‘Please Please Me’ and ‘Ask Me Why.
1965, American disc-jockey Alan Freed died from uraemia and cirrhosis brought on by alcoholism at the age of 42. Freed called himself the “father of rock and roll”, appeared in the movies such as Rock Around the Clock and Don’t Knock the Rock. His career was destroyed by the payola scandal that hit the broadcasting industry in the early 1960s.
1959, The Platters ‘Smoke Gets In Your Eyes’, started a three week run at No.1 on the US singles chart.
1960, Johnny Preston started a three week run at No.1 on the US singles chart with ‘Running Bear’. Written by J.P. Richardson (The Big Bopper), the tune originally entered the chart in October 1959, then quickly vanished, but re-entered in November and slowly climbed to the top. It was also a UK No.1.
