Sunday, October 16, 2011

This Date in Rock Music History: October 16

1951:  Little Richard recorded for the first time in Atlanta, Georgia, recording "Every Hour", "Goin' To Get Rich Quick", "Taxi Blues", and "Why Did You Leave Me".
1954:  Elvis Presley made his famous first radio appearance on the Louisiana Hayride.

1961:  "Hit The Road Jack" from Ray Charles was #1 on the R&B chart for the third week.
1961:  Ray Charles had the #1 Popular song for the second week with "Hit The Road, Jack" but Jimmy Dean was on the move (17-8) with "Big Bad John".
1962:  Motown put together a tour that included the Supremes, Marvin Gaye, the Miracles, Mary Wells, and Little Stevie Wonder with their debut show in Washington, D.C.
1963:  The Beatles recorded performances of "I Saw Her Standing There","Love Me Do", "Please Please Me", "From Me to You", and  "She Loves You" for the BBC radio program Easy Beat, which was broadcast October 20.
1964:  The Beatles appeared on the British television show Ready Steady Go!

1965:  The Beatles received the Order of the British Empire from Queen Elizabeth.
1965:  The Beatles recorded "Day Tripper", based on a folk song that Lennon had written a month previous.









1965:  How about this for a signal of a hot song--The Rolling Stones moved up from 64 to 14 with "Get Off Of My Cloud".






1965:  The Beatles held on to #1 with "Yesterday" while Roy Head edged up with "Treat Her Right" and the former #1 from the McCoys ("Hang On Sloopy") was now at #3.  The Toys shot up from 19 to 4 with their great song "A Lover's Concerto" and the Gentrys had a nice 14-5 move with "Keep On Dancing".  The rest of the Top 10:  "The 'In' Crowd" from the Ramsey Lewis Trio, Herman's Hermits hit the Top 10 again with "Just A Little Bit Better", Sonny & Char at #8 with "Baby Don't Go", Lovin' Spoonful had song #9 with "Do You Believe In Magic" and "Eve Of Destruction" from Barry McGuire was #10.

1966:  Grace Slick performed for the first time as the new lead singer of Jefferson Airplane at the Fillmore in San Francisco, California.  Slick introduced fans to two new Airplane songs:  "White Rabbit" and "Somebody To Love".
1966:  Joan Baez and 118 other demonstrators who were protesting the military draft in the United States were arrested after they blocked the entrance of the Armed Forces Induction Center in Oakland, California.








1969:  The Supremes released the single "Someday We'll Be Together".  The record was actually Diana Ross with backing vocalists; the other members of the group did not sing on the song. Note: Many websites show the release as being in November, but according to 'soulfuldetroit.com', it was October 16.
1969:  Leonard Chess, the founder of Chess Records, died of a heart attack at the age of 52 in Chicago, Illinois.





 1971:  The Carpenters held on to #1 on the Easy Listening chart with "Superstar".











1971:  For the third week, Rod Stewart sat at #1 with "Maggie May".  The only new Top 10 song was Cher's "Gypsys, Tramps & Thieves", which moved up from 28 to 10.
1972:  A very sad day in the Rock Era--the members of one of the greatest groups in history--Creedence Clearwater Revival, announced they were breaking up.
1976:  The Eagles were in concert at the McKale Center at the University of Arizona in Tucson, Arizona.








1976:  ABBA reached #1 on the Easy Listening chart with "Fernando".
1976:  Stevie Wonder became the second solo artist of the Rock Era (Elton John was the first) to debut at #1 on the Album chart as Songs in the Key of Life entered at the top.  It did so ahead of some great albums:  Silk Degrees by Boz Scaggs, Peter Frampton's Frampton Comes Alive! fell after 10 weeks at #1, Fly Like An Eagle from Steve Miller Band was #4, Hasten Down the Wind by Linda Ronstadt was fifth and the self-titled Fleetwood Mac was #6 after 64 weeks of release.
1982:  Hall & Oates released the album H2O.









1982:  John Cougar (Mellencamp) stayed on top with "Jack & Diane" for the third week. 
1986:  Linda Ronstadt, Eric Clapton, Keith Richard, Etta James and Robert Cray performed at an early birthday party for Chuck Berry (he was born on October 18) at the Fox Theater in St. Louis, Missouri.





1989:  Taylor Dayne released the single "With Every Beat Of My Heart".
1992:  Sinead O'Connor ("Nothing Compares to U (sic)") was booed off stage at Madison Square Garden in a show that was intended to honor Bob Dylan on his 30th anniversary in the music business.  O'Connor, who had torn up a photograph of Pope John Paul II on Saturday Night Live 13 days previous, dropped her scheduled Dylan song and reprised "War" by Bob Marley instead.  George Harrison, Eric Clapton, Tom Petty and Neil Young also performed.







 1993:  "Dreamlover" by Mariah Carey was #1 for the sixth consecutive week.  Ace of Base was making their move with "All That She Wants", up from 21 to 8.

2003:  Simon & Garfunkel kicked off their wildly successful reunion tour at the Wachovia Arena in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania.







2003:  U2 donated money to the Irish branch of One in Four, a charity benefiting victims of sexual abuse that was facing closure due to a lack of funds.
2005:  The Sugababes not only had the #1 song in the U.K. with "Push the Button" but their album Taller in More Ways debuted at #1.


Born This Day:

1923:  Bert Kaempfert, prolific songwriter ("Strangers in the Night" for Frank Sinatra, "Spanish Eyes" by Al Martino, "Danke Schoen" for Wayne Newton, "L-O-V-E" by Nat King Cole, and many others), performer ("Wonderland By Night" from 1960) and the man who signed the Beatles to a recording contract, was born in Hamburg, Germany.
1938:  Nico (Christa Paffgen), singer-songwriter and vocalist of the Velvet Underground, was born in Cologne, Germany; died of a heart attack while on vacation in Ibiza July 18, 1988.

1943:  C.F. "Fred" Turner, bass guitarist of Bachman-Turner Overdrive, was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.
1947:  Bob Weir, guitarist of Grateful Dead, was born in San Francisco, California.
1953:  Tony Carey, guitarist for Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow, was born in Turlock, California.
1959:  Gary Kemp of Spandau Ballet was born in Islington, London, England.
1962:  Flea (Michael Balzary), bassist of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, was born in Melbourne, Australia.
1969:  Wendy Wilson of Wilson Phillips, and daughter of Beach Boys founder Brian Wilson, was born in Bel Air, California.

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