1963 – The first Beatles single “Please Please Me” was released in the U.S. on the Vee-Jay label. Capitol Records, EMI’s United States label, were offered the right to release the single in the U.S., but turned it down. Dick Biondi, a disc jockey on WLS in Chicago and a friend of Vee-Jay executive Ewart Abner, played the song on the radio from February 1963, thus becoming the first DJ to play a Beatles record in the United States.
1964 – The Beatles landed in the United States for the very first time. The Fab Four arrived at JFK to a cheering crowd. They were in town to play “The Ed Sullivan Show” and unsure if Beatlemania had taken over the U.S. the way it had in Britain. The screaming throngs of sign-holding fans that greeted them were telling of their future in the U.S., to say the least.
1969 – John Lennon and Yoko Ono were featured on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine, on sale for 35 Cents. John was named as Rolling Stone’s Man Of The Year.
1969 – The Who recorded “Pinball Wizard” at Morgan Studios in London. The song is one of the band’s most famous live songs, being played at almost every Who concert since its debut live performance in May of 1969. The track, which featured on their 1969 rock opera album Tommy was released as a single in 1969 and reached No. 4 in the U.K. charts and No. 19 in the U.S.
1970 – Led Zeppelin scored their first U.K. No. 1 album with Led Zeppelin II. Released in November 1969, and featuring the U.S. No. 4 single “Whole Lotta Love”, it went on to stay on the U.K. chart for 136 weeks. Also reaching No. 1 in the U.S., the RIAA in the U.S. has now certified it as having sold over 12 million copies in the U.S. alone.
1970 – “Venus” by Shocking Blue went to No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, the first Dutch band to ever do so. The song was released in late 1969 as a single from the group’s third album Scorpio’s Dance. The band had sold 13.5 million records by 1973, but the group disbanded in 1974, during the final years of the hippie, flower power and other counterculture movements around the world.
1976 – Paul Simon’s “Fifty Ways To Leave Your Lover” was the No. 1 single in the U.S., while the best-selling album was Bob Dylan’s Desire.
1979 – The Clash launched their first American tour at the Berkeley Community Theatre. Bo Diddley served as the opening act and The Clash began their set with “I’m So Bored with the USA”.
1979 – Stephen Stills became the first rock performer to record on digital equipment in Los Angeles’ Record Plant Studio.
1981 – John Lennon was at No. 1 on the U.K. singles chart with “Woman”, an ode to his wife Yoko Ono. It was Lennon’s third No. 1 in seven weeks after his death on December 8, 1980. The track begins with Lennon whispering, “For the other half of the sky …”, a paraphrase of a Chinese proverb.
1986 – Using dancers and animation, The Rolling Stones shot footage for their new single, “Harlem Shuffle”, in New York City.
1987 – George Michael and Aretha Franklin were at No. 1 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and several other countries with “I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me)”, written by Simon Climie and Dennis Morgan. The song gave Franklin and Michael a 1987 Grammy Award for Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal.
1989 – A Georgia state representative introduced a bill that would make Little Richard’s “Tutti Frutti” the state’s official rock song.
1994 – Oasis started recording their debut album Definitely Maybe at Monrow studios in South Wales.
1999 – Blondie went to No. 1 on the U.K. singles chart with “Maria”, giving the group their 6th U.K. No. 1 single, 20 years after their first. At the age of 54, lead singer Debbie Harry became the oldest female at the time to hit No. 1.
2015 – American bass player and songwriter Joe B. Mauldin died at age 74. He was best-known as the bassist for the early rock and roll group The Crickets and later became a recording engineer at Gold Star Studios, the Los Angeles studio which became the “hit factory” for Phil Spector, Brian Wilson and other major 1960s rock performers.
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