June 30
Police are called to deal with a series of fights that broke out at the Asbury Park Convention Hall in New Jersey during a show by Bill Haley and His Comets. City council will later vote to ban all Rock and Roll concerts.
July 1 Elvis Presley appeared on the Steve Allen Show and sang "Hound Dog" to a basset hound. The King earned $5,000 for the performance and headed for the studio the next day to record the song for a single release. US TV critic John Crosby panned Elvis' performance, calling him an 'unspeakable, untalented and vulgar young entertainer.'
July 1 Brenda Lee signed her first recording contract at the age of 11, after five years of singing professionally. Little Miss Dynamite as she was called, would go on to have a total of 29 US Top 40 singles in the 1960s, including "I'm Sorry", "Break It Too Me Gently" and "Fool #1".
1957 - ClassicBands.com
June 28 Jerry Lee Lewis makes his first appearance on The Steve Allen Show, performing "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On". After the show airs, sales of the record soar.
June 29
Police in Iran close all dance halls and prosecute their owners after laws are passed that rule Rock and Roll dancing as "harmful to health."
June 30 Buddy Holly records "Peggy Sue". In real life, she was Peggy Sue Gerron, the girlfriend of Crickets drummer Jerry Allison. The song was initially titled "Cindy Lou", but Allison convinced Buddy to change the title just before the recording session. Allison and Gerron were later married.
July 1
The headlines of Billboard magazine say, "Good music may be making a comeback on the bestseller charts...but rock & roll discs continue to dominate the pop market."
1958 - ClassicBands.com
July 4 Buddy Holly and The Crickets set out on a Summer Dance Party tour in Angola, Indiana, with Holly at the wheel of his brand new Lincoln Continental.
1959 - ClassicBands.com
June 29
Dick Clark announces his first Caravan of Stars tour, which would feature The Skyliners, who were still riding high on their hit "Since I Don't Have You".
July 3 The Shirelles' "Dedicated To The One I Love" is released. The record could only climb to #83 this time out, but would be re-released in February, 1961 and would rise to #3.
1962 - ClassicBands.com
July 1
Gene Vincent was the featured act at The Cavern Club in Liverpool, along with an up and coming local group called The Beatles.
July 2 Jimi Hendrix was honorably discharged from the 101st Airborne Paratroopers, after breaking his ankle during his 26th and final parachute jump.
1963 - ClassicBands.com
June 29 Del Shannon's cover version of the Beatles' "From Me To You" became the first song written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney to appear on the American charts, where it would stay for four weeks, reaching #77. The Beatles' rendition climbed only to #116. The title of the song was inspired from a letters column called From You To Us that ran in the popular British music newspaper, The New Musical Express.
July 1 The Beatles record "She Loves You", which will be released in August and will become the group's second UK #1 hit.
1964 - ClassicBands.com
July 4
"I Get Around" becomes the first US number one single for The Beach Boys. In the UK, it would be the band's first Top Ten hit.
July 4 The Rolling Stones are this week's panelists on the UK music show Juke Box Jury, where they determine that most of the new records played are "misses" and not "hits." Their boisterous behavior and crude language cause a stir among many viewers.
1965 - ClassicBands.com
June 28
Dick Clark's Rock and Roll TV show, Where The Action Is premieres on ABC-TV. Guests include Jan and Dean, Dee Dee Sharp and newcomers Paul Revere and The Raiders, who steal the show with their stage antics and Revolutionary War costumes.
1966 - ClassicBands.com
June 30 The Beatles appear at the first of three concerts at Nippon Budokan Hall in Tokyo, Japan. Amateur recordings of the performance quickly became available as a bootleg album known as "Three Nights in Tokyo".
July 2
Frank Sinatra's "Strangers In The Night" displaced The Beatles' "Paperback Writer" at the top of the Billboard Hot 100. It was also a UK #1.
July 4 The Beatles were booed by fans at the airport in Manila, Philippines after they failed to make a private appearance before President Marcos, his wife and 300 Filipino children. The group claims they were not told of the engagement. Marcos then makes a statement regretting the airport incident. After paying taxes on their gate receipts, the band leaves the country, vowing never to return.
1967 - ClassicBands.com
June 29
Mick Jagger and Keith Richards of The Rolling Stones were found guilty in London, England on drug possession charges resulting from arrests in February. Jagger was sentenced to three months in jail and Richards to a year. The sentences were suspended after an appeal.
July 1 The Association held down the top spot in the US for the first of four weeks with their biggest hit, "Windy". Strangely, the song failed to chart at all in the UK.
July 1 The Jefferson Airplane's "White Rabbit" entered the Billboard chart, where it eventually reached #8.
July 3
A band called The 5th Estate reaches #11 on the Billboard Hot 100 with a Rock and Roll version of "Ding Dong the Witch Is Dead" from the 1939 movie The Wizard Of Oz.
1968 - ClassicBands.com
June 28 The Rascals are awarded their third Gold record for the Felix Cavaliere and Eddie Brigati composition, "A Beautiful Morning". The record rose to number 3 in the US.
June 28 Aretha Franklin appears on the cover of Time magazine just as her L.P. "Aretha: Lady Soul" reaches #2 on the Billboard chart.
June 29 Donovan's "Hurdy Gurdy Man" enters the Billboard chart, where it will reach #5. The song featured former Yardbirds guitarist, Jeff Beck.
July 3 Tiny Tim's "Tiptoe Through the Tulips With Me" peaks at number 17 in the US.
July 3
Despite selling millions of records and being voted "The Most Listened-To Band of 1967" by Billboard Magazine, The Buckingham's latest release, "Back in Love Again" falls off the US charts shortly after it appeared.
1969 - ClassicBands.com
June 28
Henry Mancini's "Love Theme from Romeo and Juliet" lead the Billboard Pop chart in the first of a two week stay.
July 1
John Lennon and his son Julian, along with Yoko Ono and her daughter Kyoko, are injured in a car crash in Scotland. John receives 17 stitches for a facial injury, Yoko receives 14 stitches and the children are badly shaken. Lennon later had the car crushed into a cube and exhibited it on his lawn at Tittenhurst Park.
July 1
Sam Phillips sells the legendary Sun Records Studio in Memphis to Shelby Singleton. Sun, more than other record company, was responsible for the emergence of white Rock 'n' Roll in the mid-1950's.
July 2
Bassist Noel Redding and drummer Mitch Mitchell quit the Jimi Hendrix Experience after completing the three-day Denver Pop Festival at Mile High Stadium. Hendrix and drummer Mitch Mitchell would later team with bassist Billy Cox to form the short-lived Gypsy Sun and Rainbows, who played at the Woodstock Festival.
July 2
US consumer advocate Ralph Nader issued a warning that loud Rock music threatened to produce a nation of hearing-impaired people.
July 3 The Beatles' "The Ballad of John and Yoko" hits #8 on the US singles chart despite being banned by many radio stations because of the lyrics, "Christ, you know it ain't easy ..."
July 3 The Rolling Stones original lead guitarist Brian Jones was found dead in his swimming pool, just three weeks after he was kicked out of the band. The official cause was recorded as "death by misadventure." Reports say that Jones had sunk into substance abuse and he was frequently strung out on barbiturates, L.S.D., and alcohol and was no longer able to function as a musician.
July 4 Grand Funk Railroad performs at the Atlanta Pop Festival in Hampton, Georgia. Capitol Records executives see the band at the show and later sign them to a record deal.
1970 - ClassicBands.com
July 1
US disc jockey Casey Kasem broadcasts his first American Top 40 radio show, where he counts down the hits from the Billboard Hot 100.
July 4
The 3-day Atlanta Pop Festival opens at Middle Georgia Raceway in Byron, Georgia in front of a crowd of 200,000. Jimi Hendrix played his feedback filled version of "The Star Spangled Banner". Two days later, Georgia Governor Lester Maddox says he will seek legislation to ban all Rock festivals in the state.
July 4
"Tighter and Tighter" by Alive 'n' Kickin' debuts on the Billboard chart, on its way to #7.
July 1 Jethro Tull's first US Top Ten album, "Aqualung" is awarded a Gold record.
July 3
While on sabbatical in France, The Doors' lead singer, Jim Morrison died of heart failure and acute respiratory distress. News of his death wasn't made public until after his burial in a Paris cemetery on July 9th.
1972 - ClassicBands.com
July 1 Neil Diamond went to the top spot on the Billboard singles chart with "Song Sung Blue", his second US #1. The tune made it to number 14 in the UK.
1973 - ClassicBands.com
June 28 Helen Reddy's Summer replacement show debuts on NBC-TV.
June 28
One of the first British Invasion revival concerts was held at Madison Square Garden in New York. The show featured Wayne Fontana (of The Mindbenders), Gerry and The Pacemakers, The Searchers and Herman's Hermits. The last time any of them were on the US record charts was in early 1968 when "I Can Take or Leave Your Loving" was a #22 hit for Herman's Hermits.
June 29
Ian Gillan quits Deep Purple at the conclusion of their show in Osaka, Japan. Graham Bonnet will briefly take his place before David Coverdale comes on board.
June 30
George Harrison's "Give Me Love" knocks Paul McCartney's "My Love" out of the number one spot on both the Billboard Pop chart and the Cash Box Best Sellers list. George's song reached #8 in the UK.
July 3
Perry Como, the crooner who scored a string of hits in the 1950s, makes an unlikely return to the US record charts when his rendition of Don McLean's "And I Love You So" cracks the Top 30. The guitar you hear in the background was played by Chet Atkins.
July 3 David Bowie ends a 60-date tour with a show at the Hammersmith Odeon. Just before the encore, he shocks the crowd by saying, "This night shall always be special in my memory. Not only is it the last show of my British tour...but it is the last show I will ever do." He disbanded his backing group, The Spiders From Mars and went to Paris to record a solo album. Bowie's retirement was short-lived however. Less than a year later, he was back on stage in the US with the Diamond Dogs tour.
July 3
Clint Holmes received a Gold record for his US #2 single, "Playground in My Mind".
1974 - ClassicBands.com
June 29
Canada's Gordon Lightfoot scores his first US number one single with "Sundown". His best previous outing had been "If You Could Read My Mind" which reached number 5 in 1971.
July 4
Despite the fact that they have the #4 song in the US with "Rikki Don't Lose That Number" and a current Platinum album with "Pretzel Logic", Steely Dan's Walter Becker and Donald Fagan play their final gig together in Santa Monica, California. They would not tour again for the next eighteen years.
1975 - ClassicBands.com
June 28 David Bowie's "Fame" is released. It will become his first and only number one hit in the US and reach #17 in the UK.
June 28 The Eagles started a five-week run at the top of the Billboard Hot 200 album chart with "One Of These Nights".
June 30 The Jackson Five announce that they will be leaving Motown Records for Epic Records. They are forced to change their name to The Jacksons since Motown owns the other name.
July 3
Chuck Negron of Three Dog Night is arrested for possession of cocaine in his Louisville hotel room on the opening night of the group's tour. The charge is dropped in October when a Kentucky court determines the warrant used for the bust was granted on the basis of unfounded information. Negron's drug addiction would eventually lead to him being kicked out of the band for good.
1976 - ClassicBands.com
June 30
Police raid Neil Diamond's house, looking for drugs while claiming that they are responding to a burglary call. After a three hour search, they found nothing.
July 1 Connie Francis is granted a $2.5 million judgment against the hotel where she was assaulted in 1974.
July 2
Brian Wilson appears onstage with the Beach Boys for the first time in twelve years, in Anaheim, California. He's mostly motionless at his piano, but he does sing the lead vocal on "In My Room".
July 4 Paul Revere is married at King's Island Amusement Park in Cincinnati on the fourth of July, on America's Bicentennial.
July 4 Elton John and Kiki Dee's "Don't Go Breaking My Heart" is released in the US, where it will reach #1.
1977 - ClassicBands.com
June 30
Marvel Comics issues the first of two comic books based on the costumed characters of the group Kiss. The popular rumor of the day was that red ink was mixed with small amounts of blood from each group member.
July 2
Billboard's top tune was "Gonna Fly Now", the theme from the Sylvester Stallone film Rocky.
July 3
The Marshall Tucker Band's Country cross-over hit "Heard It In a Love Song" peaks at number 14 in the US. Interestingly, there is no one named Marshall Tucker in the band. The group named themselves after the previous tenant of their rehearsal hall, after finding a key tag with his name on it.
1978 - ClassicBands.com
June 28
Members of the group Kansas were named Deputy Ambassadors of Goodwill by Unicef.
June 29 Peter Frampton is involved in an auto accident in The Bahamas. He suffers a broken arm and cracked ribs and will be laid up for several months.
1979 - ClassicBands.com
June 29
Lowell George, the slide guitarist who left The Mothers of Invention to form Little Feat, died of a massive heart attack at the age of 34.
June 30
One of the first records to use a synthesized drum track, "Ring My Bell" reaches number one in the US for Anita Ward. It also topped the charts in the UK.
June 30 Donna Summer held the number two and number three positions on the Billboard Hot 100 chart with "Hot Stuff" and "Bad Girls". She was the first solo entertainer to hold two of the top three positions simultaneously.
July 2
Sony introduces the Walkman, the first portable audio cassette player. Over the next 20 years they will sell over 100 million of them in the US alone.
1980 - ClassicBands.com
June 28
Paul McCartney's "Coming Up" becomes one of the few 'live' recordings to reach the top of Billboard's Hot 100. American disc jockeys preferred it to the robotic sounding, studio version found on the flip side.
July 4 The Beach Boys perform at a free Fourth of July concert for 500,000 people in Washington, D.C.
1981 - ClassicBands.com
June 30
Forty-five year old Jerry Lee Lewis was rushed to a Memphis hospital, suffering from a hemorrhaging stomach ulcer. After two operations, he would recover and was back in the studio recording an album for MCA Records four months later.
July 1 Steppenwolf bassist Rushton Moreve, who co-wrote "Magic Carpet Ride" with John Kay, was killed in a car crash. He was 32.
July 3
On the 10th anniversary of Jim Morrison's death, the surviving members of The Doors, Robby Kreiger, Ray Manzarek and John Densmore lead fans in a graveside tribute in the Paris cemetery where Morrison is buried.
1982 - ClassicBands.com
July 3
The Human League started a three week run at the top of the US singles charts with "Don't You Want Me", also a UK #1.
July 4 Diana Ross kicks off her first world solo tour with a concert at Giants Stadium in the Meadowlands. Her opening act was trumpeter Miles Davis.
July 4
After being divorced by his first wife, Thelma Mayfair last year, Black Sabbath's Ozzy Osbourne marries Sharon Arden. His drummer, Tommy Aldridge serves as Best Man.
1983 - ClassicBands.com
June 30
After a ten year split, The Everly Brothers announced that they would be reuniting. The pair had parted company after Phil smashed his guitar and walked off the stage during a 1973 performance.
July 1
A New Jersey based quintet calling themselves Bon Jovi are signed to Phonogram's Mercury label. Their debut album is slated for next Fall.
July 4
Wayne Newton replaced the Beach Boys at the White House Fourth of July party after US Interior Secretary James Watt deemed the band "unsuitable" for the occasion.
1984 - ClassicBands.com
June 29
Bruce Springsteen kicks off his Born In The USA tour in St. Paul, Minnesota with Nils Lofgren replacing the newly departed Steve Van Zandt on guitar.
July 4
Ringo Starr sat in on drums during an Independence Day concert by The Beach Boys in Miami.
1985 - ClassicBands.com
June 29
The Cooper-Hewitt Museum auctions off John Lennon's psychedelic-painted 1965 Rolls-Royce Phantom V at Sotheby's in New York. The car, which Lennon donated to the museum in 1977, was sold to the Ripley's Believe It Or Not museum for a then record price of $2,299,000.
July 4 The Beach Boys were joined on stage by Mr. T, who played the drums during a fourth of July concert in Philadelphia, PA.
1986 - ClassicBands.com
June 28 Wham! drew a sell-out crowd of 75,000 to their farewell concert at Wembley Stadium in London. During their career, the duo of George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley had sold more than 38 million records.
July 3
The lead singer for Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes, Teddy Pendergrass, who was already paralyzed from a 1982 auto crash, was critically injured when the specially-equipped van he was driving slammed into a utility pole in Philadelphia.
July 4
More than 40,000 people flocked to a race track in Manor, Texas where Willie Nelson presided over an 18-hour Farm Aid Two concert, aimed at helping save US farmers from financial disaster. Among the performers were the Beach Boys, Waylon Jennings and Judy Collins. The first Farm Aid concert was held in September 1985 in Champaign, Illinois.
1988 - ClassicBands.com
June 29
Brenda Richie, the wife of Pop star Lionel Richie was arrested in Beverly Hills, California after allegedly hitting the singer and a young woman after she found them in bed together. She was released on $5,000 bail and charges against her were eventually dropped.
July 2 Michael Jackson became the first artist to have five number one singles from one album when "Dirty Diana" went to the top of the Billboard Hot 100. The other four chart-toppers from the L.P. "Bad" were the title track, "I Just Can't Stop Loving You", "The Way You Make Me Feel" and "Man in the Mirror".
1989 - ClassicBands.com
June 30
26 year old Paula Abdul is the featured performer of the Club MTV: Live show in Miami. Her debut album "Forever Your Girl" is currently climbing towards the top of the Billboard chart.
1990 - ClassicBands.com
July 2
Representatives of the Italian Catholic Church announce they'll attempt to put a stop to Madonna's concerts in Rome because of her alleged inappropriate use of crucifixes and sacred symbols. The group was successful in halting the shows.
1991 - ClassicBands.com
July 2
Guns N' Roses front man Axl Rose dives into the audience to take a camera away from a fan who was taking pictures during a concert in Maryland Heights, Missouri. The ensuing brawl injures fifty people, including fifteen police officers, and results in several other Guns N' Roses concerts being cancelled.
1992 - ClassicBands.com
July 4
John Phillips of The Mamas and The Papas receives a liver transplant that would keep him alive for another nine years.
1995 - ClassicBands.com
July 1
Disc Jockey Wolfman Jack, who appeared in the movie American Graffiti, died of a heart attack at the age of 57 at his home in Belvidere, North Carolina. He had risen to fame in the mid-1960s and was immortalized in 1974 by The Guess Who's "Clap For The Wolfman", on which his raspy voice is heard in the background.
1996 - ClassicBands.com
July 3
During a rain delay at the Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Championships, Cliff Richard launches into a seemly spontaneous concert, where he lead spectators through some of his old hits. It was later learned that Sir Cliff had planned the moment as a publicity stunt.
1998 - ClassicBands.com
June 29
George Harrison announces that he had been receiving radiation treatment for throat cancer caused by smoking. Harrison says he has been given a clean bill of health by saying, "I'm not going to die on you folks just yet." That sad event would take place on November 29th, 2001.
1999 - ClassicBands.com
June 29
Gene Simmons of KISS films a music video in downtown Los Angeles that featured a cast of porn stars.
July 1
Guy Mitchell, who scored two US number one hits with "You Got Me Singing The Blues" in 1956 and "Heartaches By The Number" in 1959, died at the age of 72 from complications following surgery.
2000 - ClassicBands.com
June 29
Vandals desecrate the graves of Lynyrd Skynyrd's Ronnie Van Zant and Steve Gaines. Van Zant's casket was exposed, but not opened, while some of Gaines' ashes was spilled.
July 1
Cub Koda, the leader of Brownsville Station and composer of their hit "Smokin' in the Boys Room", passed away from complications arising from kidney dialysis at the age of 51.
2001 - ClassicBands.com
June 30
Chet Atkins, the legendary session guitarist, died of cancer at the age of 77.
July 2
Yoko Ono was on hand as Liverpool renamed its airport after John Lennon. Yoko said he would have been very proud. "Thank you very, very much for remembering John and for loving John."
July 4
All 80,000 tickets to Madonna's concerts at London's Earl's Court arena sell out in just four hours.
July 4
In a major victory for record companies, a US federal judge orders file sharing service Napster to cease all operations.
2002 - ClassicBands.com
June 29 Billy Joel checked out of Silver Hill Hospital, a substance abuse and psychiatric center in New Canaan, Conn., that he had entered earlier in the month for treatment.
June 30
Al Jardine sued the remaining members of The Beach Boys for $4 million, alleging that they were excluding him from playing in the band. The suit would prove unsuccessful and Jardine was later prevented from touring as Beach Boy's Family and Friends.
2003 - ClassicBands.com
July 4
Rhythm and Blues star Barry White, known for his lush baritone voice and lyrics that oozed sex appeal on the hits "Can't Get Enough Of Your Love" and "You're The First, The Last, My Everything", passed away at the age of 58.
2004 - ClassicBands.com
July 1 Glen Campbell began serving 10 nights in jail along with two years of probation for a November 2003 drunken-driving, hit-and-run collision. The 68 year old entertainer was also sentenced to 75 hours of community service and fined $900.
2005 - ClassicBands.com
July 1
Renaldo "Obie" Benson of the legendary Motown singing group The Four Tops, died at the age of 69.
July 1
R&B artist Luther Vandross passed away at the age of 54, two years after suffering a major stroke.
July 3
Audrey Brickley of The Orlons, who placed 5 songs in the Billboard Top 20 in the early 1960s, including "The Wah Watusi" and "South Street", died of acute respiratory distress syndrome. She was 58.
2007 - ClassicBands.com
June 29
George McCorkle, the rhythm guitarist for The Marshall Tucker Band, died of cancer at the age of 60. He penned many MTB songs, including the band's first Country Top 40 hit, "Fire on the Mountain".
July 3
Boots Randolph, the saxophone player best known for the 1963 hit "Yakety Sax", died from a cerebral hemorrhage at the age of 80.
July 4
Bill Pinkney, the last surviving member of the original Drifters passed away from unknown causes. He was 81.
2008 - ClassicBands.com
July 1
A Beatles interview from April 30, 1964, in which John Lennon and Paul McCartney discussed how they met and the way they composed songs together, was broadcast by the BBC after it was discovered in a film can in a damp garage in south London.
