March 7 Carl Perkins becomes the first Country artist to have a hit on the Billboard R&B chart when his "Blue Suede Shoes" makes the list.
March 10
RCA Records placed a half page ad in Billboard Magazine claiming that Elvis Presley was 'the new singing rage'.
1956 - ClassicBands.com
March 10 Bobby Darin makes his first television appearance on The Stage Show, where he sings "Rock Island Line".
March 13 Elvis Presley's first album is released by RCA. The self-titled disc would sell over a million copies and become The King's first Gold record.
1957 - ClassicBands.com
March 9 Fats Domino had the number 1 record on the Billboard R&B singles chart with "I'm Walkin'", which had just replaced his own, "Blue Monday". Domino would keep the Top 40 hits coming for the next 5 years before fading to the oldies tours.
March 12 Buddy Holly and the Crickets record "Maybe Baby", which would be released the following year and climb to #17in the US and #4 in the UK.
1958 - ClassicBands.com
March 11
After finding out that her husband, Jerry Lee Lewis has married his 13 year old cousin, Jane Mitcham files for divorce.
March 12
Jazz singer Billie Holiday, who had pled guilty to a narcotics-possession charge in 1956, is given a year's probation by a Philadelphia court.
March 13 The Quarry Men, with both John Lennon and Paul McCartney playing guitar, perform at the Morgue Skiffle Cellar in Oakhill Park.
1959 - ClassicBands.com
March 8
Just four weeks after being released, Frankie Avalon's "Venus" tops the US singles chart. Al Martino was offered the song first, but he turned it down.
March 11
RCA sends a Gold record to Elvis Presley as his single, "A Fool Such As I" reaches the one million sales mark.
March 12
An American Bandstand viewer's pole lists 15 year old Fabian Forte as the Most Promising New Talent. The young man is currently enjoying success with "Turn Me Loose", which will crack the US Top 10 in April.
March 13
Friday the 13th proved unlucky for The Kingston Trio when they were involved in an emergency airplane landing in Indiana and nearly killed. Their song, "The Tijuana Jail" was rising up the charts, stopping at number 12 a couple weeks later.
1960 - ClassicBands.com
March 10 Record Retailer, a publication that featured a chart showing the top 50 records by sales, is launched in the UK. Their first number one was "Poor Me" by Adam Faith.
1961 - ClassicBands.com
March 9 The Beatles make their first of over 300 appearance at Liverpool's Cavern Club. The group had played the venue in the past as The Quarry Men.
March 12
At RCA's Nashville studios, Elvis Presley records his entire upcoming album, "Something For Everybody" in less than twelve hours.
March 13 Ricky Nelson records "Travelin' Man", which would go on to become his second and final US number one hit as well as reaching number two in the UK.
1962 - ClassicBands.com
March 8 The Beatles, with Pete Best on drums, appear on television for the first time when they play Roy Orbison's "Dream Baby" on the BBC program Teenager's Turn. It was reportedly the first time they wore suits onstage.
March 10
Bruce Channel's "Hey Baby" sat at the top of the Pop chart in America and at number 2 in the UK.
March 13 Cliff Richard is named Show Business Personality of 1961 at the Variety Club of Great Britain Awards. Helen Shapiro is voted Most Promising Newcomer Of The Year, an honor she shared with actress Rita Tushingham.
1963 - ClassicBands.com
March 8
25,000 people attended the funeral for Country singer Patsy Cline, killed three days earlier in a plane crash near Camden, Tennessee.
March 8 The Four Tops ink a deal with Berry Gordy's Motown label and receive a $400 signing bonus.
March 11
The English Rock group, Manfred Mann, give their first concert in London.
1964 - ClassicBands.com
March 7
Capitol Records is swamped with requests for heavyweight boxing champion Cassius Clay's album, "I Am the Greatest", after Clay defeated Sonny Liston on February 25th.
March 8 The Dave Clark Five make their first of 13 appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show.
March 10 Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel record "The Sounds Of Silence" as an acoustic duo. It wasn't until electric guitar, bass and drums were added that the song would become a hit.
1965 - ClassicBands.com
March 13 Freddie and the Dreamers' "I'm Telling You Now" enters Billboard's Hot 100, where it will stay for eleven weeks, eventually climbing to #1 for two weeks starting April 10. It will be the biggest hit of the band's brief career.
March 13 The Beatles topped the Billboard Hot 100 for the seventh time with "Eight Days A Week".
March 13 Eric Clapton quit The Yardbirds due to musical differences with the other band members. Clapton wanted to continue in a bluesier vein, while the rest of the band preferred the more commercial style of their first pop hit, "For Your Love".
1966 - ClassicBands.com
March 7
Brian Wilson released "Caroline No", the first solo single by a Beach Boy. Before it evolved into the final number we know today, the song was originally written as "Carol I Know".
March 7
Tina Turner laid down vocal tracks for the Phil Spector produced "River Deep Mountain High", which would go on to reach #3 in the UK and #88 in the US.
March 8 Lulu became the first British female singer to appear behind the Iron Curtain when she toured Poland with The Hollies.
March 12
The Levi Strauss Company began selling bell-bottom blue jeans in the US. Don't you wish you could still fit into yours?
1967 - ClassicBands.com
March 10 Sonny and Cher guest star on an episode of NBC-TV's The Man From U.N.C.L.E.
March 11 The Supremes enjoy their ninth Billboard number one record with "Love Is Here and Now You're Gone", a #17 hit in the UK.
March 11
Northern Songs, who publish The Beatles' tunes, announce that in the 18 months since "Yesterday" made its appearance, 446 other artists have also recorded it.
1968 - ClassicBands.com
March 8
Bill Graham opens The Fillmore East in an abandoned movie theater in New York City. The opening acts are Albert King and Tim Buckley along with Big Brother and the Holding Company.
March 9
Grammy Awards are presented to The Fifth Dimension for "Up, Up and Away" - Record of the Year and Best Performance by a Vocal Group. The Beatles' "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" is named Album of the Year, Best Contemporary Album, Best Engineered Record and Best Album Cover, Graphic Arts.
March 9 Bob Dylan started a ten-week run at the top of the UK album chart with "John Wesley Harding". The LP would reach #2 in the US.
March 13 The Byrds received a Gold record for their "Greatest Hits" album.
1969 - ClassicBands.com
March 7 Tommy's Roe's single, "Dizzy" earns a Gold record for sales of over one million.
March 12
Paul McCartney marries photographer Linda Eastman. Contrary to the popular rumor of the day, she is not related to the Eastmans of Eastman-Kodak fame. Paul's brother, Mike McGear is the best man. None of the other Beatles is in attendance.
March 11
The Grammy Award winners are announced. The Fifth Dimension's "Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In" is Record of the Year. Blood, Sweat and Tears, by the band of the same name is Album of the Year and Joe South's "Games People Play" is Song of the Year. Crosby, Stills and Nash won the Best New Artist. Blood, Sweat and Tears were nominated for a then-record eleven Grammy Awards (They won three).
1971 - ClassicBands.com
March 11
TV's fictional Rock band, The Partridge Family, featuring David Cassidy on vocals, receives a Gold record for "Doesn't Somebody Want to be Wanted". It's the second of their five US Top 20 hits.
March 13
The L.A. duo of Brewer and Shipley entered the Billboard Hot 100 with "One Toke Over The Line". The song, which featured The Grateful Dead's Jerry Garcia on steel guitar, would reach #10 despite being banned by several radio stations for its drug references. Brewer and Shipley maintained that the word "toke" meant "token" as in ticket, hence the line "waitin' downtown at the railway station, one toke over the line."
1972 - ClassicBands.com
March 9 Carole King, James Taylor and Carly Simon did their part to keep Richard Nixon out of office when they appeared at a fund-raiser for George McGovern. Joining them were Barbra Streisand, Quincy Jones, Mama Cass Elliot, Burt Lancaster, Jon Voight, Britt Ekland and Jack Nicholson. Their efforts were in vain, as McGovern lost the November 7th election to Nixon by nearly 18 million votes.
March 10
The group America receive a Gold record for their self-titled debut album.
1973 - ClassicBands.com
March 7
A song from the movie Deliverance called "Dueling Banjos" by Eric Weissberg and Steve Mandel, becomes one of the few 1970s instrumentals to be awarded a Gold record.
March 8
Paul McCartney pleads guilty to charges of growing marijuana outside his Scottish countryside farm and is fined $240. Paul says that a fan gave him the seeds and he didn't know what they would grow.
March 8
Ron "Pigpen" McKernan of The Grateful Dead, died of a stomach hemorrhage and liver failure, brought on by alcohol poisoning. He was just 27 years old.
March 10 Pink Floyd's "Dark Side Of The Moon" was released in America, where it would spent over 740 weeks on the chart.
1974 - ClassicBands.com
March 11 Janis Joplin's manager, Albert Grossman, was awarded $112,000 on her life insurance policy. The insurance company had argued that Joplin's drug overdose death in 1970 was a suicide, not an accident.
March 12
John Lennon and Harry Nilsson are thrown out of the Troubador nightclub in Los Angeles for heckling the Smothers Brothers. Nilsson, a good friend of Tom Smothers, thought he was helping the act because Tom had struggled through weak material at an earlier date.
1975 - ClassicBands.com
March 8 Olivia Newton-John's "Have You Never Been Mellow" becomes her second Billboard number one record. She would go on to have three more.
March 8 The New Musical Express announces that The Rolling Stones have chosen Wayne Perkins to replace the recently departed Mick Taylor. Two weeks later, The Stones themselves will issue a statement saying that Ron Wood will fill the position. Mick Jagger would say, "No matter how great Wayne Perkins is...he plays very similar to Mick Taylor."
1976 - ClassicBands.com
March 7 Elton John becomes the first Rock star since the Beatles to be immortalized at Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum in London.
March 8
Former Spooky Tooth singer Gary Wright is awarded a Gold record for "Dream Weaver".
March 9 Queen's breakthrough album, "A Night at the Opera," is certified Gold.
March 13 The Four Seasons score their fifth and final US #1 hit with "December 1963 (Oh What A Night"). It was also their only UK #1. Since 1962, the group had placed 31 songs in Billboard's Top 40.
March 13
Johnny Taylor's "Disco Lady" begins a six week stay at the top of the Billboard R&B chart. It is the first number one song to contain the word "Disco" in the title.
1977 - ClassicBands.com
March 9 The Jacksons TV show aired for the final time on CBS-TV, finishing dead last in the ratings.
March 12
The Sex Pistols were involved in a fight at London's Speakeasy Club, resulting in one of the show's engineers needing 14 stitches in his head. Two days later, Jerry Moss and Herb Alpert of A&M Records cancelled the Pistols contract and halted production of the their first single, "God Save The Queen".
1978 - ClassicBands.com
March 11 Meat Loaf's "Bat Out Of Hell" album began a 416 week run on the UK chart and would go on to sell over 2 million copies.
March 11
French singer Claude Francois, who scored a 1976 UK hit with "Tears On The Telephone", was electrocuted when he changed a light bulb while standing in his bathtub.
1979 - ClassicBands.com
March 10
Believe it or not, James Brown played the Grand Ole Opry. Some Country artists such as Jean Shepard complained, but others like Barbara Mandrell said that Brown should have been invited five years earlier.
March 10
Gloria Gaynor's "I Will Survive" found its way from B-side obscurity to the top of the Billboard Hot 100. It was also a #1 in the UK.
1980 - ClassicBands.com
March 13 Pink Floyd's "The Wall" goes Platinum a few weeks into its fifteen week stay at number one on the Billboard chart. The two-record set is mostly the brainchild of bassist Roger Waters, who emerges as the group's creative leader.
1982 - ClassicBands.com
March 11
Jimy Sohns, lead singer of the Shadows of Knight is arrested for distributing cocaine. The band's biggest hit was a cover version of "Gloria", originally recorded by Van Morrison and Them.
1983 - ClassicBands.com
March 7 Stevie Wonder and Neil Sedaka are inducted into the Songwriter's Hall Of Fame during a ceremony at the Waldorf Astoria hotel in New York.
1985 - ClassicBands.com
March 9
Mick Jagger releases a solo single called "Just Another Night" which will reach #12 in the US and #32 in the UK.
March 9 REO Speedwagon returned to Billboard's top spot with "Can't Fight This Feeling". The song made #16 in the UK. It had been a little over five years since the band's first number one hit, "Keep On Loving You".
1987 - ClassicBands.com
March 7
Now that Beatles' albums are finally being released on CD, the Fab Four returned to the UK charts with "A Hard Day's Night" at #30, "Please Please Me" is #32, "With The Beatles" sits at #40 and "Beatles For Sale" is #45.
March 13 Bob Seger receives a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
1988 - ClassicBands.com
March 10
30 year old Andy Gibb, younger brother of Bee Gees Robin, Maurice and Barry, died from a viral infection in his heart. Andy hadn't had a chart hit since 1981, but did have a stint as host of the Solid Gold TV show. Shortly before his death and just after he declared bankruptcy, Andy had signed a record deal and was working on a new album for Island Records. It was never completed.
1990 - ClassicBands.com
March 8 Rolling Stone Magazine let Jefferson Airplane know exactly how they felt about the group's reforming when they named their new album as the Most Unwanted Comeback of the Year. The L.P. featured all of the main members from the band's glory days, but little has been heard from the Airplane since this embarrassment.
March 10
According to Billboard Magazine, New Kids On The Block receive 125,000 calls a day to their 1-900 number.
1991 - ClassicBands.com
March 7
The readers of Rolling Stone Magazine voted George Michael as the best male singer and sexiest male artist.
March 11
Janet Jackson signs a $30 million deal with Virgin Records. It's the largest record deal ever until brother Michael signs with Sony a week later.
1993 - ClassicBands.com
March 11 Eric Clapton hit number 1 in the US with his "Unplugged" album that had been in the top 10 for six months. The additional attention created by his six Grammys at the annual awards ceremony pushed sales of his live album even higher. "Unplugged" beat out "Achtung Baby", "The Beauty and The Beast" soundtrack and albums by Annie Lennox and kd lang for album of the year.
1996 - ClassicBands.com
March 9
George Burns, who scored a Billboard hit in 1980 with "I Wish I Was Eighteen Again", passed away at the age of 100.
March 11
Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr turn down a $225 million offer to do a reunion tour.
1997 - ClassicBands.com
March 10
R&B singer LaVern Baker, who placed 7 songs in the US Top 40 in the mid-1950s and early 1960s, including "Tweedlee Dee" and "I Cried A Tear", died of heart failure at the age of 67.
March 11
The investiture ceremony where Paul McCartney was knighted by Britain's Queen Elizabeth II took place.
1999 - ClassicBands.com
March 7
Marvin Inabnett of The Four Preps died of a heart attack at the age of 60. The group placed seven songs on the Billboard Top 40 between 1958 and 1961, including "26 Miles (Santa Catalina)", a number 2 hit in 1958.
March 13
It had been nearly fifteen years since Cher led the US hit parade with "Dark Lady", but she was back on top with her fourth solo number one, "Believe". It was also #1 in the UK.
2001 - ClassicBands.com
March 7
The Recording Industry of America and the National Endowment for the Arts announced that Judy Garland's "Over The Rainbow" had been selected as their "song of the century". Rounding out their Top Ten were (#2) "White Christmas by Bing Crosby, (#3) "This Land Is Your Land" by Woody Guthrie, (#4) "Respect" by Aretha Franklin, (#5) "American Pie" by Don McLean, (#6) "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy" by The Andrews Sisters, (#7) "West Side Story" (album) by the original cast, (#8) "Take Me Out To The Ball Game" by Billy Murray, (#9) "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'" by The Righteous Brothers, (#10) "The Entertainer" by Scott Joplin.
March 12
In a poll conducted by the Recording Industry Association of America, music fans voted Judy Garland's "Over The Rainbow" as the Song Of The Century. The Rolling Stones' "Satisfaction" came in at #16 and The Beatles' "I Want To Hold Your Hand" was #26.
2002 - ClassicBands.com
March 11 Connie Francis launches a lawsuit against her record label for unpaid royalties and inappropriate licensing of her recordings.
2003 - ClassicBands.com
March 8
Adam Faith suffered a fatal heart attack at the age of 62. He was one of England's major Pop stars in the early 1960s and enjoyed a run of eleven British Top 20 hits prior to the arrival of The Beatles.
March 13
A jury awarded concert promoter Marcel Avram $5.3 million in his suit against Michael Jackson over the cancellation of two planned 1999 concerts. Avram filed suit against Jackson in 2000 in Santa Barbara County Superior Court, claiming the singer had pulled out of New Years shows planned for Sydney and Honolulu. On the witness stand, Jackson insisted that Avram cancelled the shows over concerns they would not be profitable.
2004 - ClassicBands.com
March 11
Edmund Sylvers, the lead singer of the Sylvers on their 1975, number one hit, "Boogie Fever", died after a ten month battle with cancer. He was just 47 years old.
March 12
Rosalind Morganfield, the 34 year old daughter of Blues artist Muddy Waters, surrendered to police after a warrant was issued accusing her of being involved in the 1996 murder of 19 year old Timothy Jason Harrington during a drug deal.
2005 - ClassicBands.com
March 10 Michael Jackson arrived at the Santa Moria court an hour late, dressed in his pajamas after being treated for a back injury.
2006 - ClassicBands.com
March 7
A US federal judge ordered Rod Stewart to pay Harrah's casino in Las Vegas more than $3 million for a canceled show in December 2000.
March 8
Boy George pleaded guilty in Manhattan criminal court to a misdemeanor charge of filing a false police report over a burglary. Judge Anthony Ferrara returned a sentence of a conditional discharge that required George to undergo a drug treatment program in Salisbury, England and to perform five days of community service in Manhattan.
2007 - ClassicBands.com
March 8
Roy Head's son, 28 year-old Jason "Sundance" Head, was voted off the American Idol TV program in a move that shocked even the judges. "Sundance, you've been one of our finest. I'm speechless," said Paula Abdul. Sundance received a further blow after the show was over when he was told his cousin, Burl Head died in a house fire in Houston. Burl had reportedly given Sundance $1,500 for his stay in Los Angeles during the competition.
March 9
Brad Delp, the lead singer for the band Boston, was found dead in his home in southern New Hampshire. He was 55.
March 12
Levon Helm, the former drummer for The Band, filed a lawsuit against a Manhattan advertising firm over the use of the group's song, "The Weight" in a television commercial for cell phones. Helm received a royalty payment for the use of the song, but didn't feel he was adequately compensated.
2008 - ClassicBands.com
March 10
Pop diva Madonna, rocker John Mellencamp, singer/songwriter Leonard Cohen, British Invasion pioneers The Dave Clark Five and instrumental Rock legends The Ventures were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame during a ceremony at New York's Waldorf-Astoria Hotel.
March 12
Seven years of trying to secure the rights to use the Lennon-McCartney catalog paid off for TV's American Idol, when over 31 million viewers tuned in to the show. The following day, the top five Google searches were also Beatle related.
2009 - ClassicBands.com
March 7
Jimmy Boyd, the child vocalist best known for singing the 1952, Christmas novelty hit "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus", died at age 70.
