This Date in Rock Music History: October 30

1961:  Glen Campbell's first single of his career debuted on this date as his version of "Turn Around, Look At Me" entered the chart.

1961:  Ray Charles owned the top R&B song for the fifth week with "Hit The Road, Jack".
1963:  Producer George Martin of the Beatles completed work on "Money" by adding piano chords to the song for the album With the Beatles.
1963:  The Beatles performed "She Loves You", "Twist And Shout", "I Saw Her Standing There" and "Long Tall Sally" in front of a studio audience at the Arenateatern (arena theatre) in the Gröna Lund amusement park for the television show Drop In in Stockholm, Sweden.
1965:  The Who were in concert at Manchester University in Manchester, England.

1965:  "Rescue Me" by Fontella Bass was the new #1 on the R&B chart.
1965:  Help! by the Beatles led the way on the Album chart with Look At Us from Sonny & Cher #2.  The Soundtrack from "The Sound of Music" was #3 after 33 weeks while Bob Dylan couldn't budge from #4 with Highway 61 Revisited.  The rest of the Top 10:  The In Crowd by The Ramsey Lewis Trio, Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass with Whipped Cream & Other Delights, the Rolling Stones held on to #7 with Out of Our Heads, the Soundtrack to "Mary Poppins" was still #8 after 57 weeks, More Hits By the Supremes was #9 and Herman's Hermits On Tour moved into the Top 10.




1965:  Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass placed their great instrumental "Taste Of Honey" at #1 on the Easy Listening chart.








1965:  The Beatles held on to #1 with "Yesterday" for a fourth week.  
1966:  Pink Floyd signed new managers Peter Jenner and Andrew King.
1967:  Brian Jones, guitarist of the Rolling Stones, was sentenced to nine months in prison for possession of marijuana.
1967:  Pink Floyd appeared on The Pat Boone Show but didn't understand the object of a talk show as lead singer Syd Barrett sat with a vacant stare rather than answer Pat's questions.  Later in the night, Barrett opened his mouth at a concert at the Fillmore in San Francisco, a benefit for radio station KPFA.
1967:  T. Rex recorded a session for Top Gear on UK Radio 1, despite not having a recording contract yet.




1968:  Marvin Gaye released the single "I Heard It Through The Grapevine".









1970:  Elton John released the album Tumbleweed Connection.
1970:  Jim Morrison, lead singer of the Doors, was sentenced to six months in jail for indecent exposure in Miami, Florida.
1970:  Black Sabbath played their first concert in the United States at Glassboro State College, now Rowan University in New Jersey.  (Note:  some websites mistakenly say that Glassboro was in Pennsylvania.)
1970:  The Moody Blues were in concert at the Royal Festival Hall in London.
1971:  Pink Floyd released the album Meddle.
1971:  "Imagine" by John Lennon was #1 in the U.K.
1971:  "Peace Train" by Cat Stevens moved to #1 on the Easy Listening chart.
1971:  Imagine by John Lennon was the new #1 album.
1971:  Although he had already become a star as the lead singer of his family group, Michael Jackson first debuted on the chart with his solo single "Got To Be There".
1971:  For the fifth straight week, Rod Stewart owned the #1 song with "Maggie May".  Cher had one of her biggest career hits with "Gypsys, Tramps & Thieves".  "Yo-Yo" by the Osmonds was stagnant at #3 while "Superstar" by the Carpenters slipped and "Theme From Shaft" by Isaac Hayes bounced up to #5.  "Imagine" by John Lennon moved from 20 to 6 in only its second week.  The rest of the Top 10:  Lee Michaels with "Do You Know What I Mean", "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down" from Joan Baez fell to #8, Cat Stevens rode up from #15 to #9 with "Peace Train" and the Free Movement had themselves a Top 10 hit with "I've Found Someone Of My Own".
1972:  Elton John became the first artist of the Rock Era to perform for Queen Elizabeth II since the Beatles in 1963.


1976:  ELO shot up from 88 to 60 with "Livin' Thing".










            The Steve Miller Band was rocking the charts...

1976:  It was an outstanding Top 10.  Chicago was the kingpin with "If You Leave Me Now".  For laughs, we had Rick Dees with "Disco Duck", Steve Miller rose from 10-3 with "Rock N' Me", Gordon Lightfoot was on fire, moving from 15 to 4 with "The Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald" and Walter Murphy slipped after 23 weeks with "A Fifth Of Beethoven".  The rest of the Top 10:  The Bee Gees had their 26th career hit--"Love So Right", Hall & Oates climbed to #7 with "She's Gone, the former chart-topper "Play That Funky Music" from Wild Cherry, the Captain & Tennille were on a roll, moving from 18-9 with their remake of the America song "Muskrat Love" and Heart reached the Top 10 for the first time with "Magic Man".

                      EWF's fine album Spirit...

1976:  Songs in the Key of Life by Stevie Wonder was #1 on the Album chart for a third week.  Spirit from Earth, Wind & Fire moved to challenge while Fly Like An Eagle was bypassed and stood at #3.  Frampton Comes Alive! by Peter Frampton was now #4 after 40 weeks and Linda Ronstadt's new album Hasten Down the Wind moved back up to #5.  The rest of the Top 10:  The self-titled Fleetwood Mac moved back up to #6 after 66 weeks of release, Heart's breakthrough Dreamboat Annie was seventh, Chicago X, Silk Degrees by Boz Scaggs was finally down to #9 after 33 weeks and the Bee Gees moved into the Top 10 with Children of the World.
1982:  Evelyn King posted her fifth consecutive week at #1 on the R&B chart with "Love Came Down".
1982:  John Cougar (Mellencamp) continued to hold on to #1 on the Album chart for an eighth week with American Fool.
1982:  It was pretty apparent that Lionel Richie was going to do fine on his own as a solo artist--his first solo release "Truly" moved from 36 to 14.
1982:  Men At Work accomplished the tough task of hitting #1 with their debut single ("Who Can It Be Now?"), putting an end to a streak of four weeks at the top for "Jack & Diane" by John Cougar (Mellencamp).  The Alan Parsons Project had their biggest career hit with "Eye In The Sky" and Michael McDonald's solo song "I Keep Forgettin' (Every Time You're Near)" was at #4.  The rest of the Top 10:  Joe Cocker & Jennifer Warnes remained at 5 with "Up Where We Belong", Olivia Newton-John's "Heart Attack" was a surprise #6, Jackson Browne's "Somebody's Baby" and "I Ran (So Far Away)" from A Flock of Seagulls remained the same and Neil Diamond reached the Top 10 for the 13th and final time with his 56th career hit "Heartlight".
1983:  Culture Club led the way on the U.K. chart with "Karma Chameleon".  Lionel Richie was second with "All Night Long", Duran Duran's "Union Of The Snake" was #3, Billy Joel had #4 with "Uptown Girl" and Tracy Ullman landed at #5 with "They Don't Know".

1984:  Bruce Springsteen released the single "Born In The U.S.A."
1984:  Linda Ronstadt made her operatic debut in the play La Boheme at the New York Public Theatre in New York City.









1984:  Barry Manilow performed the first in a series of shows at Radio City Music Hall in New York City.  Manilow broke the box office record previously held by Diana Ross, grossing $1.9 million.
1990:  Axl Rose of Guns N' Roses was arrested for hitting a neighbor over the head with a bottle.
1993:  "Just Kickin' It" by Xscape was #1 again on the R&B chart.
1993:  "Hero" from Mariah Carey was one of the hottest songs moving up the chart (71 to 45).





        Ace of Base had song #3...


1993:  "Dreamlover" by Mariah Carey was #1 for the eighth straight week.  Meat Loaf moved up to challenge with "I'd Do Anything For Love (But I Won't Do That)".  Ace of Base was at #3 with their initial release "All That She Wants".










1996:  Oasis released the single "Wonderwall".
1995:  Jefferson Airplane, Pink Floyd, Gladys Knight & the Pips, David Bowie, the Shirelles, the Velvet Underground, Little Willie John and Tom Donahue all got in on the fun by being inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.  The selection committee was letting anyone in, thereby cheapening the Hall of Fame for all-time.
1996:  Elite guitarist Slash announced that he was leaving Guns N' Roses.  (Note:  many websites report the date as October 31, but Stephen Davis, in his book 'Watch You Bleed:  The Saga of Guns N' Roses', indicates that the date was October 30, 1996.)
1997:  The United States Senate passed the "La Cienega" bill, which closed a loophole in the copyright act of 1909 that endangered the copyrights of pre-1978 music.
1998:  The original members of Black Sabbath reunited to play "Paranoid" on The David Letterman Show on CBS-TV.
1998:  Bon Jovi were in concert at the RDS Arena in Dublin, Ireland.
2001:  Michael Jackson released the album Invincible.

2002: The Oakwood Postal Station in Los Angeles was renamed the Nat King Cole Post Office.
2002:  Jam Master Jay of Run-DMC was killed by a gunshot at his recording studio in Queens, New York.
2003:  Tony Corso left the group Alien Ant Farm ("Smooth Criminal").
2003:  Scott Weiland, lead singer of the Stone Temple Pilots, was ordered by a judge to rehabilitation following an arrest for DUI.

2003:  Jennifer Lopez introduced a new line of perfume called Still.
2003:  Lionel Richie filed for divorce from his wife Diane.
2003:  Steve O'Rourke, manager of Pink Floyd since 1968 and producer of the movie The Wall, had a stroke and died in Miami, Florida.
2003:  Fans and family of Jam Master Jay of Run-D.M.C. held a memorial in Queens, New York on the one-year aniversary of his slaying.
2004:  Musicians just weren't the quality of person that they used to be.  Vince Neil, singer of Motley Crue, was arrested for knocking a soundman unconscious during a concert.
2005:  Westlife grabbed the #1 position in the U.K. with "You Raise Me Up".
2005:  Robbie Williams sat on top of the U.K. Album chart with Intensive Care, his sixth solo #1 album.
2007:  Linda Stein, former co-manager of the Ramones, was found beaten to death at her apartment in Manhattan, New York.
2008:  Mike Terry, saxophone player and producer who worked with the Supremes, the Four Tops, Marvin Gaye and many others, died in Detroit, Michigan at the age of 68.


Born This Day:

1939:  Grace Slick, lead singer of Jefferson Airplane and Starship, was born in Highland Park, Illinois.  (Note:  some websites incorrectly state that she was born in Chicago--according to the official Jefferson Airplane website, she was born in Highland Park.)









1939:  Eddie Holland, who with brother Brian and Lamont Dozier became one of the top songwriting teams of the Rock Era, was born in Detroit, Michigan.
1941:  Otis Williams of the Charms ("Hearts of Stone") and later the Temptations, was born in Texarkana, Texas.  (Note:  many websites incorrectly state Williams's year of birth as 1939, 1942, or even 1949, while others mistakenly say he was born in Cincinnati, Ohio.  According to his official website, Otis states that he was born on October 30, 1941 in Texarkana, Texas.)
1946:  Chris Slade, drummer for Manfred Mann and AC/DC and who also worked with the Firm and Gary Moore, was born in Pontypridd, Glamorgan, South Wales.

1947:  Timothy B. Schmit, vocalist with Poco and the Eagles, was born in Oakland, California.
1949:  David Green, bassist of Air Supply, was born in Melbourne, Australia.
1960:  Joey BellaDonna, singer and drummer of Anthrax, was born in Oswego, New York.  (Note:  numerous sources state his birth date as October 13, but both 'The New York Times' and 'MTV', as well as the book 'The Encyclopedia of Native Music:  More Than a Century of Recordings from Wax Cylinder to the Internet' by Brian Wright-McLeod, show his birthday as October 30.)
1963:  Jerry DeBorg of Jesus Jones was born in Kentish Town, London.
1965:  Gavin Rossdale of the group Bush was born in Kilburn, London.
1969:  Snow (real name Darrin O'Brien) was born in North York, Ontario, Canada.
1973:  Maurizio Lobina, keyboardist with Eiffel 65 ("Blue" from 1999) was born in Asti, Piedmont, Italy.