This Date in Rock Music History: April 25

1960:  Bill Black, the bassist behind Elvis Presley for his early Rock Era hits, had formed Bill Black's Combo and they took over on the R&B chart with "White Silver Sands".

1960:  "Stuck On You" moved from #6 to #1 for Elvis Presley on this date, finally breaking the hold that "The Theme From 'A Summer Place'" by Percy Faith had on the top spot.  Faith had dominated the charts at #1 for nine weeks in a row but slipped to #4.  The Brothers Four had #2 with "Greenfields", Johnny Horton climbed to #3 with "Sink The Bismark" and "He'll Have To Go" by Jim Reeves was #5.

1964:  The Beatles placed an incredible 14 songs on Billboard's Hot 100 chart, a feat no touring and recording artist has come anywhere close to since.  In fact, that's a pretty good accomplishment for 10 years of work, let alone one.  "Can't Buy Me Love" continued to set the pace at #1, with "Twist And Shout" stuck at #2 behind it and "Do You Want To Know A Secret" at #3.  The rest of the Top 10:  "Hello, Dolly!" by Louis Armstrong, which would eventually rise to #1, "Suspicion" from Terry Stafford as song #5, "Glad All Over" and "Bits And Pieces" getting positions 6 and 7, respectively, for the Dave Clark Five, "Don't Let The Rain Come Down" by the Serendipity Singers, Mary Wells' big hit "My Guy" moving from 14-9, and Jan & Dean at #10 with "Dead Man's Curve".
1965:  The Rolling Stones performed at the Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto.
1967:  Having completed work on their album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band four days previous, the Beatles began recording the theme to the movie Magical Mystery Tour at EMI Studios, recording three takes of the backing track.  (Note:  some websites report that the Beatles recorded the song on this date, as if they finished everything they needed to do.  The group continued to work on the song for the next two days, and final mixing wasn't completed until November 7, according to 'The Beatles Bible'.)
1970:  Dionne Warwick - Souled Out aired on British TV with guests Creedence Clearwater Revival and Glen Campbell.
1970:  The Jackson 5 achieved a fourth straight week at #1 on the R&B chart with "ABC".
1970:  The Beatles spent a third week atop the Adult Contemporary chart with "Let It Be".
1970:  The Jackson 5 took over from the Beatles on the Popular chart with "ABC".  "Spirit In The Sky" was #3 for Norman Greenbaum while John Ono Lennon had #4 with "Instant Karma".  The rest of the Top 10:  "American Woman" from the Guess Who, moving from 9-5, Edison Lighthouse at #6 with "Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes)", Badfinger stuck at 7 with "Come And Get It", the Friends of Distinction remaining at 8 with "Love Or Let Me Be Lonely", "Bridge Over Troubled Water" by Simon & Garfunkel still in the Top 10 at #9 and "Turn Back The Hands Of Time" giving Tyrone Davis his only Top 10 hit.







                                   Ringo got to sing lead for "Octopus's Garden"...

1970:  Bridge Over Troubled Water was #1 for an eighth week on the Album chart for Simon and Garfunkel.  The rest of the Top 10:  Deja Vu, the great album by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, was at #2, Hey Jude from the Beatles fell to 3, Santana was #4, Diana Ross Presents the Jackson 5 moved up to 5, Chicago II was #6, Morrison Hotel by the Doors was #7, Led Zeppelin II fell to #8, Abbey Road by the Beatles was at #9 in its 29th week and Psychedelic Shack from the Temptations rounded out the Top 10.






1971:  Carole King released the single "It's Too Late".
1974:  Gregg Allman performed the last date of a solo tour and, to prove the Allman Brothers Band were not splitting up, the entire band came out on stage for a 90-minute encore.
1977:  Paul Anka starred in the television special Music--My Way on ABC-TV; Natalie Cole was one of his guests.

                               This is an actual picture of Elvis at the Civic Center.


1977:  As it turned out, Elvis Presley made the last recordings of his life at a concert at Michigan Civic Center in Saginaw.  Three songs from that show were on the album Moody Blue released after Presley's death.
1979:  Donna Summer released the album Bad Girls on Casablanca Records.
1979:  The Ramones' movie Rock 'n' Roll High School opened.  (Note:  some websites report that the movie opened on August 4 or August 24.  According to director Allan Arkush, in an interview with 'The Village Voice', the movie opened in April in Texas and New Mexico, and did not reach New York City until August.)
1979:  The Police made their public debut on the Top of the Pops show on BBC-TV, playing "Roxanne".
1981:  Juice Newton had the #1 Adult Contemporary song for the third consecutive week with "Angel Of The Morning".





                                              The Police with their new song...

1981:  Hall & Oates spent their third and final week at #1 on the Popular music chart with "Kiss On My List".  Sheena Easton closed at #2 with "Morning Train" and Smokey Robinson made a move from 8-3 with "Being With You".  Bill Withers sang lead on Grover Washington, Jr's "Just The Two of Us" and Juice Newton's remake of "Angel Of The Morning" was #5.  The rest of the Top 10:  "Rapture" from Blondie was at #6, Steve Winwood held strong at #7 with "While You See A Chance", John Lennon's "Woman" fell to #8, Styx remained at 9 with "The Best Of Times" and the Police had #10 with "Don't Stand So Close To Me".






1981:  Hi Infidelity remained at #1 on the Album chart for REO Speedwagon, with Styx's Paradise Theater and Steve Winwood's Arc of a Diver trailing.  The rest of the Top 10:  Moving Pictures from Rush at #4, Winelight by Grover Washington, Jr., Face Dances from the Who at #6, Zenyatta Mondatta coming in at 7 for the Police, Eric Clapton's Another Ticket moving up to 8, Double Fantasy by John Lennon & Yoko Ono at #9 and the Soundtrack to "The Jazz Singer" by Neil Diamond completing the list.
1982:  Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder had the #1 U.K. song with "Ebony And Ivory".
1985:  Queen played the first of four nights at the Sydney Entertainment Centre in Australia.
1985:  Roger Miller's Broadway musical Big River opened at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre and would go on to win a Tony for Best Musical.
1987:  Madonna led the way on the U.K. Singles chart with "La Isla Bonita".
1987:  "The Finer Things" by Steve Winwood moved into the top spot on the Adult Contemporary chart.




1988:  INXS released the single "New Sensation".








 

1990:  Jimi Hendrix's Fender Stratocaster that the guitarist famously used to play "The Star Spangled Banner" at Woodstock was auctioned off for $295,000.
1992:  Right Said Fred had the #1 album in the U.K. with Up.
1992:  Eric Clapton had the #1 Adult Contemporary song for the second week in a row with "Tears In Heaven".
1992:  Adrenalize by Def Leppard remained at #1 on the Album chart.  Bruce Springsteen's album Human Touch was #2, followed by Totally Krossed Out from Kris Kross, Lucky Town by Springsteen and Wyonna's self-titled album at #5.
1994:  Not only did Adam Horovitz of the Beastie Boys attack a TV cameraman, but he had the poor taste of doing it at memorial services for actor River Phoenix in the previous November.  Horovitz was sentenced to 200 hours of community service for the incident on this date in history.  All of you reading this deserve to be more successful than Horovitz, and yet some people give money to a loser like that.

1994:  The Eagles played the first of four concerts at the Shoreline Amphitheater in Mountain View, California on their Hell Freezes Over tour.  Back together for the first time in 14 years, the group named the album after an earlier quote from Don Henley, who responded to the question "When would the Eagles get back together?".
1998:  Next spent the first of four weeks at #1 with "Too Close".
1999:  Westlife had the #1 song in the U.K. with "Swear It Again".
1999:  Nas had the #1 album in the U.S. with I Am.
1999:  Paul Simon sang "Mrs. Robinson" on Joe DiMaggio day at Yankee Stadium in New York City.
2000:  Eric Clapton performed with ex-Derek & the Dominoes keyboard player Bobby Whitlock for the first time in 29 years on the British television show Later With Jools Holland.


2002:  Lisa Lopes of TLC was killed in an automobile accident in La Ceiba, Honduras at the age of 30.  
2003:  Kelly Clarkson and Styx both canceled concerts in Toronto, Ontario, Canada following warnings about the respiratory disease SARS.
2004:  Billy Joel drove his car into a house in Bayville, New York.  Luckily, no one was injured in the crash but it was Joel's third accident in two years.  (Note:  some websites report the crash was in Long Island, New York.  Long Island is not a city, and the specific city where the crash occurred was Bayville, according to 'CBS News' and the newspapers 'The New York Post' and 'The New York Daily News'.  When you read things on the Internet, learn to distinguish between the "amateurs" and the professionals.)
2005:  Bruce Springsteen opened his Devils & Dust Tour at the Fox Theater in Detroit, Michigan.







2007:  Bobby "Boris Pickett ("The Monster Mash") died of leukemia in Los Angeles at the age of 69.
2009:  Rascal Flatts had the #1 album with Unstoppable.
2010:  Engelbert Humperdinck was inducted into the Walk of Fame in Leicester, England.



Born This Day:

1933:  Songwriter and producer Jerry Leiber, who worked for Elvis Presley, Buddy Holly, the Monkees and Cliff Richard; wrote "Hound Dog" for Elvis and "Charlie Brown" for the Coasters, was born in Baltimore, Maryland; died in Los Angeles August 22, 2011 from cardio-pulmonary failure.  (Note:  some websites report that Leiber died on August 23.  The correct date is August 23, according to the newspaper 'The New York Times'.)
1937:  Dick Kniss, stand-up bassist for Peter, Paul and Mary and and songwriter (co-wrote "Sunshine On My Shoulders" for John Denver), was born in Portland, Oregon; died January 25, 2012 of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in Kingston, New York.  (Note:  some websites claim Kniss died on April 24, but the correct date is the 25th, according to the newspaper 'The New York Times'.)

1945:  Bjorn Ulvaeus, vocalist, guitarist and songwriter for ABBA, was born in Gothenburg, Sweden.

1945:  Stu Cook, bass guitarist of Creedence Clearwater Revival, was born in Oakland, California.  (Note:  some websites report that Cook was born in Palo Alto, California.  Although no credible sources exist for either city, our best information indicates Cook was born in Oakland.) 
1945:  Michael Kogel, lead singer of Los Bravos ("Black Is Black"), was born in Berlin, Germany.
1946:  Ronnie Gilbert, bassist of the Blues Magoos ("We Ain't Got Nothin' Yet"),
1949:  Michael Brown, songwriter and keyboardist of the Left Bank  ("Walk Away Renee"), was born in New York City; died March 19, 2015 of heart failure in Englewood, New Jersey.
1950:  Steve Ferrone, drummer with Average White Band ("Pick Up The Pieces") and Eric Clapton, was born in Brighton, England.
1955:  David Sikes, bass guitarist of Boston and Giuffria
1964:  Andy Bell of Erasure ("Chains Of Love" and "A Little Respect") was born in Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, England.
1965:  Eric Avery, original bassist of Jane's Addition, was born in Los Angeles, California.
1980:  Jacob Underwood of O-Town was born in El Cajon, California.