This Date in Rock Music History: July 9--The Official Start of the Rock Era

1955:  History unfolded as "Rock Around The Clock" by Bill Haley & the Comets became the first Rock & Roll #1 on This Day in Rock Music History*.  Thus beginneth the Rock Era!












1956:  A 26-year-old Dick Clark began one of the longest runs in hosting a television series when he debuted as host of Bandstand on a TV station in Philadelphia.  The show was eventually picked up by ABC-TV and would change its name to American Bandstand.
1957:  Bobby Helms recorded "My Special Angel".
1957:  The Elvis Presley movie Loving You premiered at the Strand Theater in Memphis, Tennessee.  It opened nationwide on July 30.  (Note:  some websites claim the movie premiered July 10.  The correct date is July 9, according to the book 'Elvis Presley:  Silver Screen Icon' by Steve Templeton and numerous Presley fan sites.)  

1960:  Chubby Checker released the single "The Twist" on Parkway Records.
1962:  Bob Dylan recorded the second session of the album (including "Blowin' In The Wind") that would be called The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan.

1963:  Martha and the Vandellas released the single "Heat Wave" on Gordy Records.

1964:  The Animals' classic "The House Of The Rising Sun" fended off all challengers in attaining the #1 spot in the U.K.
1965:  The Who performed at the Locarno Ballroom in Basildon, England.
1966:  The Temptations made it six weeks at #1 on the R&B chart with "Ain't Too Proud To Beg".

1966:  "Paperback Writer" by the Beatles became one of the first songs to return to #1 after it had fallen previously.  "Red Rubber Ball" by the Cyrkle was #2 and Frank Sinatra's former #1 "Strangers In The Night" fell to 3.  Tommy James & the Shondells' first big hit "Hanky Panky" was up to #4 while Dusty Springfield was still at 5.  The rest of the Top 10:  The Troggs moved from 47-6 with "Wild Thing", the Capitols remained at 7 with "Cool Jerk", Syndicate of Sound was at #8 with "Little Girl", the Stones fell with "Paint It Black" and the Association had another Top 10 smash with "Along Comes Mary". 
1968:  The Temptations appeared in concert without David Ruffin for the first time at Valley Forge Music Fair.







1969:  The Beatles recorded "Maxwell's Silver Hammer" for the White Album at Abbey Road Studios in London.
1969:  Gladys Knight & the Pips performed on The Tonight Show.

1972:  Paul McCartney & Wings made their live debut at the Centre Culturel de Châteauvallon in Ollioules, France.

1972:  Three Dog Night, Emerson, Lake & Palmer, Faces with Rod Stewart, Humble Pie and the J. Geils Band performed at the Concert 10 Festival at the Pocono International Raceway in Long Pond, Pennsylvania.

1977:  Kenny Loggins released his first solo single "I Believe In Love" to radio stations.
1974:  Crosby, Stills and Nash began a reunion tour at the Seattle Center in Seattle, Washington.
1977:  The Emotions were flying up the charts with "Best Of My Love", which climbed from 30-14 on this date.
1977:  The Emotions had already been at #1 for four weeks on the R&B chart with "Best Of My Love".







1977:  Alan O'Day reached #1 after 15 weeks with "Undercover Angel". Shaun Cassidy climbed to 2 with his remake of "Da Doo Ron Ron" while Barry Manilow was up to 3 with "Looks Like We Made It".  Bill Conti tumbled with "Gonna' Fly Now" as stations rushed to add the Maynard Ferguson version instead and Andy Gibb's "I Just Want To Be Your Everything" reached #5.  The rest of the Top 10:  "Got To Give It Up" from Marvin Gaye, Hot with "Angel In Your Arms" at 7, Steve Miller came in eighth with "Jet Airliner", likable Jimmy Buffett had song #9--"Margaritaville" and Barbra Streisand had her 23rd hit but only her fifth Top 10 with "My Heart Belongs To Me".







1977:  The Fleetwood Mac album Rumours had been out 20 weeks, with half of those at #1.  Barry Manilow gave a hint of what he could do live with the release of his live album at #2, Peter Frampton's follow-up to the blockbuster Frampton Comes Alive--I'm In You was up to #3 and the Commodores' self-titled album fell to 4.  The rest of the Top 10:  the Steve Miller Band with their great album Book of Dreams, Marvin Gaye at the London Palladium was at #6, Cat Stevens remained at #7 with Izitso, Foreigner's debut was at #8, Heart had a hit album with Little Queen and Kiss debuted at #10 with Love Gun.
1978:  The Rolling Stones crashed the Quiet Knight club in Chicago to jam with Muddy Waters.
1979:  The Pretenders began a tour of the U.K. at the Smartyz in Chester, England.  (Note:  several websites claim the group performed at the Smatyz in Chester.  There is no club by that name in Chester.  The correct name of the club is Smartyz.)  
1983: Wham's debut album Fantastic reached #1 in the U.K.










                                       Men At Work at rest...


1983:  Some very good albums here in the top 10 albums on this date.  Thriller by Michael Jackson had spent 17 weeks at #1 before losing out to the Soundtrack to "Flashdance".  Now, after two weeks, Thriller returned to #1.  Def Leppard's great Pyromania album was #3 with Synchronicity from the Police firing up from 17 to 4.  The rest of the Top 10:  David Bowie at 5 with Let's Dance, Men at Work with Cargo at #6, Journey placed Frontiers at #7, Bryan Adams' breakthrough Cuts Like a Knife was #8, Prince's fine 1999 album was up to #9 after 34 weeks and H2O from Hall & Oates landed at 10.






 
                                            Kajagoogoo was all Ga-Ga about their Top 10...

1983:  The Police reached #1 in six weeks, about as quick as you could back then with the stronger competition, with "Every Breath You Take".  Eddy Grant was still at 2 with "Electric Avenue" and Irene Cara finally fell from #1 after six weeks with "Flashdance".  Sergio Mendes had his first hit in 14 years--"Never Gonna' Let You Go" while Kajagoogoo was at 5 with "Too Shy".  The rest of the Top 10:  Michael Jackson had the #6 song with "Wanna' Be Startin' Somethin'", Culture Club fell with "Time (Clock Of The Heart)", the Kinks had a comeback brewing with their first Top 10 since "Lola" (13 years previous) called "Come Dancing", Styx fell to 9 with "Don't Let It End" and Madness had their first hit "Our House" at #10.
1986:  Queen performed at St. James' Park in Newcastle uponTyne, England.
1988:  Glenn Medeiros had the top U.K. song with "Nothing's Gonna' Change My Love For You".
1988:  "Make It Real" by the Jets was the #1 Adult Contemporary song.






1988:  "Paradise" by Sade was #1 on the R&B chart.

                            Billboard and Joel Whitburn list this as Cheap Trick's best song... (???)

1988:  Out of all the great Cheap Trick tracks, the one the reached #1 was "The Flame".  Pebbles was at 2 with "Mercedes Boy", Def Leppard had their fourth hit from Hysteria--"Pour Some Sugar On Me" and Australia's INXS climbed from 9 to 4 with their great song "New Sensation".
1988:  OU812 by Van Halen returned for a third week at the top of the Album chart.  Hysteria by Def Leppard held on to #2, Faith from George Michael was hanging around at 3 and the Soundtrack to "Dirty Dancing" was #4.  The highly underrated Scenes From the Southside by Bruce Hornsby & the Range was up to #5.  The rest of the Top 10: Open Up and Say...Ahh! by Poison was #6, Appetite for Destruction was climbing back up after 46 weeks, Sade's fine album Stronger Than Pride was next, Tracy Chapman's debut was beginning to be discovered at #9 and More Dirty Dancing from the movie was #10.
1993:  The Rolling Stones holed up at Ron Wood's house in St. Kildare, Ireland to begin a month-long recording session.
1994:  All-4-One made it eight consecutive weeks at #1 with "I Swear".



1994:  Elton John moved into the Top 10 with "Can You Feel The Love Tonight", his 60th career hit and 26th Top 10 song.
1995:  The Grateful Dead appeared in concert with leader Jerry Garcia at Soldier Field in Chicago for what turned out to be Garcia's last show  He died of a heart attack the following month.








1996:  For anyone wondering where Deep Purple's song "Smoke On The Water" was written--It was Montreux, Switzerland following a nightclub fire, and on this date, the great group played that famous song at the Auditorium Stravinski in Montreux for the first time.
1998: Troubled Scott Weiland was served a warrant when he neglected to show up in court for the second time for his trial on drug possession charges.  The fugitive was picked up July 21.

1998: Session musician, songwriter and producer Robert "Waddy" Wachtel was arrested for investigation of possessing child pornography.
1998: Janet Jackson set a record when her concert at the MCI Center in Washington, D.C. grossed $875,000. Yanni held the previous mark of $860,300, set earlier in the year.
1999: The marriage between Mick Jagger and Jerry Hall was annulled in a London court.

                                             Babyface, one of the good guys in the Rock Era...

1999: Indiana renamed a 25-mile stretch of Interstate Route 65 as "Kenneth Babyface Edmonds Highway". Later that day, Babyface donated $50,000 to establish a "Save the Music" campaign in the state.
1999:  Sir Elton John had a pacemaker installed at a London hospital.








2000:  Vertical Horizon topped the chart with "Everything You Want".

2001: Singer A.J. McLean of the Backstreet Boys entered a treatment center for alcohol abuse and depression. The group temporarily halted their Black & Blue Tour, resuming it August 24th.
2003:  The Eagles performed for a second night at the First Union Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

2003:  Chapter II by Ashanti reached #1 on the Album chart.
2006:  Lilly Allen led the way on the U.K. Singles chart with "Smile".
2006: Muse owned the top U.K. album with Black Holes and Revelations.
2012:  Tim Cross, keyboardist, arranger and producer who worked with Hall & Oates among others, died of lung cancer.
2015:  Michael Masser, songwriter who wrote "Greatest Love Of All", "Saving All My Love For You", "Didn't We Almost Have It All" and "All At Once" for Whitney Houston, "Theme From 'Mahogany'", "Touch Me In The Morning" and "Last Time I Saw Him" by Diana Ross, "Tonight, I Celebrate My Love" for Roberta Flack & Peabo Bryson, "If Ever You're In My Arms Again" for Bryson, "Nothing's Gonna' Change My Love For You" for Glenn Medeiros, "Miss You Like Crazy" for Natalie Cole, and many others, died at age 74 in Rancho Mirage, California, the result of deteriorating health after suffering a stroke three years before.

Born This Day:
1925:  Alan Dale, who reached #7 in 1955 with his version of "Cherry Pink And Apple Blossom White" and also had his own radio and television show, was born in New York City; died April 20, 2002 in Brooklyn.  (Note:  several websites lazily say Dale was born in the all-encompassing New York City.  NYC is of course made up of five independent boroughs.  Dale was born in Brooklyn, according to the newspaper 'The New York Times'.)
1927:  Ed Ames ("My Cup Runneth Over) and a member of the Ames Brothers, was born in Malden, Massachusetts.
1929:  Lee Hazlewood, singer, writer of "These Boots Are Made For Walking" for Nancy Sinatra, and producer, was born in Mannford, Oklahoma; died of renal cancer on August 4, 2007 in Henderson, Nevada at the age of 78.
1941:  Donald McPherson of the Main Ingredient was born in Indianapolis, Indiana; died July 4, 1971 of leukemia in the Bronx, New York.

1946:  Bon Scott, original lead singer of AC/DC, was born in Forfar, Scotland; died February 19, 1980 in Lambeth, England from acute alcohol poisoning.  (Note:  several websites insist Scott was born in Kirriemuir, Scotland, but as you can plainly see from Scott's death certificate above, he was born in Forfar.  Many sites report Scott died in London which implies the city of London.  Scott died in the London borough of Lambeth as you can see above.)  
1946:  Joe Miceli of John Fred and His Playboy Band ("Judy In Disguise" in 1968) (Note:  some websites report Joe Micelli of John Fred and His Playboy Band was born on July 9.  The group never had a member by that name--the correct spelling is Miceli.)
1947:  Mitch Mitchell, drummer of the Jimi Hendrix Experience, was born in Ealing, Middlesex, England; died November 12, 2008 in Portland, Oregon of natural causes, although Mitchell had been in ill health for several years of alcohol-related causes.  (Note:  some websites report Mitchell was born in London while others say he was born in Greenwich, London.  According to the newspapers 'The Guardian' and 'The Telegraph', Mitchell was born in Ealing.)
1950:  Gwen Guthrie ("Ain't Nothing Goin' But The Rent" from 1986) was born in Okemah, Oklahoma; died February 3, 1999 of uterine cancer in Newark, New Jersey.   
1954:  Debbie Sledge of Sister Sledge ("We Are Family" from 1979) was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
1957:  Marc Almond of Soft Cell ("Tainted Love") was born in Southport, Lancashire, England.

1959:  Jim Kerr,  founder, lead singer and songwriter of Simple Minds, was born in Glasgow, Scotland.
1965:  Frank Bello, bass guitarist of Anthrax, was born in the Bronx, New York.





 

1975:  Jack White (real name John Gillis) of the White Stripes and the Raconteurs was born in Detroit, Michigan

1975:  Isaac Brock, singer and guitarist with Modest Mouse, was born in Helena, Montana.

1976:  Dan Estrin, guitarist with Hoobastank, was born in Los Angeles.