This Date in Rock Music History: December 13

1961:  The movie The Young Ones, starring Cliff Richard, premiered in London.

1961:  Mike Smith of Decca Records saw the Beatles perform at the Cavern Club in Liverpool, England.
1962:  Elvis Presley had his 13th #1 song in the U.K. with "Return To Sender".

1966:  Jimi Hendrix recorded "Foxey Lady".
1966:  Hendrix made his television debut on Ready Steady Go!  on ITV in the U.K.
1969:  The Supremes' great song "Someday We'll Be Together" took over at #1 on the R&B chart.








1969:  "Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head" by B.J. Thomas zoomed to #1 on the Adult chart.  
1969:  B.J. Thomas moved into the Top 10 overall with "Raindrops Keep Fallin' On My Head".
1969:  Abbey Road was one of the great albums of the Rock Era to this point and on this date, the Beatles made it seven weeks at #1.  
1970:  Dave Edmunds topped the U.K. chart with "I Hear You Knocking".



1971:  Climax re-released the great 45 "Precious And Few", one of The Top Love Songs of the Rock Era*.  The song was originally released on Carousel Records in July, but a cease and desist order by the owner of an already established Carousel Records forced the company to rename themselves Rocky Road Records and release the Climax single on that label.
1974:  George Harrison had lunch at the White House with U.S. President Gerald Ford.
1975:  Barry Manilow was on a roll and "I Write The Songs" was the new #1 song on the Adult chart.







      
                       "Street Kids", from 'Rock of the Westies'...

1975:  Chicago IX, the group's Greatest Hits package, rose to #1 on the Album chart.  Red Octopus by Jefferson Starship was still hanging around and Rock of the Westies by Elton John reversed course and headed back up.  Windsong from John Denver was third with the self-titled debut by K.C. and the Sunshine Band #5.  The rest of the Top 10:  Paul Simon slipped with Still Crazy After All These Years, Gratitude jumped from 98 to 7 for Earth, Wind & Fire, History/America's Greatest Hits was #8, Alive!  by Kiss edged up and Save Me from the Silver Convention cracked the Top 10.
1975:  A song on the move for C.W. McCall--"Convoy", up from #82 to #29 on this date.


The Brothers Gibb were well underway in their "second career"...

1975:  The Silver Convention were holding steady at #1 for a third week with "Fly, Robin, Fly".  Right behind them, the Staple Singers ("Let's Do It Again") and Jigsaw's "Sky High".  K.C. and the Sunshine Band fell down with "That's The Way (I Like It)" while newcomers the Bay City Rollers were up to 5 with "Saturday Night".  The rest of the Top 10:  The Ohio Players burst onto the scene with "Love Rollercoaster", the Bee Gees were up to 7 with their great song "Nights On Broadway", Diana Ross jumped from 19 to 8 with the song from the movie in which she starred in--"Theme From 'Mahogany' (Do You Know Where You're Going To)", Simon & Garfunkel scored their 17th hit with "My Little Town" and Sweet crawled into the list with "Fox On The Run".
1980:  Stevie Wonder was doing fine on the R&B chart, as "Master Blaster (Jammin')" was #1 for a seventh week.
1980:  Kenny Rogers' Greatest Hits was the new #1 album as he was certainly as hot as anyone at the time.
1980:  Newcomer Christopher Cross took over at #1 on the Adult Contemporary chart with "Never Be The Same".







                     Pat reached the Top 10 for the first time...

1980:  Kenny Rogers remained at the top for the fifth week with "Lady".  Leo Sayer had his biggest career hit with "More Than I Can Say" while Queen, by now #1 in most markets, was third with "Another One Bites The Dust".  The late John Lennon moved up with "(Just Like) Starting Over" and Stevie Wonder maintained at 5 with "Master Blaster".  The rest of the Top 10:  Neil Diamond with "Love On The Rocks", Bruce Springsteen found himself at #7 with "Hungry Heart", Barbra Streisand was at #8 with "Woman In Love" and also moved from 14-9 with her duet "Guilty" with Barry Gibb and Pat Benatar reached the Top 10 for the first time with "Hit Me With Your Best Shot".





1982:  The Stray Cats released the single "Stray Cat Strut".
1983:  During Robert Plant's solo concert at the Hammersmith Odeon in London, former Led Zeppelin mate Jimmy Page joined him to perform the old Roy Head song "Treat Her Right".
1985:  Phil Collins was a guest star on the television show Miami Vice.





    
            "The Way It Is", ahh but don't you believe them!

1986:  The Way It Is" moved to #1 for newcomer Bruce Hornsby & the Range.  The Bangles were within striking distance with "Walk Like An Egyptian".  Huey Lewis & the News peaked at 3 with "Hip To Be Square" and Sun Valley, Idaho's Peter Cetera slipped from #1 with "The Next Time I Fall", his duet with Amy Grant.  The rest of the Top 10:  Wang Chung was "chungin'" with "Everybody Have Fun Tonight", Bon Jovi's former #1 "You Give Love A Bad Name", Billy Idol moved up three with "To Be A Lover", "Notorious" entered the list for Duran Duran, Gregory Abbott had a big hit with "Shake You Down", which moved from 15 to 9 and Ben E. King amazingly came back to the Top 10 25 years after he originally was there with "Stand By Me", spurred by the movie of the same name.

1986:  Bruce Hornsby & the Range were at #1 again on the Adult Contemporary chart with "The Way It Is".












1991:  Mariah Carey released the single "Someday".
1991:  John Denver hosted the special John Denver's Montana Christmas Skies on CBS.


















1994:  Enigma released the single "Return To Innocence".

1994:  Prince was on The Late Show with David Letterman.

1996:  The great movie Jerry Maguire, which starred Glenn Frey, opened in theatres.







      
   The Girls were red-hot with "Spice Up Your Life"...

1997:  Spiceworld, the Spice Girls' follow-up album, moved into the Top 10.










1997:  Elton John's tribute to the late Princess Diana from England ("Candle In The Wind 1997") was now at 10 weeks at #1.  At this point, only seven songs in the Rock Era had stayed at the top longer.  And Elton was not done.  
1999:  BMI announced that the most-performed song of the century (and it isn't even close) was "You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling".
2000:  Melody Maker magazine announced it was shutting down after 74 years.

2000:  Sir Paul McCartney signed copies of his new book Paul McCartney Paintings at Waterstone's in Piccadilly, London.
2000:  Michael Jackson, Paul Simon, Aerosmith and Queen were announced as the new inductees into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.
2002:  Zal Yanovsky of the Lovin' Spoonful died of a heart attack in Kingston, Ontario, Canada at the age of 57.
2003:  Lauryn Hill doesn't know how to act like the polite guest.  During a performance at the Vatican, Hill read a statement criticizing the Catholic Church for harboring pedophilic priests.  "There is no acceptable explanation for defending the church," she said.
2007:  Joe Cocker received an Officer of the Order of the British Empire medal from Queen Elizabeth of England at Buckingham Palace.

Born This Day:

1933:  Lou Adler, founder of Dunhill Records, producer of the Mamas & Papas, Johnny Rivers, the Grass Roots, Carole King and Barry McGuire and the famous Monterey Pop Festival of 1967 and manager of Jan & Dean, was born in Chicago, Illinois.

 

1948:  Jeff "Skunk" Baxter of Steely Dan and the Doobie Brothers, was born in Washington, D.C.









1948:  Ted Nugent was born in Redford, Michigan.  (Note:  Nugent's official website lists that he was born in Detroit, but he doesn't realize that Redford, a suburb of Detroit where he was born, is actually a town.)
1948:  Tony Gomez, organist of the Foundations ("Build Me Up Buttercup") was born in Colombo, Sri Lanka.  (Note:  several websites show Tony's birth year as 1940; in fact, some list it as both 1940 and 1948!  According to 'The Encyclopedia of Popular Music' by Colin Larkin', Gomez was born in 1948.)





1949:  Randy Owen, guitarist and lead singer of Alabama, was born in Fort Payne, Alabama.










1949:  Tom Verlaine, elite guitarist of the group Television, was born in Wilmington, Delaware.  (Note:  some websites show his birthplace as Morristown, New Jersey, or Mt. Morris, New Jersey.  According to the book 'The Rough Guide to Rock' by Peter Buckley, Tom was born in Wilmington.)
1950:  Davy O'List of Roxy Music and the Nice was born in Chiswick, West London.
1953:  Berton Averre, guitarist of the Knack, was born in Van Nuys, California.
1970:  Daniel Patrick Lohner, who played bass, guitar and keyboards with Nine Inch Nails, was born in Corpus Christi, Texas. 
1974:  Nick McCarthy, rhythm guitarist and keyboardist of Franz Ferdinand, was born in Blackpool, England.



1975:  Tom DeLonge, guitarist and a lead vocalist of Blink-182, was born in Poway, California.
1981:  Amy Lynn Lee, lead singer of Evanescence, was born in Riverside, California.

1989:  Taylor Swift was born in Reading, Pennsylvania.  (Note:  some websites show her birthplace as Wyomissing, Pennsylvania.  According to Taylor's official website, she was born in Reading, and moved with her family to Wyomissing when she was nine years old.)