This Date in Rock Music History: October 22

           There haven't been many better than Tony Williams, lead singer of the Platters...

1955:  The Platters finally ended Chuck Berry's monopoly on the R&B chart with their great song "Only You (And You Alone)".  

1957:  Dick Clark interviewed Ricky Nelson by phone on American Bandstand.  It would be the closest Ricky ever got to appearing on the show. 

1961:  Chubby Checker performed "The Twist" and "Let's Twist Again" on The Ed Sullivan Show.  Both songs received renewed radio airplay despite already being hits and, amazingly, "The Twist" went all the way to #1 again, becoming the only song of the Rock Era to reach #1...twice.

1963:  24-year-old Kenny Rogers married for the third time, to Margo Gladys Anderson.

1964:  The High Numbers auditioned for but were not signed by EMI Records.  Just so you know, EMI, the High Numbers became the Who.

1965:  The Beatles had three sessions at EMI Studios in London.  George Martin recorded the electric piano solo for "In My Life".  The group recorded three more takes of "Nowhere Man", which they had started the night before, from 2:30 to 7 p.m.  The Beatles completed work on "Nowhere Man" in the final session from 7-11 that night. 

1965:  The Rolling Stones released the single "Get Off My Cloud" in the U.K.

1965:  The Kingston Trio were on the television show Convoy on NBC.







1966:  Simon and Garfunkel released the single "A Hazy Shade Of Winter".

1966:  The Supremes A' Go-Go was the new #1 album, replacing Revolver by the Beatles.  The Soundtrack to "Doctor Zhivago" was #3 with The Mamas & the Papas #4.  The rest of the Top 10:  What Now My Love from Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass, Ray Conniff & Singers were on the way down with Somewhere My Love, Whipped Cream & Other Delights from Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass was #7 after 76 weeks but even better, the Soundtrack to "The Sound of Music" still was in the Top 10 after 84 weeks, the Association reached the Top 10 with And Then...Along Comes the Association while Jack Jones was dreaming The Impossible Dream at #10.

1966:  The super Temptations made it a fifth week at #1 with "Beauty Is Only Skin Deep".

1966:  The Four Tops again had the #1 song with "Reach Out I'll Be There".  ? & the Mysterians were a strong #2 with "96 Tears" while the first Monkees hit "Last Train To Clarksville" was third.  One of the top songs of the year, "Cherish" by the Association, was #4 with "Psychotic Reaction" from Count Five at #5.  The rest of the Top 10:  The Left Banke and "Walk Away Renee", Johnny Rivers had one of his biggest career hits with "Poor Side Of Town", Jimmy Ruffin remained the same with "What Becomes Of The Brokenhearted", Herman's Hermits moved from 15-9 with "Dandy" and Eric Burdon & the Animals reached the Top 10 with "See See Rider".

1967:  The Who performed at the Saville Theatre in London.

1969:  Led Zeppelin released the album Led Zeppelin II.

1969:  Tommy Edwards, who gave us one of the biggest hits of the early Rock Era ("It's All In The Game" from 1958), died after suffering a brain aneurysm at the age of 47 in Henrico County, Virginia.

1969:  After he issued a statement to deny that he was dead, Paul McCartney headed to Scotland for a vacation.

1971:  Fleetwood Mac was in concert at the Felt Forum in New York City.






1973:  Olivia Newton-John released the single "Let Me Be There", featuring that great bass line by Navin Harris.

Listeners went out and bought this album and found this great surprise--"The Fire Down Below".

1976:  Bob Seger released his breakthrough album Night Moves.

1976:  Led Zeppelin released The Soundtrack to The Song Remains the Same as the movie opened nationwide in theaters.  (Note:  the film premiered on October 20 at Cinema 1 in New York City, according to the band's official website.)

1977:  Carly Simon had one of the top Adult hits of the 1970's--"Nobody Does It Better" was #1 for a seventh week.

      The popular Johnny Rivers with one of his biggest hits...

1977:  Debby Boone remained #1 with "You Light Up My Life", holding off Carly Simon's "Nobody Does It Better".  Shaun Cassidy was up with his Eric Carmen remake "That's Rock 'N' Roll" and K.C. and the Sunshine Band dropped with "Keep It Comin' Love".  Newcomer Heatwave was up to 5 with "Boogie Nights".  The rest of the Top 10:  Foreigner and "Cold As Ice", the Commodores with "Brick House" at #7, Donna Summer's "I Feel Love", the former #1 for Meco--"Star Wars Theme/Cantina Band" and Johnny Rivers landed in the Top 10 for the first time in five years with his final Top 10--"Swayin' To The Music".

  Steely Dan had just released Aja, the biggest album of their career...

1977:  Rumours by Fleetwood Mac was in uncharted territory.  It had spent 24 weeks at #1, six more than any other album in the Rock Era to that time.  Simple Dreams by Linda Ronstadt was a solid #2 and Steely Dan was rocketing up from 26-3 with Aja.  The debut of Foreigner moved up to #4.  The rest of the Top 10: Shaun Cassidy, Rita Coolidge at #6 with Anytime...Anywhere, the Rolling Stones debuted in the Top 10 with Love You Live, Elvis Presley's Moody Blue was #8, I Robot by the Alan Parsons Project and Livin' on the Fault Line from the Doobie Brothers at #10.

1978:  The Police performed at Grendel's Lair in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

1978:  Earth, Wind & Fire set out on a tour of the United States with their first stop in Louisville, Kentucky.  All 75 concerts were sold out.

1979:  The Pretenders were in concert at the Marquee Club in London.

1979:  The Eagles performed at Chicago Stadium in Chicago, Illinois.

1982:  Mayor Sara Robertson in Worcester, Massachusetts declared today Van Halen Day.

1983:  Culture Club topped the U.K. Album chart with Colour By Numbers.

1983:  Lionel Richie took over at #1 on the R&B chart with "All Night Long".

In most other times, this winner from Air Supply would have been #1...

1983:  Bonnie Tyler had one of the top songs of the year as "Total Eclipse Of The Heart" remained #1 for the fourth consecutive week.  Air Supply would have to settle for having one of the top #2 songs of the Rock Era--"Making Love Out Of Nothing At All".  Kenny Rogers & Dolly Parton were quite a pair with "Islands In The Stream" and Spandau Ballet's "True" sounded awful good at #4.  The rest of the Top 10:  "All Night Long" from Lionel Richie, the Fixx and "One Thing Leads To Another", the Police were backtracking with "King Of Pain" at #7. Prince entered the Top 10 with "Delirious", the Talking Heads were up to #9 with "Burning Down The House and Sheena Easton had her ninth hit with "Telefone (Long Distance Love Affair)".

1986:  Jane Dornacker of the Tubes was killed in a helicopter crash during a live traffic report for WNBC radio in New York City.  She was 39.

1988:  U2 owned the top U.K. album with their live release Rattle and Hum.

1988:  "The Way You Love Me" by Karyn White was best on the R&B chart.

  This great song from Steve Winwood is one that has to be listened to with "high volume"...

1988:  Phil Collins took the old Mindbenders hit to #1--"Groovy Kind Of Love", making it a short stay for UB40's "Red Red Wine".  Information Society had song #3--"What's On Your Mind (Pure Energy)".  Def Leppard was on their way down with "Love Bites" while the Escape Club talked about the "Wild, Wild West".  The rest of the Top 10:  The Beach Boys' 58th career hit was their 16th and final Top 10--"Kokomo", Steve Winwood's great song "Don't You Know What the Night Can Do? was #7, Bobby Brown's "Don't Be Cruel" was #8, the entirely different "Don't Be Cruel" by Cheap Trick (the remake of Elvis Presley's classic) and Kylie Minogue had her contribution to the Remake Factory--"The Loco-Motion", a song written by Stanley, Idaho's Carole King, at #10.

1989:  Singer/songwriter and producer Ewan MacColl, who wrote "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" for Roberta Flack and also had songs recorded by Elvis Presley, died at the age of 74 following complications of heart surgery in London.

1990:  Pearl Jam made their live debut at the Off Ramp in Seattle, Washington.

1994:  Jimmy Miller, producer of "Jumpin' Jack Flash" and some of the other top Rolling Stones songs and producer of Traffic, Blind Faith, and Motorhead, died of liver failure at age 52 in Boulder, Colorado.

1994:  Brandy's first song to hit the R&B chart rose to #1 on this date--'I Wanna' Be Down".

1996:  Sales of Beatles albums exceeded 20 million to that point in the year, more than they had ever achieved in history.  41% of those sales were to teenagers who were not born when the Beatles quit in 1970.

1997:  En Vogue released the single "Don't Let Go (Love)".

1997:  The Guarantor for Competition, Italy's antitrust agency, fined the Italian divisions of BMG, EMI, Sony Music, Warner Music and PolyGram a total of $4.5 million, claiming they had formed a cartel to drown out competition.  This Guarantor for Competition needs to come to the United States and look at the unfairness of the so-called "playoffs" in college football.

2000:  The Beatles Anthology was the #1 book on the New York Times' bestseller list for non-fiction.

2000:  Pearl Jam played at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada to celebrate the 10th anniversary of their first performance.

2003:  Clay Aiken had the #1 album with Measure of a Man.

2005:  "Waterloo" by Abba was voted as the best song in the 50-year history of the Eurovision Song Contest.  Citizens from 31 European countries voted.

2009:  Luther Dixon, writer of "Mama Said" for the Shirelles, "Sixteen Candles" for the Crests" and many others, died at age 78 in his hometown of Jacksonville, Florida.

2010:  B.J. Thomas sang the national anthem of the United States prior to the deciding game six of the American League baseball championship between the New York Yankees and the Texas Rangers in Arlington, Texas.

Born This Day:

1939:  Ray Jones, bass guitarist of Billy J. Kramer & the Dakotas, was born in Oldham, Lancashire, England; died of a heart attack on January 20, 2000.

1942:  Bobby Fuller of the Bobby Fuller Four ("I Fought the Law") was born in Baytown, Texas; was found dead from

gasoline asphyxiation in an automobile parked outside his Hollywood, California apartment on July 18, 1966.  

1942:  Annette Funicello ("Tall Paul") was born in Utica, New York; died April 8, 2013 in Bakersfield, California from problems of multiple sclerosis.

1945:  Leslie West of Mountain ("Mississippi Queen") was born in New York City.

1945:  Eddie Brigati of the Rascals was born in Garfield, New Jersey.

1952:  Greg Hawkes, keyboardist of the Cars, was born in Fulton, Maryland.

1960:  Chris Kirkwood, founding member and bassist of the Meat Puppets ("Backwater")

1968:  Shelby Lynne was born in Quantico, Virginia.

1968:  Shaggy (Orville Richard Burrell) was born in Kingston, Jamaica.

1985:  Zac Hanson of Hanson was born in Arlington, Virginia..