Sunday, December 10, 2017

This Date in Rock Music History: October 19

1955:  Elvis Presley and Pat Boone were in concert in Cleveland, Ohio.
1958:  Brenda Lee recorded "Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree".



1959:  "Mack The Knife" spent a third week at #1 for Bobby Darin and it wasn't close to done.  Paul Anka would have to settle for #2 with "Put Your Head On My Shoulder".  The Fleetwood had song #3--"Mr. Blue" while Sandy Nelson's great instrumental "Teen Beat" took #4.  The rest of the Top 10:  The Everly Brothers and "('Til) I Kissed You", Santo & Johnny with another of The Top 100 Instrumentals of the Rock Era*--"Sleep Walk", Andy Williams and "Lonely Street" at #7, the Coasters with "Poison Ivy", Frankie Avalon was back with "Just Ask Your Heart" and the Browns with their former #1 "The Three Bells".
1963:  The Beatles performed at the Pavilion Gardens in Buxton, England.


1964:  Bobby Vinton released the single "Mr. Lonely".









1966:  The Yardbirds, with co-lead guitarists Jimmy Page and Jeff Beck, arrived in New York City for their first American tour.  Guitarist Jeff Beck, however, left the band later on the tour to form the Jeff Beck Group. 
1967:  Jose Feliciano recorded his version of "Light My Fire".
1967:  The Beatles finished vocal and guitar parts for "Hello Goodbye" at Abbey Road Studios in London.







1967:  Smokey Robinson & the Miracles released the single "I Second That Emotion" on Tamla Records.
1967:  The Soundtrack to "The Sound of Music" was the #1 album in the U.K.
1968:  Eighteen-year-old Peter Frampton played guitar with the Small Faces at a concert in London.
1968:  The Vogues reached #1 on the Easy Listening chart with "My Special Angel".






1970:  Chicago released the single "Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?".
1973:  Art Garfunkel owned the top Easy Listening song for the third week with "All I Know".
1974:  The Eagles performed at the Littlejohn Coliseum in Clemson, South Carolina for the On the Border tour.
1974:  B.T. Express hit #1 on the R&B chart with "Do It ('Til You're Satisfied)".





1974:  The Three Degrees were hotter than that, moving from 72 to 40 with "When Will I See You Again".









1974:  Billy Preston took over at #1 with "Nothing From Nothing".  Dionne Warwick & the Spinners were close with "Then Came You" and Stevie Wonder's powerful protest song "You Haven't Done Nothin'" was third.  The former #1 from Olivia Newton-John ("I Honestly Love You") was #4 with Carole King from Stanley, Idaho moving from 15-5 with "Jazzman".  The rest of the Top 10:  "The Bitch Is Back" from Elton John, although most stations placed it at #1, Blue Swede with their second hit "Never My Love", Bad Company's "Can't Get Enough" was #8, Tony Orlando & Dawn had "Steppin' Out" and the Osmonds moved into the Top 10 with "Love Me For A Reason".






1979:  Styx released the album Cornerstone.








1979:  Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers released their breakthrough album Damn the Torpedoes.
1979:  After a highly successful tour of North America, ABBA began the European leg of the tour at the Scandinavian in Gothenburg, Sweden.
1980:  AC/DC began their first tour since the death of lead singer Bon Scott at Colston Hall in Bristol, England.






1981:  Lindsey Buckingham released his solo single "Trouble".
1981:  The Clash performed at the Lyceum Ballroom in London.







1985:  A talented new singer from Florida and her band debuted on the chart for the first time with their first single "Conga".  Gloria Estefan & the Miami Sound Machine had their first hit on this date.
1985:  A-Ha had the #1 song with "Take On Me".
1987:  A new album was out and people were starting to figure out that it was pretty good.  On this date, George Michael released the title track to Faith.
1989:  Alan Murphy, guitarist of Level 42 who also worked with Mike + the Mechanics, Go West and Kate Bush, died from pneumonia due to AIDS at age 35.
1991:  "Romantic" by Karyn White topped the R&B chart.








 
1991:  Cathy Dennis scaled the Adult Contemporary chart to #1 with "Too Many Walls".










        Karyn White had a big hit...


1991:  Mariah Carey spent a second week at #1 with "Emotions" with competition coming from "Do Anything" by Natural Selection.  Karyn White's "Romantic" was third followed by "Hole Hearted" from Extreme and "Something To Talk About" by Bonnie Raitt.  The rest of the Top 10:  Marky Mark & the Funky Bunch with "Good Vibrations", "I Adore Mi Amor" from Color Me Badd, Aaron Neville moved up to #8 with "Everybody Plays The Fool", Bryan Adams collected his seventh Top 10 song--"Can't Stop This Thing We Started" and Martika entered the list with "Love...Thy Will Be Done".




1993:  Mariah Carey released the single "Hero" on Columbia Records
1993:  Pearl Jam released the great album Vs.
1996:  Boyzone's remake of the great Bee Gees song "Words" was #1 in the U.K.
1996:  Simply Red reached #1 on the U.K. album chart with their Greatest Hits package.







                                        No Mercy in the Top 10...

1996:  "Macarena" by Los Del Rio was #1 for the 12th week, four off the Rock Era record set the year before by Mariah Carey & Boyz II Men ("One Sweet Day").  Donna Lewis spent a record ninth week at #2 with "I Love You Always Forever", probably a #1 song in almost any other time.  Celine Dion had her lucky 13th hit with "It's All Coming Back To Me Now", BLACKstreet with Dr. Dre moved from 48 to 4 with "No Diggity" and No Mercy had their great song "Where Do You Go" at #5.  The rest of the Top 10:  "Twisted" by Keith Sweat, "Change The World" from Eric Clapton, the Quad City DJ's slipped with "C'Mon N' Ride It (The Train)", Az Yet and "Last Night" and Toni Braxton's great double sided hit "You're Makin' Me High"/"Let It Flow".





1997:  Glen Buxton, guitarist for Alice Cooper and co-writer of "School's Out", died of pneumonia at age 49.  (Note:  several websites state that Glen's death was October 18.  According to the book 'The Tombstone Tourist:  Musicians' by Scott Staton, 'The Arizona Republic' newspaper, and the North Central Iowa Genealogical Society, Buxton caught pneumonia on October 18, and died the next morning at North Central Iowa Mercy Medical Center.  Some websites report his place of death as Clarion--Buxton lived in Clarion at the time, but North Central Iowa Mercy Medical Center is in Mason City.)





1998:  Famed producer Sir George Martin, known as "The Fifth Beatle", retired from the music business.  Martin produced every Beatles record from "Love Me Do" through Abbey Road, with the exception of post-production on the Let It Be album, and also produced artists including Elton John, America, and Jeff Beck.
2003:  The Sugababes took over at #1 in the U.K. with "Hole in the Head".
2004:  Dave Grohl and Krist Novoselic, formerly with Nirvana, appeared in public together for the first time in ten years at a rally in Las Vegas, Nevada for Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry.
2005:  Bono of U2 was invited to the White House where he discussed the G8 and fighting AIDS with U.S. President George W. Bush.

2005:  Alicia Keys led the Album chart with Unplugged.
2007:  Johnny Marr, guitarist of the Smiths and Modest Mouse, was hired as a visiting professor of music at the University of Salford in Manchester, England.  Marr taught several workshops and master classes to students pursuing the BA Popular Music and Recording degree.





2007:  Trini Lopez, who scored his biggest hit with a remake of the Peter, Paul & Mary song "If I Had a Hammer" in 1963, was given the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Latinos of Distinction Awards in Ontario, California.
2008:  Keane owned the top U.K. album with Perfect Symmetry.






2012:  Raphael Ravenscroft died of a heart attack in Exeter, England at the age of 70.  He'll be forever remembered for his classic sax solo in Gerry Rafferty's "Baker Street", but Ravenscroft played on scores of great albums, working with ABBA, Pink Floyd, Marvin Gaye, America, Kim Carnes, Maxine Nightingale, Bonnie Tyler, Daft Punk, and many more. 

Born This Day:

1944:  George McCrae, who had one of The Top 500 Songs of the Rock Era* with "Rock Your Baby" in 1975, was born in West Palm Beach, Florida.
1945:  Patrick Simmons, guitarist with the Doobie Brothers, was born in Aberdeen, Washington.
1945:  Jeannie C. Riley ("Harper Valley P.T.A." from 1968) was born in Stamford, Texas.  (Note:  many websites report her birthplace as Anson, Texas.  She was born in Stamford and raised in Anson, according to her official website 'jeanniec.com'.)
1946:  Keith Reid, lyricist of Procol Harum, was born in Welwyn, Garden City, Hertfordshire, England.
1947:  Wilbert Hart of the Delfonics ("La La Means I Love You" from 1968) was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.






1950:  Patrick Simmons, founding member and guitarist of the Doobie Brothers, was born in Aberdeen, Washington.  (Note:  some websites claim Simmons was born on January 23, 1950, but he was born on October 19, 1948, according to the official website for the Doobie Brothers.)
1955:  Nino DeFranco, guitarist of the DeFranco Family ("Heartbeat...It's A Lovebeat" from 1973)









1960:  Jennifer Holliday ("And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going") was born in Riverside, Texas.
1960:  Dan Woodgate, drummer of Madness, was born in London.
1972:  Pras Michel of the Fugees was born in Brooklyn, New York.  (Note:  some websites report his birthplace as Haiti, and still others as New Jersey.  Michel is of Haitian heritage, but according to 'MTV', he was born in Brooklyn and raised in New Jersey.)

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