This Date in Rock Music History: June 12

1957:  Jimmy Dorsey ("So Rare") died of throat cancer at the age of 53 in New York City.
1961:  Frankie Avalon began a 15-day tour of South America.

                                  King's song was on its way to becoming a classic...

1961:  "Travelin' Man" became Ricky Nelson's second #1 song of his career after "Poor Little Fool".  "Moody River" jumped from 7 to 2 for Pat Boone while the previous #1, "Running Scared" from Roy Orbison, ranked third.  Former Drifters singer Ben E. King was up with "Stand By Me" and Dee Clark's "Raindrops" hit #5.  The rest of the Top 10:  Adam Wade with "The Writing On The Wall", Elvis Presley dropped with "I Feel So Bad", the Pips moved from 21-8 with "Every Beat Of My Heart", Gary U.S. Bonds roared from 33 to 9 with "Quarter To Three" and Brook Benton entered the Top 10 with "The Boll Weevil Song".

The Top 30 Songs of 2006*: #30-21

In 2006, Ariel Sharon, Prime Minister of Israel, suffered a severe stroke and cerebral hemorrhage.  Meanwhile, NASA launched the first spacecraft to Pluto, as New Horizons began a nine-year journey and we celebrated the 250th anniversary of the birthday of classical pianist and composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.  

In music, the trend the last few years has been to play the same 30 or so songs over and over for the entire year.  In most years of the Rock Era, there were so many good songs waiting in the wings that even the classics dropped off the chart after 20 or so weeks.  Now it is quite common for a song to be on the charts for 52 weeks or more.  Thus, our salute to the Class of 2006 will consist of 30 songs.  Here is the first segment:

This Date in Rock Music History: June 11

1957:  Elvis Presley released the single "(Let Me Be Your) Teddy Bear".  (Note:  several websites claim the song was released June 1.  According to the book 'Elvis Presley:  The King of Rock 'n' Roll' by Jean-Pierre Hornbach, it was released June 11.)