1961: "Buttered Popcorn" was released as the second single from a new group called the Supremes.
1961: Brook Benton had the top Easy Listening song with "The Boll Weevil Song". 1961: Bobby Lewis had the top R&B song for the third straight week with "Tossin' And Turnin'". 1965: The Kinks arrived in New York City to begin their first American tour. 1965: Beatles VI was #1 on the Album chart for the second week in only its fourth week of release while Herman's Hermits On Tour was #2.
Together with his group the Range and solo, this man not only ranks as one of The Top Piano Players of the Rock Era* but also put out some outstanding music, some of which unfortunately you probably have not heard. We feature not only Bruce's Five Best* but some extras as well:
1952: Patti Page hosted a summer replacement series for Perry Como on television. 1952: Eight-year-old Gladys Knight won the talent competition on the nationwide television program Ted Mack's Amateur Hour. (Note: some websites say Gladys was seven when she won the competition. According to the book 'Notable Moments of Women in Music' by Jay Warner, Knight was eight. She was born May 28, 1944 according to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and other credible sources.)1956: Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers climbed to #1 in the U.K. with "Why Do Fools Fall in Love". 1957: Paul Anka debuted on the chart with his first single "Diana". It had been released Monday, July 3.
1956: "I'm In Love Again" from Fats Domino was #1 on the R&B chart for a ninth week. 1958: "Yakety Yak" by the Coasters maintained the #1 position for a seventh week on the R&B chart. 1962: The Beatles played at the Regent Dansette in Rhyl, Wales. 1962: "Roses Are Red" by Bobby Vinton edged up to #1.
1964: The Rolling Stones topped the U.K. chart with "It's All Over Now". 1965: Herman's Hermits appeared on the television show Where the Action Is. 1967: The Who opened for Herman's Hermits on the Who's first American tour, performing at the Memorial Coliseum in Portland, Oregon on this date.
1969: The Archies released the single "Sugar, Sugar" on Don Kirshner's label after the initial release on Calendar Records failed to chart. 1969: Bob Dylan showed up to perform with The Band at the Mississippi River Rock Festival. 1971: The Byrds and James Taylor headlined the U.K. Lincoln Folk Festival. 1972: The Eagles performed at the Warehouse in New Orleans, Louisiana on their first tour. 1973: The Everly Brothers announced their breakup during a concert at Knott's Berry Farm in Buena Park, California. 1973: The Carpenters had the #1 Adult Contemporary song for a second week with "Yesterday Once More".
1973: Billy Preston continued to hold on to #1 with "Will it Go 'Round In Circles" and Paul Simon peaked at 2 with "Kodachrome". Jim Croce was moving up with "Bad, Bad Leroy Brown" and Three Dog Night was up to 4 with "Shambala". The rest of the Top 10: George Harrison was on his way down with the former #1 "Give Me Love (Give Me Peace On Earth)", the Carpenters had the #6 song--"Yesterday Once More", Clint Homes placed "Playground In My Mind" at #7, Deep Purple debuted in the Top 10 with "Smoke On The Water", Paul McCartney & Wings were at 9 with their former #1 "My Love" and Dr. John closed out the list with "Right Place Wrong Time". 1979: "Lead Me On" by Maxine Nightingale was #1 on the Adult Contemporary chart for a second week.
1979: Donna Summer had her fifth Top Five song in a row and this time, she reached the top with "Bad Girls". Anita Ward's worthless "Ring My Bell" was #2 followed by Summer's first hit from the album--"Hot Stuff" at #3. "Chuck E.'s In Love" by Rickie Lee Jones was #4 with Kenny Rogers holding steady at #5 with "She Believes In Me". The rest of the Top 10: "Boogie Wonderland" from Earth, Wind & Fire with the Emotions, TV star David Naughton's "Makin' It" at #7, Cheap Trick with "I Want You to Want Me", ELO with their 16th hit "Shine A Little Love" and John Stewart mined a Top 10 song with "Gold". 1980: Allen Klein, former manager of both the Beatles and Rolling Stones, served two months of jail time for cheating on his tax return. 1980: Bryan Ferry collapsed in his hotel room in France and was flown back to London after suffering from a kidney infection. 1982: The movie Pink Floyd's the Wall debuted at the Empire Theatre in London's Leicester Square. 1982: Van Halen began their American tour at the Augusta/Richmond County Civic Center in Augusta, Georgia.
1984: Elite guitarist Eddie Van Halen joined Michael Jackson on stage for a performance of "Beat It" during the Jacksons' Victory Tour in Dallas, Texas. Some websites report the event occurred on July 13. (The Jacksons played in Dallas from July 13-15, and according to the book 'Michael Jackson: A Visual Documentary 1958-2009: The Tribute Edition' by Adrian Grant and the magazine 'Guitar World', the event occurred on the second night (July 14), not the first.) 1984: Philippe Wynne, former lead singer of the Spinners, died of a heart attack at age 43 while singing in Oakland, California.
1984: "Ghostbusters" from Ray Parker, Jr. moved from #19 to #8 on this date.
1987: Steve Miller was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. 1988: Michael Jackson performed the first of seven sold-out shows at Wembley Stadium in London. 1990: The Go-Go's rejoined to record a new album, go on tour, write a book and star in a movie. (Note: some websites report the reunion took place in 2000. According to Jane Wiedlin of the group, the Go-Go's reunited in 1990. By the way, at last report, the group is still together.) 1992: Aretha Franklin sang the U.S. National Anthem at the Democratic National Convention in New York City.
1992: Olivia Newton-John announced that she had breast cancer. Thankfully, she has made it through so far and best wishes for many more happy years. 1998: Arista Records boss Clive Davis organized a party in New York City's Central Park to celebrate triple platinum status for Sarah McLachlan's album Surfacing. 2001: The Eagles were in concert in Lucca, Italy. 2002: Gareth Gates had the #1 U.K. song with "Anyone Of Us". 2002: The Red Hot Chili Peppers were on top of the Album chart in the U.K. with By the Way.
2003: In today's episode of "Inmates Run Rap Music", Beanie Sigel, who had just posted bail for an attempted murder charge, was thrown back in jail where he belonged on weapons charges.
2004: Natalie Maines of the Dixie Chicks gave birth to her second child, a boy named Beckett. 2005: Joe Harnell, who recorded The #79 Instrumental of the Rock Era* ("Fly Me To The Moon") died of heart failure at the age of 80. (Note: some websites report Harnell died of liver failure. According to the newspaper 'The New York Times', he died of heart failure.) 2007: A pair of glasses worn by John Lennon during the 1966 tour of Japan attracted a price of 750,000 pounds for an online auction. 2009: Shirley Jones, formerly with the Partridge Family, appeared on an episode of The Cleaner on HBO-TV. 2009: Fans from all over the world gathered at London's O2 Arena, where Michael Jackson's concerts would have been held had he lived. Jackson died June 25. 2010: Bono, lead singer of U2, announced that he had fully recovered from emergency back surgery back in May.
2010: It was announced that Bob Geldof's global Live Aid concert was being made into a movie called When Harvey Met Bob.
Born This Day: 1948: Tommy Mottola, record executive with Columbia, was born in the Bronx, New York; married Mariah Carey in 1993, divorced in 1997. 1952: Bob Casale, guitarist, keyboardist and singer with Devo, brother of Devo bassist Gerald Casale, and a sound engineer (for Andy Summers), was born in Kent, Ohio; died of heart failure in Los Angeles on February 17, 2014. 1952: Chris Cross, bassist with Ultravox, was born in Tottenham, London, England. 1965: Igor Khoroshev, keyboard player of Yes from 1997-2001, was born in Moscow, Russia. 1966: Ellen Reid, keyboardist and vocalist of the Crash Test Dummies, was born in Selkirk, Manitoba, Canada. 1971: Nick McCabe, guitarist with the Verve, was born in Haydock, Lancashire, England. (Note: 'Allmusic.com' and other websites claim McCabe was born in St. Helens, Lancashire, England. According to the official website for the Verve, Nick was born in Haydock. Haydock is a village within the borough of St. Helens. Some websites report that McCabe was born in the county of Merseyside. Haydock did not become part of Merseyside until 1974--when McCabe was born in 1971, Haydock was part of the county of Lancashire.) 1975: Taboo (real name Jaime Luis Gómez) of the Black-Eyed Peas was born in Los Angeles. 1975: Tameka Cottle, singer-songwriter of Xscape, was born in College Park, Georgia. 1978: Ruben Studdard was born in Birmingham, Alabama. (Note: some websites claim Studdard was born in Frankfurt am Maim, West Germany. According to the newspaper 'The New York Times', Ruben was born in Birmingham.)
Many websites report that on July 13, the three-day 'Soul Bowl was at the Astrodome in Houston, Texas with Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles and others. The event was originally planned for Houston, then moved to Dallas, then canceled altogether, according to Jet magazine and Houston Press. It never happened.
1956: Another of the famous days of the Rock Era as Elvis Presley released the top double-sided single in history--"Hound Dog"/"Don't Be Cruel". 1958: Buddy Holly nearly drowned trying to swim across a lake in the North Woods, near Rhinelander, Wisconsin while on tour. 1962: Bob Dylan signed a contract with publisher Witmark. 1963: Elvis Presley had one of the hottest songs, "(You're The) Devil In Disguise", moving up from 49- to 16. 1963: Rolf Harris scored a #1 on the Easy Listening chart with "Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport".
1963: The Surfaris rode into the Top 10 with "Wipe Out". 1964: The Supremes recorded "Come See About Me"
1954: Here's a case where someone did indeed "quit their day job" and it worked out fine. Elvis Presley quit his job as a truck driver and signed a recording contract with Sun Records. 1957: DJ Alan Freed began a 13-week Big Beat show on ABC television with the Everly Brothers, Connie Francis & Frankie Lymon. 1960: Floyd Cramer recorded "Last Date". 1961: Pat Boone began a 10-day tour of South Africa at the Ice Dome in Durban. 1962: The Rolling Stones made their live debut at the Marquee Club in London.
This first release from Bon Jovi's 1992 album Keep the Faith struggled before stalling at #29. Given their past chart record and millions of fans, plus the fact that it was a great tune, it's yet another Unknown/Underrated Song* from Inside The Rock Era:
Keep The Faith
Bon Jovi
Written by Jon Bon Jovi, Richie Sambora and Desmond Child
Mother mother tell your children That their time has just begun I have suffered for my anger There are wars that can't be won
Father father please believe me I am laying down my guns I am broken like an arrow Forgive me Forgive your wayward son
Everybody needs somebody to love (mother, mother) Everybody needs somebody to hate (please believe me) Everybody's bitching 'cause they can't get enough And it's hard to hold on When there's no one to lean on
Faith: you know you're gonna live thru the rain Lord you got to keep the faith Faith: don't let your love turn to hate Right now we got to Keep the faith Keep the faith Keep the faith Lord we got to keep the faith
Tell me baby when I hurt you Do you keep it all inside Do you tell me al's forgiven And just hide behind your pride
Everybody needs somebody to love (mother, father) Everybody needs somebody to hate (please don't leave me) Everybody's bleeding 'cause the times are tough Well it's hard to be strong When there's no one to dream on
Faith: you know you're gonna live thru the rain Lord you got to keep the faith Now you know is not too late Oh you got to keep the faith Faith: don't let your love turn to hate Right now we got to Keep the faith Keep the faith Keep the faith Lord we got to keep the faith
Walking in the footsteps Of society's lies I don't like what I see no more Sometimes I wish that I was blind Sometimes I wait forever
To stand out in the rain So no one sees me cryin' Trying to wash away the pain Mother father
There's things I've done I can't erase Every night we fall from grace
It's hard with the world in yours face Trying to hold on, trying to hold on
Faith: you know you're gonna live thru the rain Lord you got to keep the faith Faith: don't let your love turn to hate Right now we got to keep the faith Faith: now it's not too late Try to hold on, trying to hold on Keep the faith
1960: The Hollywood Argyles found themselves on top of the chart with "Alley-Oop". 15-year-old wonder Brenda Lee edged up with "I'm Sorry while Connie Francis tumbled from #1 with "Everybody's Somebody's Fool". 1962: Joe Meek wrote the instrumental "Telstar". 1964: The Beatles performed live on the ABC television show Lucky Stars performing "A Hard Day's Night", "Long Tall Sally", "Things We Said Today" and "You Can't Do That". 1964: "Under The Boardwalk" was the fastest-rising song on this date, moving up from 62 to 31 for the Drifters.
1961: Brook Benton had the top Easy Listening song with "The Boll Weevil Song". 
