Saturday, April 8, 2017

This Date in Rock Music History: April 9

1963:  Henry Mancini won the Oscar for Best Original Song (for "Moon River" from Breakfast at Tiffany's) at the Academy Awards.
1964:  Capitol Records won the rights to distribute music by the Beatles in the U.S. in a settlement out of court with Vee Jay Records.

Friday, April 7, 2017

This Date in Rock Music History: April 8

1956:  Elvis Presley played two shows at the Denver Coliseum in Colorado.

Thursday, April 6, 2017

This Date in Rock Music History: April 7

1956:  Columbia Records announced that all future record releases would be at 45 R.P.M.
1956:  The Platters appeared on Tommy & Jimmy Dorsey's Stage Show on CBS.  (Note:  many websites claim the appearance represented their national television debut.  This is not true.  They appeared on 'The Perry Como Show' on February 11 on NBC-TV, as you can see in the above video clip.  This is also confirmed by 'TV.com' as well as the book 'Perry Como:  A Biography and Complete Career Record' by  Malcolm Macfarlane and Ken Crossland.) 
1956:  CBS Radio Network premiered the first scheduled national radio program of exclusively rock & roll music, Alan Freed's "Rock 'n" Roll Dance Party".  The writing was on the wall that rock & roll wasn't going away.