This Date in Rock Music History: October 23

1961:  It was only October, but Jimmy Dean would have the final #1 for the year on the Easy Listening chart as "Big Bad John" ruled for its first of 10 weeks on this date.

1961:  Dion grabbed the reins from Ray Charles' song "Hit The Road Jack" with "Runaround Sue", the new #1 song.  
1962:  Steveland Morris Judkins recorded the song "Thank You For Loving Me All The Way" at the age of 12.  He would later be known as Little Stevie Wonder and then as the great Stevie Wonder.
1963:  The Beatles recorded "I Wanna' Be Your Man", a song originally written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney to provide friends the Rolling Stones with a hit song.

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.

This Date in Rock Music History: October 21

1957:  A new talented singer emerged on the scene today as Sam Cooke's first single, "You Send Me" debuted on the chart.