1959MGM released Girls Town, starring Mamie Van Doren, Mel Tormé, and Ray Anthony. Paul Anka made his acting debut and performed four songs, including “Lonely Boy” and “It’s Time to Cry,” while the Platters appeared in a nightclub scene singing “Wish It Were Me.”
1959Bobby Darin’s “Mack the Knife” began a six-week run at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. The recording won Grammys for Record of the Year and Best New Artist and later ranked No. 251 on Rolling Stone’s 2003 list of the 500 greatest songs.
1961Neil Sedaka recorded “Happy Birthday Sweet Sixteen” at RCA Victor Studio A in New York. It became the eighth of his 21 Billboard Top 40 singles.
1961The Marcels followed their No. 1 version of “Blue Moon” with the similarly arranged “Heartaches.” It reached No. 7 but became the Pittsburgh quintet’s final Top 40 appearance despite fifteen more single releases over the next fourteen years.
1962The Beatles’ debut single, “Love Me Do” backed with “P.S. I Love You,” was released in Britain and played that evening on EMI-owned Radio Luxembourg. It reached No. 17 on the UK chart in December.
1965The Beatles visited EMI headquarters to receive four Russian-made acoustic guitars and posed with them for photographs sent to the factory. Brian Epstein said the gift challenged assumptions that Soviet teenagers were discouraged from listening to beat music, while George Harrison said the band was delighted by the gesture.
1965Henry Mancini’s soundtrack for The Pink Panther was certified Gold after selling 500,000 copies. The No. 8 album spent 41 weeks on Billboard’s LP chart, won three Grammys, and entered the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2001.
1970Atlantic released Led Zeppelin III in North America nearly three weeks before its British issue. Propelled by “Immigrant Song,” the LP topped charts in both countries and ultimately earned Platinum status in Britain and six-times-Platinum certification in the United States.
1974Olivia Newton-John earned her first Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 with “I Honestly Love You.” Its success helped the album If You Love Me, Let Me Know reach No. 1 one week later.
1974The Guess Who’s “Clap for the Wolfman” peaked at No. 6, featuring the unmistakable voice of disc jockey Wolfman Jack. He liked the tribute enough to leave his well-paid WNBC position and tour with the Canadian band in support of the single.
1974The Beach Boys returned to No. 1 on Billboard’s album chart with Endless Summer, a double-LP collection of original 1960s recordings. The compilation spent 155 weeks on the chart and was certified triple Platinum for sales beyond three million.
1979A little over a year after Keith Moon’s death, the Who’s soundtrack compilation The Kids Are Alright received RIAA Platinum certification. It had reached No. 8 in America and No. 26 in Britain.
1958Billboard warned that payola—record companies secretly rewarding disc jockeys for airplay—had become so widespread that industry executives could no longer measure its influence. The scandal soon destroyed the career of pioneering rock-and-roll broadcaster Alan Freed.
1963The Ed Sullivan Show featured Dick Dale performing “Surfin’ and a Swingin’” and the Angels singing “My Boyfriend’s Back.” The varied bill also included Kate Smith, Totie Fields, Stiller and Meara, and the Three Stooges performing their “Maharajah” routine.
1964The Beatles began recording “Eight Days a Week” at EMI Studios. Paul McCartney later traced the title to a chauffeur who described himself as working eight days a week; issued as an American single in February 1965, the song became the group’s seventh U.S. No. 1.
1969Apple released George Harrison’s “Something” as the A-side of a Beatles single, the first Harrison composition given that billing. Paired with “Come Together,” it topped the American chart, reached No. 4 in Britain, and made the Top 10 in eight other countries.
1973Cher led the U.S. singles chart with “Half-Breed,” written for her by Mary Dean, Al Capps, and Snuff Garrett. The record later received Gold certification for one million American sales.
1976Rick Dees and His Cast of Idiots received a Gold record for “Disco Duck,” which became only the fourth Platinum-certified single that December. WMPS fired Dees after he complained on air that the station would not play his near-No. 1 novelty hit, but a rival hired him and he went on to a Hall of Fame radio career.
1977Britt Ekland filed a $15 million palimony lawsuit against former partner Rod Stewart. The closely watched dispute never reached trial and ended with an out-of-court property settlement valued at roughly $500,000.
1978ABBA members Benny Andersson and Anni-Frid Lyngstad married privately in Lidingö, Sweden. The pressures surrounding the group’s extraordinary fame contributed to their separation and divorce three years later.
1978Atlantic Records chairman Ahmet Ertegun met Jesse Jackson in Chicago over a racially and sexually offensive lyric in the Rolling Stones’ “Some Girls.” Atlantic declined to alter later editions, while Mick Jagger defended the song as a satire of real-world stereotypes rather than an endorsement of them.
1978Johnny O’Keefe, widely regarded as Australia’s first great rock-and-roll star, died at 43 after an accidental prescription-drug overdose caused a heart attack. From 1959 to 1974 he accumulated 29 Australian Top 40 hits.
1979Robert John topped the Billboard Hot 100 with “Sad Eyes,” which also reached No. 31 in Britain. The breakthrough came nearly 21 years after his first chart appearance with the minor 1958 hit “White Bucks and Saddle Shoes.”
1980The Bee Gees sued manager Robert Stigwood for $136 million, alleging fraud and withheld royalties despite his role in their mid-1970s revival. Stigwood countersued for $310 million in defamation; both sides settled privately in May 1981 and exchanged public apologies.
1938Sixteen-year-old Judy Garland recorded “Over the Rainbow” on an MGM soundstage in Beverly Hills for The Wizard of Oz. It became her signature song and remained part of her live performances for the next three decades.
1952Bandstand began as a weekday program on Philadelphia’s WFIL-TV with Bob Horn as host. Dick Clark took over after Horn’s 1956 dismissal, guided the renamed American Bandstand onto national television, and eventually turned it into a Saturday institution central to rock-and-roll culture.
1955Houston police arrested Ella Fitzgerald, Dizzy Gillespie, and several others backstage at the Music Hall and fined them for gambling. Many believed the raid reflected resistance to newly integrated audiences rather than the stated offense; the musicians nevertheless returned in time to play the second set without the crowd learning what had happened.
1957RCA had already received 500,000 advance orders for Elvis’ Christmas Album a week before release, although only 200,000 copies had been pressed. Irving Berlin unsuccessfully campaigned against Presley’s blues-influenced “White Christmas”; the album still spent four weeks at No. 1, later sold more than 17 million U.S. copies, and became Presley’s first Diamond-certified LP.
1957Little Richard entered Billboard’s Top 40 with “Keep A-Knockin’,” driven by Grady Gaines’s forceful saxophone. The single reached No. 8 during a twelve-week run and marked Richard’s seventh pop-chart appearance in two years.
1960Elvis Presley recorded “Flaming Star” at Radio Recorders in Hollywood for the film of the same name. It reached No. 14 in May 1961 but appeared only on Britain’s Elvis by Request EP rather than as a standalone single.
1963Capitol released the Beach Boys’ fourth album, Little Deuce Coupe. Featuring a 1932 Ford supplied by Hot Rod magazine on its cover, the LP peaked at No. 4 during 46 weeks on Billboard’s chart and later went Platinum.
1964The Beatles appeared from London on a taped edition of the American television show Shindig!, performing “I’m a Loser,” “Boys,” and “Kansas City.”
1964Police stopped soul singer Joe Tex in Baton Rouge and cited him for watching a television mounted in the dashboard of his new Cadillac while driving. The new safety ordinance made him only the second American motorist formally charged with that particular distracted-driving offense.
1967Scotland Yard arrested Cass Elliot in London over alleged theft of expensive hotel linens. The accusation was quickly dropped, and later accounts indicated that authorities had used it as a pretext to question her about an associate suspected of drug trafficking.
1967Promoter Sid Bernstein offered the Beatles an unprecedented $1 million to return to Shea Stadium. The group rejected the proposal, choosing to remain focused on studio work after ending live touring the previous year.
1967The Association’s “Never My Love” peaked at No. 2 on the Hot 100. By the end of 1999, BMI counted more than seven million radio performances, making it the century’s second-most-played song behind the Righteous Brothers’ “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’.”