Elvis Presley played his very first full concert, opening for Slim Whitman at Memphis’s Overton Park. Billed as a “Hillbilly Hoedown” with $1 general admission, the bill also featured Billy Walker, Sugarfoot Collins, Sonny Harvelle, Tinker Fry, and Curly Harris — and Presley was reportedly stunned by how enthusiastically the crowd responded to him.

Elvis Presley’s LP “Elvis Is Back!” — his first album recorded in genuine stereo — climbed to number one on the UK albums chart. It would peak at number two in the United States and eventually earned a Gold certification from the RIAA.

London Records released the Rolling Stones’ fourth American album, “Out Of Our Heads.” Alongside a batch of American R&B covers, it featured “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” (which topped the charts in both the UK and US) and “The Last Time” (UK number one, US number nine). This became the band’s first LP to reach number one on the Billboard chart, while it settled for number two back home in Britain.

Novelty single “They’re Coming To Take Me Away, Ha-Haaa!,” recorded by New York studio engineer Jerry Samuels under the name Napoleon XIV, hit number one on the Cashbox Best Sellers chart. A handful of stations, including New York’s WABC and WMCA, refused to air it over concerns it mocked mental illness — yet it still climbed to number three on the Billboard Hot 100, number two in Canada, and number four in the UK. Samuels later clarified the song was actually about his dog running away, not about a person.

“Wild Thing” by English band The Troggs, hailing from Andover, Hampshire, sat atop the Billboard Hot 100, though it only reached number two on their home turf. Decades later, Rolling Stone would place the track at number 257 on its list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time, and it was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2019.

The Beatles’ “Yesterday And Today” began the first of five straight weeks at number one on the Billboard 200. The LP included “Yesterday,” “Nowhere Man,” “We Can Work It Out,” and “Day Tripper,” but it’s better remembered for the controversy sparked by its original cover art, which showed the band in butcher smocks surrounded by dismembered dolls. George Harrison later called the image “gross” and “stupid,” admitting the group sometimes mistook naive, dumb ideas for something cool. The artwork was quickly swapped out for a tamer photo of the band posed around steamer trunks.

The Beatles’ Apple Boutique shut its doors at 94 Baker Street in Marylebone, London, after just seven months of trading and losses topping £200,000. Once the owners had taken what they wanted from the shelves, the rest of the stock was simply given away.

“I’m the Leader of the Gang (I Am)” gave Gary Glitter his first of three UK chart-toppers. The song was a massive hit across Britain and beyond, though in the US it only cracked number 48, and even then via a cover version recorded by Brownsville Station.

Andy Gibb, the youngest of the Bee Gees brothers, began a three-week run at number one on the Billboard Pop chart with “I Just Wanna Be Your Everything” — the first of his three American chart-toppers. It fared more modestly overseas, peaking at number 26 in the UK.

Trade paper Variety reported that RCA had dropped John Denver from its label roster following the release of his single “What Are We Making Weapons For,” a song that reportedly didn’t sit well with the label’s new parent company, General Electric — itself a major defense contractor. GE would go on to sell RCA just two months later.

Steve Winwood’s “Roll With It” spent four weeks at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 and ended up as the top song of the year overall, despite stalling at just number 53 in the UK. His follow-up single “Don’t You Know What the Night Can Do?” also cracked the US Top Ten, while “Holding On” and “One and Only Man” both reached the Top Twenty.

A Los Angeles judge ruled that Michael Jackson and his family bore no liability for the financial losses suffered by producers of the 1994 television special Jackson Family Honors, a show that had been pushed back several weeks after Jackson fell ill and was unable to perform as planned.

Bruce Springsteen released his twelfth studio album, “The Rising,” on Columbia Records. Praised by critics and fans alike, it gave The Boss his first number-one album on the Billboard 200 since 1987’s “Tunnel of Love.” The record later won a Grammy for Best Rock Album and was in the running for Album of the Year, though it lost out to Norah Jones’s “Come Away with Me.”

More than 400,000 people turned out for a free open-air Rolling Stones concert in Toronto, staged to reassure the world the city was safe to visit again after that year’s SARS outbreak. AC/DC, The Guess Who, Rush, and several other acts also performed.

Sam Phillips, the Sun Records founder who discovered Elvis Presley, died at age 80. Phillips was also instrumental in launching the careers of Roy Orbison, Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins, Charlie Rich, Conway Twitty, and Jerry Lee Lewis. He had sold Presley’s recording contract to RCA in November 1955 for $40,000, and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1986.

Hal Lifson, a spokesperson for Phil Spector, said the producer was having a difficult time adjusting to prison life, describing it as “a devastating turn” for him. Spector had reportedly voiced serious fears for his safety behind bars. The 69-year-old had been sentenced the previous May to nineteen years to life after being convicted of fatally shooting actress Lana Clarkson at his home in Alhambra, California, in 2003.

Procol Harum organist Matthew Fisher finally won his long-running legal fight for co-writing credit on the band’s 1967 classic “A Whiter Shade of Pale.” Britain’s Law Lords ruled unanimously that Fisher, who said he composed the song’s famous organ line, was owed a share of its future royalties — reversing a 2008 Court of Appeal decision that had thrown out an earlier High Court ruling (which had awarded him 40% of the copyright) on the grounds that he’d waited 38 years to bring the case.

Richard “Scar” Lopez, a founding member of Cannibal and the Headhunters, died of lung cancer at a convalescent hospital in Garden Grove, California, at age 65. The East LA vocal group had reached number 30 on the Billboard chart in 1965 with “Land of 1000 Dances.”

Country singer Lynn Anderson died at 67. She’d reached number three on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1971 with “Rose Garden,” placed five more songs near the top of that chart, and racked up forty-three Top 40 hits on the Billboard Hot Country Songs list over her career.

The surviving members of the Beach Boys — Brian Wilson, Al Jardine, Mike Love, Bruce Johnston, and David Marks — got together for a SiriusXM Q&A session moderated by director Rob Reiner, fittingly held in Studio A of the Capitol Records Tower in Hollywood, where the group cut many of its classic tracks. No new projects were announced, though Love told Rolling Stone, “I never say never.”

Ozzy Osbourne’s funeral took place in his hometown of Birmingham, England, with thousands of fans lining the streets to pay their respects. A brass band led the procession playing Black Sabbath songs, while his hearse carried a purple floral tribute shaped like a cross. A private ceremony followed the next day.