The American Federation of Musicians went on strike after union president James C. Petrillo warned that phonograph records threatened members’ livelihoods. Musicians stopped showing up for recording sessions for months afterward, though live radio broadcasts carried on uninterrupted. The strike ultimately pushed record labels into paying royalties into a union-run Music Performance Trust Fund.

An Alan Freed-promoted concert on August 1st brought Fats Domino, Muddy Waters, The Clovers, The Orioles, and others to the Moondog Jubilee of Stars Under the Stars at Brooklyn’s Ebbets Field. The show drew a large, racially mixed crowd, reflecting Freed’s broader push to bring R&B music to mainstream audiences.

Fans Jeanne Saward and Dug Surtees founded the Official Elvis Presley Fan Club of Great Britain and the Commonwealth out of a London flat. It would grow into one of the largest and longest-running fan clubs in music history, officially registered with Graceland.

Era Records released “To Know Him Is to Love Him” by The Teddy Bears on its Dore imprint, distributing 500 copies to radio stations nationwide. The song was written by group member Phil Spector, who drew the title from the inscription on his father’s tombstone; his father had taken his own life when Spector was 12.

Johnny Cash signed with Columbia Records once his three-year contract with Sam Phillips’s Sun Records ran out. He’d remain with Columbia for the next twenty-eight years, placing seventy-one singles on the Billboard Country chart.

After nine weeks as America’s best-selling song, Johnny Horton’s “The Battle of New Orleans” was knocked from number one by Paul Anka’s “Lonely Boy” — Anka’s eighth Top 40 hit, with twenty-four more still to come.

East German newspaper Young World branded Elvis Presley “Public Enemy Number One,” claiming his music was a “means of seduction” designed to prime youth for “atomic war.” Presley later responded, “They say it (Rock ‘n’ Roll) makes us hoodlums. That ain’t true. I don’t see that any type of music would have any bad influence on people.”

Billboard cited a Seventeen magazine survey finding that the average teenage girl spent two hours and thirteen minutes a day listening to the radio, and another two hours and twelve minutes playing records.

Chubby Checker’s “The Twist” hit US shelves and would reach number one by mid-September. The song made chart history when it re-entered the charts in the fall of 1961 and climbed back to number one by January 1962 — the first record ever to top the chart on two separate occasions.

Eighteen-year-old Aretha Franklin cut her first secular recordings for Columbia in New York, working under famed producer John Hammond. That day she recorded four tracks: “Today I Sing the Blues,” “Right Now,” “Love Is the Only Thing,” and a rendition of “Over the Rainbow.” Her first chart entry wouldn’t come for over a year, when her version of the 1918 standard “Rock-a-Bye Your Baby with a Dixie Melody” spent two weeks on the Hot 100, peaking at number 37.

The first issue of The Beatles Monthly fan club magazine was published in Britain. The original run lasted 77 issues through December 1969, and the magazine was later revived in 1976, continuing until January 2003 with issue number 321.

The title song from the Beatles’ film A Hard Day’s Night topped the charts in both Britain and America. The movie itself had originally been titled The Beatles, then Beatlemania, before landing on its final name — one account credits an offhand remark from Ringo Starr, who reportedly flopped into a chair and said, “It’s been a hard day’s night, that was.”

Billboard magazine noted that the harmonica was making a comeback, pointing to its use by Stevie Wonder, The Rolling Stones, The Beatles, and Bob Dylan.

Jan and Dean’s “The Little Old Lady (From Pasadena)” peaked at number three on the Billboard Pop chart. Although the duo would land five more songs in the Top 40, this proved to be their last Top Ten hit.

Ronnie Spector filed for divorce from Phil Spector after just three and a half months of marriage, estimating his net worth at five million dollars against her own “nothing.” She didn’t move out of their Beverly Hills home, however, and the two reconciled within weeks. She wouldn’t leave for good until June 12, 1972 — reportedly barefoot, since Phil had taken her shoes.

Beach Boys guitarist Carl Wilson was indicted in Los Angeles for not completing the community service required of him as a conscientious objector. He had reported to L.A. County Hospital as ordered, but taught music classes to disabled patients instead of serving as an institutional aide. The dispute was finally resolved in September 1971, when his attorney worked out an arrangement letting him fulfill his service by performing free Beach Boys concerts at hospitals, prisons, and orphanages.

Chicago’s “25 or 6 to 4” entered the Billboard Top 40, eventually climbing to number four. The cryptic title puzzled fans until it was explained that the song was written at 25 or 26 minutes to 4 in the morning.

After seven weeks at number one on the UK singles chart, Mungo Jerry’s “In the Summertime” was finally knocked off the top by Elvis Presley’s “The Wonder of You.”

The Concert for Bangladesh took place at Madison Square Garden to raise funds for victims of famine and war in the newly independent nation (formerly East Pakistan). George Harrison headlined, joined by Ringo Starr, Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, Billy Preston, Ravi Shankar, and members of Badfinger. The resulting three-disc live album reached number one in the UK and number two in the US in 1972, and won a Grammy for Album of the Year. Altogether, the concerts, album, and film raised close to $11 million for Bangladesh’s people.

Asylum Records released the Eagles’ single “Witchy Woman,” a song guitarist Bernie Leadon had first sketched out during his time in The Flying Burrito Brothers and later finished with Don Henley after joining the Eagles. It climbed to number nine on the Billboard Hot 100 but didn’t chart in the UK.

Jerry Garcia marked his 31st birthday with a Grateful Dead concert at Roosevelt Stadium, where he was surprised onstage by a cake concealing a naked woman — an experience he later admitted left him “embarrassed.”

The Carpenters’ compilation “The Singles: 1969-1973” became the first album certified Platinum in the UK, having spent seventeen non-consecutive weeks atop the British charts. Richard Carpenter chose that title over “Greatest Hits” because he considered the phrase overused.

Elvis: What Happened, a tell-all book by Presley’s former bodyguards Sonny West, Red West, and Dave Hebler, hit shelves. It drew little attention until Presley’s death just two weeks later, after which sales surged past three million copies.

MTV launched as a new cable network broadcasting music videos around the clock in the US, opening with co-creator John Lack’s now-famous line, “Ladies and gentlemen, rock and roll.” The channel officially ceased broadcasting in early 2026.

The Oak Ridge Boys crossed over from the country charts to top the Cashbox Best Sellers list with “Elvira.” The song dated back to 1966 and had been recorded by several other acts, including Kenny Rogers and the First Edition and Rodney Crowell, without major success — the Oaks’ version, by contrast, reached number five on the Hot 100 and was certified Platinum by the RIAA.

Shakin’ Stevens topped the UK chart with “Green Door,” a song that had first reached number eight in Britain for original Country artist Jim Lowe, who’d taken it to number one on the Billboard chart back in 1956. A Frankie Vaughan cover had also hit number one in the UK in 1957.

Rick Springfield’s “Jessie’s Girl,” released six months earlier, began the first of two weeks at number one on the Billboard Hot 100. Springfield has said the song was inspired by a friend’s girlfriend he admired from a distance — though the friend’s actual name was Gary, not Jessie.

Soft-rock group America scored its final Top 40 hit when “The Border” reached number 33, closing out a run of ten charting singles that had begun in 1972.

Bob Seger’s “Shakedown” reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100. The song earned Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations for Best Original Song, losing both to Dirty Dancing’s “(I’ve Had) The Time of My Life.”

The Grateful Dead’s twelfth studio album, “In the Dark,” entered Billboard’s Top Pop Albums chart, eventually climbing to number six and going on to achieve Double Platinum status — helped along by the band’s only American Top 40 hit, “Touch of Grey,” which reached number nine.

Los Lobos’ version of “La Bamba” became the first Spanish-language recording to top the UK chart. Ritchie Valens’s original 1959 recording had only reached number 49 there.

Cincinnati radio station WCVG-AM began airing nothing but Elvis Presley songs and trivia around the clock. The format ran for exactly 54 weeks, wrapping up on August 16, 1989 — the 12th anniversary of Presley’s death.

The Rolling Stones turned down an invitation from President Bill Clinton to perform at the White House, citing their busy rehearsal and touring schedule. The band stayed on good terms with the Clintons regardless, eventually performing at a fundraiser for Bill Clinton’s 60th birthday in 2006.

Bill Buchanan, who pioneered novelty “break-in” records with partner Dickie Goodman, died of cancer in Los Angeles at 66. The pair used snippets of current hits for comedic effect, starting with “The Flying Saucer,” which reached number three on the Billboard chart in 1956, followed by “Flying Saucer the 2nd” and “Santa and the Satellite” the next year. Goodman had died by suicide in 1989.

A half-hour tape of the Beatles rehearsing in 1964 — full of jokes, giggling, and multiple false starts of “I’ll Follow the Sun,” along with takes of “I Feel Fine,” “I’m a Loser,” “She’s a Woman,” and various covers — went up for auction through the Berkshire firm Cameo, eventually selling for £9,800 (about $19,600).

68-year-old Aretha Franklin was forced to cancel two New York concerts after breaking her ribs in a fall in the bathtub. She initially hoped to reschedule for later that August, but her health problems continued throughout the year. It wasn’t until after her death in 2018 that her representatives revealed she had actually been battling pancreatic neuroendocrine cancer.

Ten days after The J. Geils Band revealed plans to tour without their namesake, John Warren Geils filed suit against his former bandmates for trademark infringement and deceptive business practices. The lawsuit ultimately failed, and Geils later said simply, “I wish them well. There is no bitterness on my part.”

The Rolling Stones charted their 50th album on the Billboard 200 when “Hyde Park Live” debuted at number 19. The recording captured a free concert in London’s Hyde Park held just two days after founding member Brian Jones’s death, and it also marked new guitarist Mick Taylor’s live debut with the band.

A representative for Michael Jackson’s estate told Forbes that Neverland Ranch, the singer’s 2,700-acre estate, would soon be put up for sale, saying: “We are frustrated, bitterly disappointed and saddened that it has come to this. Sadly, Michael lost control of Neverland during his life as a result of advice from a former manager.”

UK singer Cilla Black, who racked up a run of British hits through the 1960s and reached number 26 in America with “You’re My World” in 1964, died of natural causes at 72.

Steppenwolf’s original keyboardist, Goldy McJohn, died of a heart attack at 72. He co-founded the band in 1967 alongside singer John Kay and drummer Jerry Edmonton, playing on seven albums before Kay let him go in 1974.

Ian Gibbons, keyboardist for The Kinks, died of bladder cancer at 67. He joined the band in 1979, and his playing can be heard on hits including “Come Dancing,” “Destroyer,” “Do It Again,” and “Don’t Forget to Dance.”