Rock 'n' Roll History for
August 30


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1959 - ClassicBands.com

August 30
Bobby Darin's "Mack the Knife" debuts on Billboard's Pop chart. The song, taken from a 1928 German play called Three Penny Opera, will be Darin's biggest hit, reaching number one and winning a Grammy Award for Record of the Year.

1961 - ClassicBands.com

August 30
24 year old Gene Chandler records "Duke Of Earl" for Vee Jay Records. It will become the label's first number one and first million seller next February.


1969 - ClassicBands.com

August 30
The 3-day Texas International Pop Festival opens at the Dallas International Motor Speedway. Performers included Chicago Transit Authority, Janis Joplin, Led Zeppelin and Santana.

1971 - ClassicBands.com

August 30
The Beach Boys release their seventeenth studio album, "Surf's Up". It would reach #29 in America and #15 in Great Britain, becoming their highest-charting LP of new music in the US since 1967. Daryl Dragon, who would find success of his own in 1975 as part of the duo Captain And Tennille, can be heard playing Moog synthesizer, pipe organs, piano, electric guitar, bass guitar and vibraphone.

1972 - ClassicBands.com

August 30
John Lennon and Yoko Ono were joined by Stevie Wonder, Roberta Flack and Sha Na Na at a fund raising concert for the One To One charity at New York's Madison Square Gardens. Several of the performances were later included on Lennon's, "Live in New York City" album.

1973 - ClassicBands.com

August 30
The Doors officially disband, two years after Jim Morrison's death. Over the years, keyboardist Ray Manzarek and guitarist Robbie Kreiger attempted several reunions.

1975 - ClassicBands.com

August 30
After charting twice in the UK, KC And The Sunshine Band finally scored a hit record in the US when "Get Down Tonight" topped the Billboard singles chart. It made #21 in Great Britain.

August 30
Orleans enters the Billboard Hot 100 for the first time with "Dance With Me", which would climb to #6. They would return a year later with "Still The One" (#5) and again in 1979 with "Love Takes Time" (#11).


1980 - ClassicBands.com

August 30
"Sailing" by Christopher Cross was Billboard's top single. The record would sweep the Grammy Awards the next Spring when it won for Song Of The Year and Record Of The Year.

1986 - ClassicBands.com

August 30
Steve Winwood, former lead vocalist for The Spencer Davis Group, had the number one record in the US with "Higher Love". It made #13 in the UK.

1989 - ClassicBands.com

August 30
Billy Joel fired his manager and former brother-in-law Frank Weber after an audit revealed discrepancies. Joel later took him to court and sued for $90 million.

1990 - ClassicBands.com

August 30
Paul Anka, who was born in Ottawa, Canada, is naturalized as an American citizen in Las Vegas. During the ceremony, his illegally parked car was towed away.

1993 - ClassicBands.com

August 30
The Late Show with David Letterman premieres on CBS, with Billy Joel as the first musical guest.

1995 - ClassicBands.com

August 30
Carly Simon and James Taylor performed live together for the first time since 1979 when they sang in front of 10,000 fans on Martha's Vineyard, in Massachusetts. Their marriage had come to an end in 1983.

August 30
Sterling Morrison, a founding member of the Velvet Underground died of cancer at his home in New York, one day after his 53rd birthday.

2011 - ClassicBands.com

August 30
Alleging that Elvis Presley "was unjustly exploited during his lifetime by his record company," his estate announced a multimillion dollar lawsuit against Arista Music, demanding proper payment over new media income such as ringtones, downloads and entertainment apps. On June 1st, 2017, the court ruled in Arista's favor saying that Presley had sold the rights to his songs to his music label RCA Records, now Arista Music and part of Sony, for 5.4 million US dollars in 1973 and had been sufficiently and fully compensated.

2016 - ClassicBands.com

August 30
The 2017 edition of Guinness World Records said that Ringo Starr's copy of "The White Album" was officially the most expensive LP ever sold at auction. Guinness confirmed that a December 2015 sale at Julien's Auction House set a new high for album prices when the first-edition copy with the catalog number 0000001, which was kept in a vault in perfect condition by Starr for more than 35 years, sold for $790,000.

2017 - ClassicBands.com

August 30
Skip Prokop, drummer and co-founder of the thirteen piece Canadian group called Lighthouse, passed away at the age of 73. The band reached #24 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1971 with "One Fine Morning", #34 a year later with "Sunny Days" and #54 in 1973 with "Pretty Lady".


2022 - ClassicBands.com

August 30
Madonna became the first female artist to earn a Billboard 200 Top 10 album in each decade since the 1980s. The 64-year-old singer achieved the milestone after her remix compilation "Finally Enough Love" debuted at #8 on this week's chart.



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