Rock 'n' Roll History for
August 11


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1956 - ClassicBands.com

August 11
Elvis Presley's double sided hit "Don't Be Cruel" / "Hound Dog" is released. The disc will rocket to #1 on the Billboard chart where it would stay for 11 weeks, a record that would not be broken until 1992's smash "End of the Road" by Boyz II Men. By the end of the year, Presley's hit would sell over 4 million copies.

1958 - ClassicBands.com

August 11
Elvis Presley's "Hard Headed Woman" becomes the first Rock 'n' Roll single to earn the RIAA designation of Gold Record. By 2002, he will have sold over 100 million records.

August 11
Bill Haley tries to follow his #22 hit, "Skinny Minnie" with a musically and thematically almost identical song called "Lean Jean". Unfortunately, the record buying public wasn't as interested and the tune peaks at #67 during its one week stay on the Billboard Hot 100.

1962 - ClassicBands.com

August 11
A flood of new releases hit the Billboard Hot 100 chart, that will go on to be hit records, including Mary Wells' "You Beat Me to the Punch", Ray Stevens' "Ahab the Arab", Johnny Tillotson's "Send Me the Pillow That You Dream On", The Marvelettes' "Beechwood 4-5789", The Contours' "Do You Love Me", The Beach Boys' "Surfin' Safari", Booker T and the MGs' "Green Onions" and Tony Bennett's "I Left My Heart in San Francisco".

August 11
After eight previous songs landed in the Billboard Top 40, Neil Sedaka scored his first Billboard number one hit with "Breaking Up Is Hard To Do". It also topped the Cashbox Best Sellers chart and reached #7 on the UK chart.


1963 - ClassicBands.com

August 11
The Rolling Stones appear at the 3rd National Jazz Festival in Richmond, Surrey. The show was headlined by the clarinet sounds of Mr. Acker Bilk And His Paramount Jazz Band.

1966 - ClassicBands.com

August 11
The Beatles held a press conference at the Astor Towers Hotel in Chicago where John Lennon apologized for his remarks published in the London Evening Standard that said The Beatles were "more popular than Jesus now." After US media brought the story to light, rallies were held all over the country to smash and burn Beatle records. Lennon said later that he was trying to say, "The way they (some fans) carry on, it's like we're more popular than Jesus Christ." Maureen Cleave, the journalist who interviewed Lennon for the original article, tried to come to John's rescue by saying, "John was certainly not comparing the Beatles to Christ. He was simply observing that, so weak was the state of Christianity, the Beatles was, to many people, better known."

1968 - ClassicBands.com

August 11
"Hey Jude" / "Revolution" becomes the first Beatles' single to be released on their own Apple Records. Its nine-week stay at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 tied the all-time record for the longest run at the top of the US charts, a distinction it held for nine years. The song also topped the charts in sixteen other countries around the world, including the UK.

1969 - ClassicBands.com

August 11
Diana Ross introduces The Jackson 5 to the press at a Beverly Hills party, which gave many the false impression that she had something to do with discovering the group.

1971 - ClassicBands.com

August 11
Lefty Baker, the guitarist who joined Spanky And Our Gang in time to record their 1968, #17 hit "Like To Get To Know You", died of cirrhosis of the liver about a year after he left the band. He was 29.

1972 - ClassicBands.com

August 11
After five years of marriage, Elvis and Pricilla Presley file for divorce. The couple agreed to share custody of their daughter Lisa Marie and Priscilla was awarded an outright cash payment of $725,000 as well as spousal support, child support, 5% of Elvis' new publishing companies and half the income from the sale of their Beverly Hills home.

1973 - ClassicBands.com

August 11
After seeing KISS play at a New York hotel, producer Bill Aucion offers to become their manager and promises them a record deal.

1982 - ClassicBands.com

August 11
Donna Summer and her husband Bruce Sudano become the proud parents of a daughter, Amada Grace Sudano.

1984 - ClassicBands.com

August 11
Ray Parker Jr. had Billboard's number one song with "Ghostbusters". Huey Lewis would later launch a successful plagiarism suit, claiming the song was a rip-off of his "I Want a New Drug".


1986 - ClassicBands.com

August 11
Although they were nearly 20 years old, six Monkees albums that had been re-released, re-entered Billboard's Hot 200 LP chart. The band was on a 144-date, 20th anniversary tour across America at the time.

1987 - ClassicBands.com

August 11
The Beatles' album "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" was named 'The best album made during the last 20 years' by Rolling Stone magazine.

1996 - ClassicBands.com

August 11
Mel Taylor, drummer for The Ventures, died of lung cancer at the age of 62. Between 1962 and 1969, the instrumental band put six songs on the Billboard Top 40, including "Walk - Don't Run" (#2) and "Hawaii Five-O" (#4).

2006 - ClassicBands.com

August 11
American entertainer Mike Douglas died unexpectedly on his 85th birthday. Along with hosting The Mike Douglas Show from 1965 to 1981, he scored a Billboard #6 hit with "The Men In My Little Girl's Life" in 1966.

2020 - ClassicBands.com

August 11
Trini Lopez, the singer, guitarist and actor who scored a Billboard #3 hit in 1963 with "If I Had A Hammer", passed away at the age of 83 from complications caused by the COVID-19 virus. Along with three other Top 40 hits, he also starred in the 1967 World War II film The Dirty Dozen alongside Charles Bronson, Ernest Borgnine, John Cassavetes, Lee Marvin, Donald Sutherland and Telly Savalas. After his hit records and acting roles tailed off, he continued to release albums and perform regularly, mostly in Las Vegas and his adopted home of Palm Springs.


2021 - ClassicBands.com

August 11
A 65-year-old woman identified only as J.C. filed a lawsuit that alleged Bob Dylan groomed her for sex, plied her with drugs and alcohol, and abused her at his Chelsea Hotel apartment in New York in 1965. Dylan's lawyers called it a "brazen shakedown … false, malicious, reckless and defamatory. This 56-year-old claim is untrue and will be vigorously defended." In July, 2022, the woman dropped the case.



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