Rock 'n' Roll History for
August 21


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1954 - ClassicBands.com

August 21
Elvis Presley appears at his first gig outside Tennessee at The Mint Club in Gladewater, Texas. The show was promoted by Tom Perryman, a local DJ, who will continue to book Elvis in the northeast Texas area well into the following year.

1956 - ClassicBands.com

August 21
Comics Bill Buchanan and Dickie Goodman have the number three song in America with a novelty tune called "Flying Saucer". The premise of the record was two radio news reporters who ask questions which are then humorously answered with snippets from mid-'50s hits. Buchanan and Goodman were sued by 17 different record companies for copyright infringement, but all were dismissed by a ruling that said the parodies did not infringe on the sales of the original records.

1961 - ClassicBands.com

August 21
Patsy Cline starts recording Willie Nelson's "Crazy" at Bradley Film and Recording Studio in Nashville, Tennessee. She would have to stop singing and return to the studio on September 15th when the ribs she bruised in a recent car accident had healed. When she came back, Patsy nailed the song in one take. The record would peak at #2 on Billboard's Hot Country Singles chart and crossed over to reach #9 on the Billboard Hot 100. It also went to #2 on Billboard's Easy Listening chart. In November, 2021, Nelson would tell David Letterman that when he originally wrote "Crazy", it was titled "Stupid". In 1996, the Amusement and Music Operators Association named it as the most often played song of all time in American jukeboxes.

August 21
Elvis Presley's sixth studio LP, "Something For Everybody" hits #1 on the Billboard Pop Albums Chart for the first of three weeks. No hit singles were included in the collection, with only "Judy" peaking at #78.

1965 - ClassicBands.com

August 21
Barry McGuire's "Eve Of Destruction" and The Lovin' Spoonful's "Do You Believe In Magic" are released in America. The former would top the chart on September 25th and the latter would peak at #9 in mid-October.

August 21
The Rolling Stones album, "Out of Our Heads" is number one on the Billboard Hot 200 album chart on the strength of "The Last Time" (#9) and "Satisfaction" (#1). The LP pushed "Beatles IV" out of the top spot.


1969 - ClassicBands.com

August 21
James Brown opened the first two of his Gold Platter restaurants in Macon, Georgia. Serving soul food on dishes that resembled gold records, the eatery was envisioned as a franchise opportunity for Black businessmen. Unfortunately, the idea didn't catch on, and the enterprise would shut down in 1970.

1972 - ClassicBands.com

August 21
Jefferson Airplane ran into some trouble with Akron, Ohio police after their equipment manager calls some officers "pigs". Paul Kanter is roughed up, Grace Slick was maced and Jack Casady was arrested and dragged off stage.

1976 - ClassicBands.com

August 21
The Rolling Stones appear in front of 200,000 fans with Todd Rundgren, 10cc, Lynyrd Skynyrd, and others at England's annual Knebworth Festival. The concert was falsely advertised as "the last Stones show ever to be held in Britain."

August 21
RCA Victor announced that sales of Elvis Presley records had passed the 400 million mark.

1980 - ClassicBands.com

August 21
Linda Ronstadt debuted on Broadway in the production of Gilbert and Sullivan's, The Pirates of Penzance. Her success on stage led her to be offered a role in the 1983 feature film version of the show. She earned a Golden Globe nomination for her movie performance as well as a Tony Award nomination for the musical play.

1983 - ClassicBands.com

August 21
The Ramones' lead guitarist Johnny Ramone, (real name: John Cummings) undergoes emergency surgery to remove blood clots from his brain following a fight with Seth Micklaw of the Punk band Sub Zero Construction. Ramone picked a fight after seeing his girlfriend, Cynthia Whitney with Micklaw. The brief scrap ended with Ramone receiving kicks to the head with steel capped boots.

1984 - ClassicBands.com

August 21
Tina Turner's comeback album, "Private Dancer" is certified Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America, and the single from it, "What's Love Got To Do With It" is certified Gold. The album peaked at #3 on the Billboard Hot 200 chart and the single reached #1 on the US singles chart as well as reaching #5 in the UK and the Top Ten in several other European countries.


1994 - ClassicBands.com

August 21
While still on probation for a 1992 DUI, John Denver is again charged with drunk driving after crashing his Porsche into a tree in Aspen, Colorado. A trial would result in a hung jury and a second trial would still be pending at the time of his death on October 12th, 1997.

August 21
Interrupting her concert at the Arrowhead Pond in Anaheim, California, Whitney Houston asks that the spotlight be turned on Justin and Sydney Simpson, whose father O.J. Simpson is currently on trial for murdering their mother, Nicole.

2005 - ClassicBands.com

August 21
Robert A. Moog, whose self-named synthesizers opened the door for the musical evolution of electronics, died of cancer at the age of 71.

2012 - ClassicBands.com

August 21
Lisa Marie Presley made her Grand Ole Opry debut where she wowed the sold-out audience by performing three songs from her current album, "Storm & Grace".

August 21
Roadrunner Records releases Lynyrd Skynyrd's fourteenth studio album, "Last of a Dyin' Breed" in America. It would peak at #14 on the Billboard 200 chart and #3 on their Top Rock Albums chart, but quit climbing at #83 in the UK.

2013 - ClassicBands.com

August 21
Legendary concert promoter Sid Bernstein, best known for booking The Beatles at Carnegie Hall and later Shea Stadium, died at the age of 95. He also worked with other British groups including The Rolling Stones, The Kinks and The Animals.

2014 - ClassicBands.com

August 21
Sir Paul McCartney topped a list of the richest bassists in the world with estimated wealth of $1.2 billion according to the website www.therichest.com. Coming in at number two were Sting and Gene Simmons, both with a net worth of $300 million, followed by Pink Floyd's Roger Waters, U2's Adam Clayton and Flea from the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

2017 - ClassicBands.com

August 21
A solar eclipse across the US prompted music buyers to mark the occasion by buying eclipse-themed music in big numbers. Bonny Tyler's "Total Eclipse Of The Heart" sold 18,000 downloads, up from its usual 200 per day, while Pink Floyd's "The Dark Side Of The Moon" sold 1,000 copies as opposed to its usual 200 a day according to Nielsen Music.

2018 - ClassicBands.com

August 21
Photographer Larry Philpot filed a lawsuit in California federal court against Lynyrd Skynyrd for using his copyrighted image of Jerry Lee Lewis without permission. Philpot said the group stripped the image of its copyright information and displayed it at the first 22 performances of their farewell tour.

2021 - ClassicBands.com

August 21
Don Everly of The Everly Brothers passed away at the age of 84. The duo placed twenty-seven songs on the Billboard Top 40 between 1957 and 1967, and were elected to the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame in 1986. Three of their songs, "Wake Up Little Susie", "All I Have To Do Is Dream", "Bird Dog" and "Cathy's Clown" reached #1 in America. Don's brother Phil passed away in 2014 at the age of 74.




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