Rock 'n' Roll History for
December 30


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1962 - ClassicBands.com

December 30
Brenda Lee is slightly injured when she runs into her burning Nashville home to rescue her poodle, Cee Cee. However, it is too late as the pet succumbs to smoke inhalation and the home is destroyed by the flames. Brenda's hit, "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree", that featured Boots Randolph on saxophone, was still riding high on the charts.


1963 - ClassicBands.com

December 30
After enjoying four UK number one singles during the past twelve months, The Beatles win Group Of The Year and Record Of The Year ("She Loves You") in the annual year-end poll of British music newspaper New Musical Express. Five weeks later, they will take America by storm when they appear on The Ed Sullivan Show.

1964 - ClassicBands.com

December 30
The Kinks' "All Day And All Of The Night" entered the Billboard Hot 100 at #69. During a nine week stay in the Top 40, the record will reach #7, and climbed to #2 in the UK. That's not a bad showing for a song that was originally rejected by the band's British record company, Pye, because it was "too blue-collar, too working-class" and because the label bosses said the guitar sounded like a dog's bark.

1967 - ClassicBands.com

December 30
"Hello Goodbye" becomes The Beatles 15th Billboard number one hit. The flip side, "I Am The Walrus" reached #56, the lowest ranking for any charted "B" side of a Beatles number one single. John Lennon wrote nonsense words for "Walrus" after learning that a teacher at his old primary school was having his students analyze Beatles' lyrics. He would later say, "Let the fuckers work that one out."

1968 - ClassicBands.com

December 30
Peter Tork quit The Monkees, buying himself out of his contract for $160,000, which left him broke. He went on to form a group called Release and played banjo on George Harrison's soundtrack to the film Wonderwall. He later did some club performances and live television appearances before intermittently returning to The Monkees in 1986.

December 30
Frank Sinatra records "My Way" for his own label, Reprise Records. With lyrics by Paul Anka, set to the tune of the French song "Comme d'habitude" (As usual), the song would rise to #2 on Billboard's Easy Listening Chart and #27 on the Hot 100. In the UK, it went to #5, and spent seventy-five weeks in the Top 40, and another forty-nine weeks in the Top 75.

1970 - ClassicBands.com

December 30
Elvis Presley tours FBI headquarters in Washington DC. He requests and is given a permit to carry a gun in every state.

1976 - ClassicBands.com

December 30
ABBA, the world's most successful singing group of the seventies, are awarded a US Gold record for their "Greatest Hits" album. Despite the title of the compilation, only half of the tracks had actually charted as hit singles in America.

1977 - ClassicBands.com

December 30
After an appeal by lawyers for Warner Brothers Records, the US Immigration Service reverses its decision to bar The Sex Pistols from entering the United States.

1978 - ClassicBands.com

December 30
After selling over 35 million albums since forming in 1970, Emerson, Lake And Palmer announce that they are splitting up.


1981 - ClassicBands.com

December 30
The J. Geils Band album "Freeze-Frame" is awarded a Gold record. The LP would reach number one on the Billboard Hot 200 chart in February 1982 and remain at the top for four weeks on the strength of the hit singles "Centerfold" (#1) and "Freeze Frame" (#4). Less than two weeks after receiving the Gold designation, the R.I.A.A. would certify it as Platinum for sales of one million copies.

1995 - ClassicBands.com

December 30
55 year old Clarence Satchell, guitarist and saxophone player for the '70s R&B group The Ohio Players, died from a brain aneurysm. The group placed eight songs in the Billboard Top 40, including two chart toppers, "Fire" in 1974 and "Love Rollercoaster" in 1976.

1998 - ClassicBands.com

December 30
Johnny Moore, lead singer for The Drifters on their 1964, #4 hit, "Under The Boardwalk", died of pneumonia while en route to a London hospital. He was 64.


1999 - ClassicBands.com

December 30
George Harrison was attacked by an intruder in his Oxfordshire mansion. At about 3:00 a.m., Michael Abram, a 33 year old Liverpudlian, stabbed Harrison several times in the chest. With the help of wife Olivia and son Dhani, Abram was hit over the head with a lamp and then detained until police arrived. Harrison suffered a collapsed lung but eventually recovered from the wound. Abram would later be found not guilty by reason of insanity and less than two years after his trial, was given a conditional discharge.

2000 - ClassicBands.com

December 30
It was a very good year for several classic rockers. Pollstar's Top 10 list of tours showed that the number one concert draw was Tina Turner with earnings of $80.2 million from her Twenty Four Seven farewell tour. Fourth place was earned by KISS, at $62.7 million, and eighth spot was Crosby, Stills, Nash And Young with $42.1 million.

2002 - ClassicBands.com

December 30
Former Supremes singer Diana Ross was allegedly caught driving under the influence in Tucson, Arizona. The 58 year old Ross was pulled over by police responding to a report that her vehicle had been swerving. Her blood-alcohol content was determined to be 0.20, more than twice the legal limit. Ross, who was alone in the car, was polite to police at the scene and was driven by them to the location where she was staying in the area. She was cited with three counts of DUI, all misdemeanors, and later served a two-day sentence near her Connecticut estate.

December 30
According to a Nielsen SoundScan survey, total CD album sales were down 10.7% in 2002, marking the sharpest sales decrease from the previous year in the 11-year tracking history. It was the second straight year the market declined, following steady growth since Nielsen first began tracking the US market in 1991. Total album sales in 2002 were 681 million, compared with 762.8 million the previous year. Country album sales posted the largest increase, as sales rose 12.2% from 2001. This rise was largely fuelled by such crossover sensations as The Dixie Chicks, Shania Twain, Alan Jackson, and Faith Hill.

2009 - ClassicBands.com

December 30
Burton Cummings, lead singer of The Guess Who, was named an Officer of the Order of Canada by Governor General Michaelle Jean. The Order of Canada is one of the country's highest civilian honors and was established in 1967 to mark a lifetime of outstanding achievement, dedication to community and service to the nation.

2010 - ClassicBands.com

December 30
Bobby Farrel, vocalist for Boney M, who topped the charts with "By the Rivers of Babylon" in 1978, died of natural causes at the age of 61.

2015 - ClassicBands.com

December 30
78-year-old Bill Cosby was formally charged with sexual assault in relation to a 2004 accusation in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. Cosby reached #4 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1967 with "Little Old Man (Uptight - Everything's Alright)". He also placed fifteen albums on the Hot 200, beginning with "I Started Out As A Child" in 1964.


2016 - ClassicBands.com

December 30
Allan Williams, The Beatles' first manager, died in Liverpool at the age of 86. After booking John, Paul, George and Stuart Sutcliffe into his coffee bar, Jacaranda, he helped them get other gigs as well, including a short tour of Scotland with Johnny Gentle. After the group took on an extended engagement at the Top Ten Club in Hamburg, they fell out with Williams over the commission he believed he was owed. Williams later became known as "The Man Who Gave the Beatles Away" from the title of his autobiography.

2020 - ClassicBands.com

December 30
Alto Reed, the longtime saxophonist for Bob Seger And The Silver Bullet Band, died after a long battle with colon cancer. He was 72.



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