Rock 'n' Roll History for
December 4


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1954 - ClassicBands.com

December 4
The Chordettes' version of "Mr. Sandman" reaches #1 on the Billboard Top 100 for the first of seven consecutive weeks. The record, which was also a #11 hit in the UK, was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2002. The Four Aces also had a successful version of the song during the same year, and that's the one that we hear in the film Back To The Future when Marty first realizes he is in 1955.


1956 - ClassicBands.com

December 4
Elvis Presley stopped by unexpectedly at Sun Records in Memphis and found Jerry Lee Lewis and Johnny Cash watching Carl Perkins in the studio. The four ended up taping some songs together, but recordings from the impromptu session would not be pressed on to discs for another twenty-five years when they were released as "The Million Dollar Quartet".

1957 - ClassicBands.com

December 4
After hearing reports that many US radio stations had banned Elvis' Christmas album because of their shock over "the Pelvis" singing religious songs, DJ Allen Brooks of CKWS in Kingston, Ontario, plays the entire album and invites listeners to call in their opinion. Of eight hundred callers, only 56 disapprove of Presley's sacred music.

1960 - ClassicBands.com

December 4
After reaching #28 with their first chart entry, "Honest I Do" earlier in the year, Kathy Young And The Innocents attain their only US Top 10 hit when "A Thousand Stars" tops out at #3. Young's follow-up, "Happy Birthday Blues" reached #30 on the Hot 100 in 1961, but subsequent singles such as "Magic Is The Night" and "The Great Pretender" missed the Top 40.

1961 - ClassicBands.com

December 4
Gene Chandler's "Duke of Earl" is released on Vee Jay Records. By the first week of February, 1962 it would reach number one in the US, on its way to selling over one million copies worldwide.

December 4
After making a generation of girls swoon over his role as Moondoggie in the film Gidget in 1959, James Darren enjoyed his biggest hit record when "Goodbye Cruel World" peaks at #3 on the Billboard Hot 100. He would go on to place nine more songs on the Billboard charts while also appearing in dozens of films and TV programs, most notably T.J. Hooker from 1982 to 1985.

1964 - ClassicBands.com

December 4
The Beatles' fan club in England announces its current membership now totals 65,000.

December 4
The Beatles released their fourth LP, "Beatles For Sale", which would spend eleven weeks as the #1 album in the UK.


1965 - ClassicBands.com

December 4
The Byrds' scored their second US number one hit with "Turn, Turn, Turn". Unlike their first chart topper, "Mr. Tambourine Man", the entire band was allowed to play on the recording instead of studio musicians. "Turn, Turn, Turn" made it to #26 in the UK.

December 4
A Greenwood, Mississippi group called The Gants enjoy their biggest chart success when their rendition of "Road Runner" peaks at #46 on the Billboard Hot 100. In Australia, the song reached #28.

December 4
London Records releases The Rolling Stones' album "December's Children (And Everybody's)". It would reach #4 on the Billboard 200 chart and receive a Gold Record for sales of 500,000 in America. The highest charting singles from the LP were "Get Off My Cloud" (US #1, UK #1) and "As Tears Go By" (US #22, UK #9).

1968 - ClassicBands.com

December 4
The New York Times quotes Soviet music critic A. Martinosa, who says that The Beatles "have become rich idols of the Philistines."

1969 - ClassicBands.com

December 4
President Richard Nixon, Vice-President Spiro T. Agnew, and forty US governors view simulated acid trip films and listen to Rock music in order to comprehend the generation gap.

1971 - ClassicBands.com

December 4
Don McLean's "American Pie" enters Billboard's Hot 100. The eight and a half minute song will eventually sell over three million copies and become one of the most discussed, dissected and debated songs that popular music has ever produced.

December 4
Sly And The Family Stone's "Family Affair" begins a three-week stint at the number one spot on Billboard's Hot 100. It is their third and final chart topper and their last to make the Top Ten before missed concert appearances and personal problems brought the band's career to a halt.

December 3
The Montreaux Casino caught fire and burned during a show by Frank Zappa And The Mothers of Invention. The incident was later immortalized by Deep Purple's 1973 hit, "Smoke on the Water". (some stupid with a flare gun, burned the place to the ground...")

December 4
Led Zeppelin started a two week run at the top of the UK album chart with "Four Symbols". Featuring the eight minute track, "Stairway To Heaven", the LP stayed on the US chart for nearly five years, selling over 11 million copies.


1972 - ClassicBands.com

December 4
Billy Paul received a Gold record for "Me and Mrs. Jones", which was still climbing the US charts on its way to number one in mid-December. Paul's only other appearance on the Billboard Top 40 would come in 1974 when "Thanks For Saving My Life" would reach #37.

1976 - ClassicBands.com

December 4
Tommy Bolin, the guitarist who took over when Ritchie Blackmore left Deep Purple in 1975, died from a drug overdose at the age of 25.

1980 - ClassicBands.com

December 4
Jimmy Page, Robert Plant and John Paul Jones inform the public of their decision not to re-form Led Zeppelin following the death of drummer John Bonham. Page and Plant did get together for a highly successful tour in 1995.

1982 - ClassicBands.com

December 4
A retrospective compilation album of John Lennon's solo music called "The John Lennon Collection" started a six-week run at #1 on the UK album chart. The front and back covers for the LP were taken by famed photographer Annie Leibovitz on December 8th, 1980, just five hours before Lennon was murdered.

1988 - ClassicBands.com

December 4
Roy Orbison played his final gig when he appeared at The Front Row Theater in the Cleveland suburb of Highland Heights. Orbison died of a heart attack two days later at the age of 52.

1993 - ClassicBands.com

December 4
52-year-old Frank Zappa died of prostate cancer at his Los Angeles home, surrounded by his wife and children. His family publicly announced: "Composer Frank Zappa left for his final tour just before 6:00 pm on Saturday." At a private ceremony the following day, Zappa was interred in an unmarked grave at the Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in Westwood, Los Angeles.

2002 - ClassicBands.com

December 4
Bernie Dwyer, drummer for Freddie And The Dreamers, died of lung cancer at the age of 62. The band placed four songs on the Billboard Hot 100 at the height of the British Invasion, including "I'm Telling You Now" (#1), "Do The Freddie" (#18) and "You Were Made For Me" (#21).


2006 - ClassicBands.com

December 4
Texas bookstore owner Bill Butler bought a page of working lyrics for Paul McCartney's song "Maxwell's Silver Hammer" for $192,000 at an auction of Rock and Pop memorabilia held at Christie's auction house.

2015 - ClassicBands.com

December 4
Ringo Starr's 1963 Ludwig Black Oyster Pearl drum set sold for $2.2 million at Julien's Live auction. The kit was used to record "Can't Buy Me Love", "I Want to Hold Your Hand", "She Loves You" and other Beatles classics from that era. Starr used the drums in more than 200 performances between May of 1963 and February of 1964. They were later employed by Paul McCartney during the recording of his 1970 solo album "McCartney". Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay was the successful bidder.

2018 - ClassicBands.com

December 4
Following the lead of Cleveland radio station WDOK-FM, three Canadian broadcasters, CBC Radio, Rogers Media and Bell Media pulled "Baby, It's Cold Outside" from their play lists. The song, written in 1944, came under renewed scrutiny over what some say are inappropriate lyrics which have been amplified in the wake of the #MeToo movement.

2020 - ClassicBands.com

December 4
Primary Wave Music Publishing announced that they had acquired a majority stake in Stevie Nick's publishing copyrights. The announcement came after U.S. President Elect Joe Biden proposed increasing the top federal tax rate on capital gains from 20% to 40%. Such a change would raise tax bills for songwriters selling major catalogs considerably.

2021 - ClassicBands.com

December 4
Stonewall Jackson, the Country music singer known for the 1959 Billboard #4 hit "Waterloo" and a 60-plus-year tenure with the Grand Ole Opry, died at the age of 89. Along with that one Hot 100 chart entry, he also enjoyed thirty-six hits on the Billboard Country Music chart. Stonewall was his given name, not a nickname or assumed moniker. His father named him after the Confederate Army general and claimed to be one of his descendants.




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