Rock 'n' Roll History for
January 16


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1957 - ClassicBands.com

January 16
The Cavern Club opened its doors as a Jazz club in Liverpool, England. The Quarry Men first played there seven months later and four years after, they would return as The Beatles. Paul McCartney visited the re-built club near the end of 1999 for a short set of old Rock and Roll tunes.


1959 - ClassicBands.com

January 16
While on a whirlwind tour of the UK, The Everly Brothers receive a New Musical Express Award for being named the world's number one vocal group.

1965 - ClassicBands.com

January 16
Chad Allen And The Expressions release their first album under their new name, Guess Who. A single issued from the L.P. was a cover version of Johnny Kidd's "Shakin' All Over" that rose to #22 on the Hot 100 in late June of '65, and helped launch the career of one of Canada's most successful Rock bands.

1968 - ClassicBands.com

January 16
Blue Cheer release their debut album, "Vincebus Eruptum". The LP features a heavy-thunderous, Blues sound, and is considered a high-water mark of Psychedelic music. It will also be a formative influence on the Heavy Metal genre. The album peaked at #11 on the Billboard 200 chart and included the #14 cover of Eddie Cochran's 1958 hit, "Summertime Blues".

January 16
Elvis Presley records "U.S. Male" at RCA's Studio B in Nashville, Tennessee, with the song's composer, Jerry Reed on lead guitar. The single will rise to #28 during a four week stay in the Billboard Top 40 starting next April.

1970 - ClassicBands.com

January 16
Two days after it opens, the Bag One Gallery in London, England is raided by Scotland Yard. The police remove eight John Lennon lithographs under the Obscene Publications Act.

1972 - ClassicBands.com

January 16
David Seville, (real name: Ross Bagdasarian) who provided the voices of TV cartoon characters the Chipmunks, died just days short of his 53rd birthday. He also recorded the US number one hit "Witch Doctor" in 1958.

1974 - ClassicBands.com

January 16
After years of disappointing fans with missed performances and weak albums, Sly And The Family Stone find that they can't sell enough tickets to an eight show, six night engagement at Radio City Music Hall.


1976 - ClassicBands.com

January 16
Donny and Marie Osmond's TV variety show debuts on ABC, starting a three and a half year run.

January 16
Peter Frampton's "Frampton Comes Alive!" is released. The album takes just five weeks to go Gold and turns Platinum in less than three months. It sold 19 million copies in its first year.

1980 - ClassicBands.com

January 16
Paul McCartney is arrested after officials found half a pound of marijuana in his suitcase at Tokyo Airport. Wings' scheduled eleven date tour is canceled and Paul is sentenced to ten days behind bars.

1981 - ClassicBands.com

January 16
The TV series Harper Valley P.T.A., inspired by Jeannie C. Riley's 1968, Billboard #1 hit, debuts on NBC. Barbara Eden, who played scandalous single mom Stella Johnson in the movie of the same name, reprises her role. The show would be canceled after two seasons.

1982 - ClassicBands.com

January 16
Bertie Higgins' "Key Largo" entered the Billboard Hot 100, where it would reach #8, as well as #1 on the Adult Contemporary chart. The song was inspired by the 1948 film starring Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall. In the UK, it could climb no higher than #60.

1986 - ClassicBands.com

January 16
ABBA performs live for the last time at a show honoring their manager Stig Anderson on the Swedish TV show This Is Your Life.

1988 - ClassicBands.com

January 16
George Harrison tops the Billboard chart with the first single from his "Cloud Nine" album, "Got My Mind Set On You", an old favorite of George's that was originally recorded by James Ray in 1962. In the UK, Harrison's version spent four weeks at number 2.


1991 - ClassicBands.com

January 16
The Byrds, Wilson Pickett, Ike And Tina Turner and The Impressions are inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame.

1996 - ClassicBands.com

January 16
Jamaican authorities open fire on Jimmy Buffett's seaplane, mistaking it for a drug trafficker's plane. U2 singer Bono and Island Records producer Chris Blackwell were with Buffett, but no one was hurt. The incident inspired Buffett to write a song called "Jamaica Mistaica".

2000 - ClassicBands.com

January 16
71 year old Will "Dub" Jones of The Coasters passed away. The group placed nine songs on the Billboard Top 40 and four on the same UK chart between 1956 and 1961.

2004 - ClassicBands.com

January 16
Michael Jackson entered a plea of not guilty in a Santa Maria, California, courtroom, to multiple charges of child molestation. Though hundreds of fans enthusiastically greeted Jackson upon his arrival to the courthouse, he was reprimanded by Superior Court Judge Rodney S. Melville for being twenty minutes late. "You have started out on the wrong foot here," Melville told Jackson. "I want to advise you that I will not put up with that. It's an insult to the court."

January 16
John Siomos, who played drums on countless albums and singles with a host of bands and in studio recordings for artists such as Peter Frampton, Todd Rundgren, Mitch Ryder and Carly Simon, died at the age of 56.

2007 - ClassicBands.com

January 16
Pookie Hudson, the lead singer and songwriter for the Doo Wop group, The Spaniels, died of complications from cancer of the thymus at the age of 72. Hudson lent his romantic tenor to hits like "Goodnight, Sweetheart, Goodnight" and influenced generations of later artists.

2009 - ClassicBands.com

January 16
Former Culture Club front man Boy George (O'Dowd) was sentenced to 15 months in jail by a London judge for falsely imprisoning a male escort in his flat in east London. The 47-year-old singer admitted handcuffing Audun Carlsen to a wall in April 2007, but said he did so because Carlsen had stolen photos from his laptop.

January 16
The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry reported that ninety-five per cent of music downloaded online was done so illegally in 2008. The IFPI, which represents 1,400 companies in 72 countries, said that there were 1.4 billion tracks legally downloaded last year, but estimated that more than 40 billion music files were illegally shared.

2014 - ClassicBands.com

January 16
Michael Jackson's physician Dr. Conrad Murray lost his appeal to have his conviction of involuntary manslaughter overturned by a Los Angeles court.

January 16
73-year-old Toni Tennille filed for divorce from Daryl Dragon (The Captain), 71, after 39 years of marriage. The couple rose to fame in the Seventies for their songs "Love Will Keep Us Together" (#1 in 1975), "Muskrat Love" (#4 in 1976) and "Do that to Me One More Time" (#1 in 1979).

2015 - ClassicBands.com

January 16
London's O2 arena, O2 Academy Brixton and SSE Wembley Arena were among a string of U.K. venues that banned the use of "selfie sticks" over health and safety concerns. A selfie stick is an extendable phone and camera holder that allow the user to take a wider image or group shot.

January 16
After deliberating for just one hour, a jury ruled that '80s Pop star Rick Springfield did not injure a woman at a New York State Fair concert more than a decade earlier. A woman claimed that Springfield's buttocks hit her head, causing lasting injuries when the "Jessie's Girl" singer fell on her during a 2004 concert in suburban Syracuse.


2016 - ClassicBands.com

January 16
Gary Loizzo, the lead singer for The American Breed on their 1968 #5 hit, "Bend Me, Shape Me", died of pancreatic cancer at the age of 70. The band split in 1969 and Loizzo went on to open Pumpkin Studios where he produced hit albums for Styx.

2017 - ClassicBands.com

January 16
Steve Wright, who played bass with The Greg Kihn Band and co-wrote their biggest hits, passed away following a heart attack. The band is most often remembered for 1981's "The Breakup Song (They Don't Write 'Em)", 1983's "Jeopardy" and 1985's "Lucky".

2018 - ClassicBands.com

January 16
Glenn Frey's widow, Cindy filed a wrongful death lawsuit against doctors at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York. The suit claimed that hospital staff and the gastroenterologist who cared for the Eagles guitarist in 2015, were negligent in treating the singer's bowel disease. After a three-day trial, a jury would rule in favor of Mrs. Frey, awarding her $14.3 million.

2021 - ClassicBands.com

January 16
Phil Spector, the revolutionary music producer famed for his "wall of sound" production techniques, died of COVID-19 at the age of 81. Spector began his career in 1958 as co-founder, guitarist and vocalist of The Teddy Bears, writing their Billboard number one single, "To Know Him Is to Love Him". In 1960, he co-founded Philles Records, and at the age of 21, became the youngest ever American label owner to that time. His method of double tracking, over-dubbing and using multiple instruments produced hits for The Righteous Brothers, The Crystals, Darlene Love, The Ronettes, Ike And Tina Turner, and many more. He was inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame in 1989. Those achievements were mostly overshadowed by his conviction for the February 3rd, 2009 murder of actress Lana Clarkson at his mansion in Alhambra, California. At the time of his death, he was an inmate at the California Health Care Facility in Stockton, California, but actually passed away at an outside hospital. He would have been eligible for parole in 2024.




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