Rock 'n' Roll History for
January 19


<-- Previous Day -- Home Page -- Next Day -->



1957 - ClassicBands.com

January 19
Fats Domino reaches #2 on Billboard's Top 100 chart with his rendition of "Blueberry Hill". Although he will go on to have a total of thirty-seven Top 40 hits, this will be his highest charting record. The song would later be ranked #82 in Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.

January 19
Pat Boone sings at Dwight Eisenhower's presidential inauguration ball.


1959 - ClassicBands.com

January 19
The Platters reach the number one spot on the US Pop chart for the fourth time with "Smoke Gets In Your Eyes", a ballad that was written by Otto Harbach and Jerome Kern in 1933. The record will top the UK chart next month.

1966 - ClassicBands.com

January 19
A documentary titled A Boy Called Donovan airs on British TV. The film follows singer Donovan Leitch as he makes music and goes to parties. In one scene, one of his associates is seen smoking marijuana, which at the time was considered shocking. Donovan soon becomes a target for the London drug squad, who make him their first high-profile bust when they arrest him in June for possession of marijuana. The Beatles and The Rolling Stones are later casualties.

January 19
Columbia Records releases Simon And Garfunkel's "Homeward Bound". The song will reach #5 on the Hot 100 and the Cashbox Best Sellers Chart, as well as #9 in the UK. In 2016, Simon said he wrote the song in a railway station near Liverpool.

1967 - ClassicBands.com

January 19
Lesley Gore appears as Catwoman's sidekick, Pussycat, on ABC-TV's Batman.

1970 - ClassicBands.com

January 19
The soundtrack to the 1969 film Easy Rider, featuring "Born To Be Wild", "If 6 Was 9" and "Ballad of Easy Rider", is certified Gold for sales of 500,000 copies. The LP had peaked at #6 on the Billboard album chart the previous September.

1971 - ClassicBands.com

January 19
During court proceedings held to dissolve The Beatles' partnership, Ringo testifies under oath that "Paul behaved like a spoiled child."

1973 - ClassicBands.com

January 19
The Bobby Darin Show debuts on NBC. It is canceled next April after just thirteen episodes.

1974 - ClassicBands.com

January 19
A song called "Show and Tell" by Al Wilson overcame all odds and rose to the top spot on the Billboard Hot 100. The tune had failed to become a hit for Johnny Mathis and was relegated to the "B" side of Wilson's single, but still ended up selling over three million copies and had a chart run of sixteen weeks.

January 19
For $4 you could see Bruce Springsteen at Kent State University in Ohio as the opening act for Black Oak Arkansas.

1976 - ClassicBands.com

January 19
American promoter Bill Sargent issues a $30 million offer to The Beatles to re-unite for one show. He proposes that the band play together for at least twenty minutes at any venue they choose on July 5th. The former members of the group wasted no time in turning him down, but Sargent would later say that he was shocked by the refusal.

1980 - ClassicBands.com

January 19
Michael Jackson earns his third, solo, number one hit with "Rock With You". The song was written by Rod Temperton, who also wrote Jackson's 1984 hit, "Thriller".

1993 - ClassicBands.com

January 19
An inaugural concert is held in Landover, Maryland to honor President-elect Bill Clinton. Aretha Franklin sings "I Have A Dream" and Fleetwood Mac perform "Don't Stop", a tune that the Clinton campaign used as their theme song. Others appearing were Michael Jackson, Michael Bolton, Judy Collins, Chuck Berry and Little Richard.

1994 - ClassicBands.com

January 19
Paul McCartney inducts John Lennon into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, saying "The thing you must remember is, that I'm the number one John Lennon fan. I love him to this day and I always did love him."

1998 - ClassicBands.com

January 19
Rock 'n' Roll pioneer Carl Perkins died of stroke related causes at the age of 65. Carl wrote and recorded "Blue Suede Shoes" which went to number 2 for him in 1956, selling 2 million copies. The Elvis Presley version topped out at number 20 the same year. Alcoholism and a car accident kept Perkins from fulfilling his full potential, as he never reached the US Top 40 again.

2000 - ClassicBands.com

January 19
Tourism officials in Liverpool were prevented from erecting signs saying 'Liverpool, the Birthplace Of The Beatles', because the Highways Agency thought the signs would be a distraction to motorists.

2006 - ClassicBands.com

January 19
Soul singer Wilson Pickett suffered a fatal heart attack at the age of 64. During his career, he placed 38 songs on Billboard's Hot 100 chart, including "Land Of 1000 Dances" (#6) and "Funky Broadway" (#8). He also reached the R&B chart 39 times, and led that list on five different occasions.

2007 - ClassicBands.com

January 19
Denny Doherty, the angelic voice that carried the '60s Folk-Pop group The Mamas And Papas through such memorable hits as "California Dreamin'" and "Monday, Monday", died after suffering an aneurysm in his abdomen. He was 66. After the group broke up, Doherty pursued a solo career before rejoining a reconstituted version of The Mamas And Papas in 1982. From 1993 to 2001, he played the part of the Harbour Master, as well as the voice-overs of characters in Theodore Tugboat, a children's television show that chronicled the lives of vessels in Halifax Harbour.

2008 - ClassicBands.com

January 19
John Stewart, singer / songwriter who was a member of The Kingston Trio in the early '60s, but more often remembered for writing The Monkees' hit, "Daydream Believer", died following a brain aneurysm. Stewart also had a successful solo career which included four dozen albums and a Billboard #9 hit single with "Gold" in 1979.

2009 - ClassicBands.com

January 19
Aretha Franklin gave a rousing performance of Samuel F. Smith's "My Country 'Tis of Thee" in front of the Capitol Building in Washington, D.C., celebrating the inauguration of Barack Obama as the 44th president of the United States.

2010 - ClassicBands.com

January 19
58-year-old Phoebe Snow, who reached #5 in the US in 1975 with "Poetry Man", suffered a cerebral hemorrhage and slipped into a coma. She would pass away on April 26, 2011.

2012 - ClassicBands.com

January 19
A spokesman for The Bee Gees' Robin Gibb confirmed that he was undergoing chemotherapy treatment in a bid to beat colorectal cancer. He would lose that battle the following May 20th at the age of 62.

2023 - ClassicBands.com

January 19
David Crosby, a co-founder of both The Byrds and Crosby, Stills And Nash, passed away at the age of 81 after a long illness. He was inducted into The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame as a member of both groups.

2024 - ClassicBands.com

January 19
Mary Weiss, the lead singer of the 1960s girl group The Shangri-Las, died at the age of 75. The group placed six song on the Billboard Hot 100 between 1964 and 1966, including "Remember (Walking in the Sand)" (US #5), "Leader Of The Pack" (US #1) and "I Can Never Go Home Anymore" (US #6).



<-- Previous Day -- Home Page -- Next Day -->