Rock 'n' Roll History for
January 30


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1955 - ClassicBands.com

January 30
Although more than half a million jukeboxes were scattered around North America, US manufacturer AMI finally introduces the pay-for-play devices in the UK. Company president John Haddock says he intended to target the ever growing coffee house market first.

1956 - ClassicBands.com

January 30
Elvis Presley records a cover version of Carl Perkins "Blue Suede Shoes" which will reach number 20 on the US Pop chart next April.

1958 - ClassicBands.com

January 30
Elvis Presley's "Jailhouse Rock" enters the UK chart at #1, the first single ever to do so. It would remain there for three weeks.

1961 - ClassicBands.com

January 30
The Shirelles became the first girl group to have the number one song on the Billboard Hot 100 when "Will You Love Me Tomorrow" reached the top. The song went to #4 in the UK. They girls would go on to place ten more hits in the Billboard Top 40.

1965 - ClassicBands.com

January 30
Following her 1963, #8 hit "The Nitty Gritty", Shirley Ellis reaches #3 on the Billboard Pop chart and #4 on the R&B chart with a novelty tune called "The Name Game".

1968 - ClassicBands.com

January 30
Bobby Goldsboro records "Honey" at RCA Studios in Nashville, Tennessee. Bobby would later say that the recording went so well, the first take is the one that was used to press the record. It rose to the top of the Billboard Hot 100 on April 18th, and stayed there for four weeks. Certified Gold on April 4th, it was the best-selling record worldwide for 1968, even out-selling "Hey Jude". The song, however, has not withstood the test of time. In a 2011 poll, Rolling Stone readers ranked "Honey" the second-worst song of the 1960s. "Yummy, Yummy Yummy" by the Ohio Express was voted the worst.

1969 - ClassicBands.com

January 30
With Billy Preston sitting in on keyboards, The Beatles performed in public for the last time when they played a 42 minute rooftop concert above Apple Corps headquarters. The show was stopped by the police after neighbors complained about the noise. It had been 2 1/2 years since the Beatles had played Candlestick Park, San Francisco, on August 29th, 1966.

1973 - ClassicBands.com

January 30
After recently changing their name from Wicked Lester, Gene Simmons, Paul Stanley, Ace Frehley and Peter Criss make their first appearance as KISS at the Popcorn Club in Queens, New York.

1975 - ClassicBands.com

January 30
The Bee Gees begin recording "Jive Talkin", which will become their second US chart topper and their fourteenth Billboard Top 20 hit. Barry Gibb's inspiration for the song came when his wife commented on the sound their car made while crossing a bridge over Biscayne Bay into Miami. She noted, "It's our drive talkin'."

1982 - ClassicBands.com

January 30
Hall And Oates' "I Can't Go for That" hit number one on the Billboard Pop chart and the R&B chart simultaneously, one week after reaching number one on the Disco chart. It becomes only the fourth single by a white act to reach the top of the R&B chart since 1965. The record was also a #8 hit in the UK.

1989 - ClassicBands.com

January 30
George Michael has a big night at the 16th American Music Awards, winning Favorite Album for "Faith" and Favorite Male Artist in both the Pop / Rock and Soul / R&B categories.

1990 - ClassicBands.com

January 30
Bob Dylan is awarded France's highest cultural honor when he is named Commandeur dans l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by The Minister of Culture, Jack Lang.

2008 - ClassicBands.com

January 30
Madonna topped Forbes magazine's list of the twenty top grossing female performers. The 49 year old material girl banked $72 million between June 2006 and June 2007, while Barbra Streisand and Celine Dion followed, taking home $60m and $45m respectively.

2009 - ClassicBands.com

January 30
After a two year battle, James Brown's family reached a settlement over the late Soul singer's estate that would divide Brown's remaining assets and give his beneficiaries the ability to make money by using his music and likeness. Half of Brown's assets were to go to his charitable trust to educate his grandchildren and needy students in Georgia and South Carolina. The rest would be split between his surviving spouse, Tomi Rae Hynie and some of Brown's adult children.

2011 - ClassicBands.com

January 30
Publishing industry insiders reported that Bob Dylan had signed a six-book deal with Simon & Schuster that includes two follow-ups to his 2004 best-selling memoir Chronicles: Volume One.

January 30
Motley Crue frontman Vince Neil said that he was ready to serve his 15-day jail term for a driving under the influence conviction, insisting he's learned his lesson. "I just have to move on and get past it and get it behind me." Neil was to surrender to authorities at the Clark County Detention Center on February 15th.

2013 - ClassicBands.com

January 30
Patty Andrews, the last surviving member of The Andrews Sisters, died of natural causes at the age of 94. Although they never had a hit record during the Rock 'n' Roll era, the trio placed 43 songs on the Billboard Top Ten and sold over 75 million records during a career that began in 1938. They are most often remembered for the 1940 hit, "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy".

2016 - ClassicBands.com

January 30
Just twenty days after he died of liver cancer, David Bowie's "Blackstar" album hits #1 in America. It's Bowie's first chart topping LP in the States, selling 181,000 copies in its first week. The album also peaked at number one in 24 other countries, including the UK.

2024 - ClassicBands.com

January 30
Melinda Wilson, the wife of The Beach Boys' Brian Wilson, passed away at the age of 77. The pair met at a Cadillac dealership in Los Angeles in 1986 and married in 1995, later adopting five children. Brian issued a statement that read in part, "My heart is broken. Our five children and I are just in tears. We are lost. Melinda was more than my wife. She was my savior."



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