Rock 'n' Roll History for
July 10


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1950 - ClassicBands.com

July 10
The US music show Your Hit Parade premiered on NBC-TV. The program, which featured vocalists covering the top hits of the week, had been on radio since 1935. It moved to CBS in 1958 but was canceled the following year, unable to cope with the rising popularity of Rock 'n' Roll.

1954 - ClassicBands.com

July 10
New York radio station WINS announced the hiring of pioneer Rock disc jockey Alan Freed to be the host of their Rock 'n' Roll Party. As he did on his earlier Moondog's Rock 'n' Roll House Party Show on WJW in Cleveland, Freed programmed records by Black R&B artists that many White teenagers had never heard before. Freed is often credited with popularizing the term "Rock and Roll", although the phrase was first used in 1942 by Billboard magazine columnist Maurie Orodenker to describe upbeat recordings.

1961 - ClassicBands.com

July 10
"Tossin' and Turnin'" by 28 year old Bobby Lewis reaches the top of the Billboard chart for the first of a seven week run, one of the longest of the year. A few months later he'll have another Top Ten song, "One Track Mind", his only other major hit record.

1963 - ClassicBands.com

July 10
Martha And The Vandellas release "Heatwave", which will reach #4 on the Billboard Pop chart and #1 on the R&B chart by mid-August. The song became their first million-seller and eventually won the group their only Grammy nomination for Best R&B Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group.


1964 - ClassicBands.com

July 10
Manfred Mann release their version of "Do Wah Diddy Diddy", which will top the UK Official Chart next August and the Billboard Hot 100 the following October.

1965 - ClassicBands.com

July 10
The Rolling Stones classic rocker "Satisfaction" was number one in the US on both the Cashbox and Billboard charts. In 2004 Rolling Stone magazine placed "Satisfaction" in the number two spot on its list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time, and in 2006 it was added to the Library of Congress National Recording Registry, despite its sexually suggestive lyrics.

July 10
Wilson Pickett's "In The Midnight Hour" is released by Atlantic Records. The song would top the Billboard R&B chart and reach #23 on the Hot 100, starting a string of sixteen hit records on that chart which would stretch into 1972. Later ranked by Rolling Stone magazine at #134 on their 500 Greatest Songs Of All Time, the song was selected in 2007 for preservation in the National Recording Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or artistically significant."

July 10
The Strangeloves, a New York-based American songwriting team who pretended to be a band from Australia, cracked the Billboard Top 40 for the first time with "I Want Candy". They had already had success by writing "My Boyfriend's Back" for The Angles and would place two more of their own recordings on the chart with "Cara-Lin" (#39) and "Night Time" (#30).

July 10
The Kinks play the Seattle Center Coliseum in what turns out to be their last show on American soil until December 1969. After a row with a concert promoter at The Cow Palace near San Francisco, where the band refused to perform unless they were paid in advance, the promoter, Betty Kaye, filed a grievance with the American Federation of Musicians over the band's behavior. The Union then withheld the necessary work permits for the group, preventing them from future US performances. Ray Davies negotiated with the Musicians Union to lift the ban in April, 1969, which they did, but only after he and the band's management wrote an apology to Betty Kaye.

1966 - ClassicBands.com

July 10
Cat Stevens cuts his first record, "I Love My Dog" at Decca Records' studio in London. It would peak at #28 in the UK the following November.

1967 - ClassicBands.com

July 10
Kenny Rogers and several other members of the New Christy Minstrels quit to form the First Edition. The new group received their first national exposure on the Smothers Brothers TV show and went on to have such hits as "Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In)" in 1968 (US #5), "Ruby, Don't Take Your Love to Town" in 1969 (US #6) and 1971's "Something's Burning" (US #10), as well as hosting their own weekly TV show.


1968 - ClassicBands.com

July 10
The Nice was banned from Royal Albert Hall in London after stomping on and burning an American flag during a concert. Two years later, Keith Emerson, leader of the Nice, joined Greg Lake and Carl Palmer in Emerson, Lake and Palmer.

1969 - ClassicBands.com

July 10
Former Rolling Stones' guitarist Brian Jones is laid to rest at the Priory Road Cemetery in Prestbury, England. His bandmates Charlie Watts and Bill Wyman attend, but Mick Jagger and Keith Richards do not.

1971 - ClassicBands.com

July 10
Three Dog Night's rendition of "Liar" is released. It would become the sixth of the band's eleven Billboard Top Ten songs, reaching #7. The tune was written by Russ Ballard of the band Argent, and included on their 1970 self-titled debut album. It was released as the band's first single, but did not chart.

1972 - ClassicBands.com

July 10
Harry Nilsson's album, "Son of Schmilsson" is released. It featured George Harrison under the name George Harrysong and Ringo Starr, listed as Richie Snare, on some of the tracks.

1975 - ClassicBands.com

July 10
After being married for only ten days, Cher petitioned for divorce from Greg Allman. She would change her mind a few days later, but the pair eventually split for good in 1979.

July 10
Gladys Knight's NBC-TV Summer variety series begins. It would be canceled after just four episodes.

1976 - ClassicBands.com

July 10
The Starland Vocal Band, the first act to be signed to John Denver's new Windsong label, had the top tune on the Billboard chart with "Afternoon Delight". The song also topped the charts in Canada and reached #18 in the UK.

July 10
After years of trying to find hit material, England Dan and John Ford Coley reach the Billboard Hot 100 with, "I'd Really Love To See You Tonight". The single will rise to number two in America and sell over two million copies.


1979 - ClassicBands.com

July 10
Chuck Berry is sentenced to four months in prison and 1,000 hours of community service for income-tax evasion. In 1973, he short-changed Uncle Sam $200,000.

1986 - ClassicBands.com

July 10
The Grateful Dead's Jerry Garcia goes into a diabetic coma. He recovered and was released from hospital three weeks later on his 44th birthday. By the following December he was back onstage again.

1989 - ClassicBands.com

July 10
All four members of The Monkees were on hand when the band is awarded a star on The Hollywood Walk Of Fame.

1993 - ClassicBands.com

July 10
Bob Seger marries his third wife, Juanita Dorricott in a small private ceremony at The Village Club in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. The bride is 19 years younger than her husband. They would become the parents of a son Cole (born 1992) and a daughter Samantha Char (born 1995).

2000 - ClassicBands.com

July 10
Promoters cancel the remainder of a Supremes reunion tour due to poor ticket sales. The tour featured Diana Ross without Mary Wilson or Cindy Birdsong, who refused to join due to the little money they were offered.

2007 - ClassicBands.com

July 10
Arista Records announced a September release date for Barry Manilow's next album, "The Greatest Songs of the Seventies". This was his third volume of decade-driven, covers albums, the first two of which sold nearly 1.7 million copies in the United States combined.


2010 - ClassicBands.com

July 10
A US judge drastically reduced a $675,000 US verdict against a Boston University graduate student charged with illegally downloading and sharing 30 songs. The student admitted in court to downloading songs between 1999 and 2007 and a jury assessed the damage award last July. The US District Court judge in Boston cut the damage award to $67,500, stating the original fine was "unconstitutionally excessive" and "wholly out-of-proportion."

2011 - ClassicBands.com

July 10
A pub in Dundee, Scotland called Lennon's Bar was forced to change the name of the venue and remove all Beatles memorabilia after Yoko Ono threatened legal action for copyright infringement.

2015 - ClassicBands.com

July 10
John Fogerty filed a breach of contract lawsuit against two of his former Creedence Clearwater Revival band mates, Stu Cook and Doug Clifford, alleging that the pair were not honoring their earlier agreement that the name could only be used when the pair appeared on stage together.

2019 - ClassicBands.com

July 10
The first management contract The Beatles signed with Brian Epstein sold at a Sotheby's auction for $343,000. Signed by John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and original drummer Pete Best, the deal gave Epstein a fee of 10 percent, rising to 15 percent if the band's income reached $150 a week or more. The document, owned by Epstein's publisher Ernest Hecht, was sold to raise money for the Ernest Hecht Charitable Foundation.



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