Rock 'n' Roll History for
July 13


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1959 - ClassicBands.com

July 13
Paul Anka's "Lonely Boy" was the number one song on the Billboard Hot 100. Paul would also sing the song in the movie Girls Town, in which he starred with Mamie Van Doren and Mel Torme.

1964 - ClassicBands.com

July 13
Three days after it was released by Parlophone Records in the UK, Capitol Records issues The Beatles' single, "A Hard Day's Night" in the US. The song would top the charts in both of those countries and ten others around the world. It would go on to win a Grammy for Best Performance by a Vocal Group at next year's ceremony.


1968 - ClassicBands.com

July 13
Steppenwolf's "Born To Be Wild" is released in the US, where it will reach #2. A line from the song which includes the words "heavy metal thunder" is often credited with popularizing a new term for loud, guitar dominated music.

July 13
Black Sabbath played their first gig at a small backstreet Blues club in Birmingham, England. The group would develop into one of the biggest Heavy Metal bands of the 1970's with such albums as "Paranoid", "Masters of Reality" and "Sabbath, Bloody Sabbath".

1974 - ClassicBands.com

July 13
George McRae had the top tune on the Billboard Hot 100 with "Rock Your Baby", a song written and produced by Harry Casey and Rick Finch, who would go on to have their own hits with K.C. And The Sunshine Band. "Rock Your Baby" also went to number one on the UK singles chart, becoming one of the fewer than forty all-time singles to have sold ten million copies or more worldwide.

July 13
Eric Clapton's version of Bob Marley's "I Shot The Sheriff" is released in America where it will become his only US #1. Clapton would later say "I tried to ask him (Marley) what the song was all about, but couldn't understand much of his reply. I was just relieved that he liked what we had done."

July 13
After topping the Billboard Hot 100 last week, vocalist Flemming Williams led The Hues Corporation to the number one spot on the Cash Box Best Sellers chart with "Rock The Boat". The record first appeared as though it would flop, as several months went by without much radio airplay or sales activity. It wasn't until the song became a Disco club favorite in New York that Top 40 radio finally began playing the song.

1976 - ClassicBands.com

July 13
Elvis Presley has his father Vernon fire three of his security crew, Sonny West, Red West and Dave Hebler. No reason for the dismissal was ever given to the trio. Sonny West and his cousin Red had been with Elvis since 1960. Hebler had been his self-defense instructor and personal bodyguard for four years.


1978 - ClassicBands.com

July 13
Britain's BBC announces a ban on The Sex Pistols' latest single "No One Is Innocent", which features vocals performed by Ronnie Biggs, a British criminal notorious for his part in the Great Train Robbery of 1963. At the time of the recording, Biggs was living in Brazil, still wanted by the British authorities but immune from extradition. Despite the lack of radio play, the song would still reach number seven on the UK chart. As for Biggs, he voluntarily returned to the United Kingdom in 2001 and spent several years in prison before being released on compassionate grounds in 2009.

1985 - ClassicBands.com

July 13
The first Live Aid concerts were held at JFK Stadium in Philadelphia and at Wembley Stadium in London. Producer Bob Geldof headed the effort by attracting big name artists such as The Who, Paul McCartney, David Bowie, Mick Jagger, Queen, Bryan Adams, Tina Turner, The Cars, Hall And Oates, Phil Collins and Lionel Richie. The performances were shown live via satellite for 18 consecutive hours and helped raise millions of dollars for starving people in Ethiopia.

July 13
Madonna is featured in Penthouse magazine with pictures lifted from a soft-core porn film she had made years earlier. Most of these photos had already been published in Spin magazine.


1986 - ClassicBands.com

July 13
Coke Escovedo, an American percussionist who played for Santana, Stevie Wonder and Herbie Hancock, as well as forming the band Azteca, died of cirrhosis at the age of 45.

1987 - ClassicBands.com

July 13
Representatives of fifty of America's largest record retailers are guests at Michael Jackson's home in Encino, California to preview his new album, "Bad". The LP, which includes the singles, "I Just Can't Stop Loving You", "Bad", "The Way You Make Me Feel", "Man in the Mirror" and "Dirty Diana", would go on to reach number one on the Billboard Hot 200 chart and sell over 30 million copies worldwide.

1995 - ClassicBands.com

July 13
Sony announces that it has accepted a $40 million buyout of George Michael's contract, following the singer's request. The company would retain the rights to his back catalog, a greatest hits album and would receive 3% of retail sales of his next two albums.

1996 - ClassicBands.com

July 13
Over 2,000 guitar players, including Chet Atkins and Jeff "Skunk" Baxter, set a new world record for the largest jam session ever when they played "Heartbreak Hotel" for 75 straight minutes at Nashville's Riverfront Park. The previous record was set in Vancouver, Canada on May 7th, 1994, when Randy Bachman led 1,322 mostly-amateur guitarists in a performance that lasted 68 minutes.

1997 - ClassicBands.com

July 13
John Denver's drunk driving trial ended in a hung jury, deadlocked 3-3. Denver's defense attorney argued that the singer suffered from a thyroid condition that had distorted his blood alcohol tests.

2003 - ClassicBands.com

July 13
Eileen Rodgers, a nightclub singer and Big Band vocalist who placed two songs on the Billboard Pop chart with "Miracle Of Love" (#18 in 1956) and "Treasure Of Your Love" (#26 in 1958), died of lung cancer three days after her 73rd birthday.


2004 - ClassicBands.com

July 13
Arthur Kane, best known as the bassist for the pioneering Glam Punk band The New York Dolls, died of leukemia at the age of 55.

July 13
Jimmy Buffett releases his twenty-fifth studio album, "License to Chill". The LP would sell 238,600 copies during its first week of release and became his only album to reach the top of the Billboard 200 album chart. Two singles from the collection also did well on Billboard's Country Chart, with "Hey, Good Lookin'" reaching #8 and "Trip Around the Sun" climbing to #20.

2010 - ClassicBands.com

July 13
Tom Jones received an apology from Island Records after a company executive's e-mail branded his comeback album Praise & Blame a "sick joke." However, the e-mail leak prompted some members of the UK press to suggest that it was actually a clever marketing stunt in the build-up to the July 26 release.

2015 - ClassicBands.com

July 13
Clark County medical examiners issued a statement that said they had found no evidence to prove allegations by two of B.B. King's adult children that the Blues legend had been poisoned, hastening their father's death last May.

2019 - ClassicBands.com

July 13
Ringo Starr and his brother-in-law Joe Walsh joined Paul McCartney near the ending of a concert at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles and played two Beatles classics, "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" and "Helter Skelter". As he exited the stage, the drummer thanked the audience while McCartney saluted him with Starr's catchphrase, "Peace and love."

2020 - ClassicBands.com

July 13
Nielsen released the stats on music consumption for the first half of the year and Classic Rock artists were among the most streamed. Fifty years after they broke up, The Beatles came in as the #1 streamed artist. They were followed by Queen (#2), Fleetwood Mac (#4) and Metallica (#5). The Los Angeles based group, Imagine Dragons were #3. The top five most streamed Rock albums of 2020 thus far were "Queen's Greatest Hits" at #1, followed by Elton John's "Diamonds", Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Chronicle, Vol. 1", "Journey's Greatest Hits" and Fleetwood Mac's "Rumours".



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