Rock 'n' Roll History for
June 18


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1948 - ClassicBands.com

June 18
Columbia Records begins the first mass production of the 33 1/3 RPM LP. The new format could contain a maximum of 23 minutes of music per side versus the approximately three minutes that could be squeezed on to a 78 RPM disc.

1954 - ClassicBands.com

June 18
Guitarist Danny Cedrone died following a freak stairway fall just a month after he had recorded the lead guitar solo on "Rock Around The Clock" with Bill Haley And His Comets.

1963 - ClassicBands.com

June 18
Paul McCartney celebrates his 21st birthday at the home of his Aunt Ginny (referred to as Aunty Gin in "Let 'Em In"), along with various friends, relatives and the other Beatles.

1966 - ClassicBands.com

June 18
Our parents were delighted to find out that Frank Sinatra's "Strangers In The Night" overtook The Rolling Stones' "Paint It Black" as the best selling single in the US, as listed on the Cashbox Best Sellers chart.


1974 - ClassicBands.com

June 18
Rare Earth drummer Peter Hoorelbeke is arrested after throwing his drumsticks into the crowd at the end of the band's concert.

1975 - ClassicBands.com

June 18
Elvis Presley was reported to have had some cosmetic surgery done to his face at Mid South hospital in Memphis.

1976 - ClassicBands.com

June 18
ABBA gives a performance in Stockholm for Sweden's King Carl XVI Gustaf and Silvia Sommerlath on the eve of their wedding.

June 18
Electric Light Orchestra's greatest hits collection, "OLE ELO" goes Gold, just as they begin their first major British tour. The LP contains the hit singles "Can't Get It Out of My Head", (US #9, UK #23), "Evil Woman" (US #10, UK #10), and "Strange Magic" (US #14, UK #38).


1977 - ClassicBands.com

June 18
Sex Pistol Johnny Rotten was slashed on his face and hands by knife-wielding youths on a London street. They objected to the Pistols' anti-monarchist song "God Save the Queen". The next day, another member of the Pistols, Paul Cook, was beaten by a gang armed with iron pipes.

June 18
James Taylor enters the Billboard chart with an update of Jimmy Jones's 1960 #1 hit, "Handy Man". Taylor's version will reach #4.

June 18
Fleetwood Mac score their only Billboard number one hit with "Dreams", which made #24 in the UK. Over the next dozen years, they would reach the US Top 40 thirteen more times.

June 18
The Beatles' "Live At The Hollywood Bowl", recorded in August, 1964 and August, 1965, rose to the top of the UK album chart. Across the pond, it would climb to #2 on the Billboard Hot 200.

1978 - ClassicBands.com

June 18
"Almost Summer", from the movie of the same name, peaks at #28 on the Hot 100. The song was recorded by a band called Celebration featuring Mike Love and was co-written by Love along with fellow Beach Boys members Brian Wilson and Al Jardine.

June 18
Grace Slick takes the stage with Jefferson Starship at the Lorelei Festival in Hamburg, Germany, and taunts the audience with comments about Nazis and World War II. The angry crowd reacts by destroying much of the band's equipment. Slick was asked to resign from the band by guitarist Paul Kantner. She did, but rejoined three years later, just in time for their 1981 album, "Modern Times".

1985 - ClassicBands.com

June 18
"Weird Al" Yankovic releases his third studio album, "Dare To Be Stupid". Featuring the single, "Like a Surgeon" (US #47), it was the first album of musical comedy to be issued on compact disc. The LP would peak at #50 on the Billboard 200 chart and be certified Gold by the Recording Industry Association of America on January 27th, 1986. On February 24th, 2003, it attained Platinum status for sales of one million copies.


1993 - ClassicBands.com

June 18
A&M Records chairman Jerry Moss and vice-chairman Herb Alpert announced they were leaving the company they founded more than 30 years earlier. They had sold A&M in 1990 to Polygram for about $500 million. Moss and Alpert started the label in the garage of Alpert's Los Angeles home in 1962.

2006 - ClassicBands.com

June 18
Paul McCartney's 1967 tune, "When I'm Sixty-Four" becomes a reality when the former Beatle celebrates his birthday.

2007 - ClassicBands.com

June 18
Hank Medress, vocalist for The Tokens, died of lung cancer at his Manhattan home at the age of 68. The Brooklyn quartet is most often remembered for their 1961, Billboard Hot 100 chart topper, "The Lion Sleeps Tonight".

2008 - ClassicBands.com

June 18
A Los Angeles hotel filed a lawsuit against Phil Spector, his wife and agent for failing to pay for accommodations for lawyers and expert witnesses in his murder trial. The Westin Bonaventure Hotel and Suites claimed that by the time Spector's trial ended with a hung jury, the defendants owed the hotel more than $104,000.

2011 - ClassicBands.com

June 18
Clarence Clemons, the burly sax player who helped develop Bruce Springsteen's early sound, died just six days after suffering a stroke at his Florida home. He was 69.

2015 - ClassicBands.com

June 18
Cyndi Lauper, Toby Keith and Van Morrison were among the inductees into the Song Writers Hall Of Fame at a star-studded gala in New York. The Grateful Dead's Jerry Garcia was also inducted posthumously alongside the band's lyricist Robert Hunter.



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