Rock 'n' Roll History for
May 9


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1958 - ClassicBands.com

May 9
Alan Freed quit his job at radio station WINS over what he says is the station's failure to support him after he was indicted for causing a riot in Boston. Trouble began after he told the audience, "It looks like the Boston police don't want you to have a good time."

1959 - ClassicBands.com

May 9
16 year-old Wayne Newton made his Las Vegas debut at the Freemont Hotel. That first booking, scheduled to last two weeks, stretched into three years. Newton went on to become the king of the Vegas showrooms, earning close to $20-million a year.

1964 - ClassicBands.com

May 9
After fourteen weeks at number one, The Beatles are finally pushed out of Billboard's top spot by 63-year-old Louis Armstrong's "Hello Dolly". When the song topped the Hot 100, Stachmo set a record for the oldest artist to ever have a number one song.

May 9
With his current US hit, "Nadine (Is It You?)" still on the charts back home, Chuck Berry makes his UK stage debut at the Astoria Theatre in Finsbury Park. His twenty-one city tour would feature a variety of opening acts, including Carl Perkins and The Animals.

1970 - ClassicBands.com

May 9
The Guess Who hit the top spot on Billboard's Hot 100 with "American Woman". The song was born by accident when guitarist Randy Bachman was playing a heavy riff on stage after he had broken a string and the band had taken a break. The other members joined in on the jam and Burton Cummings started singing the first thing that came into his head. A fan in the audience had it all on tape and presented it to the group after the show. It was quickly developed into a full song in the studio and ended up spending three weeks at the top of the Billboard Hot 100 chart. It made #19 in the UK.

1973 - ClassicBands.com

May 9
Mick Jagger adds $150,000 of his own money to the $350,000 raised by The Rolling Stones' January benefit concert for victims of the Nicaraguan earthquake.

1974 - ClassicBands.com

May 9
Bruce Springsteen And The E Street Band opened for Bonnie Raitt at the Harvard Square Theatre. Music critic Jon Landau was in the audience that night and in his review he wrote, "I saw rock and roll's future and its name is Bruce Springsteen."

1990 - ClassicBands.com

May 9
Irish singer Sinead O'Connor refuses to perform on NBC-TV's Saturday Night Live after shock comedian Andrew Dice Clay is named as host. Two years later, O'Connor would do some shocking of her own when she ripped up a picture of the Pope on the same show, sending her career into ruins.

1992 - ClassicBands.com

May 9
Seventeen years after his first American chart entry, Bruce Springsteen makes his US TV debut when he appears on Saturday Night Live with host Tom Hanks.

1998 - ClassicBands.com

May 9
Brian Wilson put aside his decades-long aversion to touring and plays his first ever solo concert at a show at the Cultural Arts Center in St. Charles, Illinois. That evening, Wilson played a mix of his own work and Beach Boys' classics.

2010 - ClassicBands.com

May 9
Cyndi Lauper is the ninth contestant booted off Season 9 of The Celebrity Apprentice.

2013 - ClassicBands.com

May 9
Cher's mother, 86-year-old Georgia Holt, made her Billboard chart debut when her LP "Honky Tonk Woman" entered the Heatseekers Albums Chart at #13 and the Top Country Albums Chart at #43.

2016 - ClassicBands.com

May 9
67-year-old Ozzy Osbourne and his 63-year-old wife Sharon announced that they had split up after more than 33 years of marriage. After a few months of separation, the pair would reconcile, with Sharon telling Good Morning Britain, "You know what, my hubby, he might be a dirty dog, but he's my dirty dog. I've known him since I was 18 and I'm 64. Can you believe it?" The couple wed on July 4th, 1982 and had three children together, Aimee, Kelly and Jack Osbourne.

May 9
Britta Lee Shain, a former girlfriend of Bob Dylan, released a memoir called Seeing the Real You at Last, in which she shared various anecdotes about their love affair and stories about her days with the music legend. Shain had previously dated Dylan's tour manager before the star swooped in and stole her away.

2017 - ClassicBands.com

May 9
Michael Parks, who hit #20 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1970 with "Long Lonesome Highway", the theme from the TV show Then Came Bronson, passed away at the age of 77. In a career that spanned six decades, Parks acted in more than 100 films and TV shows, including Kill Bill and Twin Peaks.

2019 - ClassicBands.com

May 9
John Lennon's personal copy of The Beatles' "Yesterday And Today" that featured the "butcher cover" was sold by Julien's Auctions for $233,511. The original cover, which showed the group dressed in butcher smocks with raw meat and mangled dolls, sparked so much outrage that it was soon replaced with one that showed them posing with a steamer trunk. The album hung on the wall of Lennon's New York apartment until he gave it to an avid Beatles fan. From there an anonymous American collector purchased the LP at the Beatles Story Museum in Liverpool during a general sale of its merchandise.


2020 - ClassicBands.com

May 9
"Little Richard" Penniman, a founding father of Rock 'n' Roll, died of bone cancer at the age of 87. Placing just nine songs in the Billboard Top 40 between 1956 and 1958, he nonetheless influenced dozens of prominent musicians and set the standard for showmanship with his pompadour hairdo, over the top makeup, and glass-beaded shirts.



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