Rock 'n' Roll History for
November 15


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1956 - ClassicBands.com

November 15
Elvis Presley makes his acting debut as the movie Love Me Tender premieres. Despite critical reaction, it takes in nearly $4 million in just two months.

November 15
Johnny And The Moondogs, consisting of John Lennon, Paul McCartney and George Harrison, appear in the final round of Britain's TV Star Search at The Hippodrome Theatre, Manchester, where they perform "Think It Over" and "It's So Easy". Judging was done by the volume of applause each group received at the end of the night. Unfortunately, The Moondogs didn't have enough money to stay overnight and were forced to head back to Liverpool before they were called back to stage.

1965 - ClassicBands.com

November 15
The Rolling Stones make their US TV debut on Hullabaloo, performing "Get Off My Cloud".

November 15
The Beach Boys' LPs "Surfer Girl" and "Surfin' USA" were both certified Gold by the RIAA for sales of 500,000 copies each. Both albums had been released in 1963.


1966 - ClassicBands.com

November 15
The initial instrumental tracks for "Dedicated To The One I Love" by The Mamas & The Papas were recorded by The Wrecking Crew at Western Recorders in Hollywood. The vocals would be added eleven days later, with Michelle Phillips taking the lead. The song had been recorded twice before, first by an R&B group called The 5 Royals, who took it to #81 on the Hot 100 in 1961, and again by The Shirelles who had a #3 hit with it the same year. The Mamas & The Papas' rendition climbed to #2 in March, 1967, kept out of the top spot by The Turtles' "Happy Together".

1969 - ClassicBands.com

November 15
Janis Joplin is arrested at her concert in Tampa, Florida and charged with using "vulgar and indecent language". The incident began when a policeman with a bullhorn ordered people in the audience to sit down and Joplin responded, "Don't fuck with those people! Hey, Mister, what're you so uptight about? Did you buy a five dollar ticket?" When police backstage instructed Joplin to tell the audience to take their seats, she replied, "I'm not telling them shit." After being arrested in her dressing room, Joplin was released on bond and all charges were eventually dropped.

1971 - ClassicBands.com

November 15
Grand Funk Railroad release their sixth album, "E Pluribus Funk". Music critics bash it, but fans think otherwise and buy enough copies to push it to number five on the Billboard Hot 200 chart. The title of the LP is a play on the former motto of the US government, E Pluribus Unum (Out of many, one).

1973 - ClassicBands.com

November 15
Gary Glitter performs his million selling, UK #1 smash "I Love You, Love Me Love" on Top Of The Pops. Glitter is at the height of his career, selling out shows across the country. Unfortunately, a series of sex offenses, starting in 1997, would bring his career to a halt, and episodes of the program are no longer repeated.

1978 - ClassicBands.com.

November 15
After receiving a Gold Record for their hit, "Dance Dance Dance", Chic is awarded their second Gold disc of the year for "Le Freak". The song will hit #1 in the US next January and achieve sales of 7 million copies. It reached number seven on the UK Singles Chart.

1980 - ClassicBands.com

November 15
Kenny Rogers enjoyed his only solo, US Pop chart number one with "Lady". The Lionel Richie penned tune would also top the Country and Adult Contemporary charts and reach #12 in the UK.

1991 - ClassicBands.com

November 15
Jacques Morali, the producer and songwriter who formed Village People, died of complications from AIDS.


1992 - ClassicBands.com

November 15
Ozzy Osbourne performs what he said would be his last concert, in Costa Mesa. The show turns into a Black Sabbath reunion when former band mates Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler and Bill Ward join him on stage. Ozzy of course eventually returned to performing.

2000 - ClassicBands.com

November 15
The man who attacked George Harrison in December, 1999, was found not guilty by reason of insanity. Michael Abram, a paranoid schizophrenic, was sent to a psychiatric hospital for an indefinite period and was released on November 8th, 2011. He would later say, "If I could turn back the clock, I would give anything not to have done what I did in attacking George Harrison. But looking back on it now, I have come to understand that I was at the time not in control of my actions. I can only hope the Harrison family might somehow find it in their hearts to accept my apologies."

2009 - ClassicBands.com

November 15
61-year-old Yusuf Islam, known as Cat Stevens in the 1970s, took the stage in Dublin for the inaugural performance of his first full tour since 1976. After converting to Islam at the height of his popularity, he had rejected Pop music until 2006 when he released "An Other Cup", following it with "Roadsinger" in May of '09.

2011 - ClassicBands.com

November 15
A cardboard sign reading Bed Peace, created by John Lennon for his 1969 bed-in peace protest in Montreal, was sold by Christie's auction house to an anonymous telephone bidder for $155,600.

2012 - ClassicBands.com

November 15
The Beatles' Apple Corps gave the go-ahead to film company OVOW to start searching for amateur or professional shot clips of the group during their tours in the 1960s. The finished project will be a new Beatles concert film titled The Beatles Live!

2015 - ClassicBands.com

November 15
Songwriter P.F. Sloan passed away at the age of 70 after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer several weeks earlier. Among the hit songs he wrote were "Eve Of Destruction" by Barry McGuire, "A Must To Avoid" by Herman's Hermits, "You Baby" by The Turtles, "Where Were You When I Needed You" by The Grass Roots and "Secret Agent Man" by Johnny Rivers. Suffering from what was described as "physical and mental illness", Sloan was musically active only sporadically since the end of the 1960s.

2018 - ClassicBands.com

November 15
Roy Clark, a Country music star who reached #19 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1969 with "Yesterday When I Was Young", died of complications from pneumonia. He was 85. Highly renowned as a guitarist, banjo player, and fiddler, he was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2009. Between 1962 and 2000, Clark released forty-seven albums, with twenty-one of them reaching the Top 40 on the Billboard Country Albums chart.




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