Rock 'n' Roll History for
November 5


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1954 - ClassicBands.com

November 5
Elvis Presley made his only commercial when he sang a jingle for Southern Maid Doughnuts on the Louisiana Hayride radio program. Elvis sang "You can get 'em piping hot after four p.m., you can get 'em piping hot. Southern Maid Doughnuts hit the spot, you can get 'em piping hot after four p.m."

1956 - ClassicBands.com

November 5
The Nat 'King' Cole Show debuted on NBC-TV, becoming the first US musical variety show hosted by an African-American. After failing to secure national sponsorship, Cole decided to end the show in December, 1957, saying, "Madison Avenue is afraid of the dark."

1960 - ClassicBands.com

November 5
35-year-old Johnny Horton, who had a US number one hit in 1959 with "Battle of New Orleans", died when his Cadillac was hit by a drunken truck driver in Milano, Texas. Ironically, Johnny had just played his last show at the Skyline in Austin, where Hank Williams had played his last show as well. Horton's widow, Billy Jean, was also Hanks Williams' widow.


1966 - ClassicBands.com

November 5
Eight weeks after their TV series debuted, The Monkees had the number one record in the US with "Last Train To Clarksville". With lead vocals by Mickey Dolenz, the music on the record was performed by Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart's band, Candy Store Prophets.

1967 - ClassicBands.com

November 5
The Bee Gees' Robin Gibb survives a train wreck near London, England that killed 49 others. After the accident, he pulled his girlfriend, Molly Hullis, to safety and assists other passengers.

November 5
Kenny Rogers And The First Edition make their TV debut on the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour. Over the next three years, they will place seven songs on the Billboard Top 40 and have their own TV show in the Fall of 1971.

November 5
2,000 people attend an auction of Elvis Presley's personal belongings at his Circle G Ranch in Horn Lake, Mississippi, ten miles from Graceland.

1968 - ClassicBands.com

November 5
On his 21st birthday, Peter Noone of Herman's Hermits marries Mireille Strasser at the Church of the Immaculate Conception in London. Because Strasser was Jewish, the Catholic Noone needed a special dispensation for the couple to be married at the church. They would have one daughter, Natalie.

1969 - ClassicBands.com

November 5
Jerry Reed records "Amos Moses" at RCA Victor Studios in Nashville. When it is released in October, 1970 as the fourth and final single from the album "Georgia Sunshine", it would rise to #8 on the Billboard Hot 100. It has since been certified Gold for sales of one million copies by the Recording Industry Association of America.

1970 - ClassicBands.com

November 5
While making one of his rare stage appearances, The Beach Boys' Brian Wilson loses his balance several times and has to be helped backstage. His right ear, the better of the two, sustains severe damage because of the volume level on-stage.

November 5
Atlantic Records releases Led Zeppelin's "Immigrant Song". It would rise to #16 on the Billboard Hot 100 and be ranked at #18 on Rolling Stone's "100 Greatest Heavy Metal Songs of All Time" list in March, 2023. Although it made the Top Ten in eight other countries, the song did not chart in the UK.

1971 - ClassicBands.com

November 5
Announcer Al Dvorin utters what would become a well known phrase: "Elvis has left the building" at the end of a Minneapolis concert. He was asked to make the announcement in an effort to quiet the fans who continued to call for an encore. Ironically, Dvorin was killed in an automobile accident following a concert by an Elvis impersonator in August, 2004.

November 5
Elton John releases his fourth studio album, "Madman Across the Water". The LP features two hit singles, "Levon" (US #24) and "Tiny Dancer" (US #41) and would go on to be certified 2X Platinum by the RIAA in August, 1998. In his home country of England, the album proved to be one of his lowest charting efforts, clocking in at #41 on the UK album chart and spending just two weeks there.


1974 - ClassicBands.com

November 5
After radio station WKMI-AM in Kalamazoo, Michigan began playing it, Asylum Records releases the Eagles' "Best Of My Love" as the third single from their "On The Border" LP. The song would rise to #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and the Easy Listening chart for one week in March, 1975. Although the picture on the sleeve for the record showed Don Henley, Glenn Frey, Bernie Leadon, Randy Meisner and Don Felder, Felder had not joined the band when the song was recorded and does not appear on the track.

1977 - ClassicBands.com

November 5
Ozzy Osbourne quits Black Sabbath, only to rejoin a few weeks later. He eventually leaves again to pursue a solo career.

November 5
The manager of a Virgin Records store in Nottingham England is arrested and charged under the UK's Indecent Advertising Act for displaying a poster that read "Never Mind The Bollocks: Here's The Sex Pistols". At his trial two weeks later, defense lawyers called Professor James Kingsley, who testified that the word "bollocks" had several different meanings, both slang and proper. After a twenty minute deliberation, the court returned a verdict of not guilty.

1982 - ClassicBands.com

November 5
Mike Love, Carl Wilson and Al Jardine hand delivered a letter to Brian Wilson informing him that he was fired from The Beach Boys until such time that he entered treatment for his personal problems. Brian, who had ballooned to over 300 pounds, agreed and was soon off to Hawaii to begin his recovery.

1983 - ClassicBands.com

November 5
The Fixx, a New Wave, Techno-Pop band from London, England, enjoy their peak U.S. chart success when "One Thing Leads To Another" reaches #4 on the Billboard chart. The song would later be featured in the video game Grand Theft Auto: Vice City on the fictional radio station Flash FM. It also turned up in an episode of TV's Everybody Hates Chris and in the movie The House of the Devil.


1986 - ClassicBands.com

November 5
Bobby Nunn, vocalist for The Coasters on their 1958 hit, "Yakety Yak", died of a heart attack at the age of 61. The group placed sixteen songs on the Billboard Hot 100 between 1956 and 1964, including the Top 10 hits, "Searchin'", "Young Blood", "Yakety Yak", "Charlie Brown", "Along Came Jones" and "Poison Ivy".

1988 - ClassicBands.com

November 5
The Beach Boys had the number one record in the US when "Kokomo", from the movie Cocktail, reached the top. It made #25 in the UK. It had been 22 years since the group had their last US chart topper with "Good Vibrations". Their only other Top Ten hit in that time had been "Rock and Roll Music" in 1976.

1989 - ClassicBands.com

November 5
Former US Army Staff Sergeant Barry Sadler died at a Veterans Administration hospital in Nashville from complications brought on by an un-explained gun shot wound to the head, suffered 14 months earlier in Guatemala City. Sadler is best remembered for his hit "The Ballad of the Green Berets", which stayed on top of Billboard's Pop chart for five weeks in 1966. He was 49 years old at time of his death.

1996 - ClassicBands.com

November 5
American Recordings releases Johnny Cash's album, "Unchained". Johnny is backed by Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers, with guest appearances by Marty Stuart, Flea (bassist from Red Hot Chili Peppers), and Lindsey Buckingham and Mick Fleetwood of Fleetwood Mac. Not a big selling LP, it would make it to #26 on Billboard's Top Country Albums chart, but stalled at #170 on the Hot 100.

2002 - ClassicBands.com

November 5
Billy Guy, who sang baritone on the hits "Searchin'" and "Yakety Yak" as part of the 1950s vocal quartet The Coasters, died in Las Vegas from cardiovascular disease. He was 66.

2003 - ClassicBands.com

November 5
Bobby Hatfield, one-half of the Hall of Fame duo, The Righteous Brothers, died of an apparent heart attack at the age of 63. His was the voice that was featured on the 1965 hit, "Unchained Melody"

November 5
Jimmy Buffett wins his first Country Music Association Award when his duet with Alan Jackson, "It's Five O'clock Somewhere" is named Vocal Event Of The Year. The song spent eight non-consecutive weeks at #1 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart the previous summer, and came in at #4 on the year-end chart.

2005 - ClassicBands.com

November 5
Beach Boys singer Mike Love launched a lawsuit against former band mate Brian Wilson for using Love's likeness and the band trademark to promote Wilson's album "Smile", allegedly costing the other band members millions in unpaid revenue.

November 5
Link Wray, the electric guitar innovator who is often credited as the father of the power chord, died at his home in Copenhagen of natural causes. He was 76. His 1959 instrumental, "Rumble" was banned by many US radio stations, even thought it had no lyrics what so ever.


2009 - ClassicBands.com

November 5
Record label EMI filed a copyright violation suit against a US website after a string of Beatles tracks appeared online for download at discounted prices.

November 5
Marie Osmond's former manager, Karl Engemann, whom she dismissed on October 23rd, just 18 months into a 5 year contract, launched a lawsuit demanding $88,000 in back commission. Marie would answer by filing a counter suit.

2013 - ClassicBands.com

November 5
David Crosby announced his first solo album in twenty-one years, "Croz", would be released on January 28th, 2014. Crosby said, "This won't be a huge hit. It'll probably sell nineteen copies. I don't think kids are gonna dig it, but I'm not making it for them. I'm making it for me. I have this stuff that I need to get off my chest."

2015 - ClassicBands.com

November 5
Canadian Music Week announced that Andy Kim would be one of four inductees to the 2016 Canadian Music Industry Hall of Fame. During his career, Kim recorded nine Billboard Top 40 hits and sold over thirty million records.

2017 - ClassicBands.com

November 5
Robert Knight, the R&B singer who took "Everlasting Love" to #13 on the Hot 100 in 1967, died of an undisclosed illness at the age of 72. Although he released follow-up material, none met with much success and Knight later moved away from music to take a job at Vanderbilt University in Nashville as a lab technician, chemistry teacher and member of the grounds crew.

2018 - ClassicBands.com

November 5
Box office figures showed that the Freddie Mercury biographical film Bohemian Rhapsody was the top money making film for the previous weekend with a total worldwide gross of $145.1 million, against a production budget of about $52 million. Despite these impressive sales figures, the film received a mixed critical reception, with several historical inaccuracies being pointed out, in particular the timing of Mercury's AIDS diagnosis.

2021 - ClassicBands.com

November 5
ABBA release their ninth album, "Voyage", the group's first LP of new material in forty years. It would debut at the top of the charts in sixteen European countries and reached #2 in America, selling over 2.5 million copies around the world.




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