Rock 'n' Roll History for
November 2


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1955 - ClassicBands.com

November 2
'Tennessee' Ernie Ford's "Sixteen Tons" enters the Billboard Country chart, where it will enjoy a ten week stay at #1. The song will cross over to the Pop chart and lead that list for eight weeks. The record will become one of the biggest selling singles of the 1950s and was inducted into the Library of Congress's National Recording Registry on March 25, 2015.


1956 - ClassicBands.com

November 2
Police use tear gas to break up a riot that broke out during a Fats Domino concert in Fayetteville, North Carolina. Fats and three of his sidemen suffer minor cuts.

1957 - ClassicBands.com

November 2
Elvis Presley had eight hits in the UK Top 40, an all-time record.

1959 - ClassicBands.com

November 2
Fifteen Elvis Presley fans are sent to jail in Germany after marching through the streets of Leipzig shouting "Long live Elvis Presley" and making unkind remarks about German music.

November 2
Wink Martindale's rendition of a 1948 Country hit called "The Deck Of Cards" peaks at #7 on the Billboard chart, on its way to selling over a million copies. After becoming a disc jockey, Martindale would move on to TV where he would host his first game show, What's This Song? in 1964.

1963 - ClassicBands.com

November 2
In a review of a recent show, the phrase Beatlemania is coined by London's Daily Mirror.

November 2
The album "In the Wind" by Peter, Paul And Mary topped the Billboard 200 chart for the first of five consecutive weeks. The lead single from the LP, "Blowin' In The Wind" would reach #2 on the Hot 100, selling a million copies in the process. A second release, "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right", peaked at #2 on the Adult Contemporary chart and #9 on the Pop Singles chart. Both of those songs were Bob Dylan compositions.

November 2
Jerry And The Pacemakers version of Rodgers and Hammerstein's "You'll Never Walk Alone" tops the UK chart, giving them the distinction of having their first three singles all rise to number one. This feat will not be duplicated for 21 years when Frankie Goes To Hollywood also took each of their first three singles to the top.

1964 - ClassicBands.com

November 2
Dion angrily walks off the set of the British TV television program Ready Steady Go! after trying to rehearse his hit "Donna The Prima Donna", claiming he was distracted by the dancers surrounding him during the song.

1964 - ClassicBands.com

November 2
Paul Revere And The Raiders appear on an episode of ABC-TV's Batman, where they portray a local Rock group hired by the Penguin to entertain at his campaign fund-raising party.

1968 - ClassicBands.com

November 2
Stevie Wonder's rendition of "For Once In My Life" is released in the US, where it will reach #2. Earlier versions of the song by Barbara McNair, Jack Soo, Tony Bennett and The Temptations had all failed to catch on.

November 2
Appearing at Madison Square Garden on their farewell tour of the US, Atco Records presents Cream with a Platinum disc for $2 million worth of sales of the double album "Wheels of Fire".


1973 - ClassicBands.com

November 2
Apple Records releases Ringo Starr's third album, "Ringo". Featuring the singles, "Photograph", (US #1, UK #8), "You're Sixteen" (US #1, UK #4), "Oh My My" (US #5) and "It Don't Come Easy" (US #4, UK #4), the LP would reach #1 in Canada, #7 in the UK, and #2 on the Billboard 200 chart.

1974 - ClassicBands.com

November 2
"You Haven't Done Nothin" becomes Stevie Wonder's fourth US number one single. The record, on which Stevie was joined by The Jackson 5, topped both the Billboard and Cash Box charts. The lyrics are clearly aimed at US President Richard Nixon, who resigned two days after the record's release.

November 2
Three Dog Night's next to last charting record, "Play Something Sweet", enters The Hot 100 where it will peak at number 33. August of 1975 would see the end of their eight years as hit makers when "Til The World Ends" would reach number 32.

November 2
Bad Company's first Billboard chart entry, "Can't Get Enough" tops out at #5. The British quartet would go on to place eight more songs in the US Top 40, but only one, "Feel Like Makin' Love", would crack the Top 10.

November 2
Crosby, Stills, Nash And Young have the number one album in America when "So Far" tops the Billboard 200 chart for a one week stay. The band's third straight chart topper, the effort would prove to be the second best selling LP of the quartet's career. It has since been certified 6X Platinum.

1978 - ClassicBands.com

November 2
Four years after The Partridge Family was canceled, David Cassidy debuts in a new police drama called David Cassidy: Man Undercover on NBC. It would last just ten episodes.

1984 - ClassicBands.com

November 2
After a judge rules that he shot in self defense, The Reverend Marvin Gay Sr. is given only five years probation for killing his son, Marvin Gaye. (Marvin added an "e" to his stage name) Ironically, it was Marvin Jr. who had given his father the .38 revolver used in the killing.

1985 - ClassicBands.com

November 2
Stevie Wonder's "Part-Time Lover" topped the Billboard Pop chart, becoming his ninth single to do so. The song also led the R&B, Dance and Adult Contemporary charts, making Stevie the first artist to score a number one hit on four different Billboard charts. In the UK, it reached #3.

1987 - ClassicBands.com

November 2
George Harrison releases his ninth studio album, "Cloud Nine" on his own Dark Horse label. Featuring his rendition of "Got My Mind Set on You" (US #21, UK #2), the LP would peak at #8 in the US and #10 in the UK. It would prove to be the last album that George ever released during his lifetime, as he would pass away on November 29th, 2001 at the age of 58.


1995 - ClassicBands.com

November 2
The US TV music show Soul Train celebrates 25 years on the air with appearances by Al Green, Bill Withers, Diana Ross and Patti LaBelle.

1998 - ClassicBands.com

November 2
Virgin Records releases The Rolling Stones' live album, "No Security" ahead of a thirty-four date tour of the same name. Not one of the band's better selling LPs, it could only manage to climb to #34 in America and #67 in Great Britain.

2000 - ClassicBands.com

November 2
www.classicbands.com goes online, publishing in both official languages: Rock and Roll.

2010 - ClassicBands.com

November 2
Jim Clench, bassist for April Wine on their Billboard #32 hit "You Could Have Been A Lady" in 1972, died of lung cancer at the age of 61. The band also charted with "Roller" (#34 in 1979) and "Just Between You And Me" (#21 in 1981), after Clench left the band.

2011 - ClassicBands.com

November 2
A US Federal Appeals Court ruled that TV network NBC should not be fined for broadcasting Janet Jackson's now infamous "wardrobe malfunction" in 2004. The Broadcaster aired a glimpse of Jackson's breast during the Super Bowl half-time show. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) brought the case to the US Supreme Court in 2008 to force the TV network to pay a $550,000 (345,270 Pounds) fine.

2014 - ClassicBands.com

November 2
Mr. Acker Bilk, the clarinet player who topped the Billboard Hot 100 with the instrumental "Stranger on the Shore" in 1961, passed away at the age of 85. He was the first UK act to lead an American music chart in the 1960s. In his home country, he enjoyed ten Top 40 hits and thirteen Top 40 albums.

2015 - ClassicBands.com

November 2
80-year-old Johnny Mathis returns home from an Ohio concert to find his iconic Hollywood Hills mansion engulfed in flames. The house, built by billionaire Howard Hughes in 1946, sustained heavy damage, but Johnny remained upbeat when he told reporters, "I'm a very lucky man, I could've been here, I could've been in bed. I'm very lucky, a little sad of course, but very lucky."


2023 - ClassicBands.com

November 2
The Beatles released what they called "one last song", a Soft Rock ballad written by John Lennon titled "Now and Then". The single was backed with a new mix of the band's first single, 1962's "Love Me Do", with the two serving as bookends to the band's history. "Now And Then" was rescued from a cassette tape that John Lennon recorded in 1977 as a solo, piano, home demo, but left unfinished. The surviving Beatles, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr and George Harrison attempted to complete it in 1995, but the trio abandoned their efforts because Harrison thought it was "fucking rubbish." In the summer of 2023, AI-backed audio restoration technology allowed McCartney to add some new verses, while Starr laid down a drum track, and archival recordings of Harrison's guitar work were added to finalize the project.



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