Rock 'n' Roll History for
October 4


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1961 - ClassicBands.com

October 4
Bob Dylan makes his concert hall debut at New York's Carnegie Hall, earning $20 for the night. Of the 53 people that attended, most were friends.

October 4
The Chipmunks, who scored Billboard Top 40 hits with "The Chipmunk Song" (#1), "Alvin's Harmonica" (#3) and "Ragtime Cowboy Joe" (#16), get their own TV show on CBS called The Alvin Show. It did not do well in prime-time and was canceled after one season.


1963 - ClassicBands.com

October 4
Billboard magazine reports that hot-rodding songs are the latest teen fad, replacing surfing songs. Among the top tunes is The Beach Boys' "Little Deuce Coupe", which sits at #15 on the Billboard chart. Capitol Records starts supplying DJs and record retailers with a book of hot-rod terms.

October 4
Faced with parental disapproval and the anxiety of abandoning his art studies, 16-year-old Anthony Topham is replaced in The Yardbirds by 18-year-old Eric Clapton. After a career as a interior designer, painter and musician, Topham would rejoin The Yardbirds from 2013 to 2015.

October 4
The Beatles make their first appearance on the UK Rock 'n' Roill TV show Ready Steady Go!, where they are interviewed by fellow performer, Dusty Springfield.

1966 - ClassicBands.com

October 4
Bobby Hebb received a Gold record for his US #2 hit, "Sunny". It reached #12 on the UK chart. Hebb wrote the song after November 22, 1963, the day US President John F. Kennedy was assassinated and Hebb's older brother Harold was killed in a knife fight outside a Nashville nightclub. Hebb would later say "All my intentions were just to think of happier times, basically looking for a brighter day."

1968 - ClassicBands.com

October 4
One of the original super groups, Cream, a trio consisting of Eric Clapton, Ginger Baker and Jack Bruce, set out on their farewell tour. Their hit single "White Room" was still climbing the charts on its way to #6, following the success of "Sunshine Of Your Love" (#5) earlier in the year.

1969 - ClassicBands.com

October 4
"Abbey Road", the last album recorded by The Beatles, enters the UK charts at number one. The LP would go on to be the group's biggest seller in Britain, although "The Beatles" (the white album) sold more in North America.

October 4
Creedence Clearwater Revival started a four week run at the top of the US album chart with "Green River", the group's first number one LP. The album contained two of the band's biggest hits, "Bad Moon Rising" and the title track, and in 2003, was ranked number 95 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.

1970 - ClassicBands.com

October 4
Just days after recording what would be her biggest hit, 27 year old Janis Joplin died of a heroin overdose at Hollywood's Landmark Hotel . "Me and Bobby McGee" would reach number one in early 1971, her highest chart success since "Piece Of My Heart" with Big Brother And The Holding Company in 1968.

1973 - ClassicBands.com

October 4
The BBC broadcast the 500th edition of the Rock 'n' Roll show, Top Of The Pops. The featured acts were Slade, Gary Glitter and The Osmonds.

1974 - ClassicBands.com

October 4
John Lennon releases his "Walls And Bridges" LP, which would go on to top the Billboard album chart six weeks later. Recorded during his estrangement from Yoko Ono, it turned out to be the last record that Lennon recorded without input from her.

October 4
Irish rockers Thin Lizzy play their first date with the twin-guitar line-up of Scott Gorham and Brian Robertson in Aberystwyth, Wales.

1975 - ClassicBands.com

October 4
Pink Floyd's "Wish You Were Here" LP hits #1 in the US and the UK. The album features a tribute to former band member Syd Barrett, "Shine On You Crazy Diamond".


1976 - ClassicBands.com

October 4
Elvis Presley attracts a crowd at a gas station in Memphis, Tennessee when he stops to fill up his Harley. After chatting with fans for a few minutes, the King calmly drives away.

1978 - ClassicBands.com

October 4
Tammy Wynette, the popular Country music singer who cracked the Billboard Hot 100 in 1968 with "Stand By Your Man", claimed that she was abducted, beaten and held in her car for two hours by a kidnapper wearing a ski mask. She said he held a gun on her and forced her to drive 80 miles from Nashville, Tennessee. She was later released and the kidnapper escaped. After Wynette's death in 1998, her daughter Jackie released a book that said her mother had made the whole story up in order to cover up domestic abuse.

1979 - ClassicBands.com

October 4
Promoting the CD release of his album, "Volcano", Jimmy Buffett appears on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine. The LP would reach #14 on the Billboard 200 and #13 on the Billboard Top Country Albums chart. Three singles from the collection also charted, including "Fins" (#35 on the Hot 100 and #42 Adult Contemporary), "Volcano" (#66 on the Hot 100 and #43 Adult Contemporary), and "Survive" (#77 on the Hot 100).

1980 - ClassicBands.com

October 4
Fleetwood Mac members Stevie Nicks, Lindsey Buckingham and Mick Fleetwood present the University of Southern California Trojan Marching Band with a Platinum record for their contribution to the album "Tusk".

October 4
Queen had their second US number 1 song when "Another One Bites the Dust" hit the top of the Billboard chart. Earlier in the year, "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" also led the hit parade.

1988 - ClassicBands.com

October 4
Ringo Starr and his wife Barbara Bach fly to Tucson, Arizona to enter an alcohol abuse program. Over six weeks later, they complete the program and return to England.

1990 - ClassicBands.com

October 4
Two separate lawsuits are combined on appeal against CBS Records and Ozzy Osbourne by the parents of 17 year old Harold Hamilton and 16 year old Michael Waller, both of whom are alleged to have committed suicide after listening to Osbourne's "Suicide Solution". The Supreme Court would refuse to reinstate the case. A California court had already dismissed a separate suit in 1988, ruling that suicide was not a foreseeable result of Osbourne's song.

1991 - ClassicBands.com

October 4
J. Frank Wilson, who recorded the teenage death song "Last Kiss", died in a nursing home a few months shy of his 50th birthday. It was said that he had seen very little of the money generated by his hit record, as most of the profits went to the record company.


1994 - ClassicBands.com

October 4
Danny Gatton, who was ranked 63rd on Rolling Stone magazine's 100 Greatest Guitarists of all Time in 2003, locked himself in his garage in Newburg, Maryland and shot himself with no explanation. He was 49.

1996 - ClassicBands.com

October 4
Van Halen announces that former Extreme lead singer Gary Cherone was chosen as the new lead singer of the group, replacing Sammy Hagar.

1999 - ClassicBands.com

October 4
Jimi Hendrix's half-sister Janie announced plans to exhume the body of her famous brother and move it to a mausoleum where curious onlookers can view it for a price. After a public outcry, she abandons the idea.

2005 - ClassicBands.com

October 4
Michael Gibbins, drummer for Badfinger on their hits "Come And Get It" (US #7), "No Matter What" (US #8), and "Day After Day" (US #4), died in his sleep at the age of 56.

2012 - ClassicBands.com

October 4
62-year-old Agnetha Faltskog of ABBA fame, announced that she was preparing for a comeback after a break of more than eight years. Her last album, "My Colouring Book", was released in 2004.


2013 - ClassicBands.com

October 4
Tommy Roe released a new four-song mini-album called "Memphis Me", his first new music since the late 1990s.

2014 - ClassicBands.com

October 4
76-year-old Paul Revere, organist and leader of Paul Revere And The Raiders, died following a battle with cancer. Between 1961 and 1971, the band placed 15 songs on Billboard's Top 40, including the Top 10 hits "Kicks", "Hungry", "Good Thing" and "Him Or Me - What's It Gonna Be?". Paul's real name was Paul Revere Dick and in high school his buddies called him "River".

2019 - ClassicBands.com

October 4
Warner Brothers Pictures releases a film called Joker, starring Joaquin Phoenix and Robert De Niro. Its use of Gary Glitter's "Rock and Roll Part 2" sparked controversy when it was reported that the convicted child sex offender would receive substantial royalties. It was later confirmed that he would not earn a single dime.

October 4
The Beatles' "Abbey Road" returned to number one in the UK, nearly fifty years after it first topped the British album charts. The gap of 49 years and 252 days set a new UK chart record for an album's return to number one. "It's hard to believe that Abbey Road still holds up after all these years," tweeted Sir Paul McCartney, "but then again, it's a bloody cool album."



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