Rock 'n' Roll History for
October 17


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1956 - ClassicBands.com

October 17
Mickey (Baker) and Sylvia (Vanderpool) record "Love Is Strange" at the studios of Groove Records in New York City. It would rise to #1 on Billboard's R&B chart and reach #11 on the Top 100 the following March. In 2004, "Love Is Strange" was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame for its influence as a Rock And Roll single.


1957 - ClassicBands.com

October 17
The movie Jailhouse Rock, starring Elvis Presley, premiers at Loews State Theatre in Memphis where Elvis worked as an usher five years earlier. The film also starred Judy Tyler, Mickey Shaughnessy, and Dean Jones. Tyler was killed in a car accident a few weeks after the movie was completed, and Presley was so upset by it that he refused to ever watch the completed film.

1960 - ClassicBands.com

October 17
Although he had left the group a few months before, Ben E. King's voice led The Drifters to the top of the US Pop chart with "Save The Last Dance For Me". The record would reach #2 in the UK in December. The track was originally issued as the B-side to "Nobody But Me", but quickly caught on after Dick Clark recognized it as the stronger tune and started playing it.

October 17
Dion And The Belmonts split up over what is described as "musical differences". Dion DiMucci says that the Belmonts are leaning too much toward "Middle Of The Road" music, but insiders say that the sharing of money is the major factor.

1961 - ClassicBands.com

October 17
The album "Elvis' Golden Records" was certified Gold by the Recording Industry Association of America. A compilation of hit singles released in 1956 and 1957, the album is widely recognized as the first greatest hits album in Rock 'n' Roll history. It would go on to be certified Platinum on May 20, 1988, 5x Platinum on March 27, 1992, and 6x Platinum on August 17, 1999.

1962 - ClassicBands.com

October 17
The Beatles made their first TV appearance in Britain when they appeared on Granada TV's People And Places, singing "Love Me Do".

1963 - ClassicBands.com

October 17
Bobby Goldsboro records "See The Funny Little Clown". It will reach #9 in the US and become the first of his eleven Billboard Top 40 hits.

October 17
The Beatles record the first of their "Christmas Records", which were spoken word greetings sent out on a thin, flexible vinyl sheet called a Flexi disc, to members of their fan clubs. The first one featured the traditional carol "Good King Wenceslas" and individual messages from the four, ending with a closing chorus of "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Ringo".

1964 - ClassicBands.com

October 17
A British group known collectively as Manfred Mann had the number one single on the Billboard Pop chart with "Do Wah Diddy Diddy". The song was sung by vocalist Paul Pond, who used the stage name Paul Jones. Keyboard player Michael Lubowitz would retain the band's name and continued to turn out chart hits until the mid 1980s.

October 17
The Rolling Stones release their second album in America, "12 X 5". The LP, which would reach #3 on the Billboard 200 chart, contained "It's All Over Now" (UK #1, US #26) and "Time Is On My Side" (US #6).


1966 - ClassicBands.com

October 17
In Memphis, Tennessee, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer premeirs the film, Spinout, a musical comedy starring Elvis Presley. In the UK it was called California Holiday. Although it received mixed reviews, Presley was paid $750,000 plus 40% of the profits for his efforts. The film would be included in the 1978 book, The Fifty Worst Films of All Time (and How They Got That Way) by Harry Medved with Randy Dreyfuss.

1967 - ClassicBands.com

October 17
Songwriters Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart, along with producer Phil Spector, guest star on an episode of I Dream Of Jeannie, where Jeannie (Barbara Eden) blinks up a music group when Dr. Bellow's wife assigns the job to Tony (Larry Hagman).

October 17
The Beatles attend a private memorial service for their manager Brian Epstein, held at the New London Synagogue in St. John's Wood, near the Abbey Road Studios. They had skipped his actual funeral in Liverpool on August 29th to give Brian's family some privacy.

1969 - ClassicBands.com

October 17
The Kinks are finally able to launch their first US tour in over four years. The band had troubles getting permits from the American Federation of Musicians because the group appeared on Hullabaloo in 1966 without filing the proper paperwork.

1970 - ClassicBands.com

October 17
With lead vocals shared by Michael and Jermaine Jackson, The Jackson 5 scored their fourth straight US number one Pop single with "I'll Be There". Motown reported that the group had already sold more than ten million records worldwide.

1975 - ClassicBands.com

October 17
After meeting at a club last year, 25-year-old Maurice Gibb of The Bee Gees' married 24-year-old Yvonne Spencely at Haywards Heath register office in Sussex, England. Gibb was divorced from Scottish singer, Lulu in 1973 after a four year marriage.

1978 - ClassicBands.com

October 17
Columbia Records releases "You Don't Bring Me Flowers" by Neil Diamond and Barbra Streisand. Gary Guthrie, the program director for WAKY (AM) in Louisville, Kentucky, had spliced together two solo versions by the two singers, and began playing it on the air the previous May. Two months later, he sent it to CBS, who persuaded Diamond and Streisand to re-record the song as a proper duet. That rendition would top the Billboard Hot 100 and sell over a million copies in the US alone. The record company would later send a Gold record plaque to Guthrie, who also received flowers from Diamond, and a telegram from Streisand.

1979 - ClassicBands.com

October 17
Fleetwood Mac's two record set "Tusk", an experimental set of songs that cost the band a then record $1 million to record, is released by Warner Brothers Records. "Tusk" peaked at #4 in the US and achieved sales in excess of two million copies, spawning two Top Ten singles, "Sara" and the title track. It reached #1 in the UK and achieved Platinum status.


1981 - ClassicBands.com

October 17
Christopher Cross started a three week run at #1 on the US singles chart with "Arthur's Theme", (Best That You Can Do). It was his second US chart topper and also a #7 hit in the UK.

October 17
Thieves trying to steal Rolling Stones tickets in Maryland shot one man dead and injured another.

October 17
Dave Stewart and Barbara Gaskin took Lesley Gore's 1963 hit "It's My Party" to the top of the UK charts. Their updated rendition also made the Top Ten in Austria (#3), Germany (#3), New Zealand (#1), South Africa (#3) and Switzerland (#6), but it stalled at #72 in America.

1987 - ClassicBands.com

October 17
The Bee Gees returned to the Top Ten of the British record charts for the first time since 1979 when "You Win Again" went to the number one position, making them the first group to score a UK #1 hit in each of three decades: the 1960s, '70s, and '80s. American audiences seemed to be less forgiving of the band's Disco past and the new single could only reach as high as #75.

1989 - ClassicBands.com

October 17
Billy Joel releases his eleventh studio album, "Storm Front". The LP would top the Billboard 200 chart in America, where it sold over four million copies, and reached #5 in the UK. It contains the hits "We Didn't Start The Fire" (US #1, UK #7), "I Go To Extremes" (US #6, UK #70) and "And So It Goes" (US #37).

1990 - ClassicBands.com

October 17
Steppenwolf's 1968 rocker, "Born to Be Wild" re-entered the Top 10 in Holland on the strength of the amount of air play it received in recent movies and commercials.

1991 - ClassicBands.com

October 17
"Tennessee" Ernie Ford, an American singer and television host, died of heart failure at the age of 72. Between 1955 and 1957 Ford placed four songs in the Top 40 of the Billboard Top 100, including "Ballad Of Davy Crockett" (#5 in 1955) and "Sixteen Tons" (#1 in 1955).

1999 - ClassicBands.com

October 17
Tommy Durden, who co-wrote Elvis Presley's breakthrough hit, "Heartbreak Hotel" with Mae Axton, died in Houghton Lake, Michigan at the age of 79. After writing his famous hit, he went on to perform as a steel guitarist for Tex Ritter, Johnny Cash and Johnny Tillotson, before leaving the music business and going to work as a commercial dishwasher repairman.

2000 - ClassicBands.com

October 17
George Michael became the new owner of the piano that John Lennon used to compose his classic song "Imagine". George paid 1.5m Pounds at a London auction.

2005 - ClassicBands.com

October 17
Visiting his New Orleans home for the first time since he was rescued by boat from rising floodwaters, 77 year old Fats Domino found his piano overturned among mud and debris and his house in ruins.

2006 - ClassicBands.com

October 17
Stevie Wonder received a lifetime achievement award from America's National Civil Rights Museum at a ceremony in Memphis, Tennessee. The organization was established in 1991 to pay tribute to individuals whose accomplishments signify the spirit of the civil rights movement.

2007 - ClassicBands.com

October 17
Teresa Brewer, who placed fourteen songs on the Billboard Top 40, including the Top Ten hits "A Tear Fell" (#5) and "Sweet, Old Fashioned Girl" (#7), both in 1956, died of neuromuscular disease at the age of 76.


2008 - ClassicBands.com

October 17
The Four Tops lead singer, Levi Stubbs, died at the age of 72 after a long series of illnesses, including cancer and a stroke. The group placed twenty-four songs on the Billboard Hot 100, and were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame in 1990.

2010 - ClassicBands.com

October 17
Gene Simmons threatened to "sue the pants off" a group of hackers who infiltrated SimmonsRecords.com and GeneSimmons.com. The attack was thought to have been a protest against Simmons' recent comments in support of prosecuting illegal file-sharers, but the KISS rocker was not impressed with the stunt and says he contacted U.S. federal authorities to help track down the offenders.

2013 - ClassicBands.com

October 17
Sales figures from the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) showed almost 550,000 vinyl LPs were sold so far in the UK in 2013, the highest total in the past ten years. That was still a small amount compared to downloads and CD sales, accounting for just 0.7% of all albums sold.

October 17
In a poll conducted by BBC History Magazine, David Bowie was named the best dressed man in British history.

2014 - ClassicBands.com

October 17
The British Phonograph Institute (BPI) announced that its latest figures showed that almost 800,000 vinyl albums had been sold in the U.K. for the first nine months of 2014, significantly ahead of last year's nine month total.

2015 - ClassicBands.com

October 17
Grateful Dead bassist Phil Lesh announced via Facebook that he had been diagnosed with bladder cancer. The 75-year-old Rocker said that he was undergoing treatment at the Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale, Arizona to remove tumors and was expected to make a full recovery.



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