Rock 'n' Roll History for
September 10


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1955 - ClassicBands.com

September 10
Chuck Berry's first hit, "Maybellene", reaches its peak chart position of #5 on the Billboard Top 100. When Berry first brought the song to Leonard Chess, it was called "Ida May", which the record company owner thought was "too rural." Spying a box of mascara on the floor of the studio, Chess said, "Well, hell, let's name the damn thing Maybellene", altering the spelling to avoid problems from the cosmetic company.

1962 - ClassicBands.com

September 10
Britain's BBC banned Bobby 'Boris' Pickett's single, "Monster Mash", saying it was offensive and in poor taste. They eventually relented and the song went on to become a seasonal hit, reaching a high of #3 in 1973.

1963 - ClassicBands.com

September 10
London's Daily Mirror prints a Donald Zec interview with The Beatles under the heading "Four Frenzied Little Lord Fauntleroys Who Are Making 5,000 Pounds Every Week."

1964 - ClassicBands.com

September 10
Rod Stewart cuts his first record, "Good Morning Little Schoolgirl". He will go on to sing with The Jeff Beck group and later The Faces, before embarking on a solo career.


1965 - ClassicBands.com

September 10
The Byrds begin recording "Turn! Turn! Turn!". Unlike their first hit, "Mr. Tambourine Man", members of the group itself are permitted to play instead of session musicians.

1966 - ClassicBands.com

September 10
The Rolling Stones appear on The Ed Sullivan Show in New York. Guitarist Brian Jones performs despite a cast on his right hand which he broke in a fall in Tangier.

September 10
The Supremes achieve their seventh US number one record when "You Can't Hurry Love" tops the Billboard chart. Phil Collins would enjoy similar success with the song sixteen years later when his rendition also went to number one.

September 10
Despite the recent turmoil over John Lennon's remark that The Beatles were "more popular than Jesus now," the band's seventh studio album, "Revolver" rose to the top of the Billboard Hot 200 chart for the first of six weeks. On the UK's Record Retailer's LPs chart, "Revolver" entered at #1 and stayed there for seven weeks.

1967 - ClassicBands.com

September 10
Elvis Presley recorded the Jerry Reed composition "Guitar Man" at RCA Studios in Nashville, Tennessee. The song would be Elvis' last of eleven #1 Country hits, but did not crack the Billboard Top 40.

1970 - ClassicBands.com

September 10
American blues man B.B. King's performance at the Cook County Jail in Chicago is recorded in front of 2,117 prisoners. Released next January as "Live in Cook County Jail", the album would rise to #25 on the Billboard Top LPs chart and #1 on the R&B chart, King's only album to achieve that position.

1972 - ClassicBands.com

September 10
Making a valiant effort to soldier on in the wake of Jim Morrison's death last July 3rd, keyboardist Ray Manzarek, drummer John Densmore, and guitarist Robby Krieger played their last concert as The Doors at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles. Their final song is "Light My Fire", which was also the last song Morrison ever performed with the band.

1973 - ClassicBands.com

September 10
The Rolling Stones single "Star Star", from the "Goat's Head Soup" album, was banned from airplay on England's BBC because it contained the word "Star-fucker" in the chorus. It's not just sung once, but the word is repeated a dozen times.


1975 - ClassicBands.com

September 10
Elton John's "Someone Saved My Life Tonight" is certified Gold. The record had topped the Cashbox Best Sellers chart, reached #4 on the Hot 100 and #22 in the UK. Like the album it came from, "Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy", the song is autobiographical and tells the story of Elton's attempted suicide. At the time the piece was written, John was despondent because he was engaged to a woman he did not love. The "Someone" who saved his life was English Blues man Long John Baldry, who convinced Elton to call off the betrothal.

1977 - ClassicBands.com

September 10
Rita Coolidge has the best selling single on the Cashbox chart with "Higher and Higher", a song that Jackie Wilson took to number 6 in 1967.

September 10
David Bowie accepts Bing Crosby's invitation to appear as a special guest on Bing's annual Christmas television special. Bowie and Bing sing duets on "Little Drummer Boy" and "Peace on Earth". The songs are recorded for Crosby's album "Merrie Olde Christmas".

1979 - ClassicBands.com

September 10
ABBA began their first North American tour more than five years after reaching the Top Ten in the US with "Waterloo". The group split up in 1980, but received a $1 billion offer in February, 2000, from an American-British consortium to re-unite for 100 concerts. They turned it down.

1982 - ClassicBands.com

September 10
Decca Records releases The Beatle's audition tapes as the "Complete Silver Beatles" album. The collection is neither complete or The Silver Beatles, but rather twelve of the fifteen cover tunes recorded by John, Paul, George and Pete Best at their Decca audition on January 1st, 1962. The band had dropped the "Silver" from their name a year earlier. The missing songs were written by Lennon and McCartney and are always left off Decca releases, probably to avoid legal hassles.

1983 - ClassicBands.com

September 10
Stevie Wonder's former guitarist, Michael Sembello, started a two week run at the top of the Billboard Hot 100 chart with "Maniac". The track was featured in the film Flashdance and reached #43 in the UK.

1988 - ClassicBands.com

September 10
Guns N' Roses enjoyed a number one single with "Sweet Child O' Mine", written for Axl Rose's then girlfriend, Erin Everly, the daughter of The Everly Brothers' eldest sibling, Don Everly.

September 10
Phil Collins topped the UK singles chart with "A Groovy Kind Of Love", also a hit for The Mindbenders in 1966.


1995 - ClassicBands.com

September 10
Cyndi Lauper wins an Emmy Award for her guest appearance on US TV's Mad About You.

September 10
KISS played the first show of their 117 date Alive World Tour at Chattanooga Memorial Auditorium in Chattanooga, Tennessee

1999 - ClassicBands.com

September 10
New York newspapers reported that Paul McCartney was seen at a party minus one of his front teeth after a crown broke off while he was eating. Macca had lost the tooth in a motorcycle accident in 1967.

September 10
Influenced by the Eagles' song "Take It Easy", which mentions the town in its lyrics, Standin' On The Corner Park opens in Winslow, Arizona. In September 2016, a statue of Glenn Frey, who died earlier that year, was unveiled at the venue.

2005 - ClassicBands.com

September 10
The 1967 Beatles' track "A Day In The Life" from "Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" was named the best British song of all time in a survey by Q magazine. The Kinks' "Waterloo Sunset" finished second in the poll and "Wonderwall" by Oasis was third.

2009 - ClassicBands.com

September 10
A Hohner harmonica once owned by Bob Dylan sold for 2,700 Pounds at an auction in Norfolk, England, more than four times the expected price. John Fellas, of Gorleston, Norfolk, outbid fans from across the world for the instrument and told reporters he was still getting up the courage to tell his wife about the purchase.

2015 - ClassicBands.com

September 10
Don Griffin, a guitarist who appeared on The Miracles 1976 #1 hit, "Love Machine", was killed in a car accident in Denver, Colorado. He was 60 years old.




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