Rock 'n' Roll History for
December 12


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1955 - ClassicBands.com

December 12
Bill Haley And His Comets record "See You Later Alligator" at Decca Records in New York City. The song would reach #6 on the Billboard Top 100 and #7 in the UK, becoming Haley's third and final million seller.

1957 - ClassicBands.com

December 12
Ignoring the fact that he was still married to Jane Mitchum, 22-year-old Jerry Lee Lewis marries his third cousin, 13-year-old Myra Gayle Brown, in a brief civil ceremony in Hernando, Mississippi. The union was performed by the Reverend M.C. Whitten with no family or friends in attendance. It was an event that eventually ruined Jerry Lee's Rock 'n' Roll career.

December 12
Disc Jockey Al Priddy of KEX, Portland, Oregon is fired for violating the radio station's ban against playing Elvis Presley's rendition of "White Christmas". He was told by the management "It is not in the spirit we associate with Christmas."

1959 - ClassicBands.com

December 12
After being pushed out of the number one spot on the Cashbox Best Sellers chart for the last four weeks, Bobby Darin's "Mack The Knife" returned to the head of the list. It is a feat that is seldom duplicated.

1963 - ClassicBands.com

December 12
"John Fitzgerald Kennedy: A Memorial Album" becomes the fastest selling LP in history with four million copies being sold in the first six days after its release. The disc contains recordings of some of the President's most memorable speeches, as well as memorial tributes which were broadcast in the aftermath of his assassination on November 22nd, 1963. Each copy of the album cost 99¢, and the proceeds went to the Joseph Kennedy, Jr., Foundation for Mental Retardation.

1964 - ClassicBands.com

December 12
Bobby Vinton scores his fourth Billboard chart topper with "Mr. Lonely". It was a song that Bobby co-wrote and had added to his "Greatest Hits" album as a filler, but the track was quickly released as a single when it started to get radio air play.

December 12
The Zombies reached their highest point on the Billboard Pop chart when "She's Not There" topped out at #2. Although they recorded the track in just one take, it would stay on the Hot 100 for three months and climbed to #12 in the UK.

December 12
The Righteous Brothers "You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling" enters the Billboard Hot 100 at #77. It will become their first Billboard Top 40 hit and reach #1 the following February. In 1999, the performing-rights organization, Broadcast Music, Inc. (BMI) ranked the song as having had more radio and television play in the United States than any other song during the 20th century.

1966 - ClassicBands.com

December 12
Elvis Presley donates over $100,000 to a variety of Memphis charities.

1969 - ClassicBands.com

December 12
Apple Records releases "Live Peace in Toronto 1969" by The Plastic Ono Band. Recorded at the Toronto Rock and Roll Revival festival on the previous September 13th, it was the first live album by any member of The Beatles, as a group or solo. It would peak at #10 in the US, but did not chart at all in the UK. Much of the blame for the failure of the album was aimed at Yoko Ono's two songs that took up the entire Side Two, which were described as "screaming", "wailing", "pitchless" and "brainless". Somehow, the LP managed to sell over 500,000 copies in America, earning a Gold Record.

December 12
The Magic Christian, a movie featuring Ringo Starr and Peter Sellers, premieres to negative reviews in London. The film also featured appearances by John Cleese, Raquel Welch, Christopher Lee, Richard Attenborough and Roman Polanski.

December 12
Isaac Hayes' "Hot Buttered Soul" album is certified Gold by the RIAA. It had peaked at number 1 on the Billboard R&B chart, and at number 8 on the Billboard 200. In 2020, Rolling Stone ranked the LP at number 373 in their list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.

1970 - ClassicBands.com

December 12
The Doors played their last concert with Jim Morrison as lead singer at the Warehouse in New Orleans. Band members Ray Manzarek, Robbie Krieger and John Densmore would later recall watching Jim Morrison lose "all his energy" as the show came to a close.

December 12
Although they had enjoyed twenty-six previous Top 40 Hits, Smokey Robinson And The Miracles reached number one on the Billboard Pop chart for the first time with "The Tears Of A Clown". It was also a #1 in the UK.

December 12
Charges of larceny by trick are filed against Little Richard in Miami Beach, Florida by Blacks, Inc., a black advocacy group which says the veteran Rocker pocketed $250 he had solicited for the organization. Little Richard claims that all he wants is a receipt and then he'll give them their money. A week later the charges were dropped.

1974 - ClassicBands.com

December 12
Saying that he felt that now was the time to move on and do something new, Mick Taylor quit The Rolling Stones 5½ years after replacing Brian Jones as lead guitarist. Former Faces member Ron Wood would be named to take his place.

1985 - ClassicBands.com

December 12
47-year-old Ian Stewart, the "Pete Best" of The Rolling Stones, died of a heart attack in his doctor's waiting room. He left the band in May of 1963 when manager Andrew Loog Oldham felt that he didn't fit the bad boy image of the group, but continued to work with them as a road manager and played keyboards on most of The Stones' essential albums from the 1960s until the 1980s.

December 12
44-year-old David Crosby walked barefoot into an FBI office in downtown West Palm Beach and surrendered after missing an earlier bond revocation hearing. After serving five months in a Texas prison, he was released in 1986.

December 12
Dionne Warwick celebrates her 45th birthday by receiving a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

1991 - ClassicBands.com

December 12
Cynthia Lennon, as well as Sean and Yoko Ono, attended the funeral of John Lennon's Aunt Mimi (Smith). Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr all sent floral arrangements. During the service the funeral home played "Imagine".

1998 - ClassicBands.com

December 12
A seven inch single by The Quarry Men, featuring John Lennon, Paul McCartney and George Harrison, was named as the rarest record of all time. Only fifty copies were made with each one being valued at £10,000 ($20,500).

2001 - ClassicBands.com

December 12
Arthur Lee, guitarist and singer from the sixties Rock group, Love, was released from prison after serving almost six years of an eleven-year sentence. Lee had been convicted of possession of a firearm and for allegedly shooting a gun in the air during a dispute with a neighbor.

2003 - ClassicBands.com

December 12
Mick Jagger was knighted by Prince Charles at Buckingham Palace. Jagger's 92-year-old father was in attendance to see his son receive the award.

2007 - ClassicBands.com

December 12
A copy of John Lennon's book, A Spaniard in the Works, which contained a lock of Lennon's hair, sold at Gorringes Auction House for $48,000. Lennon gave the book and the hair to Betty Glasow, the Fab Four's hairdresser during their heyday. He wrote in the book, "To Betty, Lots of Love and Hair, John Lennon xx."

December 12
Ike Turner suffered a fatal heart attack at the age of 76. His role as one of Rock and Roll's most innovative architects was overshadowed by his image as the man who abused his former wife and singing partner Tina Turner,

2009 - ClassicBands.com

December 12
Paul Anka denied accusations by his estranged wife, Anna Yeager, that he threatened her with a gun during a domestic dispute. Police decided not to take any action after no evidence of wrongdoing was found. The pair had married just eighteen months earlier and would split in 2010.

2011 - ClassicBands.com

December 12
Barry Manilow entered a Los Angeles hospital to have ripped abductor muscles repaired on both hips. He was quoted as saying, "That's what you get when you jump around to 'Copacabana' for thirty years!"

2012 - ClassicBands.com

December 12
Google Inc. announced that "Whitney Houston" was the top search of the year following her untimely death on February 11th. Korean rapper PSY's "Gangnam Style" music video was second, followed by "Superstorm Sandy".

2013 - ClassicBands.com

December 12
A spokeswoman for Apple records confirmed the release of fifty-nine rare and unheard Beatles recordings in a bid to stop their copyright protection expiring. EU law protects recordings for seventy years, but only if they get an official release. Otherwise, the copyright period lasts fifty years. In the case of The Beatles, that means the master tape for their 1963 debut album "Please Please Me" is protected until 2033, but the unreleased session tapes for that album are not.

December 12
Recording Academy President and CEO Neil Portnow announced that The Beatles, Kris Kristofferson and The Isley Brothers were among the artists to be honored with the Academy's Lifetime Achievement Award at a special ceremony the night before the 56th Annual Grammys in January.

2016 - ClassicBands.com

December 12
Jim Lowe, an American singer-songwriter best known for his 1956 Billboard chart topper, "The Green Door", died after a long illness at the age of 93. Lowe also wrote "Gambler's Guitar", a million-selling hit for Rusty Draper in 1953. Along with releasing over thirty singles between 1953 and 1973, he was also a popular disc jockey in the New York area for many years.

2017 - ClassicBands.com

December 12
74-year-old Gayla Peevey was on hand to welcome another hippopotamus to the Oklahoma City Zoo, more than sixty years after her song about wanting one for Christmas helped raise $3,000 to purchase the facility's first one. She was also was there in December 1953 when the Nile hippopotamus Mathilda arrived, and her recording of "I Want A Hippopotamus for Christmas" has since gone on to become a Christmas favorite.

2019 - ClassicBands.com

December 12
Jack Scott, who scored nine Billboard Top 40 hits between July 1958 and September, 1960, including "My True Love" and "Burning Bridges", died following a heart attack at the age of 83. Scott had more Hot 100 singles (19), in a shorter period of time (41 months), than any other recording artist except for The Beatles, Elvis Presley, Fats Domino and Connie Francis. He wrote all of his own hits, except one: "Burning Bridges".

2020 - ClassicBands.com

December 12
Charlie Pride, the African-American, Country singer who reached #21 on the Hot 100 in 1972 with "Kiss An Angel Good Mornin'", died of complications from COVID-19 at the age of 86. Between 1967 and 1987, Pride enjoyed fifty-two Top 10 Country hits.



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