Rock 'n' Roll History for
December 17


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1954 - ClassicBands.com

December 17
Bill Haley And His Comets put the first Rock and Roll song on the UK singles chart with "Rock Around The Clock", which would later peak at number 4.

1955 - ClassicBands.com

December 17
While their hit "Only You" was still at #2, The Platters' "The Great Pretender" enters the Billboard R&B chart at #13. The song reached #1 on Billboard's Top 100 and #5 on the UK charts. In 2004, it was ranked 360th in The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time by Rolling Stone.

December 17
Tennessee Ernie Ford's version of "Sixteen Tons" is number one on both the Billboard Pop and Best Sellers charts. It will top the lists in the UK for four weeks next January and February. The song was first recorded in 1946 by its writer, American Country singer Merle Travis. On March 25th, 2015, Ford's rendition was inducted into the Library of Congress's National Recording Registry.

1963 - ClassicBands.com

December 17
Carroll James at WWDC in Washington, DC, lays claim to being the first disc jockey to broadcast The Beatles' "I Want To Hold Your Hand", which he had obtained from his stewardess girlfriend, who brought the single back from Britain. Due to listener demand, the song was played daily, every hour. Since it hadn't been released yet in the States, Capitol Records initially considered court action, but instead issued the 45 earlier than planned. Since then, researchers at U.C.L.A. found play lists and Top 40 charts from radio stations around the country that predate Mr. James's broadcast by as much as ten months.

1966 - ClassicBands.com

December 17
The Royal Guardsmen's "Snoopy vs. the Red Baron" enters the Billboard Hot 100 chart at #30. It will peak at #2 during the last week of December and enjoy an eleven week chart run, selling over three million copies in the process.

December 17
The Four Tops' "Standing in the Shadows of Love" enters the Billboard Hot 100 at #62. During a ten week stay, the record will peak at #6. It also reach #2 on the R&B chart and #6 on the UK Official Chart.

1969 - ClassicBands.com

December 17
An estimated 40 million viewers tuned in to see 37 year old Tiny Tim marry 17 year old Victoria May Budinger, whom he refers to as "Miss Vicki", on The Tonight Show. For appearing on the program, they received a free reception, wedding apparel, hair styling, flowers, and a honeymoon in the Bahamas. The couple would have one daughter, Tulip, but divorced in 1972. Vicki would go on to pose nude for the October, 1975 cover of Oui magazine and later went to work as a luggage-store manager, a New-Age emporium proprietor and a furniture sales person. She steadfastly refused all requests for interviews.

December 17
Chicago Transit Authority's self-titled debut album is awarded a Gold Record by the R.I.A.A. The LP would stay on the Billboard 200 chart for a then record of 171 weeks and was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2014.

1970 - ClassicBands.com

December 17
The Beach Boys play a command performance for Princess Margaret at London's Royal Albert Hall.

December 17
Andy Williams records "(Where Do I Begin?) Love Story". It will rise to #9 on the Hot 100 and #1 on the Easy Listening Chart the following February. Competing versions by Henry Mancini (#16 Hot 100, #2 Easy Listening), Tony Bennett (#114 Pop), and Roy Clark (#74 Country And Western chart) were also released around the same time.

1971 - ClassicBands.com

December 17
David Bowie releases his fourth studio album, "Hunky Dory", which would make it to #3 on the UK Official Album Chart, but miss the Billboard 200. The first single from the LP, "Changes", would fail to chart in the UK and only reached #66 on the Hot 100.

1977 - ClassicBands.com

December 17
Elvis Costello appears on NBC-TV's Saturday Night Live, where producer Lorne Michaels refuses to allow him to perform "Radio, Radio" because of the song's criticism of the broadcasting industry. A few measures into "Less than Zero", Costello halts his group and goes into "Radio, Radio". He was never invited back.

1979 - ClassicBands.com

December 17
Paul McCartney And Wings played the Glasgow Apollo where they recorded a live version of "Coming Up", which would rise to number two in the UK and top the Billboard chart in America, selling over four million copies. They closed the show with "Mull Of Kintyre", accompanied by the same pipers and drummers from the Campbelltown Pipe Band who appeared on the record.

1982 - ClassicBands.com

December 17
Karen Carpenter made her last public appearance, singing Christmas carols for her godchildren, their classmates and other friends at Buckley School in Sherman Oaks, California. She would pass away on February 4th, 1983 at the age of 32.

1986 - ClassicBands.com

December 17
Paul McCartney's limo catches fire en route to a TV taping in Newcastle, England. Both he and his wife Linda escape unharmed.

December 17
The Doobie Brothers reunite for a benefit in Palo Alto, California. The performance inspires a reunion tour the next year and leads to one last Billboard Top Ten hit, 1989's "The Doctor".

December 17
A Federal jury in Las Vegas ruled that American TV network NBC had defamed singer Wayne Newton in a series of broadcasts in 1980 and 1981 that linked him to organized crime. The jury awarded Mr. Newton $19.2 million in damages. NBC originally broadcast a report titled Wayne Newton and the Mob on October 6th, 1980. Two follow-up reports were aired, in November, 1980 and June, 1981.

1994 - ClassicBands.com

December 17
A remixed version of The Four Seasons' "December, 1963 (Oh, What A Night)" re-enters the Billboard Hot 100, where it will stay for another 27 weeks, just as it did when it first charted in 1976. The combined run will establish a record for the longest total chart appearance in history. The song reached #1 the first time out and #14 during its second stay.

1999 - ClassicBands.com

December 17
The Rolling Stones' Keith Richards decides to keep a guitar that he was asked to autograph, outside his birthday party at the Russian Tea Room in New York City. The owner of the guitar decides not to press charges saying, "It's Keith, man."

December 17
Rex Allen, a musician and actor who had a US Top 20 hit with a song called "Don't Go Near The Indians" in 1962, died after suffering a heart attack and was later accidentally run over in the driveway of his home by his caretaker. The 78 year old Allen was also known as the narrator in many Disney nature and Western film productions, which earned him the nickname, "The Voice of the West."

2004 - ClassicBands.com

December 17
Elvis Presley's daughter, Lisa Marie, agreed to sell 85% of his estate to businessman Robert FX Sillerman in a deal worth $100,000,000. Sillerman would run Presley's Memphis home, Graceland, would own Elvis' name and likeness, as well as the rights to his photographs and revenue from his music and films. Lisa Marie will retain ownership of Graceland and many of her father's personal effects. The agreement was to pay her $53 million in cash and absolve her of $25m in debts owed by the estate. She will also receive shares in the new company expected to be worth more than $20 million. Actress Priscilla Presley, Lisa Marie's mother and Presley's former wife, remained executive consultant to the business.

2006 - ClassicBands.com

December 17
Dennis Payton, saxophonist for The Dave Clark Five during their hit making days of the British Invasion, died of cancer at the age of 63. The band placed nineteen songs on the UK Top 40 and seventeen on the US Top 40.

2009 - ClassicBands.com

December 17
Insisting that he has let go of all his "anger and bitterness", John Lennon's son Julian said that he has finally forgiven his late father for walking out on him as a child. "I realized if I continued to feel that anger and bitterness towards my dad, I would have a cloud hanging over my head." After John was murdered in 1980, it was revealed that he had left very little to Julian in his will.

2010 - ClassicBands.com

December 17
Don Van Vliet, who became a Rock legend as Captain Beefheart, died from complications from multiple sclerosis at the age of 69. He rose to prominence in the 1960s with a unique style of Blues-inspired, experimental Rock 'n' Roll. His "Trout Mask Replica" LP was #58 on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.

2015 - ClassicBands.com

December 17
Cleveland's Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame announced that Deep Purple, Chicago, Cheap Trick and Steve Miller would be inducted into the shrine at their ceremony next April.

2019 - ClassicBands.com

December 17
Mariah Carey's 1994 tune "All I Want For Christmas Is You" topped the Billboard Hot 100 for the first time since it was released twenty-five years earlier. No holiday tune had risen to number one on the chart since "The Chipmunk Song" by David Seville And The Chipmunks in 1959.

2021 - ClassicBands.com

December 17
Rod Stewart and his son Sean pleaded guilty to battery in an assault case stemming from a New Year's Eve 2019 altercation with a security guard at the Breakers Hotel in Palm Beach Florida. Neither were sentenced to any jail time or had to pay fines and were not placed on probation.

2024 - ClassicBands.com

December 17
Michael Brewer of Brewer And Shipley passed away at the age of 80 after battling multiple illnesses for the last three years. The duo is most often remembered for their 1971, Billboard #10 hit, "One Toke Over The Line", which was banned by many US radio stations for its obvious drug reference.



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