Rock 'n' Roll History for
February 26


<-- Previous Day -- Home Page -- Next Day -->



1955 - ClassicBands.com

February 26
Sales of 45 rpm records outsold 78 rpm discs in the US for the first time. The number 45 came from taking 78 and subtracting Columbia's 33 rpm. RCA introduced the first 45 on March 31, 1949 when they released 104 single vinyl records. The first 45 to hit the Billboard charts was "You're Adorable" by Perry Como, on May 7th, 1949.

February 26
R&B singer LaVern Baker appeals to the United States Congress in a letter to Michigan Representative Charles Digges Jr., to revise the Copyright Act of 1909. She says that recording artists should be protected against "note-for-note copying" of already recorded R&B tunes and arrangements by White artists and arrangers. Her request was denied.

1958 - ClassicBands.com

February 26
Perry Como was at the top of the UK singles chart with "Magic Moments", a song written by Hal David and Burt Bacharach. It stayed at #1 for eight weeks. The song was the B-side of Como's "Catch A Falling Star", which was the first single to receive a Recording Industry Association of America Gold Record certification for sales of one million copies.

1965 - ClassicBands.com

February 26
Guitarist Jimmy Page released a solo single called "She Just Satisfies", which would fail to chart on either side of the Atlantic.

1966 - ClassicBands.com

February 26
The Beatles' LP "Rubber Soul" rose to #1 on the Billboard Hot 200 chart, becoming the group's seventh US album chart topper. Paul McCartney conceived the album's title after overhearing someone's description of Mick Jagger's singing style as "plastic soul." To date, the album has sold over six million copies in America.

February 26
Durant, Oklahoma's Five Americans enjoy their first chart hit when "I See The Light" peaks at #26 on the Billboard Pop chart. Just over a year later they would have a #5 smash with "Western Union".

1972 - ClassicBands.com

February 26
Joe Tex's Funk record "I Gotcha" enters the Billboard Pop chart and begins its climb to #2. Much the success of the song is rumored to be Tex's slurred delivery of the line Told you not to play with my affection, which caused many listeners to mistake the last word for one that rhymes with it.

February 26
Sonny Geraci led his group, Climax, to the top of the Cashbox Magazine Best Sellers Chart with a song called "Precious And Few". Geraci was no stranger to recording success, as he had been the lead singer for The Outsiders' four Billboard Top 40 singles, including "Time Won't Let Me", which reached #5 in 1966.

1975 - ClassicBands.com

February 26
Harry Chapin's revue, The Night That Made America Famous, opens on Broadway. It would close on April 6th after 75 performances.

1977 - ClassicBands.com

February 26
The Eagles attain their third Billboard chart topper with "New Kid In Town", the first single released from their "Hotel California" album. In the UK, it reached #20. At next year's Grammy Awards, the song would win for Best Vocal Arrangement for Two or More Voices.

February 26
Sherman Garnes of Frankie Lymon And The Teenagers died during open heart surgery. He was 36.

1983 - ClassicBands.com

February 26
Michael Jackson's album "Thriller" rose to #1 on the US album chart where it would stay for 37 weeks. It went on to become one of the most successful albums of all time, with sales estimated by various sources as being between 65 and 110 million copies worldwide.

1985 - ClassicBands.com

February 26
At the 27th annual Grammy Awards, Tina Turner's "What's Love Got To Do With It" is named Best Record and Best Song, while Cyndi Lauper wins Best New Artist.

1987 - ClassicBands.com

February 26
The LP "The Beatles", more commonly called "The White Album", became the first Beatles' LP to be issued on CD. According to the Recording Industry Association of America, the disc is the group's best-selling album, going 19-times Platinum and is the tenth-best-selling album of all time in the United States.

1990 - ClassicBands.com

February 26
53 year old Cornell Gunter, former lead singer of The Coasters, died in a hail of gunfire when an unknown assailant sprayed his '78 Camaro at a Las Vegas intersection.

1997 - ClassicBands.com

February 26
At the 39th Grammy Awards, Eric Clapton wins the Best Male Pop Vocal category for "Change the World". The song is also named Record Of The Year and Song Of The Year.

February 26
Songwriter Ben Raleigh died after setting fire to his bath robe while cooking. During his career Ben wrote Johnny Mathis' "Wonderful Wonderful", Lesley Gore's "She's A Fool", Joey Powers' "Midnight Mary", Lou Rawls' "Love Is A Hurtin' Thing", Ray Peterson's "Tell Laura I Love Her" and many others.

2002 - ClassicBands.com

February 26
The Eagles, John Fogerty, Billy Joel and Stevie Nicks are among those taking part in Four Concerts for Artists' Rights, held in the Los Angeles area to raise funds for the Recording Artists Coalition. The organization is working toward changes in the California Labor Code that affect recording artists.

2008 - ClassicBands.com

February 26
Drummer Buddy Miles died from congestive heart failure at the age of 60. Miles played drums for Wilson Pickett, The Delfonics and The Ink Spots before founding The Electric Flag with Mike Bloomfield, and later joined Jimi Hendrix in Band Of Gypsys.

2009 - ClassicBands.com

February 26
A 10-minute version of The Beatles' "Revolution 1" leaked onto the internet, giving fans a never-before-heard listen of what the White Album sessions must have been like. Only two copies of the take were made when the song was completed on June 4th, 1968. One copy left the studio with Lennon that day and the other remained behind. It is unclear which copy appears on the bootleg, nor how anyone acquired it.

2011 - ClassicBands.com

February 26
Mark Tulin, bassist for The Electric Prunes on their 1967 hit "I Had Too Much To Dream (Last Night)", died of a heart attack at the age of 62.

2015 - ClassicBands.com

February 26
The modest Liverpool house where Paul McCartney lived from the age of four until the age of ten, sold for $231,000 at an auction held at the new Cavern Club.

2023 - ClassicBands.com

February 26
Thousands of people celebrated the life of Australian actress and singer Olivia Newton-John at a state memorial in her home city of Melbourne. She had passed away on August 8th, 2022 at the age of 73, following a long battle with breast cancer. Between 1971 and 1996, Olivia placed twenty-nine songs on Billboard's Top 40 chart.



<-- Previous Day -- Home Page -- Next Day -->