Rock 'n' Roll History for
July 12


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1954 - ClassicBands.com

July 12
19-year-old Elvis Presley quit his day job as a truck driver for the Crown Electric Company and signed a recording contract with Sun Records. He also inked a one year, personal management deal with Scotty Moore, who would receive 10% of all earnings from Presley's live appearances.

1957 - ClassicBands.com

July 12
Alan Freed's show The Big Beat debuts on ABC-TV with guests The Everly Brothers, Frankie Lymon, Buddy Knox and Connie Francis. The show was later taken off the national airwaves after an episode in which Frankie Lymon was seen dancing with a White girl, which reportedly offended the management of ABC's local affiliates in the southern states. The Big Beat then became a local New York City program, moving to a television studio on the Upper East Side — WNEW.

1960 - ClassicBands.com

July 12
Pianist Floyd Cramer records his biggest hit, "Last Date", which will reach #2 in the US by next November, selling over a million copies.

1961 - ClassicBands.com

July 12
Pat Boone begins a ten-day tour of South Africa at the Ice Dome in Durban. When he returns to California, he will begin filming the movie State Fair.

1962 - ClassicBands.com

July 12
The Rolling Stones played their first concert at the Marquee club in London. Their line-up consisted of lead vocalist Mick Jagger, guitarists Keith Richards and Brian Jones, Dick Taylor on bass, pianist Ian Stewart and Mick Avory, later of The Kinks, on drums. Avory and Taylor would be replaced by Tony Chapman on drums and Bill Wyman on bass. Chapman didn't work out and drummer Charlie Watts completed the Stones' line-up in January 1963.

1965 - ClassicBands.com

July 12
Capitol Records releases The Beach Boys' "California Girls" with "Let Him Run Wild" on the flip side. Rising to #3 on the Hot 100 and #26 on the UK's Record Retailer by the end of August, it was the band's first recording with touring musician Bruce Johnston, who was not yet an official member of the group. In 2010 the song was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame, and was listed at #72 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs Of All Time in 2011.

1968 - ClassicBands.com

July 12
The Monkees' Mickey Dolenz married his long-time steady girl friend, English model Samantha Juste in Los Angeles, California. The two had met in February, 1967 when he appeared on the English TV show Top Of The Pops, on which she announced records. They had one daughter, but divorced in 1975.

1969 - ClassicBands.com

July 12
After being released just three weeks earlier, the futuristic ballad "In The Year 2525" was Billboard's number one song. After getting a lot of requests to sing the song that they included in their live act, Denny Zager and Rick Evans had invested just $500 to press 1000 copies of the tune. After a Texas radio station added it their play list, RCA signed the duo, but the record would prove to be their only US chart entry. It did however stay at #1 in the US for six weeks, which was longer than any other song that year, and earned it the distinction of #1 record of the year 1969.

July 12
Billed as "The Ultimate Supergroup", Blind Faith begin their one and only US tour with a sold-out show at New York's Madison Square Garden. The band consisted of Eric Clapton, Ginger Baker, Steve Winwood, and Ric Grech.

1970 - ClassicBands.com

July 12
Janis Joplin debuted with her new group, the Full Tilt Boogie Band, before 4,000 people in Louisville, Kentucky. Less than three months later, she would be dead from a heroin overdose.

1971 - ClassicBands.com

July 12
The New Seekers re-record a song they did as a commercial for Coca-Cola last year, re-naming it from "I'd Like To Buy The World A Coke" to "I'd Like To Teach The World To Sing". The effort would reach #1 in the UK, #7 in America and #3 in Canada.

1975 - ClassicBands.com

July 12
K.C. And The Sunshine Band make their Hot 100 chart debut with the million selling hit, "Get Down Tonight". It's the first of four singles by the group to make it to Billboard's number one spot. It also became a hit in Canada (#1), Australia (#44), Belgium (#11), the Netherlands (#5), and the UK (#21).

1979 - ClassicBands.com

July 12
Minnie Riperton, who had scored a 1975 smash with a song called "Lovin' You", died of cancer at the age of 31. She had also been a member of Wonderlove, a backup group for Stevie Wonder.

July 12
Chicago disc jockey Steve Dahl held the infamous Disco Demolition between games of a baseball doubleheader at Comiskey Park in Chicago. Dahl burned Disco records brought by fans who received discount admission. Some of those fans decided to start their own fires and a mini-riot ensued, forcing the White Sox to forfeit the second game.

1980 - ClassicBands.com

July 12
Bennie Mardones' "Into The Night" enters the Billboard chart where it will reach #11. Nine years later, after LA disc jockey Scott Shannon added the song to his play list, the record would accomplish the rare feat of re-entering the Hot 100, this time climbing to #20.

July 12
Billy Joel had the best selling single in America with "It's Still Rock And Roll To Me", a number he wrote in the back of a car on the way to a recording session. The lyrics are sung from the prospective of a manager and an artist, arguing about remaining hip for the younger crowd versus staying the course and letting the music speak for itself. The song would go on to be certified Platinum by the RIAA.

1983 - ClassicBands.com

July 12
Chris Wood, sax and flute player with Stevie Winwood's band Traffic, died in London of liver failure after a long illness. He was 39.

2000 - ClassicBands.com

July 12
A statue erected in the memory of John Lennon is unveiled in London's Trafalgar Square. The sculpture features a revolver with a knotted barrel created by Swedish artist Carl Fredrik Reutersward.

2006 - ClassicBands.com

July 12
Even after his death, Johnny Cash was still popular enough to top The Billboard 200. "American V: A Hundred Highways" earned the Man in Black his first #1 album since 1969's "Johnny Cash at San Quentin".

2007 - ClassicBands.com

July 12
Sara Caplan, a former attorney for Phil Spector, agreed to testify in his murder trial about evidence allegedly withheld by a defense expert rather than go to jail for contempt of court. Caplan says she saw a forensic expert pick up a small white object about the size of a fingernail at the scene and put it in a vial. Autopsy pictures of Clarkson show a small piece of acrylic fingernail missing from her right thumb.

July 12
Rod Stewart was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire at Buckingham Palace in London. He was given the award by Prince Charles for his services to music.

2012 - ClassicBands.com

July 12
Pollstar magazine announced that former Pink Floyd bassist Roger Waters had racked up $158.1 million in concert ticket sales worldwide so far this year with 'The Wall Live' show. Bruce Springsteen was a distant second with $79.9 million.

2019 - ClassicBands.com

July 12
Russell Smith, lead vocalist for The Amazing Rhythm Aces on their 1975, US #14 hit "Third Rate Romance", died of cancer at the age of 70.

2020 - ClassicBands.com

July 12
27-year-old Benjamin Keough, Elvis Presley's only grandson, died from a self-inflicted gun shot wound. He was the younger of the two children that Lisa Marie Presley had with her first husband, musician Danny Keough, before their divorce in 1994.



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