Rock 'n' Roll History for
November 3


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1956 - ClassicBands.com

November 3
Elvis Presley's "Love Me Tender" took over the top spot on the Billboard Top 100, knocking his double sided hit "Don't Be Cruel" / "Hound Dog" to number two. That made him the first artist to ever push himself out of the number one position. Jim Lowe held down the #3 spot with "Green Door", Johnnie Ray was at #4 with "Just Walkin' In The Rain" and Bill Doggett's "Honky Tonk" was #5.

1957 - ClassicBands.com

November 3
Sam Cooke appears on The Ed Sullivan Show to sing "You Send Me", but is cut off before he can finish the number when the show ran out of time. He is invited to come back next month to make up for it.

November 3
ABC-Paramount releases Danny And The Juniors' first hit, "At the Hop". The song sold 7,000 copies in and around Philadelphia when it was first issued on the small independent Singular label. It would rise to #1 on the Billboard's Top 100 and their R&B chart, as well as climbing to #3 in the UK.

1958 - ClassicBands.com

November 3
Elvis Presley goes on maneuvers for the first time with the US Army's 32nd Tank Regiment near the German / Czech border.

November 3
After having the #1 song on the Billboard singles chart last April with "Twilight Time", The Platters latest release, "It's Raining Outside" enters the Top 100 at #96. Two weeks later, after peaking at #93, it will fall off the chart completely and the group would have to wait until February, 1960 for their next hit when "Harbor Lights" would reach #8.

1962 - ClassicBands.com

November 3
A song called "He's A Rebel" topped the Billboard Hot 100, credited to The Crystals. In reality, the song was recorded by a trio known as The Blossoms, featuring lead singer Darlene Love. Phil Spector had hastily put the song together while The Crystals were out of town and put their name on the label because they had already had two top twenty hits with "There's No Other (Like My Baby)" (#20) and "Uptown" (#13).

1963 - ClassicBands.com

November 3
Coming in at #83, The Kingsmen's version of "Louie Louie" enters the Billboard Hot 100 where it will peak at #2 during a sixteen week run. Costing just $50 to record in one take, the effort would go on to sell over a million copies and be ranked by Rolling Stone magazine at #54 on their list of The 500 Greatest Songs Of All Time. In 1999 it would be inducted into the Grammy Hall Of Fame and 2018 was added to the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame.

1967 - ClassicBands.com

November 3
Pink Floyd make their US debut at the Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco. The tour will come to an early end when Syd Barrett displays increasingly strange behavior, refusing to lip sync to "Arnold Layne" on American Bandstand and refusing to answer questions on The Pat Boone Show.

1972 - ClassicBands.com

November 3
James Taylor and Carly Simon are married by a judge in Simon's Manhattan apartment, beginning their eleven year marriage. That evening, she joins him on stage at New York's Radio City Music Hall and announces their union to a cheering audience.

1976 - ClassicBands.com

November 3
Country / Rock band Firefall is awarded a Gold record for their self-titled debut album, which includes the #9 US hit single, "You Are the Woman".

1977 - ClassicBands.com

November 3
During a concert at the Empire Pool in London, Elton John announces that he will not tour anymore. He would stay retired for fifteen months, but on February 3, 1979, he will resume touring with a concert in Sweden.

1979 - ClassicBands.com

November 3
British musician Robin Scott, using the pseudonym M, topped the US singles chart with a Techno-Pop, dance tune called "Pop Muzik". The record had reached number two in England the previous May.

November 3
The Eagles sixth studio album, "The Long Run" tops the Billboard 200 chart for the first of nine consecutive weeks. It would go on to sell over eight million copies and gave rise to three hit singles, "Heartache Tonight" (US #1, UK #40), "The Long Run" (US #8, UK #66) and "I Can't Tell You Why" (US #8).

1984 - ClassicBands.com

November 3
Billy Ocean started a two week run at #1 on the Billboard singles chart with "Caribbean Queen". The song was recorded under different titles for different parts of the world, resulting in versions such as "European Queen" and "African Queen".

1990 - ClassicBands.com

November 3
The Righteous Brothers' rendition of "Unchained Melody" rose to #1 on the UK singles chart twenty-five years after it had first been released. The track had recently been featured in the film Ghost, starring Patrick Swayze and Demi Moore.

1991 - ClassicBands.com

November 3
A free concert in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco was held to honor the memory of promoter Bill Graham, who was killed in a helicopter crash the week before. Journey, Crosby, Stills, Nash And Young, The Grateful Dead and Joan Baez were the featured acts.

1992 - ClassicBands.com

November 3
The Grateful Dead announce that for the first time in many years they will not play a New Year's Eve concert in San Francisco, breaking a long standing tradition.

1995 - ClassicBands.com

November 3
Hootie And The Blowfish reach an out of court settlement with Bob Dylan for the group's unauthorized use of Dylan's lyrics in their song "Only Want To Be With You".

2002 - ClassicBands.com

November 3
Santana topped the Billboard album chart with "Shaman", their fourth US #1 album. It would later be certified Double Platinum by the RIAA on the strength of the singles "The Game of Love" (#5) and "Why Don't You & I" (#8).

November 3
The king of Skiffle, Lonnie Donegan, died at the age of 71, midway through a UK tour. One of the most successful recording artists of the pre-Beatles era, Donegan had three number one hits and numerous Top 10 entries on the UK chart. In the US he was best known for the Top Ten hits, "Rock Island Line" and "Does Your Chewing Gum Lose Its Flavor On The Bedpost Over Night".

2006 - ClassicBands.com

November 3
Paul Mauriat, the French orchestra leader most often remembered for his 1968, Billboard #1 instrumental hit, "Love Is Blue", passed away at the age of 81.

2010 - ClassicBands.com

November 3
Former Partridge Family heartthrob David Cassidy was charged with driving under the influence by The Florida Highway Patrol. Troopers reportedly found a half-empty bottle of bourbon in the back seat of Cassidy's car. David would plead no contest and lost his driving privileges for six months, but avoided jail time.

2014 - ClassicBands.com

November 3
Bette Midler announced that she would tour America for the first time in ten years. The twenty-three date jaunt would be in support of her latest album, "It's The Girls", her first release since 2006. That LP would reach #3 in the US and #6 in the UK.

2015 - ClassicBands.com

November 3
A lock of John Lennon's hair was one of 350 items put up for auction on the website Julien's Live. Other items up for grabs included a long-lost acoustic guitar that belonged to Lennon, a drumhead from the Beatles' 1964 visit to The Ed Sullivan Show, Elvis Presley's 24 karat gold leaf grand piano, and several items from Michael Jackson's Neverland Ranch.

2023 - ClassicBands.com

November 3
During an interview on the television show Piers Morgan Uncensored, Priscilla Presley confirmed she wanted to be buried next to Elvis at his Graceland mansion when she dies.

2024 - ClassicBands.com

November 3
Quincy Jones, the legendary, multi Grammy Award-winning music producer and composer, passed away at his home in Bel-Air, Los Angeles at the age of 91. Along with producing hits by Lesley Gore, George Benson, Chaka Khan and Patti Austin, he also scored six Billboard Top 40 hits of his own, including "Just Once" (#17 in 1981), and "One Hundred Ways" (#14 in 1982). During the 1980s, he helped turn Michael Jackson into a superstar by producing his albums "Thriller", "Bad" and "Off The Wall". It was he who convinced the who's who of the music industry to record the 1985, Billboard #1 hit, "We Are the World" to raise money for the victims of famine in Ethiopia.



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