Rock 'n' Roll History for
October 16
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1951
- ClassicBands.com
October 16
18 year old Richard Penniman, who is already using the stage name
Little Richard, makes his first recordings for RCA Camden at the studios of Atlanta radio station WGST. His early attempts imitated the Gospel style of late-1940s Jump Blues artist Billy Wright who was a friend that set him up with the opportunity to record.
1954
- ClassicBands.com
October 16
Two weeks after his appearance at Nashville's Grand Ole Opry,
Elvis Presley performs on the Country music radio program, Louisiana Hayride, broadcast live on KWKH in Shreveport. After an enthusiastic reception from the audience, Presley is booked to appear every week for a year at $18 per show. His sidemen, Bill Black and Scotty Moore are paid $12 each.
1957
- ClassicBands.com
October 16
Sam Cooke's "You Send Me" is released by Keen Records. The single will be his biggest hit, topping the Billboard chart and selling 2½ million copies. Over the next eight years he will place twenty-eight more songs on the Hot 100, with three of them coming after his death on December 11th, 1964.
1967
- ClassicBands.com
October 16
Folk singer Joan Baez was arrested, along with 123 others, for blocking the entrance to an Armed Forces Induction Center in Oakland, California. After she served an eleven day jail sentence. Baez would say, "I went to jail for eleven days for disturbing the peace; I was trying to disturb the war."
1968
- ClassicBands.com
October 16
Jay And The Americans taped "This Magic Moment" at O.D.O. Recorders in New York City. The song would reach #6 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #5 on the Cashbox Best Sellers list the following Spring. Ben E. King and The Drifters had taken it to #16 in 1960.
October 16
Reprise Records releases "Electric Ladyland" by The Jimi Hendrix Experience. It will prove to be the band's most commercially successful LP, topping the Billboard 200 and reaching #5 on the UK's Official Albums Chart. Included in the collection was the single, "All Along the Watchtower", which would be the group's only Top 40 chart maker in the UK, where it reached #5, and in the US where it climbed to #20.
1969
- ClassicBands.com
October 16
Leonard Chess, co-founder of Chess Records, passed away after suffering a heart attack at the age of 52. Born in Poland as Lejzor Szmuel Czyz, he and his brother Phil were responsible for early recordings by Bo Diddley, The Moonglows, The Flamingos, Chuck Berry, Fontella Bass and many others. He would be posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987 in the non-performer category.
1972
- ClassicBands.com
October 16
Creedence Clearwater Revival split up following the failure of their most recent album, "Mardi Gras". After limited success as a solo act and some legal hassles with Fantasy Records, John Fogarty would have three big hits in 1985, "The Old Man Down The Road" (#10), "Center Field" (#44) and "Rock and Roll Girls" (#20). John's brother Tom Fogarty died in September, 1990 and the surviving members went on to tour as
Creedence Clearwater Revisited.
1973
- ClassicBands.com
October 16
Jazz drummer, bandleader and composer Gene Krupa died of heart failure at the age of 64. Named as "the founding father of the modern drum set" by Modern Drummer magazine, he is most often remembered as a member of Benny Goodman's band, where his playing gained national notoriety. In 1959, he was the subject of a feature length, Hollywood movie titled The Gene Krupa Story which starred Sal Mineo.
1976
- ClassicBands.com
October 16
Stevie Wonder's "Songs In The Key Of Life" debuts at the top of the Billboard 200 chart, becoming only the third album to ever achieve that feat. The LP would remain at number one for thirteen straight weeks, and contained two chart topping singles, "I Wish" and "Sir Duke", as well as "Another Star" (US #32) and "As" (US #36). The track "Isn't She Lovely" reached #23 on the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart, even though it was never released as a single.
1981
- ClassicBands.com
October 16
"Endless Love" by Diana Ross and
Lionel Richie is certified Platinum by the RIAA. The song was Ross' 18th number one hit and became the biggest selling single of her career, including her work with The Supremes.
1982
- ClassicBands.com
October 16
Dolly Parton tops the Billboard Country Chart with "I Will Always Love You" for a one week stay. Whitney Houston's 1992 rendition of the same song would spend fourteen weeks at the top of the Billboard Hot 100, which set the longevity record at that time.
October 16
RCA Records releases
Daryl Hall and John Oates' LP, "H2O", which will reach the Top Five on the Billboard album chart and yield three big hits: "Maneater" (#1), "One on One" (#7) and "Family Man" (#6).
1986
- ClassicBands.com
October 16
Chuck Berry's 60th birthday was marked by an all-star concert that included Keith Richards, Eric Clapton, Linda Ronstadt and Julian Lennon. A documentary and a soundtrack album titled Hail! Hail! Rock 'n' Roll would be issued in 1987.
1992
- ClassicBands.com
October 16
Irish singer Sinead O'Connor is booed off the stage at a show honoring Bob Dylan at Madison Square Garden. The crowd was reacting to O'Connor's tearing up a picture of the Pope on Saturday Night Live two weeks earlier.
1993
- ClassicBands.com
October 16
Aretha Franklin sang the US national anthem at a World Series baseball game in Toronto between the Blue Jays and the Philadelphia Phillies.
1999
- ClassicBands.com
October 16
Ella Mae Morse, the first artist to record a Gold record for Capitol Records, died of respiratory failure at the age of 74. Her recording of "Cow Cow Boogie" was a best seller in July, 1942.
2001
- ClassicBands.com
October 16
Two security guards were fired after refusing to allow
Bob Dylan into his own concert. Dylan, who had demanded that security on his Love and Theft tour should be tighter than ever, didn't have a pass when he arrived backstage.
2013
- ClassicBands.com
October 16
Armed with a list of loyal patients who were willing to support him, Michael Jackson's former physician Dr. Conrad Murray revealed plans to fight the revocation of his medical licence in Texas and California.
October 16
Cleveland's Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame revealed the list of nominees for next year's induction. Those nominated were: Paul Butterfield Blues Band, Chic, Deep Purple, Peter Gabriel, Hall And Oates, KISS, LL Cool J, The Meters, Nirvana, N.W.A., The Replacements, Linda Ronstadt, Cat Stevens, Link Wray, Yes and The Zombies.
2014
- ClassicBands.com
October 16
Tim Hauser, who led The Manhattan Transfer to four Billboard Top 40 hits, including "Boy From New York City" in 1981, died of cardiac arrest at the age of 72.
2015
- ClassicBands.com
October 16
A petition signed in 1967 by all four Beatles and other friends of the Rolling Stones' Mick Jagger asking that he play the lead role of Alex in British version of A Clockwork Orange went on the block of the on-line auction house, Paddle8, with an estimated selling price of $18,000 to $25,000. Plans for that film were eventually shelved until 1971 when it was produced by Stanley Kubrick.
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