Rock 'n' Roll History for
April 14


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1956 - ClassicBands.com

April 14
23-year-old Bobby Helms signs with Decca Records in Nashville, Tennessee. He would go on to land three songs on the Billboard Top 40 that same year, "Fraulein" (#36), "My Special Angel" (#1), and "Jingle Bell Rock (#13). He would also place nine other songs on the Country chart between 1958 and 1969. "Jingle Bell Rock" became a Christmas standard and would re-enter the list five times between '58 and 2019.

1963 - ClassicBands.com

April 14
With a rare night off after their third appearance on the ITV show Thank Your Lucky Stars, The Beatles drove to the South-West London town of Richmond to see a new group, The Rolling Stones, perform. The two bands meet backstage for the first time and hang out together that evening.

1965 - ClassicBands.com

April 14
The Elvis Presley film Girl Happy opens in theatres across America. Hit singles from the movie's soundtrack included "Do The Clam" (US #21) and "Puppet On A String" (US #14).

1966 - ClassicBands.com

April 14
The Beatles record "Paperback Writer" (US #1 and UK #1) and the vocals for "Eleanor Rigby" (US #11 and UK #1) at EMI Studios in London, England.

1967 - ClassicBands.com

April 14
The Bee Gees release "New York Mining Disaster 1941", which will climb to #10 in the UK and #14 in the US. The song is unusual in that the title never appears in the lyrics, although the originally planned title, "Have You Seen My Wife, Mr. Jones", is heard in the chorus. There actually had been a mining disaster in New York, but it was in 1939, not 1941. The Bee Gees would later say they were inspired to write the song by a 1966 Aberfan mining disaster in Wales.

April 14
The final episode of Where The Action Is, which brought Paul Revere And The Raiders to fame, airs on ABC-TV. The show's theme song, "Action", became a hit single for Freddy "Boom Boom" Cannon, peaking on the Hot 100 at #13 in September, 1965.

1968 - ClassicBands.com

April 14
Producer Phil Spector marries Ronnie Bennett of The Ronettes. Although Ronnie's mother was in attendance. the other two Ronnettes, her sister Estelle and her cousin Nedra Talley were not invited. The union would prove to be a very unhappy one for Bennett, who filed for divorce in 1972, citing several instances of alleged cruelty.

1969 - ClassicBands.com

April 14
The Monkees' TV special, 33 1/3 Revolutions per Monkee, aired on NBC. The plot featured Rock musicians Brian Auger and Julie Driscoll as mad scientists looking for something to rot the minds of young people. Also appearing were Jerry Lee Lewis, Fats Domino, Little Richard, The Buddy Miles Express, and others. The effort will prove to be The Monkees' final performance as a quartet until 1986, as Peter Tork quit the group at the end of the production.

April 14
At Abbey Road Studios, John Lennon and Paul McCartney record "The Ballad of John and Yoko", The Beatles' single that didn't include George and Ringo. Paul played bass, drums and piano with John on guitars.

1970 - ClassicBands.com

April 14
Stephen Stills broke his wrist in a car accident, resulting in the cancellation of an American tour by Crosby, Stills, Nash And Young. Stills drove into a parked car while watching a police patrol car in his rear-view mirror.

1975 - ClassicBands.com

April 14
The Rolling Stones announce that former Faces guitarist Ronnie Wood would replace Mick Taylor on their upcoming tour. By the end of the year, Wood becomes their permanent guitarist.

1976 - ClassicBands.com

April 14
Stevie Wonder signed a $13 million deal with Motown, the largest music contract to that date. Wonder would go on to have a half a dozen Top Ten hits from several hot selling albums.

April 14
The Bay City Rollers' singer Eric Faulkner nearly died after swallowing Seconal and Valium tablets. The 21-year-old claimed to be weary of the group's hectic schedule.

1979 - ClassicBands.com

April 14
With only drummer John Hartman and guitarist Patrick Simmons left over from the band that reached #1 in 1975 with "Black Water", The Doobie Brothers scored their second Billboard chart topper with "What A Fool Believes". It made #31 in the UK. The record, sung by Michael McDonald, would win Grammy Awards in 1980 for both Song of the Year and Record of the Year. The album from which it came, "Minute by Minute" would win Best Pop Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group and be certified three times Platinum by the RIAA.

1980 - ClassicBands.com

April 14
A New Jersey State assemblyman introduces a resolution to make Bruce Springsteen's "Born to Run" the official state song. After some consideration, the song was eventually cited by legislators as the state's "Rock Anthem."

April 14
Iron Maiden's self-titled, debut album is released on EMI Records in the UK and Harvest and Capitol Records in the US. The LP was met with critical and commercial success, peaking at #4 on the UK Albums Chart, but did not register on the Billboard 200.

1983 - ClassicBands.com

April 14
Pretenders' bassist Pete Farndon was found by his wife, drowned in the bath at his home in London, England, having lost consciousness after overdosing on heroin. He was just 30 years old. The band's current hit, "Back On The Chain Gang" sat at #14 on the Billboard Hot 100 after peaking at #5 a month earlier.

1984 - ClassicBands.com

April 14
Michael Jackson made a one hundred thousand dollar contribution to establish a 19-bed cancer research unit at a New York hospital.

April 14
Michael Jackson's "Thriller" LP marks its 37th, non-consecutive week at #1 in US. Seven singles were released from the album: "The Girl Is Mine", "Billie Jean", "Beat It", "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin' ", "Human Nature", "P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing)", and "Thriller", all of which reached Billboard's Top Ten.

1986 - ClassicBands.com

April 14
Teen members of the First Church of the Nazarene in Ironton, Ohio, held a record burning after evangelist Jim Brown told them that the song "A Horse is a Horse", the theme song from the US TV show Mr. Ed, contained satanic messages when played backwards. The teenagers destroyed more than three hundred albums, even though the LP "Television's Greatest Hits", which includes A Horse Is a Horse", was not among them. "Satan can be an influence whether they know it or not," Brown said. "We don't think they did it on purpose and we're not getting down on Mr. Ed.

1990 - ClassicBands.com

April 14
Thurston Harris, who had a million selling, Billboard #6 hit in 1957 with "Little Bitty Pretty One", died of a heart attack at the age of 58. After his initial success, Harris had a second and final hit in 1958 with "Do What You Did", which reached the Top 20.

1995 - ClassicBands.com

April 14
Burl Ives, who reached the US Top 40 with "Little Bitty Tear" (#9), "Funny Way Of Laughing" (#10) and "Call Me Mr. In-Between" (#19) as well as recording the Christmas classic "Holly, Jolly Christmas", died of cancer at the age of 85.

1999 - ClassicBands.com

April 14
The Heavy Metal band Metallica filed suit against Napster Inc, Yale University, the University of Southern California, and Indiana University for copyright infringement. Yale and Indiana were dropped from the suit after they blocked access to Napster on campus servers. In March 2001, after a federal district court judge ruled in the plaintiff's favor, Napster was forced to search its system and remove all copyrighted songs by Metallica.

2004 - ClassicBands.com

April 14
Former American Bandstand host, Dick Clark, revealed that he has had type 2 diabetes since 1994, but kept it a secret from everyone except close friends and family. He would survive until April 18th, 2012, when he died from a heart attack at a hospital in Santa Monica, California, aged 82.

2005 - ClassicBands.com

April 14
Steve Jablecki, singer and guitarist for the L.A. group, Wadsworth Mansion, who reached #7 in the US with "Sweet Mary" in 1971, died at the age of 59.

2007 - ClassicBands.com

April 14
Hawaii-born Pop singer Don Ho, known for the 1967, Billboard #57 hit, "Tiny Bubbles", died of heart failure at the age of 76. He also hosted The Don Ho Show on ABC-TV from October 1976 to March 1977, and appeared on several other television shows, including I Dream of Jeannie, The Brady Bunch, Sanford And Son, Batman, Charlie's Angels, McCloud and Fantasy Island.

2009 - ClassicBands.com

April 14
Hundreds of fans and friends, including Paul McCartney and Tom Petty, were on hand to see George Harrison receive a posthumous star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in front of the Capitol Records building.

2012 - ClassicBands.com

April 14
Cleveland's Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame welcomes Donovan, Laura Nyro, The Miracles, The Small Faces, The Comets, The Blue Caps, The Crickets and The Midnighters.

2015 - ClassicBands.com

April 14
Percy Sledge, whose 1966 hit "When A Man Loves A Woman" topped both the Billboard Pop chart and R&B chart, died of liver cancer at the age of 74.

April 14
65-year-old Billy Joel announced that he and his 33-year-old girlfriend, Alexis Roderick, were expecting a baby. The child would be her first and his second.

2018 - ClassicBands.com

April 14
The British Rock band Dire Straits is quietly enshrined into Cleveland's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Group members Mark Knopfler, Pick Withers and David Knopfler all skipped the ceremony, which may explain why nobody formally inducted them and why they did not perform.

April 14
Bon Jovi, The Cars and The Moody Blues were among the inductees at the 33rd annual Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame induction ceremony at Cleveland's Public Auditorium. The Hall Of Fame Singles, a new category introduced this year, enshrined the records "Rocket 88" by Jackie Breston And His Delta Cats (1951), Link Wray And His Ray Men's "Rumble" (1958), "Louie Louie" by The Kingsmen (1963), Procol Harum's "A Whiter Shade of Pale" (1967) and Steppenwolf's "Born to Be Wild" (1968).

2021 - ClassicBands.com

April 14
Rusty Young, the only continuous member of Poco since their debut in 1968, suffered a fatal heart attack at the age of 75. The band is most often remembered for their hits, "Crazy Love" (#17 in 1979) and "Heart Of The Night" (#20 in 1979).

2023 - ClassicBands.com

April 14
Cliff Fish, bass guitarist for Paper Lace, passed away following a battle with cancer at the age of 73. The band had a number one hit in the UK in 1974 with "Billy, Don't Be A Hero", and topped the US chart the same year with "The Night Chicago Died".

April 14
Just hours after coming offstage from the final show of his current tour, Bruce Springsteen was diagnosed with COVID-19. That forced him to cancel plans to attend the American Music Honors awards show on the campus of Monmouth University in New Jersey.



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