Rock 'n' Roll History for
April 19


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1958 - ClassicBands.com

April 19
A 13-year-old British teen named Laurie London had the best selling song in the US with an up-tempo version of the Gospel song "He's Got The Whole World In His Hands". Although the record was a hit on both sides of the Atlantic, none of London's follow-up releases cracked the US Top 100, nor made much of a splash in the UK. By 1966, he would leave the music business to run a hotel called The Angel, in Petworth, West Sussex.

1965 - ClassicBands.com

April 19
The film T.A.M.I. (Teen-Age Music International) Show featuring The Rolling Stones, The Supremes, The Four Tops, James Brown, The Beach Boys and Smokey Robinson And The Miracles opened in London under the title Teenage Command Performance.

1968 - ClassicBands.com

April 19
John Lennon and George Harrison leave the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi's ashram in Rishikesh, India two weeks before their study is complete. Ringo Starr and Paul McCartney have already left. All four Beatles would later renounced their association with the Maharishi because of his alleged sexual advances made towards Mia Farrow. Over the years The Beatles would retract their criticism, with George Harrison apologizing for the way the Maharishi had been treated. Paul McCartney took his daughter, Stella, to visit the Maharishi in the Netherlands in 2007, which renewed their friendship.

1969 - ClassicBands.com

April 19
The Beach Boys' excellent cover of The Ronettes' 1966 hit, "I Can Hear Music" peaks at #24 on the Hot 100 and #10 in the UK. The Ronettes' version stalled at #100 during a one week stay on the chart.

1980 - ClassicBands.com

April 19
Blondie scores their second Billboard number one hit with "Call Me", a song featured in the Richard Gere movie American Gigolo. The track was also a #1 in the UK.

1982 - ClassicBands.com

April 19
Paul Simon And Art Garfunkel reunite for a European tour after the success of their New York Central Park concert the year before. Tensions between the pair caused them to split again before they can tour the US and by the time the album they were working on came out eighteen months later, all traces of Garfunkel's contributions had been electronically removed.

2000 - ClassicBands.com

April 19
Phil Collins wins a royalties lawsuit against Louis Satterfield and Rahmlee Michael Davis. The two members of Earth, Wind and Fire's horn section were overpaid $390,000 in royalties when they backed Collins on his 1990 tour. Five songs on which the pair performed were later included on the "Serious Hits... Live!" album, but royalties were paid based on all fifteen tracks.

2003 - ClassicBands.com

April 19
The oldest working musician in Britain, George Conrad Leonard, died at the age of 104. During his career he had worked with Fred Astaire, Cole Porter, Petula Clark and the BBC. At the age of 99 he was still performing seventy-five times a year. Until the age of 103, he played the piano every Thursday at lunchtime in the Plantation Cafe at Squire's Garden Centre in Twickenham, a suburb of London.

2005 - ClassicBands.com

April 19
Elvis Presley Enterprises Inc. announced that two thirty-second TV commercials designed to attract vacationing families to Graceland to experience the "real" Elvis Presley would air nationally in the US starting in April 2006. It was the first time that the company has used television advertising to promote Graceland tourism.

2010 - ClassicBands.com

April 19
A week after Catholic Church officials published an article in the Vatican's L'Osservatore Romano newspaper that said they forgive John Lennon's remarks about The Beatles being "bigger than Jesus", Ringo Starr rejected their forgiveness. The newspaper's editors had written, "The Beatles said they were bigger than Jesus and put out mysterious messages that were possibly even Satanic... (but) what would Pop music be like without the Beatles?" Ringo was unimpressed and replied "Didn't the Vatican say we were Satanic or possibly Satanic? And they've still forgiven us? I think the Vatican, they've got more to talk about than The Beatles."

2011 - ClassicBands.com

April 19
After eighteen months of legal wrangling, Michael Jackson's estate settled its dispute with the Heal the World Foundation. The deal came just as a trial was set to begin to decide ownership of lucrative trademarks.

2012 - ClassicBands.com

April 19
Disgraced music mogul Phil Spector launched a lawsuit against City of Alhambra officials in California for allegedly destroying the home where he murdered actress Lana Clarkson almost a decade ago. Spector claimed a city-commissioned construction project on the hill where his home stands caused significant damage to his property.

April 19
Greg Ham, whose catchy flute solo is featured on Men At Work's hit "Down Under" was found dead at his home in Melbourne, Australia. He was 58. The band enjoyed five Billboard Top 40 hits, four on the UK Official Chart, and seven in Australia between 1980 and 1983.

April 19
Levon Helm, drummer for The Band who sang lead vocals on "The Weight", "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down" and "Up on Cripple Creek", died of throat cancer at the age of 71.

2014 - ClassicBands.com

April 19
Industry sales figures revealed that his year's Record Store Day saw a surge in vinyl sales, with an increase of 133% over the previous week.

2020 - ClassicBands.com

April 19
Ian Whitcomb, the British born singer who scored a Billboard #8 hit with "You Turn Me On" in 1965, died of natural causes at the age of 78. He opened for The Beach Boys, The Rolling Stones, The Kinks, and Sam The Sham And The Pharaohs in '65, but retired shortly after and was later commissioned by Penguin Books to write a history of Pop music called After the Ball, published in 1972. After moving to American, he spent the rest of his life recording, writing about music, producing TV programs and hosting radio shows.

2021 - ClassicBands.com

April 19
Jim Steinman, a songwriter whose most successful works included Bonnie Tyler's "Total Eclipse of the Heart", Air Supply's "Making Love Out of Nothing at All", Meat Loaf's "I'd Do Anything for Love (But I Won't Do That)", Barry Manilow's "Read 'Em and Weep", and Celine Dion's cover of "It's All Coming Back to Me Now", died of kidney failure at the age of 73.



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