Rock 'n' Roll History for
April 22


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1959 - ClassicBands.com

April 22
Alan Freed premieres his last Rock 'n' Roll movie, Go Johnny Go, starring Chuck Berry, Jackie Wilson, Ritchie Valens, Eddie Cochran, Jimmy Cavallo and The Flamingos.

1962 - ClassicBands.com

April 22
Jerry Lee Lewis' three-year-old son, Steve Allen Lewis, drowned in the shallow water of a still under construction swimming pool at the Lewis home near Coro Lake, Tennessee.

1964 - ClassicBands.com

April 22
In the UK, the President of the National Federation Of Hairdressers offered a free haircut to the next group to reach the top of the Pop chart. He was quoted as saying, "The Rolling Stones are the worst, one of them looks as if he's got a feather duster on his head."

1968 - ClassicBands.com

April 22
Trumpeter Herb Alpert sang "This Guy's In Love With You" on his CBS-TV special, The Beat Of The Brass. The Burt Bacharach / Hal David composition would rise to the top of the US chart, where it stayed for four weeks. It reached #3 in the UK. The record was not only Alpert's first #1 single, but it was also the first chart topper for his A&M record label, as well as the first #1 hit in the US for Bacharach & David.

1969 - ClassicBands.com

April 22
John Winston Lennon legally changed his name to John Winston Ono Lennon during a short ceremony on the roof of the Apple Records building in London. John always hated his middle name, given to him by his mother in honor of Winston Churchill, but British law did not allow him to change it. He could however add Ono, and would never use Winston again, except for legal documents.

April 22
The Carpenters sign with A&M Records, where they will have twenty Billboard Top 40 hits and sell over one hundred million record worldwide.

April 22
The Who give their first complete live performance of the Rock opera Tommy at a show in Dolton, England.

1972 - ClassicBands.com

April 22
A crowd of 25,000 attend "Human Kindness Day" at the Washington Mall, in Washington, D.C. to celebrate local artists and national performers "who have added to humanity and national community togetherness." The first honoree was Roberta Flack. The day would become an annual event until 1975, when several political groups used it to further their agenda. That day, the National Park Service recorded five hundred incidents of robbery and one hundred and fifty people were hospitalized. At the urging of local news media, the event was never held again.

1974 - ClassicBands.com

April 22
The L.A. group Redbone earned a Gold record for sales of one million copies of the single "Come and Get Your Love", which was currently #5 on the Hot 100. They were the first Native American band to reach that height on the chart.

1976 - ClassicBands.com

April 22
Johnnie Taylor's "Disco Lady" becomes the first song to be certified Platinum by the RIAA (for two million copies sold).

1978 - ClassicBands.com

April 22
Bob Marley And The Wailers perform at the One Love Peace Concert in Jamaica. It was Marley's first public appearance in Jamaica since being wounded in an assassination attempt a year and a half earlier.

April 22
Former Stealers Wheel vocalist Gerry Rafferty releases his biggest solo hit, "Baker Street". It will reach #2 on the Hot 100 and #3 in the UK and was written about one of London's most famous streets, home to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's fictional detective, Sherlock Holmes.

April 22
Steve Martin performs "King Tut" on Saturday Night Live. After Warner Bros. released it as a single a week later, it would climb to #17 on the Billboard Hot 100 and sell over a million copies. The song was also included on Martin's album "A Wild and Crazy Guy", which would reach #2 on Billboard's Pop Albums Chart, and was eventually certified Double Platinum.

1979 - ClassicBands.com

April 22
The Rolling Stones played two concerts for the blind at the Civic Auditorium in Oshawa, Ontario. The shows were done in lieu of a jail sentence for guitarist Keith Richards, who was convicted of heroin possession in Toronto two years earlier.

1981 - ClassicBands.com

April 22
Two days after being released from a St. Paul, Minnesota hospital following a month-long treatment for bleeding ulcers, Eric Clapton is involved in a car accident and is hospitalized in Seattle, Washington, suffering bruised ribs and a lacerated shin.

1993 - ClassicBands.com

April 22
The Who's Rock Opera Tommy officially opened on Broadway. It would close on June 17th, 1995 after 899 performances.

2003 - ClassicBands.com

April 22
Only days after Madonna tried to strike back at illegal sharing of songs from her "American Life" album by flooding the Internet with fake MP3s, her web site was hacked and real digital files of the songs were leaked.

April 22
Songwriter Felice Bryant died of cancer. Along with her husband Boudleaux, she wrote The Everly Brothers hits, "Bye Bye Love", "All I Have To Do Is Dream" and "Wake Up Little Susie". Other acts to record their songs include Buddy Holly, Bob Dylan, The Beatles, Tony Bennett, Simon And Garfunkel, Sarah Vaughan, The Grateful Dead, Dolly Parton, Elvis Presley, The Beach Boys, Roy Orbison, Elvis Costello, Count Basie, Dean Martin, Ruth Brown, Cher, R.E.M. and Ray Charles.

2008 - ClassicBands.com

April 22
Paul Davis, who placed eight songs on the Billboard Top 40 Pop chart, including "I Go Crazy" (#7 in 1977), and "65 Love Affair" (#6 in 1982), suffered a fatal heart attack at the age of 60. After his Pop career was over, Davis topped the Country chart with "You're Still New to Me", a duet with Marie Osmond in 1986, and "I Won't Take Less Than Your Love" with Paul Overstreet and Tanya Tucker in 1987.

2010 - ClassicBands.com

April 22
The Los Angeles coroner's office ruled that the death of Marie Osmond's 18-year-old son, Michael Blosil, was a suicide, after he jumped from an apartment building in February. Marie would later say that her son had been the target of heavy bullying.

2013 - ClassicBands.com

April 22
Richie Havens, who rose to fame as the opening act at the Woodstock Festival in 1969, died following a heart attack at the age of 72. During his lengthy career he scored just one Billboard Top 40 hit, a cover of George Harrison's "Here Comes The Sun", which reached #16 in 1971.



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