Rock 'n' Roll History for
April 27


<-- Previous Day -- Home Page -- Next Day -->



1959 - ClassicBands.com

April 27
Lloyd Price releases "Personality" on ABC-Paramount records. The song will become his fourth Billboard Top 40 hit, rising to #2 during a fourteen week stay. It topped the R&B chart in America and went to #9 in the UK.

1963 - ClassicBands.com

April 27
Martha And The Vandellas had their first entry on the Billboard R&B chart, "Come And Get These Memories", which would climb to #6. The record also reached #29 on the Pop chart.

April 27
Crooner Andy Williams had the top selling song in the US with "Can't Get Used To Losing You". Despite being surrounded by Rock 'n' Rollers, Williams had placed fourteen songs on Billboard's Top 40 since 1956 and would add thirteen more by 1972.

April 27
At 15 years, 1 month and 13 days old, Little Peggy March became the youngest female singer to have a #1 record in the US when "I Will Follow Him" reached the top of the Billboard Hot 100. The record would remain in the top spot for three consecutive weeks and also went to the lead position on the R&B chart. In later years it was reported that, despite the success of the single, she only ended up pocketing about $500 due to questionable management.

1969 - ClassicBands.com

April 27
Glen Campbell and Dionne Warwick guest on Jose Feliciano's TV special.

April 27
Joe Cocker makes his American TV debut on The Ed Sullivan Show before embarking on a tour. He treats the audience to his rendition of "Feelin' Alright".

1974 - ClassicBands.com

April 27
Ray Stevens releases what would be his biggest hit record, "The Streak". The novelty tune would make it to the top of the Hot 100 three weeks later and stay there for another three. In total, it sold over five million copies internationally and ranked on Billboard's top hits of 1974 at #8.

1976 - ClassicBands.com

April 27
David Bowie was detained at the border between Poland and Russia while customs officials confiscated some Nazi memorabilia he had collected. Bowie claimed that the material was being used for research on a movie project about Nazi propaganda leader Joseph Paul Goebbels.

1979 - ClassicBands.com

April 27
Stevie Wonder makes a surprise appearance at a Duke Ellington tribute concert at UCLA's Royce Hall. He performs "Sir Duke" and Ellington's "C - Jam Blues".

1980 - ClassicBands.com

April 27
Three years and a day after opening its doors, New York's legendary Studio 54 was closed for liquor license violations. Several months earlier, owners Steve Rubell and Ian Schrager were jailed for tax evasion. The club would reopened under new management in 1981.

1981 - ClassicBands.com

April 27
Ringo Starr married Barbara Bach, a former James Bond girl. The pair met while filming the movie, Caveman, with Dennis Quaid and Shelley Long. In attendance at the wedding were George Harrison and Paul McCartney. Though the New York Post reported the trio "sounded as if they'd never been apart," the three ex-Beatles did not play any music together.

1984 - ClassicBands.com

April 27
WWSH radio in Philadelphia advertises a No Michael Jackson Weekend in response to the singer's overwhelming popularity.

1999 - ClassicBands.com

April 27
Al Hirt, the American trumpeter and bandleader most often remembered for his million-selling, 1964, Billboard #4 hit "Java", died of liver failure at the age of 76. Along with two other Top 40 hits, "Cotton Candy" (#15) and "Sugar Lips" (#30), also in '64, he recorded the theme for the TV show The Green Hornet in 1966.

2000 - ClassicBands.com

April 27
Vicki Sue Robinson, who scored the Billboard Hot 100 Top 10 Disco hit "Turn The Beat Around" in 1976, died of cancer at the age of 46. Her two follow-up records, "Daylight" (#61) and "Hold Tight" (#67), didn't fare as well, although the latter did better on the Disco chart (#2).

2004 - ClassicBands.com

April 27
The Recording Industry Association of America filed 477 more lawsuits against accused file sharers. Sixty-nine of the accused had allegedly been using university networks to distribute music through peer-to-peer services.

2009 - ClassicBands.com

April 27
The RIAA agreed to accept $7,000 to settle a piracy lawsuit it brought against a suburban New York family. The settlement ended a four-year battle between record companies and a 46-year-old mother of five, who was accused of illegally downloading and distributing music.

2011 - ClassicBands.com

April 27
Rod Stewart was honored at the 28th annual ASCAP Pop Awards in Los Angeles for the string of hits he wrote in the 1970s that included "Maggie May", "You Wear It Well", "Tonight's The Night" and "Da Ya Think I'm Sexy".

2012 - ClassicBands.com

April 27
Bob Dylan receives the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest honor awarded to a United States civilian citizen, from US President Barack Obama. The Medal recognizes individuals who have made especially meritorious contributions to the security or national interests of the United States, to world peace, or to cultural or other significant public or private endeavors. Among the twelve other recipients that day was astronaut John Glenn. Dylan was only the 29th musician to ever receive the award, whose previous recipients include Frank Sinatra, Aretha Franklin, and Irving Berlin.

2017 - ClassicBands.com

April 27
The Bee Gees' classic Disco LP "Saturday Night Fever" returned to the Billboard Hot 200 chart at #148 following the CBS TV special Stayin' Alive: A Grammy Salute to the Bee Gees, which aired April 16. The album was last on the chart dated February 15, 2014, when it ranked at #139.

April 27
Guitarist Craig Chaquico filed a lawsuit to prevent some of his former bandmates from using the name Jefferson Starship. Chaquico said the band's members agreed to retire the name after founding member Paul Kantner left the group in 1985. Chaquico allowed Kantner to use the Jefferson Starship name for several years, but that right ended when Kantner died in 2016, the lawsuit said. On December 4th, 2018, the legal action was dismissed after an undisclosed settlement was reached.



<-- Previous Day -- Home Page -- Next Day -->