Rock 'n' Roll History for
April 3


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1956 - ClassicBands.com

April 3
Elvis Presley makes the first of two appearances on The Milton Berle Show, live from the flight deck of the USS Hancock. He earns $5,000 for performing "Heartbreak Hotel", "Money, Honey" and "Blue Suede Shoes". It's estimated that one out of every four Americans watches the show.

1959 - ClassicBands.com

April 3
The BBC bans The Coasters' song "Charlie Brown" because of the word "spitball." Officials said they didn't want to encourage school children to partake in offensive of behavior. Two weeks later, due to listener demands, they would change their decision and start to play the single, which rose to #6 on the UK chart.

1960 - ClassicBands.com

April 3
The Everly Brothers begin their first ever UK tour in London, where they were supported by The Crickets.

April 3
Elvis Presley enters RCA Victor Studios in Nashville where he records "It's Now Or Never". The song will rise to the top of the record charts in ten countries around the world, including the US and the UK, and sell in excess of twenty million copies.

1961 - ClassicBands.com

April 3
A Pittsburgh quintet called The Marcels took "Blue Moon", a tune written in 1934 by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart, to the top of the Billboard Hot 100. It was also a #1 in the UK. Rodgers hated the doo-wop arrangement so much that he took out advertisements in UK trade papers, urging people not to buy it.

1963 - ClassicBands.com

April 3
The Elvis Presley film, It Happened At The World's Fair opens in Los Angeles. He sang ten songs in the movie, which, despite poor reviews, made $2.25 million at the box office.

1964 - ClassicBands.com

April 3
Bob Dylan made his first entry on the UK charts with "The Times They Are A-Changin'", which would reach #9.

1965 - ClassicBands.com

April 3
After having several mid-charting singles over the past five years, Soul singer Solomon Burke finally has a Billboard R&B #1 hit with "Got To Get You Off My Mind".

April 3
Cannibal And The Headhunters release their version of a three year old song by Chris Kenner called "Land Of 1000 Dances", which would climb to #30 on the Billboard Hot 100. The band was founded by Frankie Garcia, who reportedly earned his nickname "Cannibal" as a boy when he bit an opponent during a fight. Further hits proved harder to come by, despite moving to Columbia and later Capitol Records. Frankie Garcia died in 1996, aged 49, Joe Jaramillo died of cirrhosis of the liver in 2000, and Richard Lopez died of lung cancer on July 30, 2010, aged 65.

1968 - ClassicBands.com

April 3
The LP "Bookends" by Simon And Garfunkel was released on Columbia Records. Five singles were issued from the album, "A Hazy Shade of Winter" (#13 in 1966), "At the Zoo" (#16 in 1967), "Fakin' It" (#23 in 1967) "Mrs. Robinson" (#1 in 1968) and "America" (#97 in 1972) The album went to #1 in the UK and the US, and has been certified 2X Platinum.

1969 - ClassicBands.com

April 3
The Doors' Jim Morrison turns himself in to the FBI in Los Angeles. He is charged with inter-state flight to avoid prosecution on six charges of lewd behavior and public exposure at a concert in Miami on March 2nd, 1969. He is later released on $2000 bail.

1971 - ClassicBands.com

April 3
The Temptations hit the top of the Billboard Pop chart for the third time with "Just My Imagination", a #8 hit in the UK. They would place eleven more songs in the US Top 40 during the next twenty years, but this would be the group's last single with original member Eddie Kendricks, who left soon after to pursue a solo career.

1974 - ClassicBands.com

April 3
Following their Billboard #21 success with "The Witch Queen Of New Orleans" two years earlier, a Native American band from Coalinga, California called Redbone release "Come And Get Your Love". Led by brothers Pat and Candido ("Lolly") Vasquez, the band was managed by Bumps Blackwell, who convinced the brothers to use the last name Vegas to avoid discrimination. All of the band members were of Mexican American and Native American heritage, which was reflected in their songs, stage costumes, and album art. "Come And Get Your Love" would climb to #5 on the Hot 100, but the follow-up, a tune called "Wovoka" stalled at #101.

1976 - ClassicBands.com

April 3
Johnnie Taylor's "Disco Lady" rose to number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. It would become the first disc to be given the newly introduced Platinum Award by The Recording Industry Association of America. In the UK, the song reached #25.

April 3
A song about the death of his pet dog called "Shannon" by newcomer Henry Gross entered the Billboard chart. It would go on to be a number 6 hit.

1983 - ClassicBands.com

April 3
41-year-old Danny Rapp, frontman for the 1950s Doo-Wop group, Danny And The Juniors, was found dead in his hotel room from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. His band achieved two classic hits in 1958, "At the Hop" (#1) and "Rock and Roll is Here to Stay" (#19).

1988 - ClassicBands.com

April 3
George Harrison, Jeff Lynn, Tom Petty, Roy Orbison and Bob Dylan record Harrison's song, "Handle With Care" in Bob Dylan's garage studio in Malibu, Florida. When the song is released as the debut single from their album, "Traveling Wilburys Vol. 1", it would climb to #45 on the Billboard Hot 100, #39 on the Cash Box Top 100, and #21 on the UK Singles Chart.

April 3
James Brown turned himself in to police in Aiken, South Carolina to face charges that he beat his third wife with a pipe and fired a gun into a car while she was inside.

1989 - ClassicBands.com

April 3
23 people were arrested after several thousand fans without tickets tried to crash a Grateful Dead concert at the Pittsburgh Civic Arena.

1993 - ClassicBands.com

April 3
Ray Charles became the first performer to have hits on Billboard's charts in five different decades when his version of Leon Russell's "A Song For You" entered the R&B singles chart, where it would peak at #57. Despite its modest chart success, the record would go on to win the 1994 Grammy Award for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance.

1998 - ClassicBands.com

April 3
Michael Jackson and Debbie Rowe's daughter, Paris Michael Katherine Jackson was born in Beverly Hills, California. She was named after the French capital city in which she was conceived.

2008 - ClassicBands.com

April 3
With her 18th chart-topping hit, "Touch My Body", 38 year old Mariah Carey passed Elvis Presley for the most number one songs on the Billboard singles chart, placing her second only to The Beatles.

2015 - ClassicBands.com

April 3
Robert Burns Jr., Lynyrd Skynyrd's original drummer, was killed in a single car accident in Georgia at the age of 64. He played on the band's first two albums, 1973's "Pronounced 'Leh-'nerd 'Skin-'nerd" and 1974's "Second Helping" before leaving due to the rigors of touring. He rejoined Skynyrd on stage at the band's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony performance in 2006 where he was enshrined alongside his former band mates.

2016 - ClassicBands.com

April 3
Former Guess Who lead singer Burton Cummings was inducted into The Canadian Music Hall Of Fame as a solo artist during a ceremony at the 2016 Juno Awards in Calgary. The entire band had previously been enshrined in 1987.



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