Rock 'n' Roll History for
April 7


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1956 - ClassicBands.com

April 7
The Capitol Records Tower opened its doors for the first time. Called "The world's first circular office building," the 13-story, 150-foot-high edifice was the tallest allowed in earthquake-prone Los Angeles. Located just north of the Hollywood and Vine intersection, the structure was home to Capitol's offices and recording studios. The first album recorded there was "Frank Sinatra Conducts Tone Poems of Color".

April 7
The CBS Radio Network debuts the first regularly scheduled, nationally broadcast Rock and Roll show, Rock 'n' Roll Dance Party, with Alan Freed as host.

April 7
Little Richard's "Long Tall Sally" enters the Billboard Top 100, where it would climb to #6. The record would top the R&B chart and became the first of his three US Top 10 hits. A cover version by Pat Boone appeared on the chart simultaneously and reached #8. Richard would later explain that there really was a "Long Tall Sally." She was a friend of the family who was always drinking whiskey, claiming to have a cold and therefore would drink hot toddies all day. He described her as tall and ugly, with just two teeth and cockeyed. She was having an affair with John, who was married to Mary, who they called "Short Fat Fanny." John and Mary would get in fights on the weekends, and when he saw her coming, he would duck back into a little alley to avoid her.

1958 - ClassicBands.com

April 7
Capitol Records officially abandons the sale of 78 RPM singles in the UK, choosing to issue all new releases as 45 RPM only.

1962 - ClassicBands.com

April 7
The Rolling Stones began to take shape when Mick Jagger and Keith Richards met guitarist Brian Jones at the Ealing Jazz Club. Bill Wyman and Charlie Watts came into the picture in January of 1963.

April 7
Eighteen year old Shelly Fabares, who was currently appearing as Mary Stone on TV's The Donna Reed Show, had the number one song in the US with "Johnny Angel", a #41 hit in the UK. She was accompanied by Glen Campbell on guitar, Hal Blaine on drums and Darlene Love And The Blossoms on backup vocals. Her highest charting follow-up would be "Johnny Loves Me", which peaked at #21 on the Billboard chart.

1967 - ClassicBands.com

April 7
Paving the way for what would become an FM radio format, San Francisco's KMPX-FM begins playing Rock 'n' Roll album cuts instead of 45 RPM singles.

1970 - ClassicBands.com

April 7
Hal David and Burt Bacharach win the Academy Award for Best Original Song for "Raindrops Keep Fallin' On My Head", from the 1969 film Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. B.J. Thomas' rendition of the song topped the Billboard Hot 100 for four weeks the previous January.

1973 - ClassicBands.com

April 7
Diana Ross started a two-week run at the top of the Billboard 200 chart with "Lady Sings The Blues". Selling over two million copies in the US, the LP was her first number one album as a solo artist.

1977 - ClassicBands.com

April 7
Anne Murray sings the Canadian National Anthem at Exhibition Stadium in Toronto before the Blue Jays play their first-ever Major League baseball game against the Chicago White Sox.

1979 - ClassicBands.com

April 7
"Music Box Dancer" by Canadian pianist Frank Mills became the number-one single in the US, the first instrumental in several years to reach the top of the charts. In Mills' home country, the record only made it to #47.

April 7
24 year old Rickie Lee Jones performs her upcoming single "Chuck E's In Love" on Saturday Night Live. The song would rise to #4 on the Billboard chart and help bring Jones a Grammy Award for Best New Artist.

1981 - ClassicBands.com

April 7
The Who's former manager Kit Lambert died after falling down a flight of stairs in his mother's home in London, England. Along with his partner, Chris Stamp, Lambert guided The Who from 1964 through 1967 and produced many of their albums, including "The Who Sell Out" and "Tommy".

1985 - ClassicBands.com

April 7
Wham! becomes the first western Rock group to play live in China. The ten day visit would produce the documentary, Wham! in China: Foreign Skies, which became the sixteenth best-selling music videocassette for 1986

1988 - ClassicBands.com

April 7
Alice Cooper nearly hanged himself while rehearsing his act when a safety rope broke and left him swinging by his neck. He was promptly rescued by a quick thinking roadie.

1990 - ClassicBands.com

April 7
At Farm Aid IV in Indianapolis, Elton John sings "Candle In The Wind" for 18 year old Ryan White, who is suffering from AIDS. White will die just hours after the show and Elton will act as a pallbearer at his funeral four days later.

April 7
The Carpenters' LP "Only Yesterday" rose to the top of the UK album chart for a two week stay. It would climb back to #1 at the end of April for a further five weeks.

1994 - ClassicBands.com

April 7
Soul singer Percy Sledge pleaded guilty to tax evasion after he failed to report $260,000 in income earned between 1987 and 1989. He was sentenced to serve six months in a halfway house.

1998 - ClassicBands.com

April 7
Singer George Michael is arrested in a public restroom in Beverly Hills for lewd conduct. He acknowledged his homosexuality on CNN a few days later and was sentenced to community service for the incident.

2000 - ClassicBands.com

April 7
Heinz Burt, the bassist for The Tornadoes, died at the age of 57 after a long battle with motor neuron disease. The group's biggest hit was the 1962 instrumental, "Telstar".


2006 - ClassicBands.com

April 7
An internet fan site broke the news that Love front man Arthur Lee was battling acute lymphoblastic leukemia. He would succumb to the disease on August 3rd. The band is most often remembered for a pair of 1966 singles, "My Little Red Book" (US #52) and "7 and 7 Is" (US #33)

2008 - ClassicBands.com

April 7
66 year old Bob Dylan received an honorary Pulitzer Prize for his "profound impact on popular music and American culture, marked by lyrical compositions of extraordinary poetic power."

2010 - ClassicBands.com

April 7
Whitney Houston was released from a Paris hospital after suffering a respiratory infection. She called media reports that she was using drugs again "ridiculous."

2015 - ClassicBands.com

April 7
The original manuscript of Don McLean's "American Pie" sold for $1.2m at Christie's in New York.

2016 - ClassicBands.com

April 7
Simon And Garfunkel's 52-year-old track "The Sounds Of Silence" made a surprise return to the Billboard charts when it debuted at #6 on the Hot Rock Songs chart as well as #2 on the Streaming Rock Songs chart. The song was featured in a viral video that showed actor Ben Affleck looking pensive as his Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Freedom co-star Henry Cavill discussed the negative reviews given to their new movie.

2020 - ClassicBands.com

April 7
Steve Farmer, singer/guitarist for The Amboy Dukes on their 1968, Billboard #16 hit, "Journey To The Center Of The Mind", passed away of heart issues at the age of 71.

2023 - ClassicBands.com

April 7
Lasse Wellander, who played guitar on two dozen of ABBA's best known songs, including "Knowing Me, Knowing You", "Take a Chance on Me", and "The Name of the Game", passed away at the age of 70.

2024 - ClassicBands.com

April 7
Clarence "Frogman" Henry, who croaked his way to a #20 hit in 1957 with "Ain't Got No Home", passed away at the age of 87. After his initial success, he followed with a pair of 1961 hits, "But I Do" (US #4) and "You Always Hurt The One You Love" (US #12) and opened eighteen concerts for The Beatles across the US and Canada in 1964.



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