Rock 'n' Roll History for
April 8


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1956 - ClassicBands.com

April 8
The Johnny Burnette Trio made the first of three successful appearances on Ted Mack's Amateur Hour on ABC-TV, performing "Train Kept-A-Rollin'". The Trio would disband the following year and Johnny would eventually go solo and find success with "Dreamin'" (US #12) and "You're Sixteen" (US #8) in 1960.

1961 - ClassicBands.com

April 8
Britain's BBC Radio bans the song "A Hundred Pounds of Clay" by Gene McDaniels because it has a reference to women being created from building materials, which the network considered to be blasphemous. The song reached #3 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and #11 on the R&B chart.

1963 - ClassicBands.com

April 8
John and Cynthia Lennon become the proud parents of a baby boy who they name Julian, after John's late mother, Julia. The lad would grow up to have a music career of his own, scoring Top Ten hits with "Valotte" (#9 in 1984) and "Too Late for Goodbyes" (#5 in 1985).

1964 - ClassicBands.com

April 8
The Supremes record "Where Did Our Love Go" at Motown Studios in Detroit. The song would become the first of their five straight Billboard Hot 100, number one singles next August. It would be ranked #475 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time in 2010, and was selected for preservation in the National Recording Registry in 2016 due to its "cultural, historic, or artistic significance."

1967 - ClassicBands.com

April 8
"Release Me" by Engelbert Humperdinck entered the Billboard Hot 100 at #99, and started its climb to #4 during a ten week stay in the Top 40. The singer's manager, Gordon Mills discovered the tune when he found an instrumental version of it by British saxophonist Frank Weir. Previously recording under the name Gerry Dorsey, this was the first single he issued using Engelbert Humperdinck, which was nicked from was a German composer widely known for his opera Hansel and Gretel. "Release Me" was first recorded by Eddie Miller And His Oklahomans in 1949, but that record received little attention. In the mid-1950s, several others churned out their own renditions of the song, including Patti Page, Ray Price and Kitty Wells. In the UK, Engelbert's version went to #1 and stayed on the charts for a record fifty-six consecutive weeks.

April 8
The Doors' debut single, "Break On Through (To the Other Side)" peaks at #126 on the Billboard chart. Even though the record could only be considered a modest success, the song became a concert staple for the band.

1968 - ClassicBands.com

April 8
The TV special Petula airs on NBC. During a duet with Harry Belafonte, Clark innocently holds on to Belafonte's arm. After the scene was over, the director asked them to redo the number, this time standing apart. They later found out that a representative from the sponsor saw the first take and wanted it re-shot because his company sold cars in the South, and showing a White woman touching a Black man might affect car sales there. Outraged, Clark and her husband, Claude Wolff (the show's executive producer), ordered the director to erase all takes except the first one, ensuring that the original scene would be the only one broadcast.

1973 - ClassicBands.com

April 8
Gilbert O'Sullivan scored his second UK #1 with "Get Down". It reached #7 in the US. Although some listeners believed the song's title to be an order from O'Sullivan to his dog, the singer said he was actually referring to a girl in the song behaving like a dog jumping on him.

1978 - ClassicBands.com

April 8
Eddie Money saw his first US hit, "Baby Hold On" enter the Billboard chart, where it would reach #11. He would go on to place nine more songs in the Top 40, including two Top 10 hits "Take Me Home Tonight" (#4 in 1986) and "Walk On Water" (#9 in 1988).

1980 - ClassicBands.com

April 8
The TV movie Kenny Rogers as The Gambler, based on Kenny's 1979, US #16 hit, airs on CBS. It becomes the highest-rated TV movie of the year and leads to four sequels, all starring Rogers.

1985 - ClassicBands.com

April 8
American songwriter John Fred Coots, who co-wrote Pat Boone's US chart topper "Love Letters In The Sand", as well as the children's Christmas classic "Santa Claus Is Coming To Town", died at the age of 87. In all, Coots wrote over 700 songs.

1989 - ClassicBands.com

April 8
26-year-old David Hirsch replaced 59-year-old Dick Clark on American Bandstand. His debut also marked Bandstand's move to the USA cable network from national syndication. Clark had been the host of the program for 33 years.

1994 - ClassicBands.com

April 8
An electrician hired to install a security system at Kurt Cobain's residence finds the body of the 27-year-old Nirvana front man lying on the floor of a room above the garage with a shotgun on his chest and a suicide note nearby. Not everyone was convinced his death was a suicide and The Mystery Of Kurt Cobain's Death is still a hotly debated topic today.

April 8
The Recording Industry Association of America announced that Pink Floyd's 1973 album "Dark Side of the Moon" had become the fourth biggest-selling album in US history and had passed the 13 million mark in sales. Worldwide, "Dark Side of the Moon" had sold more than 25 million copies.

1997 - ClassicBands.com

April 8
Singer-songwriter Laura Nyro died of ovarian cancer at the age of 49. Her remarkable career saw her write some of Rock 'n' Roll's best known songs, including The Fifth Dimension's "Stoned Soul Picnic" (US #3 in 1968) and "Wedding Bell Blues" (US #1 in 1969), "And When I Die" (US #2 in 1969) for Blood, Sweat And Tears, Barbra Streisand's "Stoney End" (US #6 in 1971), and Three Dog Night's "Eli's Coming" (US #10 in 1969).

1998 - ClassicBands.com

April 8
The Rolling Stones' guitarist Ron Wood was exploring islands near Rio de Janeiro in a small boat when one of the engines caught fire. He, along with ten other passengers were rescued when nearby journalists came to their aid.

2000 - ClassicBands.com

April 8
Santana returned to the top of the Billboard singles chart for the second time in six months with "Maria Maria", another track pulled from the Grammy Award winning album "Smooth". The song would remain at the number one spot for ten weeks, and won Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals at the 2000 Grammy Awards.

2003 - ClassicBands.com

April 8
Elvis Presley's daughter, Lisa Marie, released her first album, "To Whom It May Concern" on Capitol Records. The LP debuted at #5 on the Billboard 200 chart, selling 142,000 copies during its first week. In June, 2003, the Recording Industry Association of America certified the album Gold for sales of 500,000.

2010 - ClassicBands.com

April 8
Malcom McLaren, best known as the manager of the Sex Pistols, died of cancer in New York City at the age of 64.

2013 - ClassicBands.com

April 8
Annette Funicello, who had two US Top 10 singles: "Tall Paul", #7 in 1959, and "O Dio Mio", #10 in 1960, died from complications of multiple sclerosis at the age of 70. She rose to fame for her TV role on The Mickey Mouse Club and continued her acting career into her adult life, which included six Beach Party movies with Frankie Avalon.

2014 - ClassicBands.com

April 8
A documentary that chronicled the history of one of the British Invasion's most popular bands called, The Dave Clark Five and Beyond -- Glad All Over, premiered on PBS' Great Performances.

2015 - ClassicBands.com

April 8
People magazine reported that Barry Manilow secretly married his manager, Garry Kief, sometime during 2014. The publication's sources said that Barry and Garry invited "20 to 30 guests" to Manilow's Palm Springs house under the guise of a luncheon, which turned out to be a wedding ceremony.

2016 - ClassicBands.com

April 8
Chicago, Deep Purple, Steve Miller and Cheap Trick were among the artists inducted into Cleveland's Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame at a ceremony at Brooklyn, N.Y.'s Barclays Center.

April 8
Bruce Springsteen canceled a concert in Greensboro, North Carolina to protest the state's passing of the controversial Public Facilities Privacy and Security Act. Also known as the "bathroom bill", the Act said that transgender people must use rest rooms associated with the sex noted on their birth certificate.

2020 - ClassicBands.com

April 8
Carl Dobkins Jr., an American singer and songwriter, best known for his 1959 hit, "My Heart Is an Open Book", which went to #3 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, passed away at the age of 79. Dobkins appeared on Dick Clark's American Bandstand fourteen times and hit the Top 40 again in 1960 with "Lucky Devil" (#25). During his heyday he toured with Bobby Vee, Frankie Avalon, and Jan And Dean, and continued playing oldies revival shows for many years.

2024 - ClassicBands.com

April 8
While parts of North America experienced a total, solar eclipse, Bonnie Tyler's 1983 hit, "Total Eclipse Of The Heart" saw its streaming numbers jump by 480% from the previous week. On the day of the event, streams totaled 1.8 million, and actual sales of the song boosted it to the top of the iTunes chart.



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