Rock 'n' Roll History for
August 10


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1955 - ClassicBands.com

August 10
Two weeks after it cracked the Billboard R&B Top Ten, Chuck Berry's "Maybellene" enters the Top 100 chart at #23. It will peak at #5 and is now considered one of the pioneering Rock 'n' Roll singles.

1959 - ClassicBands.com

August 10
Fats Domino's "I Want to Walk You Home" enters the US record charts, where it will eventually reach the Top Ten. Although Fats would have eighteen singles that were million sellers, he never had a number one record.

August 10
Five weeks after it entered the Billboard Hot 100, Elvis Presley's "A Big Hunk Of Love" reached number one. The song was recorded in four takes on June 10th, 1958 during Elvis' first and only session while serving his two year stint in the US Army. The released version is actually spliced from takes three and four.

August 10
Four members of The Platters, David Lynch, Tony Williams, Alex Hodge and Paul Rabi are arrested at the Sheraton Gibston Hotel in Cincinnati. Detectives, who were tipped off by a hotel employee, found the men with four 19-year-old women, three of whom were white. The members of the group are charged with aiding and abetting prostitution, lewdness and assignation. All were acquitted the following December, but the episode seriously damaged The Platters' career.

1961 - ClassicBands.com

August 10
14-year-old Helen Shapiro became the youngest female artist to top the UK chart when "You Don't Know" rose to #1. Her first four single releases would all reach the top three in Britain.

1963 - ClassicBands.com

August 10
Comedian Allan Sherman releases "Hello Muddah, Hello Fadda", a comedy bit set to the music from Ponchielli's "Dance Of The Hearts" that first appeared on his album "My Son the Nut". Sherman wrote the song about his son's real life experience at a summer camp called Camp Champlain, at which he wanted desperately to come home and then later pleaded to go back to. The record would climb to number two on Billboard's Hot 100, and in 2020, was selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the United States National Recording Registry for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."

August 10
13-year-old Little Stevie Wonder had the number one song in America with "Fingertips - Pt. 2". It was the first live recording to reach number one on the Billboard Pop Singles chart since Johnny Standley's 1952 comic monologue "It's in the Book".

1968 - ClassicBands.com

August 10
The Bubblegum Music craze was in full gear when a group from Linden, New Jersey, who went by the unusual name of The 1910 Fruitgum Co., entered the Billboard Top 40 with their second hit, "123 Red Light". The record would climb to number five during its thirteen week stay and be certified as a million seller in September.

August 10
Guitarist Mason Williams tops the Cashbox chart with his own composition, "Classical Gas". Williams, the head writer for The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, would win three Grammy Awards at next year's ceremony and in 1991 be given a Citation of Achievement by the RIAA for over five million broadcast performances.

August 10
Cream's third album, "Wheels Of Fire" hit number one on the Billboard 200 album chart. The two-disc LP featured one disc that was recorded in the studio and the other was captured live. The album would also climb to #3 in the UK, while the main single, "White Room" rose to #6 in the US and #28 in the UK.

1970 - ClassicBands.com

August 10
Jim Morrison's trial for allegedly exposing himself onstage in Miami begins. He would be found guilty and Judge Goodman would sentence Jim to six months of hard labor and a $500 fine for public exposure and sixty days of hard labor for profanity. His lawyer filed an immediate appeal and Jim was freed on $50,000 bond. Morrison would die in Paris, France on July 3rd, 1971 before his legal problems could be resolved. In December, 2010, the Florida Clemency Board would grant him a full pardon. Members of The Doors' staff insisted that Morrison never exposed himself in the first place.

1972 - ClassicBands.com

August 10
Paul and Linda McCartney, along with Wings' drummer Denny Seiwell, are arrested backstage at the Scandinavium Hall in Gothenburg, Sweden for possession of marijuana. They are later fined the equivalent of $1,800, and released.

1974 - ClassicBands.com

August 10
Roberta Flack scored her third US number one hit with "Feel Like Makin' Love". It was a song that she was forced to mix herself after her producer quit in the middle of her fifth album. In a vague reference to her first effort, she took producer's credit on the LP as Rubina Flake.

August 10
John Denver's eighth studio album, "Back Home Again" topped the Billboard 200 chart for a one week stay. Featuring the hits, "Annie's Song" (US #1, UK #1), "Back Home Again" (US #5), and "Thank God I'm A Country Boy" (US #1), the LP would go Gold in England and 3X Platinum in America.

1975 - ClassicBands.com

August 10
The vocal group The Manhattan Transfer begin hosting a self-titled, summer replacement series on CBS. The variety show runs for four weeks and showcases the talents of the group. By the end of the year they would enjoy the first of their four Billboard Hot 100 hits, "Operator", which rose to #22.

1976 - ClassicBands.com

August 10
Elton John played the first of seven sold out shows at Madison Square Garden in New York. The concerts generated 1.25 million dollars, breaking the record for ticket revenue set by The Rolling Stones in 1975. Elton was promoting his current single, "Don't Go Breaking My Heart", with Kiki Dee, as well as the live album, "Here and There".

1977 - ClassicBands.com

August 10
Sixteen years after its release, the single "Travelin' Man" by Ricky Nelson was certified Gold by the RIAA for sales of 500,000 units. Jerry Fuller wrote the song with Sam Cooke in mind, but Cooke's manager was unenthusiastic about it and discarded the demo, which eventually wound up being passed along to Nelson. His rendition reached #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 on May 29th, 1961. It was issued on Imperial Records as a double A-side with "Hello Mary Lou", which reached #9 on the same chart. In the United Kingdom, "Travelin' Man", paired with "Hello Mary Lou", reached #2, becoming Nelson's biggest British hit. Nelson was accompanied by Joe Osborn on bass, James Burton on guitar, and The Jordanaires providing backing vocals.

1987 - ClassicBands.com

August 10
Wilson Pickett was found guilty by a New Jersey court of possessing a shotgun with intent to endanger life following his involvement in a bar room fist fight. He is given two years' probation and fined $1000.

1993 - ClassicBands.com

August 10
Ed Roberts of Ruby And The Romantics died of cancer at the age of 57. The Akron, Ohio quintet enjoyed three Billboard Top 40 hits, including the chart topping "Our Day Will Come" in 1963.

1995 - ClassicBands.com

August 10
Jimmy Buffett headlines a birthday celebration for President Clinton at the White House.

2002 - ClassicBands.com

August 10
Elvis' daughter, Lisa Marie Presley, married actor Nicolas Cage at a resort in Hawaii. She was previously wed to musician Danny Keough and later Michael Jackson. Cage would file for divorce after just 108 days of marriage, on November 25th, 2002 and the union was officially dissolved on May 26th, 2004. The divorce proceeding lasted longer than the marriage.

2004 - ClassicBands.com

August 10
63-year-old Rolling Stones drummer, Charlie Watts confirmed that he was being treated for throat cancer. He underwent a course of radiotherapy and the cancer went into remission. Sadly, the disease would cause his death on August 24th, 2021, at the age of 80.

2006 - ClassicBands.com

August 10
Barbara George, an American R&B singer who reached #3 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1961 with "I Know (You Don't Love Me No More)", passed away at the age of 63. Although two more of her singles reached Hot 100 the following year, she could never match the success of her first hit and was largely retired from the music industry by the early 1980s.

2008 - ClassicBands.com

August 10
Isaac Hayes, the pioneering singer, songwriter and musician whose "Theme From Shaft" won Academy and Grammy awards, was found dead at his home in Memphis after an apparent stroke. He was 65.

2011 - ClassicBands.com

August 10
The Monkees canceled their nine remaining tour dates, citing "business issues" as the cause. Three of the original band members, Micky Dolenz, Davy Jones and Peter Tork, went back on the road earlier in the year after a decade apart.

2012 - ClassicBands.com

August 10
71-year-old Neil Diamond received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

2013 - ClassicBands.com

August 10
Eydie Gorme, a popular nightclub and television singer most often remembered for her 1963, #7 Billboard hit, "Blame It On The Bossa Nova", died at the age of 84. She also reached the Hot 100 six other times between 1956 and 1964.

2015 - ClassicBands.com

August 10
Columbia House, the mail order music club that originally offered customers eight albums for a dollar, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection after almost twenty years of falling sales. Established in 1955 by the Columbia Records division of CBS, the record and DVD retailer saw their sales eroded, first by Napster, then i-tunes, Amazon and Netflix. The company was acquired by long-time competitor BMG in 2005 and shut down mail order operations in 2009.



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