Rock 'n' Roll History for
August 27


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1960 - ClassicBands.com

August 27
A Rock 'n' Roll oddity took place at the top of the UK chart when "Please Don't Tease" by Cliff Richard And The Shadows was replaced by "Apache", an instrumental credited to just The Shadows. Interestingly, Cliff Richard actually appears on the recording, playing a Chinese drum at the beginning and end of the track.

1965 - ClassicBands.com

August 27
Elvis Presley plays host to The Beatles at his rented home in Perugia Way, Bel Air. The get-together, which included an unrecorded jam session, lasted four hours. While their clients got to know each other, managers Colonel Tom Parker and Brian Epstein played pool in the next room. John Lennon would later recall: "He was great, just as I expected him."

1966 - ClassicBands.com

August 27
The Association's "Cherish" is released in the US where it will reach #1 a month later. Although the song is actually longer, the label showed the running time to be exactly three minutes, to keep radio programmers from dismissing the record as too long. The disc would later be presented with a Gold Record for sales of over one million copies and was said to be the 22nd most played song of the 20th Century by the performance rights group BMI (Broadcast Music Inc.)

August 27
Bobby Hebb saw his own composition, "Sunny" become the best selling single in America when it reached the top of the Cashbox chart. It also climbed to #2 on the Billboard Hot 100. The success of the record led to Hebb touring the United States and Canada with The Beatles.

1967 - ClassicBands.com

August 27
The Beatles' manager Brian Epstein was found dead of an apparent drug overdose at his home in Belgravia, London, just a few weeks shy of his 33rd birthday. The Fab Four were in Bangor, North Wales at the time, attending a conference by the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. The death is ruled accidental and the Maharishi tells the Beatles that Epstein's death, being in the realm of the physical world, is "not important." The group would later renounce their association with the Maharishi and Epstein is remembered as being the man who took The Beatles from being a rough looking club act to the most successful band in the world. John Lennon would later recall that when he heard the news about Brian, "I thought, we've fuckin' had it."

1977 - ClassicBands.com

August 27
30-year-old Jimmy Buffett marries his second wife, 26-year-old Jane Slagsvol. She had co-written two of his songs, "Something So Feminine About A Mandolin" and "Kick It In Second Wind".

1982 - ClassicBands.com

August 27
Led Zeppelin lead vocalist Robert Plant's solo LP "Pictures at Eleven", is awarded a Gold record. It was his first recorded work since the group disbanded in the wake of the death of drummer John Bonham.

1986 - ClassicBands.com

August 27
Tina Turner receives a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. She would place thirteen songs on the Billboard Hot 100 as a solo act between 1983 and 1993, including the chart topping "What's Love Got To Do With It" in 1984.

1987 - ClassicBands.com

August 27
Four days before its official release date, Michael Jackson's new album, "Bad" is previewed by an LA radio station. Advance orders have already topped 2.2 million.

1988 - ClassicBands.com

August 27
George Michael had his fourth consecutive number one single from the album "Faith", when "Monkey" climbed to the top of the Billboard Pop chart. It was his eighth US chart topper of the 1980s, a record bested only by Michael Jackson.

August 27
Tracy Chapman's self-titled debut album reaches the top of the Billboard 200 album chart for one week. At next year's Grammy Awards, she would take home statues for Best Contemporary Folk Album, as well as Best New Artist. Her single from the LP, "Fast Car", which reached #6 on the Hot 100, was given the nod for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance.

1990 - ClassicBands.com

August 27
Guitarist Stevie Ray Vaughan was killed in a helicopter crash in Alpine Valley, Wisconsin when the chopper hit a man-made ski slope while trying to navigate through dense fog. Three members of Eric Clapton's entourage were also killed. Vaughan's LP "Family Style" would win the 1991 Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Blues Album. His overall sales were estimated at over fifteen million albums.

1992 - ClassicBands.com

August 27
John Lennon's handwritten lyrics to "A Day In The Life" sell at an auction for $1.2 million, a bid that far exceeded its initial $500,000 to $700,000 pre-auction estimate. The lyrics, complete with spelling mistakes and words crossed out, narrowly missed becoming the highest-priced Beatles lyric sheet to sell at auction. In 2005, the hand-penned words to "All You Need is Love" sold for $1.25 million.

2003 - ClassicBands.com

August 27
Janis Ian, who scored her first hit, 1967's "Society's Child" when she was just sixteen years old, married her lesbian partner, Patricia Snyder in Toronto. It was the second marriage for both. Janis said she had no plans for a honeymoon since she's too busy working on two upcoming albums.

2006 - ClassicBands.com

August 27
Barry Manilow's TV special Barry Manilow: Music and Passion was presented with an Emmy Award for Best Individual Variety Performance. The following day Manilow underwent surgery to repair torn cartilage in both hips and faced a six week recovery.

August 27
The Rolling Stones played at the Don Valley Stadium in Sheffield, England on their A Bigger Bang world tour.

2008 - ClassicBands.com

August 27
48-year-old Mackenzie Phillips, the daughter of The Mamas And Papas' John Phillips and former co-star of the TV series One Day At A Time, was arrested at Los Angeles International Airport on suspicion of drug possession. She would later plead guilty to one count of possession of cocaine and was sentenced to a drug rehabilitation program.

2011 - ClassicBands.com

August 27
Tom Jones' representatives denied reports that the singer suffered heart problems prior to a show in Monte Carlo, Monaco a few days before, insisting he was simply dehydrated.

2012 - ClassicBands.com

August 27
Just as his new album, "The Singer" was being released, Art Garfunkel announced that he had regained his voice after being sidelined since 2010 with vocal paresis. The condition had caused the cancellation of a planned Simon And Garfunkel North American tour and although no further reunion talks were scheduled, Garfunkel said he was still open to the idea.

2015 - ClassicBands.com

August 27
With only 15.66 million digital songs sold in the US during the previous week, the music industry saw its lowest weekly sales since December 2007 when just 15.64 million units were sold. Live music was another matter, as ticket sales for concerts across America were up 5.6% in the first eight months of the year.

2018 - ClassicBands.com

August 27
The Hollywood Chamber of Commerce honored "Weird Al" Yankovic with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. The plaque was laid at 6914 Hollywood Boulevard across the street from the TCL Chinese Theatre. The parody artist had earned four Gold and six Platinum records, won five Grammy Awards, and sold over twelve million albums.



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