Rock 'n' Roll History for
August 9


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1958 - ClassicBands.com

August 9
17-year-old Cliff Richard signed a record deal with EMI, where he stay for the next forty-one years.

1962 - ClassicBands.com

August 9
The Tijuana Brass release their first single, "The Lonely Bull" on A&M Records, the label formed by their leader Herb Alpert and his partner Jerry Moss. The tune will reach #6 in the US and begin a string of 19 Pop chart hits for Alpert.

1963 - ClassicBands.com

August 9
The BBC's Rock and Roll television show Ready! Steady! Go! makes its debut. The first program featured The Searchers, Jet Harris, Pat Boone, Billy Fury and Brian Poole And The Tremeloes. The final show aired in December 1966 after 175 episodes.

1965 - ClassicBands.com

August 9
A British quartet called The Silkie record the Lennon / McCartney tune "You've Got To Hide Your Love Away", on which John Lennon was the producer, Paul McCartney played guitar and George Harrison kept time on a tambourine. The song would reach #28 in the UK and #10 in the US, but their only chance to tour America evaporated when band members were unable to obtain the necessary visas and work permits. EMI Records would release two other singles, "Keys to My Soul" and "Born to Be With You" in 1966, but neither made the UK or the US charts and the group fractured soon after.

1967 - ClassicBands.com

August 9
Jerry Lee Lewis gets the crowd going into such a frenzy while performing at the Sunberry Jazz and Blues Festival in England, that festival officials halt his show and ask him to leave the stage.

1975 - ClassicBands.com

August 9
The Bee Gees had the first of several Disco style hits in the US when "Jive Talkin" topped the Billboard Hot 100. The inspiration for the song came to Barry Gibb as his car passed over a Florida bridge on the way to a recording studio. His wife said, "Hey, listen to that noise. It's the same every evening. It's our drive talking." The record made it to #5 in the UK.

1986 - ClassicBands.com

August 9
Queen gave what would be their last ever live performance when they appeared at Knebworth Festival. The show capped a tour in which the band played to 400,000 fans and grossed £11 million.

1991 - ClassicBands.com

August 9
The 5th Dimension are awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame at 7000 Hollywood Blvd. Between 1966 and 1983, the quintet placed twenty songs on the Billboard Top 40 and fourteen albums on the Billboard 200.

1994 - ClassicBands.com

August 9
Lynyrd Skynyrd releases their eighth album, "Endangered Species". The LP features many of the band's best known songs played with acoustic instrumentation. It would reach #115 on the Billboard 200 chart.

1995 - ClassicBands.com

August 9
53-year-old Jerry Garcia, leader of The Grateful Dead, died at a California rehabilitation center. The official cause of death was a heart attack brought on by hardening of the arteries. Half of his ashes were later spread into the Ganges river at the holy city of Rishikesh, India. The the rest of the cremains were scattered into the San Francisco Bay.

August 9
The original members of KISS play together for the first time since 1980 when drummer Peter Criss and guitarist Ace Frehley joined Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons to record their MTV Unplugged special.

2007 - ClassicBands.com

August 9
Jurors, lawyers and Phil Spector himself visited Spector's California mansion to get a firsthand look at the place where actress Lana Clarkson died four years earlier. Spector was on trial for the of murder of Clarkson, who had been shot after going home with him for a drink. On September 26th, Judge Larry Paul Fidler would declare a mistrial because of a hung jury (ten to two for conviction). Spector would be convicted at a second trial on April 13th, 2009 and was sentenced to 19 years to life in the California state prison system.

2016 - ClassicBands.com

August 9
A spokesperson for Cher refuted a tabloid magazine story that said the singer was suffering from a debilitating illness and was close to death by calling the report "dog shit."

2017 - ClassicBands.com

August 9
Glen Campbell was laid to rest in a private ceremony in his hometown of Delight, Arkansas. Sales of his music grew 5,429 percent in the two days following his death on August 8th, while streams of his songs increased by 1,430 percent, according to reports from Nielsen Music.

2023 - ClassicBands.com

August 9
Robbie Robertson, guitarist and songwriter for The Band, passed away after a long illness at the age of 80. Starting out as Ronnie Hawkins' backup group The Hawks, the quintet moved on to back Bob Dylan before striking out on their own by releasing the album "Music From Big Pink" in 1968. Over the next ten years they released eleven more albums before splitting for good in 1978.



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