Rock 'n' Roll History for
December 16


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1907 - ClassicBands.com

December 16
Eugene Farrar became the first singer to broadcast on radio when he sang "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me?" from the Brooklyn Navy Yard in New York. Culture Club would take a different song with the same title to number one in 1982.

1956 - ClassicBands.com

December 16
Elvis Presley gives his final performance on Louisiana Hayride, a live radio program that was broadcast on KWKH in Shreveport. Originally signed in October, 1954, Presley made 50 appearances on the show. The immediate and enormous demand for more of Presley's new kind of Rockabilly music actually resulted in a sharp decline in the popularity of the Louisiana Hayride, that until that point had been strictly a Country music venue.

1957 - ClassicBands.com

December 16
"Elvis' Christmas Album" reaches the top of the Billboard album chart for the first of four non-consecutive weeks. The LP, which has been reissued several times, has sold over 17 million copies in the United States.

1961 - ClassicBands.com

December 16
Brian Epstein hires photographer Albert Marrion for The Beatles' first professional photo shoot. The black and white pictures would show John, Paul, George and Pete Best posing with their instruments, but not actually playing. Marrion would later recall, "John and Paul joked and laughed throughout most of the session. George Harrison was quiet and Pete Best didn't speak almost at all. I took about 30 photographs of The Beatles, but discarded all but 16 negatives because many showed Lennon and McCartney acting up and spoiling the pose. No doubt, those negatives should have been kept, looking back."

1966 - ClassicBands.com

December 16
Polydor Records releases Jimi Hendrix's first single, "Hey Joe". The record made it to number 6 in the UK, but failed to chart at all in America. He followed with "Purple Haze", "The Wind Cries Mary", "All Along the Watchtower" and "Voodoo Chile", all of which made the British Top 10, but in America, only "All Along the Watchtower" reached the Top 40, peaking at number 20.

1970 - ClassicBands.com

December 16
Four singles and four albums by Creedence Clearwater Revival were certified Gold. The singles were: "Down on the Corner", "Lookin' Out My Back Door", "Bad Moon Rising" and "Up around the Bend". The LPs were "Cosmo's Factory", "Willy and the Poor Boys", "Bayou Country" and "Creedence Clearwater Revival".

1972 - ClassicBands.com

December 16
After spending just one week at the top of the Billboard Hot 100, Helen Reddy's "I Am Woman" is knocked out of the number one spot by Billy Paul's "Me And Mrs. Jones". That record would occupy the position for three weeks. It also led the R&B chart and rose to #10 on the Adult Contemporary chart and #12 in the UK. The singer would win Best R&B Vocal Performance, Male at the 15th Grammy Awards in March, 1973.

1975 - ClassicBands.com

December 16
The Bay City Rollers earn a Gold record for their first US single, "Saturday Night". The song would top the Hot 100 the following January, but failed to chart in the UK. The band will go on to have five more Billboard Top 40 hits.

1977 - ClassicBands.com

December 16
The Bee Gees are awarded a Gold record for "How Deep is Your Love", the fourth of their nine Billboard number one singles. The song would become the subject of a copyright infringement suit five years later when an amateur songwriter named Ronald Selle claimed the brothers Gibb lifted the melody from a composition he'd written called "Let It End". The case was decided in Selle's favor, but the verdict was overturned a few months later.

December 16
The movie, Saturday Night Fever premieres in New York City and is instrumental in spreading the Disco craze throughout the country. The soundtrack will go on to be one of the biggest-selling albums of all time, racking up over 40 million in worldwide sales. In the United States alone, the LP would be certified 16X Platinum.

1983 - ClassicBands.com

December 16
Two of a Kind, starring John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John opens in theatres across America. The film would flop at the box office and was nominated for five Razzie Awards: Worst Actor (John Travolta), Worst Actress (Oivia Newton-John), Worst Director (John Herzfeld), Worst Screenplay, and Worst Picture.

1984 - ClassicBands.com

December 16
Just six weeks after they met, Bette Midler marries Martin von Haselberg of the UK performance duo The Kipper Kids. While celebrating their 30th anniversary in 2014, Bette would say, "I think the secret is giving each other a lot of lead and a lot of room and not being in each other's faces all the time."

December 16
ZZ Top bassist Dusty Hill is wounded after his girlfriend pulled his boot off and his derringer fell out, discharging in the fall and hitting him in the abdomen. After being admitted to Houston's Memorial City Hospital, the bullet is removed and Hill would go on to make a full recovery.

1991 - ClassicBands.com

December 16
Chubby Checker filed a lawsuit against McDonald's Restaurants of Canada seeking $14 million in damages because they allegedly used an imitation of his voice. The song "The Twist" had been used in a french fry commercial.

1993 - ClassicBands.com

December 16
With stories beginning to surface about Michael Jackson's alleged improprieties with young boys, St. Louis radio station KEZK becomes one of the first to announce that it will no longer play the singer's records.

1995 - ClassicBands.com

December 16
The Beatles' "Free As A Bird" peaks at number 2 on the UK charts and number 6 in the US. Written by John Lennon and performed by him on piano as a rough demo shortly before he was murdered, the track was completed by the remaining Beatles at Paul McCartney's home studio.

1997 - ClassicBands.com

December 16
Pop singer Nicolette Larson, best known for her hit version of Neil Young's "Lotta Love" in 1978, passed away at the age of 45. She had been admitted to St. Joseph's Hospital in Burbank with massive liver failure and was then transferred to UCLA Medical Center, where she died from an abnormal accumulation of fluid in the brain.

2001 - ClassicBands.com

December 16
Stuart Adamson, a highly regarded Scottish guitarist who led his band Big Country into Billboard's Top 20 in 1983 with "In A Big Country", committed suicide by hanging himself in a hotel room in Honolulu, Hawaii. He was 43.

2003 - ClassicBands.com

December 16
Shania Twain becomes the first woman to have three of her albums certified as Diamond when the Recording Industry Association of America validates her fourth LP, "Up!", for ten million in sales. Her second and third albums, "The Woman in Me" (1995) and "Come On Over" (1997) also achieved that feat.

2007 - ClassicBands.com

December 16
56 year old singer / songwriter Dan Fogelberg died after a three year battle with prostate cancer. His hits "Longer" (#2), "Same Old Lang Syne" (#9), "Hard To Say" (#7) and "Leader of the Band" (#9) helped define the Soft Rock era of the '70s and '80s,

2010 - ClassicBands.com

December 16
Paul McCartney paid tribute to his Beatles band mate John Lennon during an appearance on Saturday Night Live where he performed "A Day in the Life" and then thrilled viewers with a cover version of his late friend's anti-war anthem "Give Peace a Chance".

December 16
A spokesman for the British Recorded Music Industry said that over 7.7 million people illegally downloaded 1.2 billion tracks this year. Calling for swift action to be taken, he went on to say "It is a parasite that threatens to deprive a generation of talented young people of their chance to make a career in music, and is holding back investment in the burgeoning digital entertainment sector."

2013 - ClassicBands.com

December 16
Ray Price, the Country singer who scored a #13 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1970 with "For The Good Times", died of pancreatic cancer at the age of 87.

2014 - ClassicBands.com

December 16
Legendary American radio host Casey Kasem was laid to rest at Norway's Vestre Gravlund Cemetery. After Kasem died June 15 at the age of 82, his wife Jean Kasem and daughter Kerri Kasem waged a public battle over the burial site. Jean wanted Kasem interred in Norway because of her own Norwegian heritage and because her plans to relocate there would allow her to visit him.

December 16
Rock Scully, the manager of The Grateful Dead from their early Haight-Ashbury days up until 1985, passed away at a Monterey, California hospital. He was 73.

2015 - ClassicBands.com

December 16
The R.I.A.A. announced that Michael Jackson's album "Thriller" had sold 30 million copies in the United States, making Jackson the first artist to attain 30X Platinum status. By August 20th, 2021, the LP had gone 34X Platinum. Seven singles were issued: "The Girl Is Mine", "Billie Jean", "Beat It", "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin' ", "Human Nature", "P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing)", and "Thriller".

2019 - ClassicBands.com

December 16
The original, handwritten lyrics to "Your Song", written by Bernie Taupin for Elton John, sold for $237,575 at Bonhams auction house. The lyrics to "Bennie & the Jets" as well as those for "Border Song" went for $87,600 and $31,000, respectively, at the same auction. The lyric sheets were all sold by Maxine Taupin, Bernie's ex-wife, who was the inspiration for many of his songs, including "Tiny Dancer".



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