Rock 'n' Roll History for
December 18


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1961 - ClassicBands.com

December 18
After reaching #15 with "Tonight I Fell In Love" earlier in the year, a Brooklyn, New York group called The Tokens scored the top tune on the Billboard charts with "The Lion Sleeps Tonight". The song was written by Solomon Linda under the title "Mbube", and recorded for the South African Gallo Record Company in 1939. His original lyrics were written in Zulu, while the English words were penned by George David Weiss. It has been estimated that "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" earned $15 million for its use in the Disney movie The Lion King.

December 18
"Twistin' The Night Away" by Sam Cooke was recorded at RCA Studios in Hollywood. It would be released January 9th, 1962 on RCA Victor Records and charted at #9 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #1 on the Billboard's R&B chart. It was successful overseas as well, peaking at #6 on the UK Singles Chart.

December 18
Leroy Van Dyke achieved the rare feat of having a Country song cross over to the Billboard Pop chart when "Walk On By" peaked at #5. Five years earlier he also had a Top 20 hit with "Auctioneer", and would return the following Spring with "If A Woman Answers (Hang Up The Phone)", which would reach #35.

1962 - ClassicBands.com

December 18
The Beatles return to Hamburg, Germany for the fifth and final time, where they will play a twelve night run at The Star Club. In April, 1977, thirty tracks recorded at the venue would appear as the album, "Live! at the Star-Club in Hamburg, Germany; 1962". Poor sound quality may be largely responsible for mediocre sales, with the LP stalling at #111 during a seven-week run on the Billboard 200 album chart. George Harrison may have summed it up best when he stated, "The Star-Club recording was the crummiest recording ever made in our name!"

1964 - ClassicBands.com

December 18
Funeral services are held in Chicago for Sam Cooke. A crowd of fans break the glass doors and cause other damage to the A.R. Leak Funeral Home and so many of them surround the limo of James Brown, he is forced to leave.

1967 - ClassicBands.com

December 18
"Wild Honey" by The Beach Boys was released on Capitol Records. Produced by the members of the band, the album would become their most modest selling LP up to that point, charting at #24 in the US. The lead single, "Wild Honey" peaked at #31, while its follow-up "Darlin'" reached #19. In the UK, the album made it to number seven.

1969 - ClassicBands.com

December 18
A New York Times article estimates that the youth audience in America accounts for 75-percent of the $1 billion spent annually on recorded music.

1971 - ClassicBands.com

December 18
"I Gotcha" by Joe Tex is released by Dial Records. The song will reach #1 on the Billboard R&B chart in late January, 1972, largely because of the publicity caused by way Tex slurred the line "Told you not to play with my affection," which causes many listeners to mistake the last word for one that rhymes with it.

December 18
Sly And The Family Stone had the number one album on the Billboard chart with "There's A Riot Goin' On". The original title of the LP was "Africa Talks to You", but was renamed in response to Marvin Gaye's landmark album "What's Going On". The lead single, "Family Affair" reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 on December 4th, and stayed there for three weeks. The LP was eventually certified Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America for sales of one million copies, and was ranked at #82 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums Of All Time in 2020.

1978 - ClassicBands.com

December 18
Les Kummel, bassist for The New Colony Six on their Billboard Top 40 hits "I Will Always Think About You" (#22 in 1968) and "Things I'd Like To Say" (#16 in 1969), was killed in a car accident in Chicago. He was 33.

1982 - ClassicBands.com

December 18
Hall And Oates overtook The Everly Brothers as the top recording duo of all time when their biggest hit, "Maneater" reached #1 on the US singles chart. It made #6 in the UK.

1983 - ClassicBands.com

December 18
With Mick Jagger as the best man, 40-year-old Keith Richards marries 32-year-old model Patti Hansen during a ceremony in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. The couple have two daughters, Theodora Richards (1985) and Alexandra Richards (1986). During her modeling career, Patti appeared on the pages of Seventeen, American Vogue, Cosmopolitan, Glamour, and Harper's Bazaar.

1991 - ClassicBands.com

December 18
Gilbert O'Sullivan wins an injunction that prevents rapper Biz Markie from sampling his 1972 hit "Alone Again (Naturally)" for a new Rap single called "Alone Again". The judgment changed the Hip Hop music industry forever, as it required that music sampling be pre-approved by the original copyright owners.

2003 - ClassicBands.com

December 18
Michael Jackson was formally charged with seven counts of committing lewd or lascivious acts upon a child under the age of fourteen and two counts of administering an intoxicating agent. On June 13th, 2005, after deliberating for about thirty-two hours over seven days, a jury voted to acquit the singer on all counts.

2004 - ClassicBands.com

December 18
A Gibson SG guitar that George Harrison used during the recording of "Revolver" and John Lennon played on "The Beatles" (the White Album) sold for £294,000 ($570,000) at an auction in New York.

2010 - ClassicBands.com

December 18
British plane passengers were left fuming when Madonna was allowed to leave a diverted Virgin aircraft two hours before other travelers. The material girl was onboard a flight from New York to London, but the plane was diverted to nearby Stansted Airport because of heavy snowfall.

2012 - ClassicBands.com

December 18
Mick Jagger appears on The Late Show With David Letterman where he read The Top 10 Things I've Learned After 50 Years In Rock And Roll. One of the things on the list was, "Nobody wants to hear anything from your new album."

December 18
The Discovery Channel announced that because of poor ratings, Ted Nugent's reality TV show American Guns was not being renewed and that they had no plans to air any re-runs.

2014 - ClassicBands.com

December 18
Larry Henley, the lead singer of The Newbeats, died of Lewy Body Dementia at the age of 77. His group placed four songs in the Billboard Top 40, including the #2 hit "Bread And Butter" in 1964. He later enjoyed a prolific song writing career which included Bette Midler's 1989, #1 song, "Wind Beneath My Wings".

2015 - ClassicBands.com

December 18
The Kinks' Ray and Dave Davies performed together for the first time in twenty years when Ray joined his brother on stage at London's Islington Assembly Hall. The pair performed their 1964 smash "You Really Got Me", and re-ignited hope that the Davies brothers would put aside their years of bickering and animosity and reform the band.

2020 - ClassicBands.com

December 18
Paul McCartney releases his eighteenth solo album, "McCartney III". Similar to "McCartney" (1970) and "McCartney II" (1980), Paul played all of the instruments on most of the tracks. The LP would debut at #2 on the Billboard 200 and became Macca's first UK number-one solo album since "Flowers in the Dirt" in 1989. It was nominated for Best Rock Album at the 64th Annual Grammy Awards on April 3rd, 2022, but lost to "Medicine at Midnight" by Foo Fighters.



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