Rock 'n' Roll History for
July 19


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1954 - ClassicBands.com

July 19
Sun Records releases the first Elvis Presley single, "That's All Right", a cover of Arthur Crudup's 1946 tune "That's All Right, Mama". About 20,000 copies were sold, not enough to chart nationally, but the single would reach number four on the local Memphis charts.

1958 - ClassicBands.com

July 19
The Coasters have the top selling single in America with "Yakety Yak". Featuring the sax solo of King Curtis, the 1 minute, 52 second song also topped the Billboard R&B chart for seven weeks.

1963 - ClassicBands.com

July 19
Frank Ifield had the #1 single on the UK chart with "Confessin", his fourth and final chart topper. In America, it could only manage to climb to #58. The song, with different lyrics, was first recorded by Thomas "Fats" Waller And His Babies on December 18th, 1929.

1965 - ClassicBands.com

July 19
Capitol Records releases The Beatles' single, "Help!" in the US. Written mostly by John Lennon, with some help from Paul McCartney, the song would spend three weeks at the top of both the Billboard Hot 100 and the UK Official Chart. During a 1980 interview with Playboy magazine, Lennon recounted: "The whole Beatles thing was just beyond comprehension. I was subconsciously crying out for help." At the UK's 1966 Ivor Novello Awards, "Help!" was cited as the second best-selling single of 1965, behind "We Can Work It Out". It was also nominated in four categories at the 1966 Grammy Awards, but was unsuccessful in any of them.

1966 - ClassicBands.com

July 19
51-year-old Frank Sinatra marries 21-year-old actress Mia Farrow. It was his third marriage, her first. Two years later, while Farrow was filming Roman Polanski's Rosemary's Baby, Sinatra sent his lawyer to the movie set to inform his wife that he was filing for divorce.

July 19
Johnny Rivers begins recording "Poor Side Of Town", which will become the tenth of his seventeen US Top 40 hits and his only number one.

July 19
At RCA Studios in Hollywood, California, Mickey Dolenz of The Monkees records the theme song to the group's TV show, which will begin airing next Fall. He was the only member of the band to actually perform on the track. Although the tune appeared as an album cut on their self-titled debut LP and got some AM radio play, it was not released as a single.

1969 - ClassicBands.com

July 19
The Spencer Davis Group announces their break-up. The band had reached the Billboard chart twice in 1967 with "Gimme Some Lovin" (#7) and "I'm A Man" (#10) and placed ten songs on the UK charts, including two number one hits, "Keep On Running" and "Somebody Help Me".

July 19
Jimmy Buffett marries his first wife, Margie Washichek at St Joseph Chapel in Spring Hill, Mississippi. They divorced two years later.

1975 - ClassicBands.com

July 19
Orleans' "Dance With Me" is released. It would go on to climb to number six on Billboard's Hot 100 and has since been played on the radio over four million times.

July 19
Paul McCartney scores his fourth, post-Beatles chart topper in the US with "Listen To What The Man Said". It was a recording that Macca was very disappointed in until Tom Scott added his outstanding soprano saxophone solo. The record would go on to sell a million copies in America and reach #6 in the UK.

July 19
The Bay City Rollers were at the top of the UK singles chart with "Give A Little Love", the group's second and final UK #1. The song also topped the charts in Ireland, reached #2 in Australia, and #11 in Germany, but did not chart in the US.

1976 - ClassicBands.com

July 19
Deep Purple announced that at the end of their current tour, they were splitting up. At the time, they had reached the Billboard 200 twelve times and placed seven singles on the Hot 100, including "Hush" (#4) and "Kentucky Woman" (#38). They would reform in 1984 and go on to have nine more charting albums.

1980 - ClassicBands.com

July 19
Queen enjoy their third UK #1 album with "The Game", which featured the singles "Another One Bites The Dust" and "Crazy Little Thing Called Love". Both of those releases topped the Billboard Hot 100 in America and the LP went on to sell over four million copies.

July 19
With ten Billboard Top 40 hits already to his credit, Billy Joel reaches number one for the first time with "It's Still Rock And Roll To Me". The song would spend eleven weeks in the the Top Ten and would go on to sell over two million copies in the United States.

1981 - ClassicBands.com

July 19
'Roy Orbison Day' was celebrated in Odessa, Texas. The singer was given the keys to the city and he performed for the crowd gathered at the event. Orbison was actually born in Vernon, Texas on April 23rd, 1936.

1987 - ClassicBands.com

July 19
Bruce Springsteen played his first ever show behind the Iron Curtain when he appeared in East Berlin in front of 180,000 people. The show was broadcast on East German TV.

1989 - ClassicBands.com

July 19
James Brown was moved to a medium security cell at the Stevenson Correctional Institute after $40,000 in cash and cheques was discovered in his minimum security cell. The Godfather of Soul was serving a six year sentence for a variety of offenses that included illegal gun possession, resisting arrest, assault, and leading the authorities on a number of car chases. He was paroled in 1990 after serving two years.

1995 - ClassicBands.com

July 19
Elvis Presley's former physician, Dr. George Nichopoulous, loses his medical license for being "too liberal" in prescribing addictive drugs. Nichopoulos called the decision "idiotic" and suggested it stemmed from resentment over Presley's death in 1977.

2002 - ClassicBands.com

July 19
The city of Philadelphia officially declared it to be 'Solomon Burke Day'. The event gave the singer some much needed publicity for his upcoming album, "Don't Give Up On Me", which was to be released four days later. It would go on to win the Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Blues Album.

2004 - ClassicBands.com

July 19
Mark Tulin and James Lowe, two original members of The Electric Prunes, filed lawsuits against their record label and music publisher, alleging that the companies failed to pay them $1 million in royalties.

2007 - ClassicBands.com

July 19
US sales figures were released that showed CD sales falling a further 11.7% since last year. In contrast, vinyl record collectors pushed the demand for 78 RPM platters up by 12.9%.

2010 - ClassicBands.com

July 19
Ozzy Osbourne and his former Black Sabbath band mate Tony Iommi settled a long-running legal dispute over the use of the group's name. Ozzy had filed suit against the guitarist in May of last year, accusing Iommi of falsely proclaiming to be the sole owner of the Black Sabbath name by lodging an application with the US Patent and Trademark Office. The pair released a joint statement confirming they have settled the dispute "amicably."

2022 - ClassicBands.com

July 19
Queen made UK chart history by becoming the first act to sell seven million copies of an individual album when their 1981 LP "Queen's Greatest Hits" surpassed the mark.

2024 - ClassicBands.com

July 19
The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts announced that The Grateful Dead and Bonnie Raitt would be among this year's honorees.

July 19
Forbes magazine reported that, thanks to continuing tours over the last few years and selling his masters and publishing rights to Sony, Bruce Springsteen had become a billionaire.



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