Rock 'n' Roll History for
July 20


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1940 - ClassicBands.com

July 20
Billboard's first Music Popularity Chart is published. The magazine had previously printed best-seller lists submitted by the individual record companies, but the new chart combined the top sellers from all major labels. Their first number one song was "I'll Never Smile Again" by Frank Sinatra And The Tommy Dorsey Orchestra.

1946 - ClassicBands.com

July 20
13-year-old Petula Clark made her first appearance on British TV on a BBC variety show called Cabaret Cartoons, which would lead to her being signed to host her own afternoon series titled simply Petula Clark. She would go on to reach the UK Top 40 twenty-ones times and the Billboard Top 40 on fifteen occasions.

1954 - ClassicBands.com
July 20
Elvis Presley performed on one what was probably the smallest stage of his career when he appeared on the back of a flatbed truck outside a Memphis drugstore for its grand opening. Elvis was then a member of The Blue Moon Boys trio with Bill Black and Scotty Moore, who took their name from a song they had recorded just two weeks previously, "Blue Moon of Kentucky".

1963 - ClassicBands.com

July 20
Just two weeks after its release Jan And Dean's "Surf City" becomes the first surfing record to top the Billboard singles chart. The song, written by Brian Wilson, Jan Berry and Dean Torrence, reached #2 in Canada and #26 in the UK. Beach Boys' manager, Murry Wilson was reportedly livid that his son collaborated with Jan and Dean, believing that Brian had wasted a number one record that could have been a hit for his group.

1965 - ClassicBands.com

July 20
The Lovin' Spoonful release their first single, "Do You Believe in Magic", from the album of the same name. It will reach #9 on the US Pop chart and was later ranked #216 on Rolling Stone's list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.

July 20
Bob Dylan's "Like a Rolling Stone" is released by Columbia records. It turns out to be his biggest hit ever, climbing to number two in the US and number four in the UK.

1968 - ClassicBands.com

July 20
Iron Butterfly's classic album, "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" entered Billboard's Hot 200 chart at #117. It was the band's second LP and contained the seventeen minute title track that filled the entire second side of the disc. A shortened, single version of the song only made it to number 30, but the album climbed to number 4 and went on to sell over four million copies in the US alone. A remastered edition was released by Rhino Records in 1995 that contains the single version as well as a live version of "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida".

July 20
Hugh Masakela's instrumental rendition of "Grazing In The Grass" reached the top of the Billboard Hot 100. A year later, The Friends Of Distinction would take a vocal version of the song to number 3.

July 20
Jane Asher announces on a national British TV show, Dee Time, that her engagement to Paul McCartney was off by saying, "I haven't broken it off, but it's finished." She refused all attempts to discuss the matter after that. Paul reportedly was watching at a friend's home and acted surprised by the news, even though Jane had caught him in bed with a woman named Francie Schwartz a few days earlier. Jane was said to have inspired many of McCartney's songs, such as "All My Loving", "And I Love Her", "I'm Looking Through You", "You Won't See Me", "We Can Work It Out", "Here, There and Everywhere", and "For No One". Jane went on to have a long career in films and television as well as becoming a successful author and business woman.

1969 - ClassicBands.com

July 20
Roy Hamilton, whose version of "Unchained Melody" was America's best-selling R&B record of 1955, died of a heart attack at the age of 40. He also scored US hits with "Don't Let Go" (#13 in 1958) and "You Can Have Her" (#12 in 1961.)

1970 - ClassicBands.com

July 20
Karen and Richard Carpenter appear on two separate segments of TV's The Dating Game. Richard won his game, but never actually went on the date.

1979 - ClassicBands.com

July 20
E.L.O. takes out advertisements in several American magazines dedicating the release of "Don't Bring Me Down" to NASA's Skylab project. The song would reach #3 in the UK and #4 in the US, where it sold over two million copies.

1986 - ClassicBands.com

July 20
Santana celebrates their 20th anniversary at a concert in San Francisco that features a jam with all previous members of the band.

1990 - ClassicBands.com

July 20
Madonna played the first of three sold out nights at Wembley Stadium, London, England, on her 57-date Blond Ambition World Tour.

1999 - ClassicBands.com

July 20
The Rolling Stones reported a gross income of $337 million from almost two years of touring from their Bridges to Babylon and No Security tours. The Stones had played to over 5.6 million people, selling out all but twenty shows.

2009 - ClassicBands.com

July 20
Jackson Browne settled his lawsuit against US Senator John McCain and the Republican Party after his 1977 hit "Running On Empty" was used without permission in a 2008 McCain presidential campaign ad that aired on TV and the Internet. McCain and the Republican Party apologized for using the song in the ad and said that McCain himself "had no knowledge of, or involvement in, the creation or distribution of the video."

2011 - ClassicBands.com

July 20
Pictures of The Beatles' first US concert in Washington DC on February 11th, 1964, taken by a then 18-year-old Mike Mitchell, sold at Christie's auction house for $361,938. Security in those days was very casual and Mitchell was just feet from the band as he snapped the black and white photos which he stored for years in a box in his basement.

2015 - ClassicBands.com

July 20
Wayne Carson, who wrote the Classic Rock 'n' Roll songs "Always on My Mind", "The Letter", "Neon Rainbow" and "Soul Deep", passed away at the age of 72 after suffering congestive heart failure.

2016 - ClassicBands.com

July 20
Speaking at the International AIDS Conference in Durban, South Africa, Elton John announced a $10 million fund that would lend medical and legal support to the African LGBT community. "I know that certain governments in Africa will not respond to someone like me telling them 'You should do this, you should do that'," said John. "I count for nothing as far as that goes. What I can do is ensure that people who are LGBT, if their clinics are closed down because they are LGBT, we can give them medicine. If they are arrested, we will get them legal aid."

2019 - ClassicBands.com

July 20
Queen's 1975 hit "Bohemian Rhapsody" became the first pre-1990s music video to reach one billion plays on YouTube.

2024 - ClassicBands.com

July 20
Sandy Posey, who scored four Billboard Top 40 hits in the mid-1960s, passed away at the age of 80 following complications from dementia. Oddly, three of her songs, "Born a Woman", "Single Girl" and "I Take It Back" all made it to #12. She also placed eleven songs on the Hot Country Songs chart between 1971 and 1983. Along with her own solo career, she recorded back-up vocals for Elvis Presley, Percy Sledge, Joe Tex, Bobby Goldsboro and Tommy Roe.



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