Rock 'n' Roll History for
July 21


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1956 - ClassicBands.com

July 21
Billboard magazine calls Elvis Presley "the most controversial entertainer since Liberace." The article also notes that Ed Sullivan, who once said Presley would never appear on his show, just signed the singer for three appearances.

July 21
Frankie Lymon And The Teenagers started a three week run at the top of the UK chart with "Why Do Fools Fall In Love", a record that had reached #6 in America last February.

1958 - ClassicBands.com

July 21
"Hard Headed Woman" by Elvis Presley was the top tune on the Billboard Top 100 chart. The song was part of the soundtrack for his motion picture King Creole, and was included on the album of the same name. At the time, Presley was in Fort Hood Texas, doing basic training in the US Army.

1960 - ClassicBands.com

July 21
Brian Hyland appears as a guest on the popular CBS game show To Tell The Truth. Three out of the four panelists correctly picked Hyland as the singer of "Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polkadot Bikini".

July 21
Elvis Presley receives his first degree black belt in karate. He would go on to earn an eighth degree belt in 1974.

1961 - ClassicBands.com

July 21
Following his first Billboard chart success last February with "(I Wanna) Love My Life My Life Away", which rose to #39, Gene Pitney makes his first appearance on American Bandstand, singing "Every Breath I Take", which would stall at #42. His breakthrough would come next December when "Town Without Pity" would crack the Top Ten.

1962 - ClassicBands.com

July 21
Following his huge hit, "Hey! Baby", which had gone to number one in America for three weeks last March, Bruce Channel sees his song "Come On Baby" peak at the bottom rung of the Billboard Hot 100 during a one week stay. It would be the last time he made the Pop chart in America, although he did reach #12 in the UK in 1968 with a tune called "Keep On". Channel would later move to Nashville where he penned several successful Country hits for other artists in the '70s and '80s.

1963 - ClassicBands.com

July 21
Mercury Records releases the Lesley Gore tune, "Judy's Turn To Cry", the follow up to her number one hit, "It's My Party". The record was a continuation of the original story and it too became a Top 5 hit in the US. The record also reached #10 on the Billboard Hot R&B sides, but did not chart in the UK.

1969 - ClassicBands.com

July 21
The Beatles start recording John Lennon's song "Come Together" at Abbey Road Studios. It would reach the top of the charts in the United States and Australia, and peaked at #4 in the United Kingdom.

July 21
"Hot Fun In The Summertime" by Sly And The Family Stone is release by by Epic Records. It would peak at #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, kept out of the top spot by "I Can't Get Next to You" by The Temptations. The song would later be ranked by Rolling Stone at #247 on their list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.

1971 - ClassicBands.com

July 21
Carole King was having a very good week. Her single "It's Too Late" sat on top of Billboard's singles chart and she received a Gold album for "Tapestry". The LP, released four months earlier, was the number one album in the US for fifteen weeks and would stay on Billboard's Top 200 album chart for 292 weeks.

1973 - ClassicBands.com

July 21
Jim Croce's, "Bad Bad Leroy Brown", taken from his second LP, "Life and Times", was the number one song on Billboard's Hot 100. Jim said that the Leroy Brown character was inspired by a tough guy that he had met in the Army a few years earlier. The song earned Croce two Grammy nominations, one for Record Of The Year, which he lost to "Killing Me Softly With His Song" by Roberta Flack, and the other for Best Pop Vocal Performance, Male, which went to Stevie Wonder for "You Are The Sunshine Of My Life".

July 21
Lennie Peters and Dianne Lee had the top tune in England with "Welcome Home". They became the first music act since The Beatles to simultaneously top the UK singles chart and album chart. Although success in America eluded them, they would go on to have three more Top 20 hits in Great Britain. Peters, who died of bone cancer in 1992, was an uncle of Rolling Stones' drummer Charlie Watts.

July 21
While Billboard listed it at #4, Cashbox magazine said that Three Dog Night's version of "Shambala" was the hottest selling single in the country. Their rendition would go on to earn a Gold Record for sales of over one million copies. A simultaneous release by B.W. Stevenson was also a minor hit on the US Country chart, reaching #66.

1980 - ClassicBands.com

July 21
Keith Godchaux, former keyboards player with The Grateful Dead, was killed in a car accident in Marin County, California. Godchaux and his wife, Donna, a background vocalist, had been with The Dead from 1971 until 1979, when they were asked to leave.

1986 - ClassicBands.com

July 21
Geffen Records releases Neil Young's 15th studio album, "Landing on Water". It would peak at #46 in both the US and the UK. Two singles reached the Billboard Mainstream Rock chart, "Touch the Night" (#8), and "Weight of the World" (#33).

1988 - ClassicBands.com

July 21
A judge in Aiken, South Carolina ordered James Brown to hold a benefit concert for police and abused children as part of a sentence on drug and firearms charges. Brown called the sentence a back-door way of getting him to do a concert for free.

1990 - ClassicBands.com

July 21
Pink Floyd's Roger Waters got a little help from his friends Joni Mitchell, Bryan Adams, The Scorpions, Cyndi Lauper, Van Morrison, Sinead O'Connor, The Band, and others for a live performance of Pink Floyd's, "The Wall". The event was held on the west side of the Berlin wall and helped raise money for disaster relief. Over 200,000 fans attended the concert, which was released on CD and in video form later in the year.

July 21
BBC's Radio One apologizes to listeners after Madonna repeatedly cursed during a live concert broadcast from Wembley Stadium. She said the F-word twenty-four times.

1995 - ClassicBands.com

July 21
A judge in Los Angeles threw out a lawsuit against Michael Jackson by five of his former security guards. The guards had claimed they were fired for knowing too much about night time visits by young boys to Jackson's estate. The singer denied any improprieties.

2001 - ClassicBands.com

July 21
Madonna kicked off the North American leg of her 47-date Drowned World Tour at the First Union Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was her first world tour since The Girlie Show in 1993 and would gross over $75 million.

2005 - ClassicBands.com

July 21
British R&B artist Long John Baldry died after battling a chest infection for four months. He was 64. Baldry was one of the founding fathers of British Rock 'n' Roll in the '60s. Eric Clapton has stated many times that he was inspired to pick up the guitar after seeing Baldry perform.

2006 - ClassicBands.com

July 21
The Rolling Stones were the top touring band in the world for the first half of 2006, reporting $147.3 million in grosses from forty-five shows in US arenas and international stadiums.

2019 - ClassicBands.com

July 21
A 1957 Gibson Les Paul Goldtop,, once owned by Duane Allman and played on the classic Derek And The Dominos song "Layla", sold at auction for $1.25 million. Heritage Auctions also sold Graham Nash's 1969 Martin D-45 he played with Crosby, Stills & Nash at Woodstock, as well as instruments that once belonged to Johnny Cash, Stephen Stills and Bo Diddley.

2021 - ClassicBands.com

July 21
Despite the COVID-19 virus cancelling most of the year's live concerts, several of Classic Rock's biggest acts ranked among Billboard's list of the top paid musicians in 2020. The Eagles reportedly earned $16.3 million, Queen made $13.2 million, The Beatles amassed $12.9 million, AC/DC brought in $10.1 million, and Pink Floyd earned $8.8 million.

2023 - ClassicBands.com

July 21
Tony Bennett, the crooner whose music bridged several generations, passed away at the age of 96. Over the course of his eight decade career, he placed thirteen songs on the Billboard Top 40 chart, including 1957's "In The Middle Of An Island", which peaked at #9. Bennett won eighteen Grammy Awards, most notably Album of the Year for his 1994 "MTV Unplugged: Tony Bennett" LP that featured collaborations with Elvis Costello and k.d. Lang. His signature tune, "I Left My Heart In San Francisco", which climbed to #19 in America, was selected for preservation in the National Recording Registry by the U.S. Library of Congress in 2018.



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