Rock 'n' Roll History for
July 26


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1958 - ClassicBands.com

July 26
Cuban band leader Perez Prado, often referred to as the King of the Mambo, led his orchestra to the top of the Cashbox Best Sellers list with a song called "Patricia". It would also be the last record to climb to #1 on the Billboard Jockeys and Top 100 charts, both of which gave way the next week to the newly introduced Billboard Hot 100 chart.

1960 - ClassicBands.com

July 26
RCA Victor releases Sam Cooke's "Chain Gang", which will prove to be the singer's second most popular song of his career, reaching #2 on the Hot 100 and #9 in the UK. Cooke would say that he was inspired to write the song after seeing an actual chain gang of prisoners on a highway while he was on tour.

July 26
Hank Ballard And The Midnighters record "Let's Go, Let's Go, Let's Go", which will peak at #6 on the Hot 100 next November. It will prove to be the band's biggest hit record, displacing their previous Top Ten hit, "Finger Poppin' Time", which reached #7 earlier in the year. Over the course of his recording career, Ballard reached the chart fifteen times and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990.

1963 - ClassicBands.com

July 26
Motown Records' Tamla label releases The Miracles' "Mickey's Monkey". It will reach #8 on the Hot 100, #3 on the R&B chart, and go on to be the group's third million-selling record in as many years, after "Shop Around" (#2 in 1961) and "You've Really Got A Hold On Me" (#8 in 1962).

1968 - ClassicBands.com

July 26
The Rolling Stones album "Beggar's Banquet" has its release delayed because of their record label's objection to the album's cover design, which featured a graffiti-covered bathroom wall. It was the first LP on which Mick Jagger played guitar.

1969 - ClassicBands.com

July 26
Elvis Presley opened at the Showroom of the International Hotel in Las Vegas for a four week engagement which netted him $1 million dollars. The concerts were universally acclaimed as a triumph.

July 26
The 5th Dimension's Billy Davis Jr. and Marilyn McCoo are married. The duo will leave the group in 1975 and score a US #1 and UK #7 hit of their own in 1977 with "You Don't Have To Be A Star (To Be In My Show)", which earned them a Grammy for Best R&B Vocal Performance By a Duo or Group.

1975 - ClassicBands.com

July 26
Van McCoy had the number one tune on the Billboard Hot 100 with "The Hustle", a song that he claimed to have written in less than an hour. The song would go on to win the Grammy Award for Best Pop Instrumental Performance early in 1976. It also did well around the world, reaching #3 in the UK, #9 in Australia and #1 in Canada.

July 26
The Amazing Rhythm Aces enter the Billboard Hot 100 with a song about a casual, hotel interlude called "Third Rate Romance", which will climb to #14. Although they would have other hits on the Country chart, this will be the only Pop chart entry for the Knoxville, Tennessee quintet.

July 26
The Eagles enjoy their first US #1 album when "One Of These Nights" tops the Billboard 200 chart for the first of five weeks. It would yield three US Top 10 singles: "One of These Nights" (#1), "Lyin' Eyes" (#2) and "Take It to the Limit" (#4). The LP sold over four million copies and received a Grammy nomination for Album of the Year, but lost to "Still Crazy After All These Years" by Paul Simon.

1976 - ClassicBands.com

July 26
With three of the four original backing musicians now departed, the last Three Dog Night concert is held in Los Angeles. When they would re-unite in 1981, all the original members except bassist Joe Schermie came back onboard, but their hit making days would be behind them. Between 1968 and 1983, they reached the Billboard 200 sixteen times and the Hot 100 twenty-one times.

July 26
Ted Nugent receives a Gold record for his self-titled album, which included two of his more well-known tracks, "Hey Baby" and "Stranglehold". It was his first LP since since disbanding The Amboy Dukes the previous year. The effort reached #28 on the Billboard 200 and #56 on the UK Official Albums Chart, and eventually sold over two million copies.

1977 - ClassicBands.com

July 26
Tragedy struck Led Zeppelin's lead singer Robert Plant when his five-year-old son, Karac, died suddenly of a stomach virus. The remaining seven dates on Led Zeppelin's US tour were canceled and the band headed for home. Plant was later quoted as saying that 1977 was "the year it all stopped for me. Nothing could make it all right again and nothing ever will."

1987 - ClassicBands.com

July 26
Billy Joel plays a concert in Leningrad, after which, audience members carry him out on their shoulders.

1990 - ClassicBands.com

July 26
Brent Mydland, keyboard player for The Grateful Dead, was found dead of a drug overdose in his home in Lafayette, California. He was 37. He joined the band in 1979, replacing Keith Godchaux.

1992 - ClassicBands.com

July 26
Mary Wells, most often remembered for her hits "Two Lovers" (US #7 in 1963) and "My Guy" (US #1 in 1964), died of cancer of the larynx at the age of 49. When she was diagnosed in 1990, she had no medical insurance and lost her modest home in L.A. when she couldn't pay the rent. The following year she received a six figure settlement from Motown Records after she filed a lawsuit for unpaid royalties. Mary was laid to rest in Glendale California's Forest Lawn Memorial Park.

2006 - ClassicBands.com

July 26
Arvel Jett Reeves, who bugged a jet used by singer Michael Jackson, intending to make recordings to sell to the media, was sentenced to eight months in jail. He was also fined $1,000 and was ordered to spend six additional months in a halfway house that offered drug and alcohol rehabilitation treatment.

July 26
The guitar on which Paul McCartney learned his first chords sold for £330,000 at an auction at London's Abbey Road Studios.

2011 - ClassicBands.com

July 26
Ford became the first major auto manufacturer to announce plans to ditch the CD player in favor of a USB port. A company spokesperson said "The in-car CD player, much like pay telephones, is destined to fade away in the face of exciting new technology." GM and Chrysler would follow in 2015, although the devices were still available on some models. CD players have been estimated to cost auto makers about $30 to install.

2012 - ClassicBands.com

July 26
Two people charged with attempting to extort $500,000 from Stevie Wonder over a video that portrays the Grammy-winning musician in a negative light, pleaded not guilty. Next September they would change their plea to no contest and were sentenced to time served.

2013 - ClassicBands.com

July 26
J.J. Cale, the Grammy award winning singer / songwriter who scored a Billboard #22 hit in 1972 with "Crazy Mama", suffered a fatal heart attack at the age of 74. He also penned songs recorded by Waylon Jennings, Poco, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Tom Petty and Carlos Santana, as well as writing "After Midnight" and "Cocaine" by Eric Clapton.

2023 - ClassicBands.com

July 26
Randy Meisner, bassist and founding member of the Eagles, passed away in Los Angeles at the age 77, due to complications from Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary disease (COPD). He played on the band's first five albums, "Eagles", "Desperado", "On The Border", "One of These Nights", and "Hotel California", and provided lead vocals on their 1976, Billboard #4 hit, "Take It To The Limit". Meisner was inducted with the Eagles into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998.



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