Rock 'n' Roll History for
July 7


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1950 - ClassicBands.com

July 7
Using the name his parents gave him at birth, J.R. Cash enlists in the United States Air Force. Military rules say that he is not allowed to use initials as a first name, so he starts using the name John R. Cash. After basic training at Lackland Air Force Base and technical training at Brooks Air Force Base, both in San Antonio, Texas, Cash was assigned to the 12th Radio Squadron Mobile of the U.S. Air Force Security Service at Landsberg, Germany as a Morse Code Intercept Operator for Soviet Army transmissions. Honorably discharged as a staff sergeant four years later, he would form a trio with guitarist Luther Perkins and bassist Marshall Grant and begin a career that will see him sell more than 90 million records worldwide.

1954 - ClassicBands.com

July 7
Producer Sam Phillips took an acetate of Elvis Presley singing "That's All Right" to DJ Dewey Phillips at Memphis radio station WHBQ. After Dewey played the song on the air around 9:30 that evening, listeners flooded the phone lines requesting to hear it again. The disc jockey obliged, and spun the disc over a dozen times.

July 7
Two versions of "Sh-Boom" hit the US Top 10. The original version by a Black group called The Chords was at #9 and the cover version by a White group from Canada called The Crew Cuts was at #5.

1956 - ClassicBands.com

July 7
After a couple of fights broke out at a Fats Domino show at the Palomar Theater in San Jose, California, police tear-gassed inebriated patrons. In the days that followed, the local press had a field day, calling the outbreak "a riot", with Reverend Jimmy Rodgers Snow citing Rock 'n' Roll music as "anti-God and anti-Christian." San Jose Police Chief, Ray Blackmore, felt differently. He said he didn't blame the music, but did blame the alcohol.

1958 - ClassicBands.com

July 7
Ricky Nelson's "Poor Little Fool" enters the US charts, where it will eventually reach number one. The record holds the distinction of being the first number-one song on Billboard's newly created Hot 100 chart, replacing the magazine's Jockeys and Top 100 charts.

1962 - ClassicBands.com

July 7
David Rose, known for his movie scores and string albums, had the number one song on the Billboard chart with "The Stripper", a song he had written years before as a bit of comic relief for his orchestra.

1963 - ClassicBands.com

July 7
The Rolling Stones appearance on the British TV show Thank Your Lucky Stars marked the only time in their career when they wore matching outfits. At the urging of manager Andrew Loog Oldham, the band appeared in black trousers, blue shirts, leather vests and checkered sports coats with black knit wool ties. Despite The Stones' attempt to please the establishment, the show was flooded with letters protesting their long hair and scruffy demeanor. From then on, they wore whatever they wanted to onstage.

1965 - ClassicBands.com

July 7
Sonny And Cher perform their new single "I Got You Babe" on US TV's Rock And Roll show, Shindig!. The song would go on to top the charts in the United States, Canada and England, selling a million copies in the process. It would chart again in the UK at #66 after it was featured as Bill Murray's wake-up music in the 1993 film Groundhog Day.

1967 - ClassicBands.com

July 7
The Monkees began a twenty-nine date tour with Jimi Hendrix as a support act. Hendrix was dropped after eight shows, being told that his music was not suitable for a young audience.

July 7
The Lovin' Spoonful's Zal Yanofsky and Steve Boone are arrested for drug use. The pair later implicated some of San Francisco's best-connected drug suppliers.

1968 - ClassicBands.com

July 7
The Yardbirds wrapped up their final tour before splitting up, playing a gig at the College of Technology in Luton, Bedfordshire. Guitarist Jimmy Page was determined to keep the act going, renaming a fresh line-up, The New Yardbirds. Keith Moon of The Who is rumored to have said "it'll probably go over like a led balloon." Page swapped "balloon" for the more powerful "zeppelin", resulting in the final name change.

July 7
Peter, Paul And Mary appear as the mystery guests on CBS-TV's What's My Line?. It took the panel twelve questions to guess their identity.

1969 - ClassicBands.com

July 7
Three days after it was issued in the UK, John Lennon's "Give Peace A Chance" was released in America. The record is the first solo single released by Lennon, who was still a member of The Beatles at the time. It would go on to reach #14 on the Hot 100 and #2 on the UK's Official Chart. The track also included Tom Smothers on guitar, Timothy Leary and Petula Clark on backing vocals, along with Yoko Ono doing hand claps, playing tambourine, and singing backing vocals.

1971 - ClassicBands.com

July 7
ABBA members, 26-year-old Bjorn Ulvaeus and 21-year-old Agnetha Faltskog (the blonde) are married in Verum, Sweden. They would divorce in 1979.

1973 - ClassicBands.com

July 7
Paul McCartney releases "Live and Let Die", the theme from the James Bond movie of the same name. It will reach #2 in the US and #9 in the UK, making it the most successful Bond theme up to that time. The song was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song, but lost to Barbra Streisand's "The Way We Were".

July 7
Billy Preston's "Will It Go Round In Circles" was Billboard's number one tune for the first of a two week stay. The song, which sold over a million copies in the US, did not chart in the UK.

1977 - ClassicBands.com

July 7
Cher and Gregg Allman become the parents of a son they named Elijah Blue Allman. He would be given his first guitar by KISS bassist Gene Simmons, and at age 13 went on tour as a guitarist in his mother's backing band.

1980 - ClassicBands.com

July 7
On the twelfth anniversary of the break-up of The Yardbirds, Led Zeppelin played their final live concert in West Berlin. They finished the show with "Whole Lotta Love".

1984 - ClassicBands.com

July 7
"Relax" by Frankie Goes To Hollywood becomes the biggest selling single of all time in Great Britain, replacing Paul McCartney's "Mull Of Kintyre" for that honor.

July 7
Bruce Springsteen's "Born In The USA" went to #1 on the Billboard album chart for the first of a four week stay. On the strength of seven single releases, the LP would stay in the Top Ten for a remarkable eighty-four weeks. It eventually reached a 15 Times Platinum certification on April 19, 1995 and has sold over 30 million copies worldwide.

July 7
"When Doves Cry" by Prince topped the Billboard Hot 100 for the first of five weeks. The song was the lead single from his sixth studio album, "Purple Rain". It would be the top selling single of 1984 and was certified Platinum by the RIAA for sales of one million copies.

1989 - ClassicBands.com

July 7
CDs started outselling vinyl records for the first time. The dominance of CDs virtually wiped out the 45 RPM single format, as nothing ended up replacing them. The 3 1/2 inch CD single would die out after record companies refused to offer them at a reasonable price.

1995 - ClassicBands.com

July 7
A jet carrying Rod Stewart makes an emergency landing after a mid-air collision with a bird. Aviation officials call the incident "undramatic," but Stewart is visibly shaken.

2006 - ClassicBands.com

July 7
Syd Barrett, a founding member and driving force behind Pink Floyd, died from complications arising from diabetes at the age of 60. He had dropped out of the group in April of 1968 and by 1974 had turned his back on the music industry completely, choosing to retreat to the cellar of his childhood home in Cambridge where he shunned all contact with the outside world.

2007 - ClassicBands.com

July 7
Ozzy Osbourne became the first artist to be honored on a Hollywood-style Walk of Fame in Birmingham, England.

2009 - ClassicBands.com

July 7
After an earlier private funeral, Michael Jackson's family and fans said farewell to the King Of Pop at an emotional memorial service at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. Berry Gordy, who signed The Jackson 5 to Motown Records in 1968, closed his eulogy by saying "Michael, thank you for the joy, thank you for the love. You will live in my heart forever."

2010 - ClassicBands.com

July 7
Paul McCartney joined Ringo Starr onstage at a concert at New York's Radio City Music Hall to help celebrate the former Beatle drummer's 70th birthday. With Ringo's All Starr Band, joined by Yoko Ono, Joe Walsh, Angus Young and Steven Van Zandt, Paul belted out "Birthday" and Ringo delivered "With A Little Help From My Friends".

2011 - ClassicBands.com

July 7
George Michael expressed his delight after learning that English tabloid News of the World was shutting down. As a constant target of the paper, Michael declared that the announcement is "a fantastic day for Britain."

2018 - ClassicBands.com

July 7
After a promotion by digital retailers and a June 21 appearance on Carpool Karaoke by Paul McCartney, The Beatles' album "1" rose from #157 to #38 on the Billboard 200 chart. The hit filled collection spent eight weeks at #1 back in December 2000 and early 2001.



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