Rock 'n' Roll History for
June 11


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1957 - ClassicBands.com

June 11
RCA Victor releases Elvis Presley's "(Let Me Be Your) Teddy Bear". Written especially for the soundtrack of his second motion picture, Loving You, the song will top the Billboard Top 100 for seven weeks. It also went to number one on the R&B chart as well as the Country chart.

1960 - ClassicBands.com

June 11
Drummer Tommy Moore makes the fateful decision to quit The Beatles and return to his job of driving a forklift at Garston bottle works. He would briefly be replaced by Norman Chapman, who was called into National Service after just three gigs. After going drummerless and mostly jobless for a few weeks, the band would hire Pete Best on August 12th, only one day before they were to go to Hamburg to play a string of club dates.

1964 - ClassicBands.com

June 11
Chicago police break up a Rolling Stones press conference on a traffic island in the middle of Michigan Avenue. After directing everyone to a nearby sidewalk, an officer was quoted as saying, "Get outta here or I'll lock up the whole goddamned bunch."

1965 - ClassicBands.com

June 11
The Beatles are announced as recipients of the Members of the British Empire award by Britain's Queen Elizabeth. Protests poured into Buckingham Palace. MP Hector Dupuis said "British Royalty has put me on the same level as a bunch of vulgar numbskulls," when he returned his OBE three days later. Four more high ranking recipients would also give theirs back in the days that followed.

1966 - ClassicBands.com

June 11
European radio stations mistakenly report that The Who's lead singer Roger Daltrey is dead. Actually, it was guitarist Pete Townshend who was only injured in a car accident a few days earlier.

June 11
The Rolling Stones had the top song in the US with "Paint It Black", the first #1 Pop single to feature a sitar. In the UK, the song peaked at #1 on the Record Retailer chart during a 10-week stay, becoming the band's sixth song to accomplish that feat.

June 11
Melody Maker magazine reports that Eric Clapton has split from John Mayall's Bluebreakers, Jack Bruce has left Manfred Mann and Ginger Baker quit The Graham Bond Organization, to form a new group called Cream.

June 11
Donovan becomes the first high-profile Rock star busted for drugs by the newly vigilant London drug squad. The singer and his girlfriend were taken to Marylebone Police Station, booked, fingerprinted, and given a cup of tea. When they were finally released around 4 AM, a police sergeant asked for an autograph for his daughter.

1968 - ClassicBands.com

June 11
A fire in a London recording studio interrupted The Rolling Stones while they were recording "Sympathy For The Devil" for their "Beggars Banquet" album.

June 11
At EMI studios in London, John Lennon works on "Revolution 9" in studio 3, while Paul McCartney records "Blackbird" in studio 2.

1971 - ClassicBands.com

June 11
Beach Boys' drummer Dennis Wilson accidentally puts his hand through a glass door at his home, severing some nerves. He was unable to play onstage for nearly three years.

1976 - ClassicBands.com

June 11
Epic Records releases Wild Cherry's single "Play That Funky Music". Although it would reach #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 by the middle of next September, the song would prove to be the band's only Top 40 hit. The single was certified Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America for shipments of over 2 million records and eventually sold 2.5 million in the United States alone/

1977 - ClassicBands.com

June 11
After topping the Cashbox chart last week, KC And The Sunshine Band scored their fourth Billboard number one hit with "I'm Your Boogie Man". The song was written about a DJ at a Miami, Florida radio station named Robert W. Walker, who was the first to give their hit single "Get Down Tonight" air play.

1990 - ClassicBands.com

June 11
Olivia Newton-John was appointed as a U.N. ambassador on the environment. She says she will urge people to make changes in their daily life, but will avoid "hitting people over their heads."

1991 - ClassicBands.com

June 11
Eddie Kendricks is arrested at the funeral of fellow Temptations member David Ruffin for non-payment of nearly $30,000 in child support.

June 11
Lynyrd Skynyrd release their sixth studio album. "Lynyrd Skynyrd 1991". It was the band's first new studio album since 1977's "Street Survivors" and the first following the 1977 plane crash that claimed the lives of three members of the band. Marking the return of original guitarist Ed King, the LP will climb to #64 on the Billboard 200 chart.

1992 - ClassicBands.com

June 11
ABBA's Bjorn Ulvaeus and Benny Anderson join U2 onstage in Stockholm, Sweden for a rendition of "Dancing Queen". ABBA had split up in 1982.

2002 - ClassicBands.com

June 11
Over three hundred guests, including Ringo Starr and Elton John, witnessed Paul McCartney marry his fiancee, Heather Mills, at an Irish castle. All three of Paul's children from his marriage to Linda Eastman also attended. While the reception's menu was vegetarian, it was, in Paul's words, "very liquid and alcoholic. It's a Rock 'n' Roll wedding. We are going to have family and friends and a lot of fun." Unfortunately, the pair would split in 2006 and divorce two years later.

2008 - ClassicBands.com

June 11
The American Federation of Musicians filed a federal lawsuit against the producers of American Idol, claiming musicians were underpaid because the show's live music was re-recorded for reruns. The union filed the suit seeking unspecified damages in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, alleging that American Idol Productions Inc. and its subsidiary Tick Tock Productions Inc. violated a collective bargaining agreement.

June 11
Continuing her father's legacy of fighting for all musicians, Nancy Sinatra urged US lawmakers to approve legislation giving all musicians a royalty for songs aired on traditional radio.

2009 - ClassicBands.com

June 11
John Lennon's widow, Yoko Ono, received a lifetime achievement honor at the Mojo magazine awards in London, the first music prize of her career. With Lennon and as a soloist, she has made two dozen albums in forty-one years.

June 11
Cher's daughter Chastity Bono announced that she will undergo gender reassignment surgery to become a man. Bono's legal transition was completed on May 8, 2010, when a California court granted his request for a gender and name change to Chaz Bono.

2012 - ClassicBands.com

June 11
Lisa Marie Presley, who owned Graceland and a minority stake in Elvis Presley Enterprises, gave her approval for her father's image to be turned into a hologram, with possible uses that range from a duets album and a TV drama series to appearances at the Graceland mansion in Memphis and perhaps on the road.

2015 - ClassicBands.com

June 11
The Kinks' front man and principle song writer Ray Davies was honored with a London Legend Award at a ceremony held at the Camden Roundhouse.

June 11
Jim Ed Brown of The Browns died after a lengthy battle with cancer at the age of 81. The trio, that also included Jim's sisters Maxine and Bonnie, reached the Billboard Hot 100 with the chart topping "The Three Bells" in 1959 and again in 1960 with "Scarlet Ribbons" and "The Old Lamplighter". After the group broke up, Jim went on to a career in Country music which landed him in the Country Music Hall Of Fame in 2015.

2016 - ClassicBands.com

June 11
England's Buckingham Palace announced that Rod Stewart would be knighted by Queen Elizabeth II "for services to music and charity." The 71-year-old singer would now be able to call himself Sir Roderick David Stewart. He would later be quoted as saying, "For me, being a knight isn't about resting on your laurels. It's about going forward and getting things done. I believe in making the most of my knighthood where I can."



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