Rock 'n' Roll History for
June 12


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1959 - ClassicBands.com

June 12
Sam Cooke and Jackie Wilson perform on the same bill in Norfolk, Virginia. At Cooke's insistence, arena management includes integrated seating for the audience.

June 12
Chess Records release two LPs in the US, Chuck Berry's third album "Chuck Berry Is On Top", and Bo Diddley's first release, "Go Bo Diddley".

1963 - ClassicBands.com

June 12
18-year-old Brenda Lee graduates from the showbiz-friendly high school Hollywood Professional, having already earned nineteen Billboard Top 40 records. She will go on to have ten more over the next four years.

June 12
The Beach Boys record "Surfer Girl" and "Little Deuce Coupe" at United Western Recorders in Hollywood, California. Both songs are released on one disc, becoming the first Beach Boys record to have Brian Wilson officially credited as the producer. Brian would later say that the lyrics to "Surfer Girl" were inspired by Judy Bowles, his first serious girlfriend, whom he dated for three and a half years.

1964 - ClassicBands.com

June 12
The Zombies tape "She's Not There" at their first recording session for Decca Records in West Hampstead, London. The song would reach #2 in the US and #12 in the UK. Rolling Stone magazine ranked it at #297 on their list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.

1965 - ClassicBands.com

June 12
Sonny And Cher make their first TV appearance on American Bandstand, singing a tune called "Just You". The song will go on to peak at #20 on the Hot 100, during a brief four week stay in the Top 40.

June 12
Six weeks after it entered the Billboard Hot 100, "Back In My Arms Again" becomes The Supremes fifth consecutive Hot 100 number one hit. They were the first American group to accomplish that feat. The song also topped the Billboard R&B chart and the Cashbox Best Sellers list.

1966 - ClassicBands.com

June 12
The Dave Clark Five made their record breaking twelfth appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show, performing their current single, "Please Tell Me Why", which went to #28 in America, and "Look Before You Leap", which did not chart.

1968 - ClassicBands.com

June 12
Speedway, starring Elvis Presley and Nancy Sinatra, opens in theaters across America. The film was originally planned to star Sonny & Cher, but after their first movie, Good Times tanked at the box office with a loss of over a million dollars, Columbia Pictures sold the rights to MGM, which rewrote it for Elvis. The soundtrack to the film peaked at #82 on the Billboard 200, selling fewer than 100,000 copies, setting a new low for an Elvis album.

1971 - ClassicBands.com

June 12
Honey Cone's "Want Ads" tops the Hot 100, where it stays for one week. The song would earn a Gold Record for sales of 1,000,000 copies.

1972 - ClassicBands.com

June 12
With the help of her mother, a bare footed Ronnie Spector left her husband Phil's Beverly Hills mansion for the last time, leaving behind her adopted sons, three year old Donte and six year old twins, Louis and Gary. Within days she would file for a divorce that would be granted in 1974.

1973 - ClassicBands.com

June 12
Grand Funk record "We're An American Band", which will become their first US number one single by the following September.

1988 - ClassicBands.com

June 12
A dozen of Canada's top songwriters were honored in Vancouver for writing songs that had been played on Canadian radio at least 100,000 times since 1965. Gene MacLellan won three of the awards from the Performing Rights Organization of Canada, including one for writing the Anne Murray hit, "Snowbird". The others were for "Put Your Hand in the Hand" and "The Call". Burton Cummings also won three awards for "Stand Tall", "Break It to Them Gently" and "These Eyes".

1989 - ClassicBands.com

June 12
The Elvis Presley Autoland Museum opened at Graceland. The exhibition contained over thirty cars which were owned by Presley, including his famous Pink Cadillac, Harley-Davidson motorcycles, Stutz Blackhawks, a 1975 Dino Ferrari, a 1956 Cadillac Eldorado Convertible, and the red MG that Elvis drove in the film Blue Hawaii.

2003 - ClassicBands.com

June 12
Van Morrison, Queen, Little Richard and Phil Collins were inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in a New York City ceremony.

2007 - ClassicBands.com

June 12
Canada Post announces that 52¢ stamps honoring Canadian music icons Gordon Lightfoot, Joni Mitchell, Anne Murray and Paul Anka would be issued on June 29th.

2011 - ClassicBands.com

June 12
Carl Gardner, the lead singer of The Coasters on their pioneering Rock 'n' Roll hits "Yakety Yak", "Charlie Brown", "Poison Ivy" and "Searchin'" died of congestive heart failure at the age of 83.



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