Rock 'n' Roll History for
June 15


<-- Previous Day -- Home Page -- Next Day -->



1957 - ClassicBands.com

June 15
After UK radio stations started playing copies of Elvis Presley's "All Shook Up" which were intended for US servicemen, the tune debuts at #24, a week before its official release date. It will rise to the number one spot and stay there for seven weeks.

1959 - ClassicBands.com

June 15
"Hushabye" by the New York quintet, The Mystics, enters the Top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100. The song will eventually reach #20 during a nine week run, and be used by Alan Freed as the closing theme to his televised Saturday night Big Beat Show. The following year, the group would record several more tunes using Paul Simon (aka Jerry Landis), and later Jay Traynor on lead vocals, but never recaptured the magic of "Hushabye".

1963 - ClassicBands.com

June 15
21-year-old Kyu Sakamoto became the first Japanese artist to hit the top of the US singles chart with a song called "Sukiyaki". It was also a #6 hit in the UK. The original title of the song was "Ue O Muite Aruko", which translates to "I Look Up When I Walk". Sakamoto was killed on August 12th, 1985 when JAL Flight 123, a Boeing 747, crashed and burned on a thickly wooded mountain about sixty miles northwest of Tokyo. He was 43.

June 15
Jan And Dean's "Surf City" is released by Liberty Records. The song featured Brian Wilson on backing vocals and would prove to be the duo's only US #1 record. It also charted in the UK, where it reached #26.

1964 - ClassicBands.com

June 15
Peter And Gordon arrive in the US to perform at New York's World Fair. They would go on to play five more dates in America before returning home.

June 15
Ringo Starr re-joins The Beatles in Melbourne, Australia after being released from a London hospital where he was treated for tonsillitis and pharyngitis. In his absence, drummer Jimmie Nicol, formerly of Georgie Fame And The Blue Flames, filled in admirably.

1965 - ClassicBands.com

June 15
Jody Miller's Country crossover tune "Queen Of The House" enters the Billboard Top 40 on its way to #12. It was an answer song to Roger Miller's "King Of The Road" and many American DJs played the two records back-to-back. Although the pair shared the same last name, they were not related.

1966 - ClassicBands.com

June 15
The Beatles' LP, "Yesterday and Today" is released by Capitol Records with the controversial "butcher" cover, that showed the band smiling amongst a group of decapitated baby dolls. The original photo became a huge publicity problem for Capitol and was quickly replaced by one that shows The Beatles gathered around a steamer trunk.

1967 - ClassicBands.com

June 15
Five teenagers from Mansfield, Ohio, called The Music Explosion found themselves with a monster hit on their hands when "Little Bit O' Soul" peaked at #2 on the Hot 100. The group would be awarded a Gold Record for their efforts, but although they would release more material, none of their follow-ups reached any higher than #63. Drummer Bob Avery would later go on to the band Crazy Elephant, who reached #12 on both sides of the Atlantic with "Gimme Gimme Good Lovin'".

1971 - ClassicBands.com

June 15
The Guess Who's "Best of the Guess Who" LP is certified Gold. It rose to #12 on the Billboard Hot 200 chart, and included the hit singles "These Eyes" (#6 in 1969), "No Time" (#5 in 1970), and "American Woman" (#1 in 1970).

1974 - ClassicBands.com

June 15
Ohio's Bo Donaldson And The Heywoods topped the Billboard Hot 100 chart with "Billy, Don't Be A Hero", a song that was a UK number one for Paper Lace the previous March. Donaldson's rendition sold over three and a half million copies in America, and was awarded a Gold disc by the RIAA in June, 1974.

1977 - ClassicBands.com

June 15
Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis Jr., formerly of The Fifth Dimension, host a Summer variety TV show on CBS. The pair had enjoyed two Billboard Top 40 hits earlier in the year with "You Don't Have To Be A Star (To Be In My Show)" (#1) and "Your Love" (#15).

1985 - ClassicBands.com

June 15
A song called "You'll Never Walk Alone", which went to #1 in England for Gerry And The Pacemakers in 1963, topped the UK chart again as performed by The Crowd, featuring Gerry Marsden, Paul McCartney and Rolf Harris, among others. It was originally a show tune from the 1945 Rodgers And Hammerstein musical, Carousel and has since been adopted by football clubs around the world, and is often performed by a massed chorus of supporters on match day.

1988 - ClassicBands.com

June 15
Jimmy Soul, who hit #1 in the US in 1963 with the novelty tune "If You Wanna Be Happy", died of a heart attack at the age of 45. After his music career dried up, Soul, (born James Louis McCleese) joined the US military, but after his discharge got tangled up with drugs and was sentenced to four and a half to nine years in prison on January 9th, 1986. It is unclear if he was incarcerated at the time of his death.

1990 - ClassicBands.com

June 15
The Rolling Stones song, "Paint It Black", hit number 1 in the Netherlands for the second time, twenty-four years after it first topped their chart. The song was included on the Stones' "Singles Collection" box set the previous year.

1993 - ClassicBands.com

June 15
Ray Charles made music history when his album "My World" showed up on Billboard's 200 list, marking the sixth decade he enjoyed a charted LP. The effort would climb to #145, aided by the single, "A Song for You", which would go on to win a Grammy Award for "Best R&B Vocal Performance, Male".

1996 - ClassicBands.com

June 15
George Martin, the producer of most of the Beatles' recordings, received a knighthood from Queen Elizabeth II. His work with The Fab Four helped them amass 30 UK #1 singles and 16 #1 albums along with 22 #1 singles and 19 #1 albums in North America.

2002 - ClassicBands.com

June 15
A rare autographed copy of The Beatles' album "Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" sold at a UK auction for £34,000 ($57,800), more than five times the expected price.

2005 - ClassicBands.com

June 15
A judge in Mississippi approved a divorce settlement between Jerry Lee Lewis and his sixth wife, Kerrie Lynn McCarver Lewis. She would receive $250,000 immediately and $30,000 a year for five years.

2010 - ClassicBands.com

June 15
The case against a man accused of threatening Elton John's life was withdrawn just hours before his trial was due to begin. Neal Horsley had responded to Elton's suggestion that Jesus Christ was gay in a Parade magazine interview by writing an angry online response entitled "Why Elton John Must Die". After being held in an Atlanta, Georgia jail since last March, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Kimberly Esmond Adams dismissed the case against Horsley because his actions did not warrant criminal charges.

2011 - ClassicBands.com

June 15
Sly Stone, the 68-year-old former frontman of Sly And The Family Stone, pleaded not guilty to possession of cocaine after being pulled over for a minor traffic violation by L.A. Police on April 1st. He would enter a rehab facility the following October.

2014 - ClassicBands.com

June 15
82-year-old Casey Kasem, the host of US radio shows like American Top 40 and Casey's Countdown for nearly forty years, died after battling Parkinson's disease and Lewy body dementia. He was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1981 and was inducted into the National Association of Broadcasters' Hall of Fame in 1985.



<-- Previous Day -- Home Page -- Next Day -->