Rock 'n' Roll History for
March 12


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1958 - ClassicBands.com

March 12
Jazz singer Billie Holiday, who had pled guilty to a narcotics-possession charge in 1956, is given a year's probation by a Philadelphia court.

1959 - ClassicBands.com

March 12
An American Bandstand viewer's pole lists 15-year-old Fabian Forte as the Most Promising New Talent. The young man is currently enjoying success with "Turn Me Loose", which will crack the US Top 10 in April.

1961 - ClassicBands.com

March 12
At RCA's Nashville studios, Elvis Presley records his entire upcoming album, "Something For Everybody", in less than twelve hours.

1965 - ClassicBands.com

March 12
“Wooly Bully" by Sam the Sham And The Pharaohs was released as a single on the MGM label. The song was actually a reworking of the 1962, Big Bo & The Arrows' tune "Hully Gully Now", and would prove to be Sam The Sham's biggest hit, rising to #2 in America and selling over three million copies. Because the lyrics were hard to understand, some radio stations refused to play it, but the record stayed on the Hot 100 for 18 weeks, the longest time for any song in 1965.

March 12
Singer James Darren guest stars on the "Surfin' Fred" episode of ABC-TV's The Flintstones, playing a singer named James Darrock. On vacation at the beach, Fred is a hit with the surfing teenagers, but not with the lifeguard, who must repeatedly rescue him.

1966 - ClassicBands.com

March 12
The Levi Strauss Company began selling bell-bottom blue jeans in the US.

1969 - ClassicBands.com

March 12
Paul McCartney married photographer Linda Eastman in a small civil ceremony at the Marylebone Registry Office in the City of Westminster in central London. Contrary to the popular rumor of the day, she was not related to the Eastmans of Eastman-Kodak fame. Paul's brother, Mike, served as the best man, but none of the other Beatles were in attendance. Linda would die of cancer on April 17th, 1998 at the age of 56.

March 12
Elvis Presley's 29th film, Charro! opens in theaters across America. This was Presley's only film in which he did not sing on-screen. The title song appeared in the movie during the opening credits, and was released commercially on February 25th, 1969, as the b-side to "Memories", which reached #35 on the Hot 100.

1974 - ClassicBands.com

March 12
John Lennon and Harry Nilsson are thrown out of the Troubador nightclub in Los Angeles for heckling the Smothers Brothers. Nilsson, a good friend of Tom Smothers, thought he was helping the act because Tom had struggled through weak material at an earlier date. Said Nilsson: "It ruined my reputation for ten years. Get one Beatle drunk and look what happens."

1977 - ClassicBands.com

March 12
The Sex Pistols were involved in a fight at London's Speakeasy Club, resulting in one of the show's engineers needing 14 stitches in his head.

2001 - ClassicBands.com

March 12
In a poll conducted by the Recording Industry Association of America, music fans voted Judy Garland's "Over The Rainbow" as the Song Of The Century. The Rolling Stones' "Satisfaction" came in at #16 and The Beatles' "I Want To Hold Your Hand" was #26.

2004 - ClassicBands.com

March 12
Rosalind Morganfield, the 34 year old daughter of Blues artist Muddy Waters, surrendered to police after a warrant was issued accusing her of being involved in the 1996 murder of 19 year old Timothy Jason Harrington during a drug deal.

2007 - ClassicBands.com

March 12
Levon Helm, the former drummer for The Band, filed a lawsuit against a Manhattan advertising firm over the use of the group's song, "The Weight" in a television commercial for cell phones. Helm received a royalty payment for the use of the song, but didn't feel he was adequately compensated. The courts would eventually rule against Helm.

2008 - ClassicBands.com

March 12
Seven years of trying to secure the rights to use the Lennon-McCartney catalog paid off for TV's American Idol, when over 31 million viewers tuned in to the show. The following day, the top five Google searches were also Beatle related.

2009 - ClassicBands.com

May 12
Bob Dylan mingled unnoticed among 14 other tourists at John Lennon's childhood home in Liverpool. The Folk legend strolled around the place where the late former Beatle grew up with his aunt Mimi and uncle George and later said that he was "enthralled" to see the bedroom where Lennon wrote some of his earliest songs.

2011 - ClassicBands.com

March 12
A man was charged with burglary after security guards discovered him in Madonna's luxurious London mansion while she was in America to attend her grandmother's funeral.

2012 - ClassicBands.com

March 12
Mike Hossack, drummer for The Doobie Brothers on their hits "Blackwater", "Listen to the Music" and "China Grove, died of cancer at the age of 65. He left the band in 1973, but returned in 1987 to record the albums "Cycles", "Brotherhood" and 2010's "World Gone Crazy".

2013 - ClassicBands.com

March 12
Former Iron Maiden drummer Clive Burr died at the age of 56 after a long battle with multiple sclerosis.

2015 - ClassicBands.com

March 12
Andy Kim teamed up with Kevin Drew of Broken Social Scene to perform a song called "Sister OK" on The Late Show With David Letterman. The tune is included on an album the pair released last February called "It's Decided".

2016 - ClassicBands.com

March 12
Iron Maiden's personal Boeing 747 was badly damaged after colliding with a tow truck while grounded at Santiago, Chile. The band's crew and their twenty tons of equipment were not onboard at the time of the crash, but two ground crew workers were injured.

2022 - ClassicBands.com

March 12
Barry Bailey, best-known as the guitarist for the Southern Rock band Atlanta Rhythm Section, died at the age of 73 after years of struggling with multiple sclerosis. Between 1974 and 1981, the band placed seven songs on the Billboard Top 40, including "So In To You" and "Imaginary Lover", both of which reached #7.



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