Rock 'n' Roll History for
March 15


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1955 - ClassicBands.com

March 15
Fats Domino records "Ain't It A Shame", which will top the Billboard R&B standings, and reach #10 on the Top 100 by July. Selling a million copies, the song was ranked number 438 on Rolling Stone magazine's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. Pat Boone's cover version, "Ain't That A Shame" would rise to #1 on the Pop chart the same month.

1958 - ClassicBands.com

March 15
Elvis Presley performs at Russwood Park in Memphis, in his last concert before joining the US Army.

1966 - ClassicBands.com

March 15
Sandy Posey records "Born A Woman", which will rise to #12 in the US and become the first of her four Top 40 hits.

March 15
Winners of the eighth annual Grammy Awards are announced. Record of the Year is "A Taste of Honey" by Herb Albert And The Tijuana Brass. Album of the Year is Frank Sinatra's "September of My Years". Song of the Year is "The Shadow of Your Smile" by Paul Francis Webster and Johnny Mandel. Roger Miller won six awards, giving him a total of eleven in two years.

1968 - ClassicBands.com

March 15
A new, eleven piece band is formed when Johnny Maestro combines his Del-Satins vocal group with a New York area outfit called The Rhythm Method. When their manager, Betty Sperber, informs talent agent Dave Zahn of her latest signing, he replies, "Eleven pieces! Jesus Christ Betty! Tryin' to sell that will be like trying to sell The Brooklyn Bridge." And the name stuck.

1969 - ClassicBands.com

March 15
Tommy Roe led both the Billboard Hot 100 and the Cashbox Best Sellers list with "Dizzy", a record that would sell six million copies. His first chart topper was "Sheila" in 1962.

1972 - ClassicBands.com

March 15
Los Angeles radio station KHJ is raided by L.A. police after calls from listeners who feared there'd been a take over at the station. DJ Robert W. Morgan had played Donny Osmond's "Puppy Love" over and over for 90 minutes straight. The police left without making any arrests. The record would eventually rise to number three on Billboard's Hot 100, one position shy of the original Paul Anka recording.

1973 - ClassicBands.com

March 15
Elton John had the #1 album in the US with "Don't Shoot Me I'm Only The Piano Player", which contained two hit singles, "Crocodile Rock" and "Daniel". According to Philip Norman's 1990s authorized biography, Groucho Marx jokingly pointed his index fingers at Elton, as if holding a pair of six-shooters. John is reported to have put up his hands and said, "Don't shoot me, I'm only the piano player", so naming the album.

1975 - ClassicBands.com

March 15
The Doobie Brothers have the first of their two Billboard #1 singles with "Black Water", a song that was issued as the B-side of "Another Park, Another Sunday". Four years later, they would duplicate the feat with "What A Fool Believes".

March 15
Olivia Newton-John enjoyed her second Billboard #1 album with "Have You Ever Been Mellow", which included the title track and "Please Mr. Please".

1976 - ClassicBands.com

March 15
KISS release their fourth studio album, "Destroyer", which will reach #11 on the Billboard 200 chart. The LP would be certified Gold by the RIAA on April 22nd, 1976, and Platinum on November 11th of the same year, the first KISS album to achieve that status.

1982 - ClassicBands.com

March 15
Bob Dylan is inducted into the Songwriters Hall Of Fame during a ceremony held at New York's Hilton Hotel.

1983 - ClassicBands.com

March 15
Bonnie Tyler had her only UK #1 single with "Total Eclipse Of The Heart", which will also top the charts in the United States, Australia and Canada, selling over six million copies.

1986 - ClassicBands.com

March 15
Although they never had a number one hit under their original name, Jefferson Airplane, the newest incarnation of this band, Jefferson Starship enjoyed the second of three Billboard chart toppers with "Sara" featuring Mickey Thomas on vocals. The song reached #66 in the UK.

1989 - ClassicBands.com

March 15
The Rolling Stones signed a $70 million contract to play 50 North American dates. At that point, it was the largest contract in Rock history.

1995 - ClassicBands.com

March 15
Madonna is signed to star as Eva Peron in the film version of the musical, Evita, based on the life of Evita Duarte, a B-picture Argentinean actress who eventually became the wife of Argentinean president and dictator Juan Peron. Madonna will win a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress In A Motion Picture for her role.

1999 - ClassicBands.com

March 15
The Rock And Roll Hall of Fame inducts Dusty Springfield, Paul McCartney, Billy Joel, Bruce Springsteen, Curtis Mayfield, Del Shannon and producer George Martin.

2002 - ClassicBands.com

March 15
Marshall Leib of The Teddy Bears died of a heart attack at the age of 63. Leib, along with Carol Connors and Phil Spector, scored a Billboard chart topper in 1958 with "To Know Him Is To Love Him".

March 15
Yoko Ono unveiled a seven foot bronze statue of John Lennon overlooking the check-in hall of John Lennon Airport in Liverpool. The re-naming of the airport featured a sketch of Lennon's face with the words 'Above Us Only Skies'.

March 15
A rare autographed copy of The Beatles album "Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band", sold at auction for £34,000. (about 59,000 US dollars).

2006 - ClassicBands.com

March 15
A crew of workers with the Louisiana State Museum recovered what was left of three pianos in Fats Domino's New Orleans home, which was submerged in almost ten feet of water when Hurricane Katrina caused a levee break near his neighborhood last August. Museum officials were hoping the Domino family would donate a black Steinway baby grand for inclusion in a traveling exhibit about hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

2010 - ClassicBands.com

March 15
Former ABBA vocalist Anni-Frid Reuss ruled out a reunion with her old band mates by saying that it's "too late for that", at the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame induction ceremony in New York. Anni-Frid joined her ex-husband Benny Andersson at the gala where they were inducted by The Bee Gees' Robin and Barry Gibb. Also inducted that night were The Stooges, The Hollies, and Jimmy Cliff.

2012 - ClassicBands.com

March 15
The Temptations joined a class action lawsuit against Universal Music, seeking revenue from digital downloads and ringtones.

March 15
Lisa Marie Presley announced that she would release her first new album in five years, "Storm and Grace". After it was issued on May 15th of that same year, the LP reached #11 on the Billboard 200 chart.

2013 - ClassicBands.com

March 15
Elton John was forced to cancel a concert in Birmingham, Alabama, just hours before the show due to medical reasons.

2014 - ClassicBands.com

March 15
Scott Asheton, drummer for legendary punk-rock band The Stooges, died at age 64. Asheton co-founded The Stooges in 1967 along with Iggy Pop, bassist Dave Alexander and his brother, guitarist Ron Asheton, who died in 2009.

2015 - ClassicBands.com

March 15
59-year-old Mike Porcaro, bassist for Toto, died after a long battle with Lou Gehrig's Disease. He was with the band from 1983 until 2007 and appeared on such albums as "Isolation" (1984), "Fahrenheit" (1986), "Mindfields" (1998) and "Through the Looking Glass" (2002).

2023 - ClassicBands.com

March 15
Bobby Caldwell, a blue-eyed Soul singer who reached #10 on the Hot 100 in 1978 with "What You Won't Do for Love", died after a long illness. He was 71.



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