Rock 'n' Roll History for
March 22


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



1955 - ClassicBands.com

March 22
23 year old Johnny Cash lays down his first tracks at Sam Phillips' Memphis Recording Studio. With Luther Perkins on guitar and Marshall Grant on bass, Johnny sang five Country / Gospel numbers, of which "Mr. Porter" was the only useable cut. Phillips tells Johnny to come back when he's written a hit.

1956 - ClassicBands.com

March 22
While on his way to an appearance on The Perry Como Show, Carl Perkins received a broken collarbone and a concussion in a car accident that killed his brother Jay just outside Dover, Delaware. An eight seat Chrysler Imperial that was loaned to Perkins while he awaited delivery of his new Cadillac Sixty Special, plowed into the back of a pickup truck after his manager, Dick Stuart fell asleep. The accident also killed the local farmer who was driving the pickup and Perkins would spend several days in the hospital.

1963 - ClassicBands.com

March 22
"Our Day Will Come" by Ruby And The Romantics topped the Billboard Hot 100, although it only made #38 in the UK. On the day the song was recorded, it was the first time Ruby had ever been in a recording studio.

March 22
The Beatles' first album, "Please Please Me" is released in England. The LP would reach the top spot in May and remained there for thirty weeks before being replaced by "With the Beatles". The collection, minus "Please Please Me" and "Ask Me Why" would be issued by Vee-Jay Records in North America on January 10th, 1964 as "Introducing... The Beatles".

1967 - ClassicBands.com

March 22
Paramount Pictures releases Elvis Presley's twenty-third movie, Easy Come, Easy Go. His love interest in the film, Pat Priest, is most often remembered for playing Marilyn Munster on the television show The Munsters from 1964 to 1966. The soundtrack to the film was a six song EP that saw three singles issued, "Easy Come, Easy Go", "The Love Machine" and "You Gotta Stop". None of them cracked the Billboard Hot 100.

1971 - ClassicBands.com

March 22
John Lennon releases the single, "Power To The People", which would rise to #10 on the Casbox chart, #11 on the Hot 100, and #6 on the British record chart. In later years, John would describe the song as "another quickie" and "rather embarrassing."

March 22
At a truck stop in Jackson, Alabama, The Allman Brothers Band are arrested by state troopers and charged with marijuana and heroin possession after drugs are found in the back seat of the band's car.

1974 - ClassicBands.com

March 22
Asylum records releases the Eagles' album, "On The Border", their first LP to feature guitarist Don Felder. The disc, which sold over two million copies, would climb to #17 on the Billboard 200 chart on the strength of three singles, "Already Gone" (US #32), "James Dean" (US #77) and "Best of My Love" (US #1).

1975 - ClassicBands.com

March 22
Franki Valli returned to the US Top 40 for the first time in nearly seven years when "My Eyes Adored You" went to number one. The song was originally titled "Blue Eyes In Georgia" by its writers, Bob Crewe and Kenny Nolan, but Valli altered the lyrics to suit himself. Originally recorded by all of The Four Seasons, Mowtown Records declined to release it, and when the group left the label, Valli purchased the rights to the song for $4000 and shopped it to other record companies. After rejections from Capitol and Atlantic Records, the Private Stock label took a chance on it. The song went on to crack the Top Ten in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, and England. The often mis-heard lyrics, "Walking home every day over Barnegat Bridge and Bay", are a reference to a real place in Ocean County, New Jersey.

March 22
31 year old Barry Manilow performs "Mandy" and his latest release, "It's A Miracle" on American Bandstand.

March 22
Led Zeppelin's sixth studio album, "Physical Graffiti" hit number 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart, where it would stay for six straight weeks. The two-disc set sold eight million copies in the United States and was the first album to go Platinum on advance orders alone. A single from the LP, "Trampled Underfoot" reached #38 on Billboard's Top 40 during a brief, two-week stay.

1977 - ClassicBands.com

March 22
The John Denver TV special, Thank God, I'm A Country Boy aired on ABC-TV. Guests included Johnny Cash, Glen Campbell and Roger Miller.

1980 - ClassicBands.com

March 22
Although they had found the UK chart with several earlier entries, The Jam top the list for the first time with "Going Underground". They would repeat this success three more times before disbanding in 1982. Despite their immense popularity in Britain, the band never found an audience in North America.

1982 - ClassicBands.com

March 22
Diana Ross' first solo album for RCA, "Why Do Fools Fall in Love" goes Platinum less than three months after its release. The LP peaked at #15 in the United States (#4 R&B), #17 in the United Kingdom and in the top ten in Sweden, Norway and the Netherlands.

1986 - ClassicBands.com

March 22
Mark Dinning, who scored a US number one hit in 1960 with "Teen Angel", died following a heart attack at the age of 52. The song had been written by his sister, Jeannie. Although he never had another hit, Mark continued performing throughout the 1960s, but felt his lack of success was because "groups were in and singles were out" once the British Invasion started. He died just after returning home from a club appearance in Jefferson City, Missouri.

1991 - ClassicBands.com

March 22
Dave Guard, a founding member of The Kingston Trio died of cancer at the age of 56. The group had seventeen chart singles and nine Gold albums between 1958 and 1963. Guard left the group in 1961 to form The Whiskey Hill Singers.

1996 - ClassicBands.com

March 22
Former Turtles' drummer Don Murray died from complications during surgery. He was 50. The group enjoyed nine Billboard Top 40 hits, including "It Ain't Me Babe" (#8 in 1965), "Happy Together" (#1 in 1967), "She'd Rather Be With Me" (#3 in 1967), "Elenor" (#6 in 1968) and "You Showed Me" (#6 in 1969).

2001 - ClassicBands.com

March 22
Earl Beal, of the Philadelphia vocal group The Silhouettes, passed away at the age of 76. The group topped the Billboard chart in 1958 with "Get A Job".

2004 - ClassicBands.com

March 22
Ozzy Osbourne led a Yahoo poll as the UK's favorite ambassador to welcome aliens to Earth.

2012 - ClassicBands.com

March 22
Paul McCartney announced that his 1971 album "Ram", which included the hit single "Uncle Albert / Admiral Halsey", had been re-mastered and would be re-released next May. Macca was quoted as saying "This is an album from a long, long time ago, when the world was different. It reminds me of my hippie days and the free attitude with which it was created."

2017 - ClassicBands.com

March 22
Billy Bland, who scored a #7 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1960 with "Let The Little Girl Dance", passed away at the age of 84. He also had two other minor hits that same year, "Harmony" (#91) and "You Were Born To Be Loved" (#94), but left the music industry for good in 1963. By 1980, Billy was running a soul food restaurant in Harlem.

March 22
Former Boston drummer, 67-year-old Sib Hashian, collapsed and died on stage during a performance on a Caribbean cruise ship. The Legends Of Rock cruise also featured Sib's old Boston bandmate Barry Goudreau, original Beach Boys star David Marks, and Foreigner singer Lou Gramm. Hashian had performed on Boston's 1967 self-titled debut album that featured the giant hit, "More Than A Feeling".

2019 - ClassicBands.com

March 22
Scott Walker, whose hits with The Walker Brothers in the 1960s included "Make It Easy On Yourself" (US #16 in 1965) and "The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine Anymore" (US #13 in 1966) , died of cancer at the age of 76. Born Noel Scott Engel, the singer/bassist changed his name after moving to London to join the band.

2020 - ClassicBands.com

March 22
Bluegrass musician Eric Weissberg, who had a #2 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 with "Dueling Banjos" from the movie Deliverance in 1973, passed away at the age of 80.

2024 - ClassicBands.com

March 22
Forbes declared that Journey's 1981 hit, "Don't Stop Believin'" to be The Biggest Song Of All Time. According to The Recording Industry Association Of America, the record has been certified 18X Platinum.



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