Rock 'n' Roll History for
March 26


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1955 - ClassicBands.com

March 26
Singer/actor Bill Hayes' version of "The Ballad of Davy Crockett" was #1 on the Billboard Top 100 for the first five weeks. Recorded in just one take, the record sold over two million copies, and was awarded a Gold disc. Two other versions of the song, by Fess Parker (#6) and Tennessee Ernie Ford (#5), were also on the chart at the same time. Several other artists recorded the tune, which sold over ten million records worldwide.

1956 - ClassicBands.com

March 26
After Bob Neal's management contract with Elvis Presley expired on March 15th, Colonel Tom Parker takes over. His position of personal representative and manager will pay him 25 percent of Presley's earnings.

1957 - ClassicBands.com

March 26
Ricky Nelson records his first tunes for the Verve label. "A Teenager's Romance" will climb to #2 on the Billboard chart and a cover of Fats Domino's "I'm Walkin'" will reach #4. Over his fifteen year recording career, Rick will place 36 songs in the US Top 40.

1958 - ClassicBands.com

March 26
Eddie Cochran records his only US Top Ten hit, "Summertime Blues" at Gold Star Studios in Hollywood, California. The song will rise to #8 in the US next Fall and reached #18 in the UK.

1968 - ClassicBands.com

March 26
Blues artist Little Willie John died in prison under mysterious circumstances after being convicted of manslaughter two years earlier. He had fourteen hits on the US R&B charts and the same number on the Pop charts, including "Fever", "Sleep", and "Talk To Me, Talk To Me".

1969 - ClassicBands.com

March 26
Pat Boone guest stars on an episode of The Beverly Hillbillies. The story line has Pat in the neighborhood and smells Granny's cooking. He wanders into their backyard and the Clampetts befriend him, thinking he's a hill country man who is down on his luck.

1970 - ClassicBands.com

March 26
Peter Yarrow of Peter, Paul And Mary was arrested in Washington, DC for "Taking immoral liberties" with a 14 year-old girl. He pleads guilty and is sentenced to three months in jail. Just days earlier, the trio had won a Grammy Award for Best Recording for Children for their album, "Peter, Paul and Mommy". Yarrow was later pardoned by US President Gerald Ford.

1974 - ClassicBands.com

March 26
Gordon Lightfoot releases "Sundown", which would top the Billboard Hot 100 three months later. Lightfoot would later say that he found the inspiration for the song while worrying about his girlfriend, who was out at bars all day while he was at home writing songs. "I was hoping that no one else would get their hands on her, because she was pretty good lookin'!" The girl in question was probably Gord's one time girlfriend Cathy Smith, who later served fifteen months in the California state prison system for delivering a lethal dose of heroin to John Belushi.

March 26
David Essex received a Gold record for the hit "Rock On", which made #5 in the US and #3 in the UK.

March 26
Dionne Warwick and The Spinners record "Then Came You". Although Warwick didn't have much faith in the song, it became her first hit in nearly four years when it topped the Billboard chart next October.

1976 - ClassicBands.com

March 26
Keith Richards' girlfriend, Anita Pallenberg gave birth to a baby boy, Tara. He died ten weeks later from pneumonia.

1977 - ClassicBands.com

March 26
Daryl Hall And John Oates score the first of their six Billboard number one hits when "Rich Girl" reached the top. The song was not a hit in the UK.

1980 - ClassicBands.com

March 26
Seven years after its release, Pink Floyd's "The Dark Side of the Moon" breaks the record for the longest-charting Pop album, previously held by Carole King's "Tapestry". At the same time, their latest single "Another Brick In The Wall" was topping both the Cashbox Best Sellers chart and the Billboard Hot 100.

March 26
Jon Paulos, drummer for The Buckinghams on their string of 1967 hits, including "Kind Of A Drag" and "Mercy, Mercy, Mercy", died of a drug overdose. He was 32.

1985 - ClassicBands.com

March 26
Radio stations in South Africa banned all of Stevie Wonder's records after he dedicated the Oscar he had won the night before at The Academy Awards to Nelson Mandela.

1988 - ClassicBands.com

March 26
Michael Jackson squeezed a fourth, US number one single out of his album "Bad" with "Man In The Mirror". It was a #21 hit in the UK.

2000 - ClassicBands.com

March 26
Phil Collins is awarded an Oscar for Best Original Song for "You'll Be In My Heart" from the Disney animated feature Tarzan.

2002 - ClassicBands.com

March 26
Three Dog Night's original bass player, Joe Schermie, Jr., who played on all the group's biggest hits from 1968-1973, died of a heart attack. He had just turned 55 a month earlier.

2004 - ClassicBands.com

March 26
Jan Berry, one-half of the duo of Jan And Dean, died after suffering a seizure at his home. Together, the pair sold more than 10 million records and placed 14 hits in the US Top 40. Jan was a week away from his 63rd birthday.

2006 - ClassicBands.com

March 26
Priscilla Presley is in attendance when Elvis' Graceland mansion is designated as a National Historic Landmark.

2009 - ClassicBands.com

March 26
A jump suit that Elvis Presley wore at a concert at New York's Madison Square Garden sold at an auction for $212,588.

2016 - ClassicBands.com

March 26
Madonna's 12th studio album, "MDNA", enters the Billboard 200 album chart at #1, selling 350,000 copies in the first two weeks.

2016 - ClassicBands.com

March 26
Billy Joel's iconic hit, "Piano Man", was selected by the US Library of Congress for preservation in the National Recording Registry for its "cultural, historic, or artistic significance." Even though the record only made it to #25 on the Hot 100 in 1974, it has become Joel's signature song and was ranked at #421 in the 2004 list of Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.

2019 - ClassicBands.com

March 26
Representatives from Cleveland's Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame announced that despite allegations of sexual abuse, Michael Jackson would not be removed from The Hall, either as a solo artist or as a member of The Jackson 5.



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