Rock 'n' Roll History for
May 6


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1957 - ClassicBands.com

May 6
Chuck Berry records his song "Rock and Roll Music" at Chess Studios in Chicago. When it is released the following September, it will climb to #8 on Billboard's Top 100 chart and to #6 on their R&B chart. In 2004, Rolling Stone magazine ranked Berry's version number 128 on its list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.

1963 - ClassicBands.com

May 6
Wayne Newton records his breakthrough hit "Danke Schoen" at Western Recorders in Hollywood. The original tune was written by Bert Kaempfert, who recorded it as an instrumental in 1959 and again in 1962, under the title "Candlelight Cafe". Milt Gabler later added English lyrics and Bobby Darin was slated to record it as a follow-up to "Mack the Knife". After seeing Newton perform at the Copacabana, Darin decided to let Newton record it first. Wayne's version peaked at #13 on the Hot 100 and #3 on the Easy Listening chart.

1965 - ClassicBands.com

May 6
In their Clearwater, Florida hotel room, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards work out the opening guitar riff of "Satisfaction" following Richard's purchase of a Gibson fuzz-box earlier that day. They would record the song at RCA Studios in Hollywood, California six days later. Upon release, it will top the Billboard Hot 100, the Cashbox Best Sellers list, the UK Official Chart and reach the Top Ten in fourteen other countries around the world. "Satisfaction" would be inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1998 and added to the National Recording Registry of the Library of Congress in 2006.

May 6
James Brown reworks a song called "I Found You" by Yvonne Fair and comes up with "I Got You (I Feel Good)". It will become the biggest hit of his career, topping the Billboard R&B chart, reaching #3 on the Hot 100, and #29 in the UK. The record would be inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2013.

May 6
British singer Marianne Faithfull marries artist John Dunbar in Cambridge with Peter And Gordon's Peter Asher serving as the best man. After giving birth to a son on November 10th, Marianne would leave her husband to live with Mick Jagger until May, 1970. Believe it or not, her real name is Marianne Faithfull.

1967 - ClassicBands.com

May 6
An American psychedelic Folk band called Pearls Before Swine began recording an album called "One Nation Underground". The LP includes a song called "Miss Morse", which would be banned in New York when it was discovered that lead singer Tom Rapp was singing F-U-C-K in Morse code. After disc jockey Murray The K played the record on the air, local Boy Scouts correctly interpreted the chorus and phoned in a complaint. The album would go on to sell 200,000 copies.

May 6
The Who's Keith Moon offers this insightful advice to young drummers during an interview in Melody Maker magazine: "To get your playing more forceful, hit the drums harder."

May 6
Two weeks after being pushed out of the top spot on the Cashbox Best Sellers list by The Monkees' "A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You", Nancy and Frank Sinatra return to number one with "Something Stupid".

1971 - ClassicBands.com

May 6
Ike and Tina Turner receive their only Gold record for their version of "Proud Mary", which climbed to #5 on the Billboard's Soul Singles chart and #4 on the Hot 100. It would go on to win a Grammy Award for Best R&B Vocal Performance by a Group in 1972.

1972 - ClassicBands.com

May 6
Elton John's "Rocket Man (I Think It's Gonna Be A long, Long Time)" enters the Billboard Hot 100 at #35. It will reach #6 in the US and #2 in the UK. In 2004, it was ranked #242 on the list of Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. With sales of 3 million in America, the song has been certified Triple Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America. In Great Britain, it was certified Double Platinum by the British Phonographic Industry for sales, streams and digital downloads of 1,200,000.

1973 - ClassicBands.com

May 6
Paul Simon's first solo tour began with a performance at the Music Hall in Boston. Recordings from the tour were later released on the 1974 album, "Live Rhymin'". Former partner Art Garfunkel would release his first solo album, "Angel Clare" and the single "All I Know" later in the year.

1977 - ClassicBands.com

May 6
Led Zeppelin broke their own concert attendance record at a show in Michigan, when more than 76,000 fans saw their performance.

May 6
Having just been signed to their first major recording contract, Dublin's Boomtown Rats, led by vocalist Bob Geldof, perform for a group of record company employees at Studio 51 in London.

1982 - ClassicBands.com

May 6
A court in Edinburgh, Scotland sentences the former manager of The Bay City Rollers, Tam Paton, to three years in jail. Paton had pleaded guilty to charges of conducting himself "in a shamelessly indecent manner" with ten teenage boys.

May 6
Diana Ross receives a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6712 Hollywood Blvd.

1984 - ClassicBands.com

May 6
Tina Turner's "What's Love Got to Do With It" is released. On September 1st, the song would top the Hot 100 and go on to win Grammys for Record Of The Year and Song Of The Year and established Turner as a major solo star. When Tina left her husband and former band mate Ike Turner in 1975, she was carrying nothing more than thirty-six cents in change and a gas station credit card.

1996 - ClassicBands.com

May 6
Linda Ronstadt and Aaron Neville sang at a White House event celebrating the musical diversity of the US. President Bill Clinton and his wife Hilary were the hosts for In Performance at the White House, which was later broadcast on public television.

1997 - ClassicBands.com

May 6
For the first time, The Rock And Roll Hall of Fame holds its induction ceremonies in Cleveland, where the Hall is located, instead of New York City. Inductees include The Jackson 5, The Bee Gees, The Young Rascals, Joni Mitchell, Buffalo Springfield, Crosby, Stills And Nash and Parliament-Funkadelic.

May 6
Joni Mitchell failed to show up for her induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland. She apparently wanted to avoid the media hoopla over her reunion with the daughter she gave up for adoption thirty-two years earlier.

2002 - ClassicBands.com

May 6
Songwriter Otis Blackwell died from a heart attack. Among his hits were "All Shook Up", "Return To Sender", "Don't Be Cruel", "Great Balls Of Fire", "Fever" and "Handy Man". Over the years, Blackwell's songs have sold more than 185 million copies.

May 6
The Guinness Hit Singles book listed "Bohemian Rhapsody" by Queen as the UK's favorite single of all time, followed by "Imagine" by John Lennon, "Hey Jude" by The Beatles, "Dancing Queen" by ABBA and "Like A Prayer" by Madonna.

2004 - ClassicBands.com

May 6
David Bowie canceled a concert in Miami after a local stagehand was killed in a fall before the show began.

2006 - ClassicBands.com

May 6
Nancy Sinatra unveiled her star on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame as she celebrated forty years in music since the debut of her 1966 hit, "These Boots Are Made for Walkin".

2009 - ClassicBands.com

May 6
Donald "Ean" Evans, the bassist for Lynyrd Skynyrd, died of cancer at the age of 48. He joined the band in 2001 following the passing of Leon Wilkeson and remained with them until his death.

2012 - ClassicBands.com

May 6
Over 300 guests, including Chubby Checker, Berry Gordy, Paul Anka, Marie Osmond and Stevie Wonder, gathered on the grounds of Dick Clark's Malibu estate for a private memorial service. Clark's three children spoke first, followed by his widow Kari, who read a list of "65 reasons I love Dick Clark." The long-time host of TV's American Bandstand died April 18 of a heart attack.

2015 - ClassicBands.com

May 6
Errol Brown, the lead singer and co-founder of '70s Funk band Hot Chocolate, died of liver cancer at the age of 71. The UK group reached the Billboard Top 40 five times, including the 1975, #3 hit "You Sexy Thing".

2016 - ClassicBands.com

May 6
Stevie Wonder closed out a public memorial for Prince with a performance of "Purple Rain" in front of several thousand fans in Los Angeles.

2021 - ClassicBands.com

May 6
Lloyd Price, a Soul singer who placed ten songs on the Billboard Top 40 between 1957 and 1963, passed away at the age of 88. His biggest hits all came in 1959, and included "Stagger Lee" (#1), "Personality" (#2) and "I'm Gonna Get Married" (#3).

May 6
Pervis Staples, a co-founding member of The Staple Singers, passed away at the age of 85. The group placed eight songs on the Billboard Top 40, including two chart toppers, "I'll Take You There" in 1972 and "Let's Do It Again" in 1975.



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