Rock 'n' Roll History for
October 3


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1901 - ClassicBands.com

October 3
The Victor Talking Machine Company was incorporated. After a merger with Radio Corporation of America, RCA-Victor became the industry leader in phonographs and many of the records played on them.

1957 - ClassicBands.com

October 3
23-year-old Pat Boone begins hosting The Pat Boone Chevy Showroom on ABC-TV. The program, which featured many of the day's top recording artists, would be canceled after its third season when it lost a ratings war with John Forsythe's Bachelor Father on NBC. ABC replaced Boone's show with Fred MacMurray's sitcom, My Three Sons.

1961 - ClassicBands.com

October 3
A group of teens from Hawthorne California calling themselves The Pendletones recorded three songs for Hite and Dorinda Morgan, who ran a publishing business and two small record labels. One of those songs was called "Surfin'", which, when pressed on to a Candix Records 45 rpm disc, was credited to The Beach Boys, a name made up by promotion man Russ Reagan, who had taken it upon himself to re-christen the band. "Surfin'" would get to #75 on the Billboard chart and sold 50,000 copies, launching the career of one of America's most successful Rock 'n' Roll acts.

1964 - ClassicBands.com

October 3
The Animals' self-titled, debut album enters the Billboard LP chart, on its way to #7. It contains their #1 hit, "House Of The Rising Sun". The British album "The Animals" was released a month later with substantially differing contents. It went to #6 on the UK chart.

1967 - ClassicBands.com

October 3
Folk legend Woody Guthrie passed away of Huntington's chorea in a hospital where he had spent the last ten years. Along with writing "This Land is Your Land", "Cumberland Gap" and hundreds of others, Guthrie was a major influence on Bob Dylan, Phil Ochs and many others.

1978 - ClassicBands.com

October 3
The members of Aerosmith offered to bail dozens fans out of jail after they had been arrested for smoking pot during a concert at the Fort Wayne Coliseum. As many as twenty-eight of those charged took the band up on its offer, and Aerosmith's tour accountant eventually paid approximately $4,200 in bail and fines in separate court appearances.

1980 - ClassicBands.com

October 3
Paul Simon's film One Trick Pony premiers in America. It would prove to be a critical and commercial failure, grossing less than $900,000 despite having a budget of $8 million. On the bright side, the title track would reach #40 on the Hot 100 and "Late In The Evening" went to #6.

1981 - ClassicBands.com

October 3
Columbia Records releases Billy Joel's "Songs in the Attic", the first digitally recorded, live album. The LP was a collection of tunes he had recorded before his big breakthrough, "Just The Way You Are". The effort would climb to #8 on the Billboard 200 and #57 on the UK's Official Albums Chart.

1987 - ClassicBands.com

October 3
Brenda Lee Day was declared in her home town of Lithonia, Georgia and a street was named after her. Lee, who was born Brenda Mae Tarpley, placed twenty-nine songs on the Billboard Top 40 between 1960 and 1967, including "Sweet Nothin's", "I'm Sorry", "Fool #1" and "Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree".

1988 - ClassicBands.com

October 3
Elvis Presley's daughter, 20-year-old Lisa Marie Presley marries her first husband, musician, Danny Keough. They would have two children: a daughter, Riley Keough (born May 29, 1989) and a son, Benjamin Storm Keough (born October 21, 1992). The couple would divorce on May 6th, 1994.

1992 - ClassicBands.com

October 3
Sinead O'Connor did her career some major damage when she appeared on US TV's Saturday Night Live and held up an 8" x 10" color photo of Pope John Paul II, ripped it into pieces and said, "Fight the real enemy." Over the next few days the NBC switchboard in New York received thousands of calls denouncing O'Connor's performance. The network and the show's executive producer, Lorne Michaels, both denied any knowledge of O'Connor's plan and said she had performed the song differently in rehearsal. Catholic groups expressed outrage at the act and called it patently offensive to people of all religious beliefs. NBC has never again aired the O'Connor performance.

1999 - ClassicBands.com

October 3
After a long absence from the music scene, Tom Jones reached #1 on the UK album chart with "Reload", which, at 59, made him the oldest artist to score a British chart topping album with newly recorded material. The LP sold more than six million copies worldwide.

2000 - ClassicBands.com

October 3
John Lennon's assassin, Mark David Chapman, was denied parole after serving twenty years in prison. Chapman was interviewed for fifty minutes by parole board members, who concluded that releasing Chapman would 'deprecate the seriousness of the crime.'

October 3
Benjamin Orr, bassist / vocalist for The Cars lost his fight with pancreatic cancer at the age of 53. Orr sang lead vocals on some of the band's most recognizable hits, such as "Just What I Needed", "Bye Bye Love", "Drive" and "Let's Go".

2007 - ClassicBands.com

October 3
The Rolling Stones set a new record for the top grossing tour of all time when their A Bigger Bang tour, which ran from the Fall of 2005 to August 26, 2007, earned the band a staggering $558,255,524. The previous high was set by U2's Vertigo tour, which took place in 2005 and 2006, earning $389,000,000.

2015 - ClassicBands.com

October 3
Former teen idol David Cassidy was charged with leaving the scene of an accident and driving with an expired tag after a crash in Florida in September. Police said that the 65-year-old Cassidy sideswiped a truck and then tried to cover his license plate before driving away with a flat tire. Cassidy's lawyer said his client gave police his driver's license and registration before leaving the scene.

2016 - ClassicBands.com

October 3
Joan Marie Johnson, one of the founding members of the New Orleans girl group The Dixie Cups, died at a hospice in her home town at the age of 72. The trio scored a #1 hit in 1964 with "Chapel of Love", but Johnson was forced to drop out after only a few years after being diagnosed with sickle cell anemia.

2024 - ClassicBands.com

October 3
A unique honor came The Who's way when The Royal Mail announced a set of twelve stamps would be issued to celebrate their influential career. Eight of the stickers featured images of some of their most iconic album covers: "My Generation" (1965), "Tommy" (1969), "Who's Next" (1971), "Quadrophenia" (1973), "Who Are You" (1978), "Face Dances" (1981), "Endless Wire" (2006) and "WHO" (2019). The Who became the seventh musical act to be featured by the British mail service following The Beatles, (2007), Pink Floyd (2016), Queen (2020), The Rolling Stones (2022), Iron Maiden (2023) and The Spice Girls (2024).

October 3
Pink Floyd became the latest iconic music artist to sell their catalog when SONY purchased their recorded music and name-and-likeness rights for $400 million (£301 million).



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