Rock 'n' Roll History for
September 11


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1952 - ClassicBands.com

September 11
At Atlantic Records on West 56th St in New York, Ahmet Ertegun begins recording his newest signing, 21-year-old Ray Charles, whose contract had been purchased from the Swingtime label for $2,500 last June.

1956 - ClassicBands.com

September 11
Police are called to break up a crowd of rowdy teenagers following the showing of the film Rock Around The Clock at the Trocadero Cinema in London, England. The following day, The Times prints a reader's letter that says in part: "The hypnotic rhythm and the wild gestures have a maddening effect on a rhythm loving age group, and the result of its impact is the relaxing of all self control." The film is quickly banned in several English cities.

1957 - ClassicBands.com

September 11
Jerry Lee Lewis hits the number three position on the Billboard Top 100 with "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On". The song had already been released by a handful of artists and Jerry Lee had been using it in his live act for several months. He would later recall, "I knew it was a hit when I recorded it."

1958 - ClassicBands.com

September 11
Lloyd Price records "Stagger Lee" at ABC-Paramount's studios in New York City. The song will top the Billboard Hot 100 next February 9th and will go on to be ranked #456 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. The song, written about about the murder of Billy Lyons by "Stag" Lee Shelton, in St. Louis, Missouri at Christmas 1895, was first published in 1911. It was first recorded in 1923 by Fred Waring's Pennsylvanians, using the title "Stack O' Lee Blues".

1960 - ClassicBands.com

September 11
Nancy Sinatra married singer / actor Tommy Sands, who had reached #3 in the US in 1957 with a song called "Teen-Age Crush". The pair would split in 1965, after which Sands would recall, "The doors to Hollywood seemed to slam shut after the divorce from Nancy. I couldn't get acting roles, my singing career on TV and in films was over."

1962 - ClassicBands.com

September 11
The Beatles return to Abbey Road Studios where they record "P.S., I Love You". Producer George Martin is concerned with Ringo Starr's ability and hires session drummer Andy White to re-record "Love Me Do", on which Ringo played tambourine. Starr had played drums on a version of the song that was recorded a week earlier which was released on Parlophone in the UK on October 5th, 1962. Listeners can tell the difference between the two renditions, as a tambourine is not heard on Ringo's take.

1963 - ClassicBands.com

September 11
An unauthorized, two-disc set of Bob Dylan songs called "The Great White Wonder" first appears in a Los Angeles record store. It's believed to be the first commercial release of a bootleg album.

1964 - ClassicBands.com

September 11
A 16-year-old lad won a Mick Jagger impersonation contest at The Town Hall, Greenwich, England. The winner turned out to be Mick's younger brother, Chris Jagger.

1965 - ClassicBands.com

September 11
The Beatles LP "Help!" rises to #1 on the Billboard 200 album chart, where it will stay for the next nine weeks. While the band appears to be spelling out H-E-L-P in flag semaphore on the album cover, the actual letters they are displaying are N-V-U-J. Cover photographer Robert Freeman decided that the letters that spell out the LP's title did not make a well balanced photograph.

1966 - ClassicBands.com

September 11
The Beatles receive a Gold record for the single, "Yellow Submarine". Paul McCartney would later say, "The song began as being about different colored submarines, but evolved to include only a yellow one."

1967 - ClassicBands.com

September 11
The Beatles' "All You Need Is Love" is certified as a million-seller. The boys also begin filming the movie, Magical Mystery Tour. The idea was to cruise the English countryside in a bus, "just to see what would happen." Unfortunately, nothing did and the film was a disaster, receiving scathing reviews and condemned as The Beatles' first failure. The Evening News TV critic may have summed it up best when he wrote, "There was precious little magic and the only mystery was how the BBC came to buy it."

1968 - ClassicBands.com

September 11
Sly And The Family Stone bassist Larry Graham is picked up in England by London police for possession of cannabis. The BBC cancels the group's television appearance and a London hotel refuses to honor the band's reservations.

1970 - ClassicBands.com

September 11
Jimi Hendrix gives his final interview in his suite at the Cumberland Hotel in London, England where he talked with Keith Altham, a journalist for the British weekly music newspaper Record Mirror. During their dialogue the guitarist confirmed that his bassist, Billy Cox, was leaving the band due to exhaustion, a condition that Hendrix himself was suffering.

1971 - ClassicBands.com

September 11
Donny Osmond's version of "Go Away Little Girl" hits number one in the US. The song was also a chart topper for Steve Lawrence in 1963 and reached #12 for The Happenings in 1966.

September 11
The Jackson 5 Saturday morning cartoon show debuts on ABC-TV. The show features the voices of the five brothers.

1973 - ClassicBands.com

September 11
Columbia Records releases Art Garfunkel's debut solo album "Angel Clare", which contained his only Top 10 hit in America as a solo artist, "All I Know". Just five weeks later the LP would be certified Gold, peaking at #5 on the Billboard chart. It also included two other singles, "Traveling Boy" (#38 Adult Contemporary) and "I Shall Sing" (#38 Hot 100, #4 Adult Contemporary).

1974 - ClassicBands.com

September 11
Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, Joni Mitchell and The Band play to 80,000 fans at London's Wembley Stadium.

1975 - ClassicBands.com

September 11
Janis Ian is awarded her first Gold record for the album "Between The Lines". The LP contains her biographical single "At Seventeen", which was still climbing the charts and will peak in the US at number three.

1976 - ClassicBands.com

September 11
KC And The Sunshine Band had North America dancing in the streets with their Billboard chart topper, "Shake Your Booty". The song was met with some degree of controversy, since the lyrics were interpreted by many as having sexual connotations. It rose to #22 in the UK.

1977 - ClassicBands.com

September 11
After climbing the Hot 100 for the last twelve weeks, "Smoke From A Distant Fire" by The Sanford/Townsend Band finally peaks at #9. Unfortunately for the L.A. duo, it would be their one and only chart success as none of their follow-up material caught on.

1982 - ClassicBands.com

September 11
After some lean years following the death of lead guitarist Terry Kath, Chicago was back on top of the Billboard singles chart with "Hard To Say I'm Sorry". It was their first Top 50 hit since "No Tell Lover" in 1978. The song reached #4 in the UK.

September 11
John "Cougar" Mellencamp becomes the only male artist to have two singles in the US Top Ten as well as the number one album. "Jack and Diane" was number 4, while "Hurts So Good" sat at number 8. The LP "American Fool" stayed on top for nine weeks, eventually reaching multi-Platinum status.

September 11
"Valley Girl" by Frank Zappa and his 14-year old daughter Moon Unit peaks at #32 on the US singles chart. Moon Unit supplied much of the content, speaking typical "Valley Girl" phrases.

1987 - ClassicBands.com

September 11
Canadian born actor Lorne Green, whose spoken word recording of "Ringo" went to #1 on Billboard's Hot 100 in 1964, passed away at the age of 72.

September 11
43-year-old Peter Tosh, the guitarist in the original Wailing Wailers with Bob Marley, was brutally murdered at his Jamaican home. Though robbery was officially said to be the reason behind Tosh's death, many believe that there were ulterior motives to the killing, citing that nothing was taken from the house.

1992 - ClassicBands.com

September 11
Eric Clapton's "Unplugged" LP enters the Billboard chart. The record would go on to win the Grammy for Album of the Year, with sales reaching over seven million.

2002 - ClassicBands.com

September 11
James Brown's daughters filed a federal lawsuit against their dad, claiming he withheld royalties for twenty-five songs that they helped him to write. Deanna Brown Thomas and Dr. Yamma Brown Luma said that a family feud has kept James from sharing royalties for songs that include "Get Up Offa That Thing", a hit in 1976, when they were three and six years old. The lawsuit alleged that the singer has held a grudge against his daughters since at least 1998, when Deanna had her father committed to a psychiatric hospital to be treated for addiction to pain killers. After his release, Brown "vowed to the media that his daughters will never get a dime from him," the lawsuit said. "James Brown has kept his word."

2003 - ClassicBands.com

September 11
Tommy Chong, one-half of the comedy team of Cheech and Chong, was sentenced to nine months in federal prison and fined $20,000 for selling drug paraphernalia over the Internet. The 65-year-old Chong plead guilty to the charges last May. He remained free until April, 2004 when he went to jail. Cheech and Chong reached the Billboard Hot 100 with "Basketball Jones" (#15), "Sister Mary Elephant" (#24) and "Earache My Eye" (#9).

2011 - ClassicBands.com

September 11
The Beatles album "1" re-appeared in the UK Top Ten chart when it rose to #6 on the strength of sales of over 23,000 copies. Overall, "1" has sold thirty million physical copies since its 2000 release, according to EMI, and is the best selling album in the world over the past decade.

September 11
87-year-old Doris Day became the oldest female artist ever to hit the UK Top Ten with an album of newly-released material when "My Heart" debuted at #9. The LP contained three songs written by Day's son Terry Melcher, and Bruce Johnston. In the US, the album entered the Billboard 200 at #135, becoming her first chart entry in forty-seven years.

2012 - ClassicBands.com

September 11
Johnny Perez, drummer and founding member of Sir Douglas Quintet, died of from cirrhosis of the liver at the age of 68. The band scored three Billboard Top 40 hits, "She's About A Mover" (#13 in 1965), "The Rains Came" (#31 in 1966) and "Mendocino", (#27 in 1968).

2014 - ClassicBands.com

September 11
Bob Crewe, a singer / songwriter / producer who penned a string of hits for The Four Seasons, including "Sherry", "Big Girls Don't Cry", "Walk Like a Man" and "Rag Doll", passed away at the age of 83. During his career he also produced dozens of hits for other artists including "Can't Take My Eyes Of You" for Frankie Valli, "Devil With A Blue Dress On" for Mitch Ryder, and "Lady Marmalade" for Labelle.

2015 - ClassicBands.com

September 11
The Jackson 5's 1970s hit, "ABC" topped the UK singles chart after it was mixed with a different beat by a British DJ. The original version had topped out at #8 in England.

2018 - ClassicBands.com

September 11
A 1963 demo tape made by David Bowie and one of his early bands, The Konrads, sold at a UK auction for nearly £40,000 . The 18-minute recording was owned by the band's drummer David Hadfield, who had discovered it in an old bread basket in his loft.



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