Rock 'n' Roll History for
September 14


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1955 - ClassicBands.com

September 14
Little Richard entered J&M Studios in New Orleans for a two day recording session. Things were not going well and during a break, Richard and his producer, Bumps Blackwell, went to the Dew Drop Inn. With few people there and an old upright piano, Richard started playing like crazy, singing loud, lewd and hamming it up. Blackwell was stunned... why couldn't he record this? They went back to J&M with only fifteen minutes left in the session and "Tutti Fruiti, good booty" became "Tutti Fruiti, aw-rootie". The song would be Richard's break-out hit and managed to make it to #17 on the Billboard Top 100 and #2 on the R&B chart. Early the following year, a cover by Pat Boone over shadowed Richard's version and went to #12 on the Billboard Pop chart.

1962 - ClassicBands.com

September 14
Tamla Motown Records releases Mary Wells' "You Beat Me To The Punch", The Marvelettes' "Beachwood 4-5789" and The Contours' "Do You Love Me" on the Oriole / American label in the UK.

1963 - ClassicBands.com

September 14
The Beach Boys' "Surfer Girl" peaks at #7 on the Billboard Hot 100. The single would achieve Gold Record status later in the year and reach #13 in the UK. Brian Wilson would later say that the lyrics were inspired by a girl named Judy Bowles, his first serious girlfriend, whom he dated for three and a half years.

1964 - ClassicBands.com

September 14
The ABC network begins airing the sitcom The Bing Crosby Show. It would last for twenty-eight episodes, and featured guests that included Frankie Avalon, Jimmy Boyd and Vikki Carr.

1966 - ClassicBands.com

September 14
Otis Redding performed at The Orchid Ballroom, Purley, Surrey, England. Admission was 10 shillings ($1.40).

1968 - ClassicBands.com

September 14
Roy Orbison's two sons, Roy Jr. (11) and Tony (6), are killed in a fire at his Hendersonville, Tennessee home while he is on tour in England. Capt. Bill Deering of the Gallatin Fire Department said, "From what we've been able to piece together, the two children who were killed were playing with an aerosol can in the basement of the house when their grandfather, Orbie Orbison, warned them that was dangerous. The grandfather, we are told, pushed the spray on the can and, to demonstrate the danger, touched his cigarette lighter to the spray."

September 14
The Chambers Brothers' "Time Has Come Today" enters Billboard's Hot 100, where it will climb to number eleven. Although the band would continue to release singles until 1974, they would only reach the Top 40 once more with "I Can't Turn You Loose", which reached #37 later in 1968.

September 14
The Archies cartoon show first aired on Saturday mornings on the CBS television network. The records that were credited to this make believe group were recorded by Ron Dante, Jeff Barry, Andy Kim and others. Their biggest hit would turn out to be a song called "Sugar, Sugar", that went to number one in 1969, selling over six million copies.

September 14
Big Brother And The Holding Company's LP, "Cheap Thrills" enters the Billboard 200, where it will stay for twenty-nine weeks, including eight at #1. The album would later be inducted into the Grammy Hall Of Fame and was ranked at #372 on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 Greatest Albums Of All Time in 2020.

1970 - ClassicBands.com

September 14
20-year-old Stevie Wonder marries 24-year-old Syreeta Wright. They would split eighteen months later, but she would write the lyrics to some of Stevie's biggest hits, including "If You Really Love Me" and "Signed, Sealed And Delivered I'm Yours".

1974 - ClassicBands.com

September 14
After a two year battle with heroin, Eric Clapton was back in a big way. His version of Bob Marley's "I Shot The Sheriff" hit the top of the Billboard Hot 100, rejuvenating his career. The record also reached the Top 20 in twelve other countries was inducted into the Grammy Hall OF Fame in 2003.

1984 - ClassicBands.com

September 14
The first MTV Video Music Awards are held at Radio City Music Hall in New York City. Michael Jackson wins three awards, including Best Overall Performance for "Thriller".

1985 - ClassicBands.com

September 14
Recording sessions for The Bangles' second album, "Different Light" wrap up at the Sunset Sound Studios in Hollywood, California. The LP will produce the band's first of three Billboard number one hits, "Manic Monday", which was written by Prince under the pen-name Christopher.

1987 - ClassicBands.com

September 14
American Bandstand becomes the longest running entertainment show in US TV history. Starting off on Philadelphia's WFIL-TV in 1952, the program would air nationally on August 5, 1957 and ended its run in syndication on October 7, 1989.

1991 - ClassicBands.com

September 14
The Temptations and Rod Stewart combined to take a single called "The Motown Song" to its peak position of #10 in the US. The song also reached that position in the UK and made the Top 40 in nine different countries.

1993 - ClassicBands.com

September 14
Sixteen years after his landmark album "Bat Out Of Hell" is issued, Meatloaf's "Bat Out of Hell II: Back into Hell" is released. It will top the album charts in ten countries around the globe, including America, Canada and the UK. The lead single, "I'd Do Anything for Love (But I Won't Do That)" rises to #1 on the Billboard Hot 100, the UK's Official Chart, and fourteen other country's charts.

1995 - ClassicBands.com

September 14
Paul McCartney's hand written lyrics for "Getting Better" sell for $249,000 (£161,000) at a Sotheby's auction.

1998 - ClassicBands.com

September 14
Johnny Adams, who scored a Billboard #28 hit with "Reconsider Me" in 1969, died of prostate cancer at the age of 66.

2001 - ClassicBands.com

September 14
Clear Channel Communications, the largest owner of radio stations in the United States, released a list of "lyrically questionable" songs that stations may want to pull from their play lists, following the terrorist attacks on The World Trade Center and The Pentagon. That list includes such Classic Rock standards as: "Jet Airliner" by Steve Miller, "Dust in the Wind" by Kansas, "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" by Bob Dylan and "Eve of Destruction" by Barry McGuire.

2005 - ClassicBands.com

September 14
HMV stores in Canada removed all Bob Dylan CDs from their shelves to protest the singer's deal to only sell his new album at Starbucks.

2018 - ClassicBands.com

September 14
A guitar used by George Harrison at the Beatles' last appearance at Liverpool's Cavern Club in 1963 was auctioned off at Gardiner Houlgate Auctions in Corsham, Wiltshire, England for £347,000. The Australian-made Maton Mastersound MS-500 was purchased by an unnamed, overseas private collector over the phone. A custom-made 1968 Gibson EBS-1250 double-neck, used by The Bee Gees' Maurice Gibb to compose the band's first Disco hit "Jive Talkin'", was also sold for £8,680.



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