Rock 'n' Roll History for
September 15


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1956 - ClassicBands.com

September 15
Elvis Presley is presented with a Gold record for "Don't Be Cruel", which has just taken over from "Hound Dog" as the best selling single in America. When the song was recorded on July 2nd, Elvis, along with Scotty Moore, Bill Black, D.J. Fontana and The Jordanaires, ran through twenty-eight takes of "Don't Be Cruel" before he was satisfied.

1961 - ClassicBands.com

September 15
A group from Hawthorne, California called The Pendletones attend their first real recording session at Hite Morgan's studio in Los Angeles. The band lays down "Surfin'", a song that would kick start their career as The Beach Boys. Written by Brian Wilson and Mike Love, the tune would peak a #75 in the US, but was never released in the UK.

1962 - ClassicBands.com

September 15
Brian Epstein brings The Beatles to an interview with Peter Jones of the London Daily Mirror. Jones concludes they are "a nothing group."

September 15
A Chinese newspaper reports what it calls "ugly displays", as teens have been seen dancing The Twist in Maoming Cultural Park.

September 15
The Four Seasons had their first number one hit when "Sherry" reached the top of both the Billboard Hot 100 and the Cashbox Best Sellers list. The song was originally titled "Terry", but after considering other names, including "Jackie", after Jackie Kennedy, the group changed the lyrics to "Sherry" after Cheri Spector, the daughter of one of Bob Crewe's best friends. Over their career the Seasons would add four more chart toppers, "Big Girls Don't Cry" (1962), "Walk Like a Man" (1963), "Rag Doll" (1964) and "December 1962 (Oh, What A Night)" (1976) to their list of eleven Top 10 hits.

1964 - ClassicBands.com

September 15
At Cleveland's Public Auditorium, police inspector Carl Bear takes the microphone from John Lennon while he is still singing and The Beatles are asked to leave the stage for fifteen minutes so that the screaming crowd can calm down.

1965 - ClassicBands.com

September 15
The Ford Motor Company becomes the first auto maker to offer an 8-track tape player as an option in their Mustang, Thunderbird and Lincoln models. Tapes were initially only available at auto parts stores, as home 8-track equipment was still a year away. The format's popularity declined in the 1980s, although Cheap Trick's "The Latest" was issued on 8-track in 2009, as was Dolly Parton's "A Holly Dolly Christmas" in 2020.

September 15
Frankie Avalon guest stars on The Patty Duke Show in an episode called "A Foggy Day In Brooklyn Heights". The plot has Frankie's car breaking down in front of Patty's house, so he asks if he can use their telephone. Once Patty realizes who it is, she is determined to spend some time with the famous singer.

1968 - ClassicBands.com

September 15
NBC-TV airs a new music program called Soul!, a completely Black production both in front of and behind the cameras. Featured guests are Lou Rawls and Martha And The Vandellas. The program would run until March 7th, 1973.

September 15
Jim Morrison passes out during Jefferson Airplane's set at a concert in Amsterdam, forcing The Doors to go on as a trio.

1969 - ClassicBands.com

September 15
Ed Sullivan releases his first and only Rock 'n' Roll record, "The Sulli-Gulli", credited to The Ed Sullivan Singers And Orchestra. The song failed to crack the Billboard Hot 100.

1970 - ClassicBands.com

September 15
US Vice-President Spiro Agnew says the youth of America are being "brainwashed into a drug culture" by Rock music, movies, books and underground newspapers.

1972 - ClassicBands.com

September 15
After a dispute with Northern Songs over publishing rights had finally been settled, John Lennon's "Some Time in New York City" is finally released in the UK. It had been issued in America three months earlier. John and Yoko were backed by The Elephant's Memory Band.

1973 - ClassicBands.com

September 15
Helen Reddy reached the top spot on the Billboard Pop chart for the second time with "Delta Dawn". Her recording beat out a rendition by Bette Midler that was released at the same time and an earlier version by Country singer Tanya Tucker, who took the song to number 6 on Billboard's Country chart, but only 72 on the Pop chart.

September 15
Rod Stewart endures a rare flop record when his version of Sam Cooke's "Twisting The Night Away" stalls at #59 on the Billboard Hot 100.

1974 - ClassicBands.com

September 15
Uriah Heep bassist Gary Thain is nearly electrocuted onstage during a show in Dallas. He survives, but says that the other band members didn't show enough concern over the accident and leaves the group soon after.

1979 - ClassicBands.com

September 15
Bob Dylan had a double edged sword on his hands when he released an album of religious songs called "Slow Train Coming". A single called "Gotta Serve Somebody" won a Grammy Award, but the LP alienated many of his long time fans.

September 29
Led Zeppelin's eighth and final studio album, "In Through The Out Door" rises to #1 on the Billboard 200 chart. Selling over 1.7 million copies in its first few weeks, the popularity of the LP helps the band's entire catalogue to reappear on the Billboard album chart between the weeks of October 23rd and November 3rd.

September 29
"The Devil Went Down To Georgia" by The Charlie Daniels Band peaks at #3 during it's twelve week stay in Billboard's Top 40. It also topped the Country chart and was certified Platinum with sales of over two million copies. After the song became available as a digital download, it sold nearly two million more. The original line in the song "I done told you once, you son of a bitch, I'm the best that's ever been" was altered to "I done told you once, you son of a gun, I'm the best that's ever been" in order to gain radio air play.

1983 - ClassicBands.com

September 15
Chrysalis Records releases the LP "Sports" by Huey Lewis And The News. It would top the Billboard 200 chart in June of 1984 and contain four US hit singles, "Heart And Soul" (#8), "I Want A New Drug" (#6), "The Heart Of Rock & Roll" (#6) and "If This Is It" (#6). The album has since been certified 7X Platinum by the RIAA.

1990 - ClassicBands.com

September 15
Bruce Hornsby begins filling in on keyboards for The Grateful Dead following the death of Brent Mydland.

September 15
A trio called Wilson Phillips topped the Billboard singles chart for the second time with a self-penned song called "Release Me". The group is made up of Carnie and Wendy Wilson, the daughters of Beach Boys leader Brian Wilson, along with Chynna Phillips, the daughter of Mamas and Papas founder, John Phillips.

1994 - ClassicBands.com

September 15
A reel to reel tape of The Quarry Men appearing at St Peter's Parish Church garden party in July, 1957, sells for $125,000 at Sotheby's.

2003 - ClassicBands.com

September 15
Gerry Marsden of Gerry And The Pacemakers underwent triple bypass heart surgery at Broad Green hospital in Liverpool. The operation was successful and kept him alive until January 3rd, 2021.

September 15
More than 1,000 mourners attended a private two-and-a-half-hour funeral service for Johnny Cash at First Baptist Church of Hendersonville, Tennessee. Kris Kristofferson, who wrote the 1970 classic "Sunday Morning Coming Down" for Johnny, led the tributes. "He represented the best of America. We're not going to see his like again."

2004 - ClassicBands.com

September 15
Johnny Ramone, co-founder of The Ramones, passed away after a five year battle with prostrate cancer. The 55-year-old guitarist's real name was John Cummings.

2007 - ClassicBands.com

September 15
Prince announced plans to sue YouTube and other major web sites for unauthorized use of his music in a bid to "reclaim his art on the Internet."

2008 - ClassicBands.com

September 15
Rick Wright, keyboardist and founding member of Pink Floyd, died of cancer at the age of 65. Wright wrote a number of songs for the band in their early years, including "Paint Box", "Remember A Day" and "Summer '68" and also contributed prominent vocals to the group's 1971 classic, "Echoes". He will be remembered primarily for "The Great Gig In The Sky", his stately song on 1973's million-selling "Dark Side Of The Moon".

2010 - ClassicBands.com

September 15
The New York Parole Board released the transcript of Mark David Chapman's parole hearing in which he told the committee that he had also considered killing either Johnny Carson or Elizabeth Taylor, but John Lennon was "top of the list" the day he gunned down the former Beatle. Chapman agreed with a parole board member that he did the killing for "instant notoriety."

September 15
Michael Jackson's mother and his three children filed a wrongful death lawsuit against AEG Live, the promoters of a series of planned concerts by the King Of Pop before his death last year. The action accused the company of "putting its desire for massive profits" over the health and safety of Michael. The litigation would prove unsuccessful and in 2014 Katherine Jackson and family would be ordered to pay the concert promoter's court costs of $800,000 (£480,000)

2013 - ClassicBands.com

September 15
English vocalist Jackie Lomax, who worked with The Beatles and enjoyed a long solo career, died after a brief battle with cancer at the age of 69.

2015 - ClassicBands.com

September 15
Keith Richards told Internet radio platform iHeartRadio that The Rolling Stones were planning on heading back into the studio to record a new album after wrapping up their tour of South America next February. It would be their first new effort since 2005's "A Bigger Bang". That LP turned out to be "Blue & Lonesome", which would top the UK album chart and reach #4 on the Billboard 200.

2016 - ClassicBands.com

September 15
A company called Sid Bernstein Presents brought suit against Apple Corps and Subafilms, Ltd for using footage of the 1965 concert at Shea Stadium which they say is their property. Promoter Sid Bernstein produced the show and booked The Beatles and the other artists who played on the bill and, although the Beatles' business enterprises obtained the copyright to the concert footage in that year, he always disputed their claim.

2018 - ClassicBands.com

September 15
Paul McCartney achieved his first #1 album on the Billboard 200 chart in over thirty-six years, as his latest studio effort, "Egypt Station" debuted at the top of the list. Macca had not had a chart topper since "Tug Of War" in 1982. The only other artist to have a longer wait between number one albums was Johnny Cash, who waited thirty-six years, ten months and nine days between "Johnny Cash at San Quentin" on September 13th, 1969 and the posthumous release "American V: A Hundred Highways", dated July 22nd, 2006.

2019 - ClassicBands.com

September 15
The Cars vocalist Ric Ocasek was found unconscious at his New York City apartment by his estranged wife, Paulina Porizkova. The 75-year-old musician was later pronounced dead at the scene. The Cars placed eight albums on the Billboard 200 and thirteen singles on the Hot 100 between 1978 and 1988.

2024 - ClassicBands.com

September 15
Tito Jackson, an original member of The Jackson 5, passed away at the age of 70. He sang with his brothers Jackie, Jermaine, Randy, Marlon and Michael on hits like "I Want You Back", "ABC" and "I'll Be There", and was inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame with them in 1997. He embarked on a solo career in 2003, releasing two albums, several singles and collaborating with the likes of Big Daddy Kane, Stevie Wonder, Joe Bonamassa, and others.



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