Rock 'n' Roll History for
September 25


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1956 - ClassicBands.com

September 25
RCA Victor releases Elvis Presley's "Love Me Tender", which already had more than a million advance orders, making it a Gold record before it ever hit store shelves. The song would top the Billboard Top 100 for five weeks and reached #11 in the UK. It was later ranked at #437 on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.

1964 - ClassicBands.com

September 25
Beatles manager Brian Epstein turns down a £3½ million offer from a group of US businessmen who wanted to buy out his Beatles' management contract.

September 25
The Temptations begin recording "My Girl", which will go on to be their first US number one and the first of fifteen Top Ten hits.

1965 - ClassicBands.com

September 25
A former member of The New Christy Minstrels, Barry McGuire led the US hit parade with "Eve Of Destruction". The controversial doom and gloom theme of the record was enough to have it banned from airplay by some American radio stations. The backing musicians on the track were members of The Wrecking Crew, P. F. Sloan on guitar, Hal Blaine on drums, and Larry Knechtel on bass. The song was offered to The Byrds, but they rejected it, and The Turtles recorded a version instead. Their rendition was issued as a track on their 1965 debut album "It Ain't Me Babe", shortly before McGuire's version was cut. McGuire recalled in later years that "Eve of Destruction" had been recorded in one take on a Thursday morning, reading lyrics scrawled on a crumpled piece of paper. The following Monday he got a phone call from the record company at 7:00 am, telling him to turn on the radio, his song was playing.

September 25
The Beatles, a half hour Saturday morning cartoon show featuring genuine Beatles songs but not their real voices, premieres on ABC-TV. The show would run through September 7, 1969.

1967 - ClassicBands.com

September 25
The Beatles begin recording "Fool On The Hill" at Abbey Road Studios in London. Paul McCartney would later say "I was writing about someone like Maharishi (Yogi). His detractors called him a fool. Because of his giggle, he wasn't taken too seriously."

1970 - ClassicBands.com

September 25
The Partridge Family TV show, starring David Cassidy debuts on ABC-TV. The program would last for ninety-six episodes and come to an end on March 23rd, 1974.

September 25
Ringo Starr releases his second solo album, "Beaucoups of Blues", which will reach #65 on the Billboard Hot 200 during a fifteen week stay. British fans virtually ignored the Country flavored effort and the LP failed to chart at all in the UK.

1971 - ClassicBands.com

September 25
Cat Stevens' "Peace Train" is released in the US where will reach #7 on the Billboard Pop chart. Outside of America, the song was not issued as a single because Island Records wanted to encourage people to buy the album rather than the 45.

1973 - ClassicBands.com

September 25
The Rolling Stones' "Goats Head Soup" album (US #1, UK #1) turns Gold on the strength of the single "Angie" (US #1, UK #6).

1975 - ClassicBands.com

September 25
41-year-old Jackie Wilson suffers a heart attack while performing at the Latin Casino in Cherry Hill, New Jersey. Ironically, he was in the middle of singing one of his biggest hits, "Lonely Teardrops" and was two words into the line, "my heart is crying" when he collapsed to the stage, striking his head heavily. He suffered brain damage and lapsed into a coma. Although he never uttered another word, he remained clinging to life for over eight years and died January 21st, 1984.

1976 - ClassicBands.com

September 25
After five years of recording and touring together, Kenny Loggins and Jim Messina play their farewell concert in Hawaii at the end of a thirty-four city tour. They reached the Top 20 of the Billboard chart with "Your Mama Don't Dance" (#4 in 1972), "Thinking of You" (#18 in 1973) and "My Music" (#16 in 1973).

September 25
Boz Scaggs is the musical guest on US TV's Saturday Night Live, where he performs his hit, "Lowdown", which reached #3 in the US and #28 in the UK.

September 25
Boston's first LP enters the Billboard album chart where it will climb to #3 and become the fastest-selling debut album in Rock history. The LP contains the hit single "More Than a Feeling" which will reach #5 early next year.

1979 - ClassicBands.com

September 25
The Eagles' LP, "The Long Run" debuts at #2 on Billboard's Hot 200 chart. Next week it will hit #1 and dethrone Led Zeppelin's "In Through the Out Door". The disc has sold over eight million copies in the US alone on the strength of three hit singles, "Heartache Tonight" (US #1, UK #40), "The Long Run" (US #8, UK #66), and "I Can't Tell You Why" (US #8).

September 25
Jimmy McCulloch, guitarist with Thunderclap Newman and Wings, was found dead in his flat in Maida Vale, North West London after suffering heart failure. He was just 26.

1980 - ClassicBands.com

September 25
Led Zeppelin was rehearsing at Jimmy Page's house in preparation for an American tour when drummer John Bonham was found dead in his bed following an all-day drinking binge. The 32-year-old Bonham had passed out and choked on his own vomit. In December, Led Zeppelin would announce that they were disbanding, saying they could not continue without Bonham.

1982 - ClassicBands.com

September 25
Queen make a guest appearance on US TV's Saturday Night Live, where they perform "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" and "Under Pressure".

September 25
Don Henley's debut solo album, "I Can't Stand Still" enters the Billboard Hot 200 chart, bolstered by the single, "Dirty Laundry", which will hit #3 in the US and #59 in the UK.

1989 - ClassicBands.com

September 25
Bette Midler launches a lawsuit against Ford Motor Company for their use of a sound-alike artist, former Midler back-up singer Ula Hedwig, in their commercials for the Mercury Sable. She eventually wins a $400,000 settlement.

September 25
Billy Joel files a $90 million lawsuit against his former manager, Frank Weber, the brother of his ex-wife, Elizabeth, charging him with fraud and breach of fiduciary duty. Billy would be awarded $2 million.

1990 - ClassicBands.com

September 25
A street is named Little Richard Boulevard in the singer's hometown of Macon, Georgia.

1992 - ClassicBands.com

September 25
Two fans were stabbed and twenty were arrested after fighting broke out at an Ozzy Osbourne concert in Oklahoma City. Police later blamed the sale of alcohol at the concert for the incident.

1993 - ClassicBands.com

September 25
The US Postal Service issues a 29¢ Patsy Cline commemorative stamp as part of the Legends of American Music series. The Country superstar was just 30 years old when she was killed in a small plane crash on March 5th, 1963.

1999 - ClassicBands.com

September 25
Stephen Canaday of The Ozark Mountain Daredevils was killed when the vintage WW II plane he was riding in, rolled, inverted and crashed into a tree. The pilot failed to maintain speed which resulted in a stall. The band is most often remembered for the 1975, US #3 single "Jackie Blue".

2000 - ClassicBands.com

September 25
Ozzy Osbourne formally requests that Black Sabbath be removed from the nomination list for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Calling the inclusion "meaningless", Osbourne went on to say "Let's face it. Black Sabbath have never been media darlings. We're a people's band and that suits us just fine."

2008 - ClassicBands.com

September 25
US District Judge Michael Davis granted a new trial to a Minnesota woman convicted last year of pirating music by offering to share twenty-four songs on the Kazaa file sharing network. The judge granted her motion for a new trial, while also imploring Congress to change copyright laws to prevent excessive awards in similar cases.

September 25
The family of Manuela Gomez Ruiz dropped their lawsuit against Marian Medical Center in Santa Monica. They claimed the 73-year-old Ruiz was kept from critical care after suffering a heart attack on the same day that Michael Jackson was brought in with flu-like symptoms during his trial for child molestation in 2005. The family had initially sued Jackson, but a judge dropped him from the lawsuit in April.

2011 - ClassicBands.com

September 25
The New York Post reported that Sly Stone was living in his van, parked in the notoriously rough Los Angeles neighborhood of Crenshaw. The 68-year-old rocker was quoted as saying "I like my small camper. I just do not want to return to a fixed home. I cannot stand being in one place. I must keep moving." He eventually moved into a house in an anonymous Los Angeles suburb, but continued to live a reclusive lifestyle.

2012 - ClassicBands.com

September 25
Andy Williams, the crooner most often remembered for his rendition of "Moon River", died of bladder cancer at the age of 84. Although that song was never released as a single, the album from which it came, "Moon River and Other Great Movie Themes" sold over two million copies and rose to #3 on the Billboard Top 200 chart in 1967. Williams enjoyed twenty-seven Billboard Top 40 hits, including "Butterfly", #1 in 1957 and "Can't Get Used To Losing You", #2 in 1963.

2015 - ClassicBands.com

September 25
Former Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour saw his solo album, "Rattle That Lock", rise to the top of the UK album chart. Coming in at #4 was Cliff Richard, who scored his 43rd UK Top Ten LP with "75 at 75 - 75 Career-Spanning Hits".

2018 - ClassicBands.com

September 25
Bill Cosby, the actor and comedian who scored a Billboard #4 hit in 1967 with "Little Ole Man (Uptight-Everything's Alright"), was sentenced to a term of three to ten years in state prison for drugging and sexually assaulting Andrea Constand at his Philadelphia home in 2004. After the verdict he was taken to a maximum-security prison in Pennsylvania known as SCI Phoenix where he was kept isolated out of concern for his safety. On June 30th, 2021, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court overturned Cosby's conviction, citing violations of his due process rights. On the same day as the decision, he was released from jail after serving nearly three years.



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