Rock 'n' Roll History for
September 7


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1957 - ClassicBands.com

September 7
Keen Records releases Sam Cooke's "You Send Me". The song will rise to the top of the Billboard Top 100 chart, becoming his first of twenty-nine tunes to reach the Top 40.

1958 - ClassicBands.com

September 7
40-year-old Georgia Gibbs performs "The Hula-Hoop Song" on The Ed Sullivan Show, boosting the craze that is sweeping North America. The song, which reached #32 on the Billboard Pop chart, would be the last of nine Top-40 hits for Gibbs.

1963 - ClassicBands.com

September 7
Three weeks after its release, The Beatles' "She Loves You" hits #1 in England. It remained on the charts for thirty-one consecutive weeks, eighteen of those in the top three. The song would also lead the Billboard Hot 100 in March, 1964 for two weeks.

1964 - ClassicBands.com

September 7
The Beatles perform two shows at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto, one at 6:30, the other at 10:00 PM. Over 35,000 fans paid an average of $5 per ticket to see the Fab Four, along with Clarence 'Frogman' Henry and Jackie DeShannon. During a question and answer session in the afternoon, one reporter asked John Lennon how long he thought The Beatles would last. Lennon's reply was, "Longer than you."

1968 - ClassicBands.com

September 7
Iron Butterfly's LP, "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" enters Billboard's album chart, where it will reach #10. Today it is a multi-Platinum album which has sold over twenty-five million copies and was Atlantic Records' biggest selling LP until it was surpassed by 1971's "Led Zeppelin IV".

1972 - ClassicBands.com

September 7
With their hit "Mama Weer All Crazee Now" flying high on the UK charts, Slade interrupts their current US tour and fly back to London to headline at the Sundown concert venue in the Mile End Road.

September 7
Curtis Mayfield's LP, "Super Fly" goes Gold as it tops the Billboard Hot 200 album chart on the strength of the title track and "Freddie's Dead". The album is one of the few soundtracks to out-gross the film it accompanied.

1974 - ClassicBands.com

September 7
Elton John is awarded a Gold record for "Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me". The single was #2 on the Hot 100 for four straight weeks, but was kept out of the top spot by John Denver's "Annie's Song", Roberta Flack's "Feel Like Makin' Love" and Paper Lace's "The Night Chicago Died".

1975 - ClassicBands.com

September 7
The Guess Who play their final concert at a show in Montreal. Core members Burton Cummings and Randy Bachman would return for another tour in 1987. As time went on, a deep rift would develop between Cummings and drummer Garry Peterson, who continued to use the band's name with new players. In 2023, Cummings and Bachman would file a lawsuit to keep Peterson from using their images in ads and posters.

1978 - ClassicBands.com

September 7
The Who's drummer, Keith Moon died of an overdose of a sedative called Heminevrin that had been prescribed to prevent seizures induced by alcohol withdrawal. The 31-year-old Moon died in the same apartment that had previously belonged to Harry Nilsson and earlier, Mama Cass Elliot. He is eventually replaced in The Who by ex-Faces drummer Kenney Jones.

1984 - ClassicBands.com

September 7
Stevie Wonder had his first UK #1 with "I Just Called To Say I Love You", eighteen years after his chart debut with "Uptight (Everything's Alright)" in 1966 (#14). The song stayed at the top for six weeks.

September 7
18-year-old Janet Jackson married 21-year-old James DeBarge of the family band, DeBarge. The union would fall apart just eight months later and she would go on to have an enormously successful career, placing thirty-nine songs on the Billboard Hot 100 between 1986 and 2008. Along with his group, James would enjoy two US Top 10 hits, "Rhythm Of The Night" (#3) and "Who's Holding Donna Now" (#6), both in 1985. In 2012 he started serving three years in prison after being arrested for assault with a deadly weapon and drugs charges.

1985 - ClassicBands.com

September 7
David Bowie and Mick Jagger's version of "Dancing In The Streets" hits #1 on the UK Pop chart. The song, which was recorded to raise money for Live Aid, rose to #7 in the United States.

September 7
Ringo Starr became the first Beatle to become a grandfather when son Zak and his wife Sarah had a daughter, Tatia Jayne.

September 7
For the first time in the Rock Era, the top three songs on the Hot 100 were all written for movies:
#1: "St. Elmo's Fire (Man In Motion)" by John Parr
#2: "The Power of Love" by Huey Lewis & the News (from Back To The Future)
#3: "We Don't Need Another Hero" by Tina Turner (from Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome)

1986 - ClassicBands.com

September 7
Although he could not participate in their 20th Anniversary Tour due to other obligations, Michael Nesmith caught up with the other three Monkees on stage at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles. The occasion marked the first time all four original members had been onstage since they disbanded in 1970.

1987 - ClassicBands.com

September 7
Despite threats from former member Roger Waters to sue promoters if the show goes on, Pink Floyd kicks off their A Momentary Lapse Of Reason tour in Ottawa, Canada. The parties would settle out of court the following December.

1988 - ClassicBands.com

September 7
Barry Sadler, who scored a huge 1966 hit with "Ballad Of The Green Berets", is shot while riding in a Guatemala City taxi. Whether someone shot him or the pistol he carried accidentally discharged, will probably never be known. Sadler was hospitalized for fourteen months before dying of his injuries.

2001 - ClassicBands.com

September 7
Michael Jackson was reunited on stage with The Jackson 5 at his 30th Anniversary Celebration in New York City's Madison Square Garden. The CBS television network would air the concert as a two-hour special the following November 13th.

2003 - ClassicBands.com

September 7
Warren Zevon, the singer / songwriter best remembered for his 1978 album "Excitable Boy", which contained his only hit single, "Werewolves Of London", died of mesothelioma at the age of 56. He also issued six other LPs that reached the Billboard 200 chart and wrote Linda Ronstadt's 1978, Billboard #31 hit, "Poor Poor Pitiful Me".

2011 - ClassicBands.com

September 7
Buddy Holly posthumously receives a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in a star-studded ceremony that included his widow Maria Elena, old friend Phil Everly, and the man who portrayed him in a 1978 movie, Gary Busey.

2012 - ClassicBands.com

September 7
Dorothy McGuire Williamson of The McGuire Sisters passed away at the age of 84. She teamed with sisters Christine and Phyllis for eighteen US Top 40 hits in the '50s and '60s, including the chart topping "Sincerely" and "Sugartime".

2018 - ClassicBands.com

September 7
The US Postal Service released a commemorative stamp honoring John Lennon. The sticker, featuring a photo taken by Bob Gruen from the "Walls and Bridges" photo session in 1974, was unveiled at a ceremony held in New York City's Central Park attended by Lennon's widow, Yoko Ono, their son Sean Lennon.



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