Today in Rock n' Roll History

[VAisForEagleLovers]

1987 U2 performed from the roof of a store in downtown LA to make the video for 'Where The Streets Have No Name', attracting thousands of spectators and bringing traffic to a standstill. The police eventually stop the shoot.

I remember the video. I loved it!

[sodascouts]

That video is one of my faves too. How cool would it have been to see that live?

[Koala]

1964 Bob Dylan made his first entry on the UK charts with 'The Times They Are A-Changin'.

1979 Kate Bush kicked off the 28-date 'Tour Of Life' trek making her concert debut at Liverpool's Empire Theatre, England. Bush never set out on another tour again.

1991 "MTV Unplugged" world premieres a one hour acoustic performances with Paul McCartney. Taped in London, the show is simulcasted on the Global Satellite Network.

2011 Adele broke the record for the longest time at No.1 in the UK album chart by a female solo artist after her second album, 21 spent 10 consecutive weeks at the top of the chart. The previous record was held by Madonna with her first greatest hits record, The Immaculate Collection, in 1990.

[Koala]

1964 The Beatles held the top five places on the US singles chart, at No. 5 'Please Please Me', No.4 'I Want To Hold Your Hand', No.3, 'Roll Over Beethoven', No.2 'Love Me Do' and at No.1 'Can't Buy Me Love.' They also had another nine singles on the chart, bringing their total to fourteen singles on the Hot 100.

1970 Crosby Stills Nash & Young went to No.1 on the US album chart with Deja Vu. The first album which saw Neil Young joining Crosby, Stills and Nash featured three US Top 40 singles: 'Teach Your Children', 'Our House' and 'Woodstock.'

1987 Genesis hits #3 in the US with "Tonight, Tonight, Tonight".

1987 U2 entered the US album chart at No.7 with 'The Joshua Tree' making it the highest chart new entry in America for seven years.


　

[Topkat]

The Beatles holding the Top 5 spots on Billboard 100 has never been done by any other band. To have 14 songs on the chart is also unheard of! Pretty amazing accomplishment.

[Koala]

1978 Duran Duran made their live debut at The Lecture Theatre, Birmingham Polytechnic.

1980 Genesis scored their first UK No.1 album when 'Duke' went to the top of the charts.

1980 R.E.M. played their first ever gig when they appeared at St Mary's Episcopal Church, Athens, Georgia.

1985 At 3:50pm GMT, over 5,000 radio stations worldwide aired the charity single by USA for Africa 'We Are The World'. The single went on to be a No.1 in the US & UK, and most Western territories.

1994 Kurt Cobain committed suicide by shooting himself in the head at his home in Seattle. Cobain's body wasn't discovered until April 8, by an electrician who had arrived to install a security system, who initially believed that Cobain was asleep, until he saw the shotgun pointing at his chin. A suicide note was found that said, "I haven't felt the excitement of listening to as well as creating music, along with really writing . . . for too many years now". A high concentration of heroin and traces of Valium were found in Cobain's body. His death was officially ruled as suicide by a self-inflicted shotgun wound to the head.

1998 The Spice Girls performed their first ever-live UK concert when they appeared in front of a 9,000 strong audience in Glasgow, Scotland.

2007 Former Kiss guitarist Mark St. John died from an apparent brain hemorrhage at the age of 51. St. John was Kiss' third official guitarist, having replaced Vinnie Vincent in 1984 and appeared on the album 'Animalize'.

2011 A statue in tribute to Nirvana singer Kurt Cobain was unveiled in his hometown of Aberdeen, Washington, The unveiling marked the 17th anniversary of Cobain's death, which occurred on April 5, 1994. The statue designed by local artists Kim and Lora Malakoff was of his signature Fender Jag-Stang guitar. The concrete guitar was eight and a half feet tall and also featured a ribbon with lyrics written on it from Nirvana's 'On a Plain'. It reads: "One more special message to go and then I'm done and I can go home."

[Koala]

1968 Simon and Garfunkel went to No.1 on the US album chart with 'The Graduate.'

1968 Syd Barrett's departure from Pink Floyd is announced via press release.

1971 The Rolling Stones launched their own record label, 'Rolling Stones Records', with Atlantic Records.

1974 Billy Joel's "Piano Man" enters the 'Billboard' singles chart. It is the first in a string of Top Forty hits that numbers 33, to date.

1974 The California Jam 1 festival took place in Ontario, California, featuring The Eagles, Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, Earth Wind and Fire, ELP, Black Oak Arkansas and Seals & Croft. Over 200,000 fans attended.

1987 Roger Waters' lawyers issued a statement that Roger believed himself to be the creative driving force behind Pink Floyd and therefore he would contest the use of the name by anyone else and any former members of Pink Floyd.

[Koala]

1956 Buddy Holly's first single 'Blue Days, Black Nights', was released.

1964 The Rolling Stones first album was released in the UK, it went to No.1 two weeks later and stayed on the chart for 40 weeks, with 11 weeks at No.1.

1970 Led Zeppelin's 'Whole Lotta Love' was certified Gold in the US after selling over a million copies. The single had peaked at No. 4 on the US singles chart.

1972 The Electric Light Orchestra made their debut at The Fox and Greyhound in Croydon, London. ELO were formed to accommodate former Move members Roy Wood and Jeff Lynne's desire to create modern rock and pop songs with classical overtones. Wood departed following the band's debut record, Lynne wrote and arranged all of the group's original compositions and produced every album.

1993 Paul McCartney headlined a concert at the Hollywood Bowl to celebrate 'Earth Day' along with Ringo Starr, Don Henley and Steve Miller. McCartney had last performed there as a member of the Beatles in 1965.

1996 Kiss appeared in full make-up at the 38th Grammy Awards, where they announced a reunion tour. It would mark the first time all four members had appeared together in over fifteen years.

2003 52 year-old soul singer Luther Vandross was admitted to a New York hospital after suffering a stroke.

[Koala]

1965 Bob Dylan's debut album 'The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan' was at No.1 on the UK chart.

1970 Johnny Cash played at the White House for President Nixon, who requested that he played 'A Boy Named Sue.'
1971 All four Beatles had solo singles in the UK charts, Paul McCartney with 'Another Day', John Lennon, 'Power To The People', George Harrison, 'My Sweet Lord' and Ringo Starr, 'It Don't Come Easy.'

1973 Pink Floyd's album 'The Dark Side of the Moon' went gold in the US. The LP went on to stay in the US chart for more than ten years and became the longest charting rock record of all time.

1994 Pink Floyd started a four-week run at No.1 on the UK album chart with 'The Division Bell', their fourth No.1 album.

2004 Kurt Cobain's Mark IV-style Mosrite Gospel guitar sold for $100,000 at the Icons of 20th Century Music auction held in Dallas, Texas. Other items sold included Elton John and Bernie Taupin's song writing piano which sold for $140,000 and a 1966 Rickenbacker guitar owned by The Byrds Roger McGuinn's sold for $99,000.

2007 Bryan Ferry was forced to make an apology after praising Nazi iconography in a German magazine. Talking to Welt am Sonntag, he said the Nazis "knew how to put themselves in the limelight and present themselves...I'm talking about the films of Leni Riefenstahl and the buildings of Albert Speer and the mass marches and the flags. Just amazing - really beautiful." British MPs asked shoppers to think twice about shopping in Marks and Spencer asking for Ferry to be dropped as the face of the M&S Autograph menswear collection. Ferry said he was "deeply upset" by the publicity surrounding the interview.

2009 Morrissey walked off stage during his set at the Coachella festival in California after declaring he could "smell burning flesh". The committed vegetarian took offence to the smell coming from nearby barbecues. Sir Paul McCartney, The Killers and The Cure also appeared at the event.

[Koala]

1964 The Beatles appeared on the UK TV comedy program The Morecambe and Wise Show, playing ‘This Boy’, ‘All My Loving’, and ‘I Want to Hold Your Hand’ and also participate in comedy sketches with Eric Morecambe and Ernie Wise. The Beatles also held the UK and US No.1 position on this day with 'Can't Buy Me Love'.

1972 The Royal Scots Dragoon Guards were at No.1 on the UK singles chart with 'Amazing Grace.' The single enjoyed a five-week run at No.1.

1984 Michael Jackson underwent surgery in a Los Angeles hospital to repair damage done after his hair caught fire during the filming of a Pepsi commercial.

1985 Wham! Became the first-ever Western pop act to have an album released in China.

1992 Annie Lennox went to No.1 on the UK album chart with her debut solo release 'Diva.'

2006 A sale of clothes belonging to Sir Elton John raised more than $700,000 (£395,000) for the singer's Aids charity. Over 10,000 pieces were sold during a five-day sale in New York City at the specially-created shop, Elton's Closet, at New York's Rockefeller Centre.
2006 A line from U2's 1992 hit 'One' was voted the UK's favourite song lyric after in a poll of 13,000 people by music channel VH1. The line "One life, with each other, sisters, brothers" came top. The Smiths lyric "So you go, and you stand on your own, and you leave on your own, and you go home, and you cry, and you want to die" from the song 'How Soon is Now' came second in the poll, followed by "I feel stupid and contagious, here we are now, entertain us", from Nirvana's 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' which was voted into third place.

2009 The Black Eyes Peas started a 12 week run at No.1 on the US singles chart with 'Boom Boom Pow'. The single was knocked off the No.1 position by the bands next single 'I Gotta Feeling'.

2009 Keith Urban went to No.1 on the US album chart with 'Defying Gravity', the Australian singers fifth studio album.