1956: Columbia Records announced that all future record releases would be at 45 R.P.M.
1956: CBS Radio Network premiered the first scheduled national radio program of exclusively rock & roll music, Alan Freed's "Rock 'n" Roll Dance Party".
1958: Alan Freed's "Big Beat Show", a concert featuring rock performers, would feature two shows at Memorial Hall in Canton, Ohio. Buddy Holly and the Crickets, Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis, Frankie Lymon, the Diamonds, Billy Ford, the Chantels, Screaming Jay Hawkins, the Pastels and Larry Williams were on the bill.
The great group the Platters
1958: The Platters released "Twilight Time".
1959: The Fleetwoods owned the #1 position with "Come Softly To Me".
1960: The Top five songs on this date: #1 "Theme From 'A Summer Place'", #2 "Puppy Love" by Paul Anka, #3 Bobby Rydell's "Wild One", #4 "He'll Have To Go" by Jim Reeves and #5 "Sweet Nothin's" by Brenda Lee
1962: Mick Jagger and Keith Richards met Brian Jones for the first time at the Ealing Jazz Club in England. At the time, Jones was called Elmo Lewis and was playing guitar with Paul Jones.
1962: The Beatles played at the Casbah Coffee Club in Liverpool, England. The group played without guitarist George Harrison who was ill. This was the Beatles' finale at the Casbah before returning to Hamburg, West Germany for a third engagement.
1963: The Beatles performed at the Savoy Ballroom in Portsmouth, England.
1965: Freddie & the Dreamers enjoyed their only #1 "I'm Telling You Now".
1966: The Beatles worked on overdubs for the track "Tomorrow Never Knows" and on a new McCartney-penned song, "Got To Get You Into My Life" for the upcoming Revolver album.
1967: Pink Floyd appeared at the Floral Hall in Belfast, Northern Ireland.
1968: The Who played at the CNE Coliseum in Toronto, Canada.
1968: The #1 instrumental song of the entire rock era "Love Is Blue" by Paul Mauriat was in the middle of a then-record 11 weeks at #1 on the Adult Contemporary chart.
1969: John Lennon recorded "Give Peace a Chance" in his Toronto hotel room. The song lives on to this day.
1970: The top five songs in America on this date were: #1 "Let It Be" by the Beatles, #2 "ABC" by the Jackson Five, #3 "Instant Karma" by John Lennon, #4 "Spirit In the Sky" by Norman Greenbaum and #5 "Bridge Over Troubled Water" by Simon and Garfunkel (a former #1 smash)
1972: Grateful Dead was at the Empire Pool in London, England..
1973: Gilbert O'Sullivan successfully followed up the smash "Alone Again Naturally" with another #1, "Get Down".
1973: Tony Orlando & Dawn reached #1 on the Adult Contemporary chart on this date with "Tie A Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree".
1973: Diana Ross had the top album with Lady Sings the Blues.
Multi-talented Vicki Lawrence
1973: The new Billboard Hot 100 chart came out on this day and Vicki Lawrence led everyone on top the singles chart with "The Night the Lights Went Out In Georgia". The rest of the top five--#2 "Neither One Of Us (Wants To Be the First To Say Goodbye) by Gladys Knight & the Pips, #3 "Killing Me Softly With His Song by Roberta Flack (the former #1), "Ain't No Woman (Like the One I've Got" by the Four Tops, and "Break Up To Make Up" by the great soul group the Stylistics.
1975: Ritchie Blackmore left Deep Purple to form the group Rainbow. Tommy Bolin replaced Blackmore in Deep Purple.
1976: The Carpenters reached #1 on the Adult Contemporary chart with "There's A Kind of Hush (All Over the World)", their cover of the Herman's Hermits hit.
1978: The Bee Gees continued to dominate the #1 position with "Night Fever", one of the longest-running #1's in rock history (8 weeks).
1979: The new Top 100 singles chart came out on this day; the top five: #1 "I Will Survive" by Gloria Gaynor, #2 "What A Fool Believes" by the Doobie Brothers, which was on its way to #1, #3 "Tragedy" by the Bee Gees, a former #1, the debut release from Dire Straits "Sultans of Swing" was #4, and #5 "Shake Your Groove Thing" by Peaches & Herb.
1979: "Crazy Love" by Poco topped the Adult Contemporary chart, where it would spend seven weeks at #1.
1979: The Doobie Brothers scored their first and only #1 album Minute By Minute.
1979: Aerosmith, Van Halen, Cheap Trick, the Boomtown Rats and Ted Nugent performed at the California Music Festival.
1981: Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band began their first major tour outside the U.S. in Hamburg, Germany.
1981: Kit Lambert, the 60's manager of the Who, died on this date of a cerebral hemorrhage resulting from a fall down a flight of stairs at his mother's home in London. Lambert produced the Tommy album and Arthur Brown's 1968 hit "Fire".
1982: "Chariots of Fire", the title song to the Oscar-winning classic movie, hit #1 on the Adult Contemporary chart. It would reign over that chart for five weeks.
1984: A record 40 British artists were on the U.S. Top 100 singles chart that came out on this date. The top five: #1 "Footloose" by Kenny Loggins, #2 "Somebody's Watching Me" by Rockwell with help from Michael Jackson, #3 Against All Odds by Phil Collins (which would soon hit #1), #4 "Here Comes The Rain Again" by the Eurythmics and #5 "Jump" by the Pointer Sisters.
1985: Wham! became the first western rock group to perform live in China, appearing at the workers gymnasium in Bejing. Several solo performers had played China before.
1985: Prince wrapped up his 32-city tour in Miami, Florida by announcing he would cease touring for "an indeterminate number of years".
1987: Bruce Hornsby & the Range owned the #1 Adult Contemporary song with "Mandolin Rain".
1988: Alice Cooper accidentally hung himself for several seconds during a European tour when a safety rope broke. As luck would have it, a roadie saved his life.
1990: "Only Yesterday" by the Carpenters climbed to the top of the UK album chart. The compilation album hit #1 seven years after the death of Karen Carpenter.
1990: Bonnie Raitt had the biggest hit of her life with the album Nick of Time, which rose to #1.
1990: Elton John, Neil Young, Kris Kristofferson, Willie Nelson, John Mellencamp, Guns N' Roses and Jackson Browne performed at Farm Aid IV at the Indiana Hoosierdome to benefit America's farmers.
1990: Taylor Dayne had the #1 hit "Love Will Lead You Back" (written by Dianne Warren). Tommy Page's "I'll Be Your Everything" was #2, followed by #3 "All Around the World" by Lisa Stansfield, #4 "I Wish It Would Rain Down" by Phil Collins and #5 was the former #1 song "Black Velvet" by Canada's Alannah Myles.
1994: Lee Brilleaux, lead singer and harmonica player with Dr. Feelgood, died of throat cancer.
1994: Courtney Love was arrested on drugs and theft charges, not aware at the time that her husband Kurt Cobain had committed suicide and lay dead at their home. Cobain's body wasn't discovered until April 8.
1994: Percy Sledge plead guilty to tax evasion for failing to report $260,000 in income earned between 1987 and 1989. Sledge was ordered to serve six months in a halfway house.
1996: Take That topped the UK album chart with their Greatest Hits package.
1997: The Chemical Brothers released the album Dig Your Hole.
1997: Liam Gallagher of Oasis married Patsy Kensit at the Marylebone Registry office in London.
2000: Heinz Burt, bass player and vocalist with the Tornadoes, died at the age of 57. The group scored a #1 song with one of the top instrumentals of all-time "Telstar". Burt also had a solo hit with a tribute to Eddie Cochran "Just Like Eddie" that featured Deep Purple guitarist Ritchie Blackmore.
2001: Paul McCartney bought the Beverly Hills home of Courtney Love for $3.995 million.
2002: Gareth Gates, who was runner-up at the UK Pop Idol contest, hit #1 with his cover of "Unchained Melody", making him the seventh artist to have a hit with the Righteous Brother classic.
2002: Celine Dion had a huge #1 album with A New Day Has Come .
2003: Jury selection began in a wrongful death suit against Tommy Lee of Motley Crue following the 2001 drowning death of a boy at a pool party.
2003: Bass guitarist Dirk Lance, a founding member of Incubus, left the band.
2004: Janet Jackson debuted at #2 with the album Damito Jo.
2004: More trouble for Motley Crue as Vince Neil was charged with a misdemeanor of battery after a fight on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles.
2008: Feist took home five awards, including Album of the Year The Reminder, Artist of the Year and Songwriter of the Year at the annual Juno Awards in Canada.
2008: Panic at the Disco topped the Australian album chart with Pretty. Odd.
Born This Day:
1937: Charlie Thomas of the Drifters
1938: Spencer Dryden, drummer of Jefferson Airplane. Dryden died of cancer January 10, 2005
1943: Alan Buck of the Four Pennies ("Juliet" in 1964)
1943: Mick Abrahams, guitarist of Blodwyn Pig and Jethro Tull
1946: Bill Kreutzmann, drummer of Grateful Dead
1947: Florian Schneider-Esleben of Kraftwerk, who scored their biggest hit with "Autobahn" in 1975
1947: Patricia Bennett of the Chiffons
1948: Carol Douglas of the Chantels
1949: John Oates of Hall and Oates
1950: Steve Ellis, vocalist of Love Affair (#1 UK hit "Everlasting Love")
1952: Janis Ian ("Society's Child" and "At Seventeen")
1952: Bruce Gary of the KnackSource URL: http://acsblogrock.blogspot.com/2011/04/this-day-in-rock-history-april-7.html
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1956: CBS Radio Network premiered the first scheduled national radio program of exclusively rock & roll music, Alan Freed's "Rock 'n" Roll Dance Party".
1958: Alan Freed's "Big Beat Show", a concert featuring rock performers, would feature two shows at Memorial Hall in Canton, Ohio. Buddy Holly and the Crickets, Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis, Frankie Lymon, the Diamonds, Billy Ford, the Chantels, Screaming Jay Hawkins, the Pastels and Larry Williams were on the bill.
The great group the Platters
1958: The Platters released "Twilight Time".
1959: The Fleetwoods owned the #1 position with "Come Softly To Me".
1960: The Top five songs on this date: #1 "Theme From 'A Summer Place'", #2 "Puppy Love" by Paul Anka, #3 Bobby Rydell's "Wild One", #4 "He'll Have To Go" by Jim Reeves and #5 "Sweet Nothin's" by Brenda Lee
1962: Mick Jagger and Keith Richards met Brian Jones for the first time at the Ealing Jazz Club in England. At the time, Jones was called Elmo Lewis and was playing guitar with Paul Jones.
1962: The Beatles played at the Casbah Coffee Club in Liverpool, England. The group played without guitarist George Harrison who was ill. This was the Beatles' finale at the Casbah before returning to Hamburg, West Germany for a third engagement.
1963: The Beatles performed at the Savoy Ballroom in Portsmouth, England.
1965: Freddie & the Dreamers enjoyed their only #1 "I'm Telling You Now".
1966: The Beatles worked on overdubs for the track "Tomorrow Never Knows" and on a new McCartney-penned song, "Got To Get You Into My Life" for the upcoming Revolver album.
1967: Pink Floyd appeared at the Floral Hall in Belfast, Northern Ireland.
1968: The Who played at the CNE Coliseum in Toronto, Canada.
1968: The #1 instrumental song of the entire rock era "Love Is Blue" by Paul Mauriat was in the middle of a then-record 11 weeks at #1 on the Adult Contemporary chart.
1969: John Lennon recorded "Give Peace a Chance" in his Toronto hotel room. The song lives on to this day.
1970: The top five songs in America on this date were: #1 "Let It Be" by the Beatles, #2 "ABC" by the Jackson Five, #3 "Instant Karma" by John Lennon, #4 "Spirit In the Sky" by Norman Greenbaum and #5 "Bridge Over Troubled Water" by Simon and Garfunkel (a former #1 smash)
1972: Grateful Dead was at the Empire Pool in London, England..
1973: Gilbert O'Sullivan successfully followed up the smash "Alone Again Naturally" with another #1, "Get Down".
1973: Tony Orlando & Dawn reached #1 on the Adult Contemporary chart on this date with "Tie A Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree".
1973: Diana Ross had the top album with Lady Sings the Blues.
Multi-talented Vicki Lawrence
1973: The new Billboard Hot 100 chart came out on this day and Vicki Lawrence led everyone on top the singles chart with "The Night the Lights Went Out In Georgia". The rest of the top five--#2 "Neither One Of Us (Wants To Be the First To Say Goodbye) by Gladys Knight & the Pips, #3 "Killing Me Softly With His Song by Roberta Flack (the former #1), "Ain't No Woman (Like the One I've Got" by the Four Tops, and "Break Up To Make Up" by the great soul group the Stylistics.
1975: Ritchie Blackmore left Deep Purple to form the group Rainbow. Tommy Bolin replaced Blackmore in Deep Purple.
1976: The Carpenters reached #1 on the Adult Contemporary chart with "There's A Kind of Hush (All Over the World)", their cover of the Herman's Hermits hit.
1978: The Bee Gees continued to dominate the #1 position with "Night Fever", one of the longest-running #1's in rock history (8 weeks).
1979: The new Top 100 singles chart came out on this day; the top five: #1 "I Will Survive" by Gloria Gaynor, #2 "What A Fool Believes" by the Doobie Brothers, which was on its way to #1, #3 "Tragedy" by the Bee Gees, a former #1, the debut release from Dire Straits "Sultans of Swing" was #4, and #5 "Shake Your Groove Thing" by Peaches & Herb.
1979: "Crazy Love" by Poco topped the Adult Contemporary chart, where it would spend seven weeks at #1.
1979: The Doobie Brothers scored their first and only #1 album Minute By Minute.
1979: Aerosmith, Van Halen, Cheap Trick, the Boomtown Rats and Ted Nugent performed at the California Music Festival.
1981: Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band began their first major tour outside the U.S. in Hamburg, Germany.
1981: Kit Lambert, the 60's manager of the Who, died on this date of a cerebral hemorrhage resulting from a fall down a flight of stairs at his mother's home in London. Lambert produced the Tommy album and Arthur Brown's 1968 hit "Fire".
1982: "Chariots of Fire", the title song to the Oscar-winning classic movie, hit #1 on the Adult Contemporary chart. It would reign over that chart for five weeks.
1984: A record 40 British artists were on the U.S. Top 100 singles chart that came out on this date. The top five: #1 "Footloose" by Kenny Loggins, #2 "Somebody's Watching Me" by Rockwell with help from Michael Jackson, #3 Against All Odds by Phil Collins (which would soon hit #1), #4 "Here Comes The Rain Again" by the Eurythmics and #5 "Jump" by the Pointer Sisters.
1985: Wham! became the first western rock group to perform live in China, appearing at the workers gymnasium in Bejing. Several solo performers had played China before.
1985: Prince wrapped up his 32-city tour in Miami, Florida by announcing he would cease touring for "an indeterminate number of years".
1987: Bruce Hornsby & the Range owned the #1 Adult Contemporary song with "Mandolin Rain".
1988: Alice Cooper accidentally hung himself for several seconds during a European tour when a safety rope broke. As luck would have it, a roadie saved his life.
1990: "Only Yesterday" by the Carpenters climbed to the top of the UK album chart. The compilation album hit #1 seven years after the death of Karen Carpenter.
1990: Bonnie Raitt had the biggest hit of her life with the album Nick of Time, which rose to #1.
1990: Elton John, Neil Young, Kris Kristofferson, Willie Nelson, John Mellencamp, Guns N' Roses and Jackson Browne performed at Farm Aid IV at the Indiana Hoosierdome to benefit America's farmers.
1990: Taylor Dayne had the #1 hit "Love Will Lead You Back" (written by Dianne Warren). Tommy Page's "I'll Be Your Everything" was #2, followed by #3 "All Around the World" by Lisa Stansfield, #4 "I Wish It Would Rain Down" by Phil Collins and #5 was the former #1 song "Black Velvet" by Canada's Alannah Myles.
1994: Lee Brilleaux, lead singer and harmonica player with Dr. Feelgood, died of throat cancer.
1994: Courtney Love was arrested on drugs and theft charges, not aware at the time that her husband Kurt Cobain had committed suicide and lay dead at their home. Cobain's body wasn't discovered until April 8.
1994: Percy Sledge plead guilty to tax evasion for failing to report $260,000 in income earned between 1987 and 1989. Sledge was ordered to serve six months in a halfway house.
1996: Take That topped the UK album chart with their Greatest Hits package.
1997: The Chemical Brothers released the album Dig Your Hole.
1997: Liam Gallagher of Oasis married Patsy Kensit at the Marylebone Registry office in London.
2000: Heinz Burt, bass player and vocalist with the Tornadoes, died at the age of 57. The group scored a #1 song with one of the top instrumentals of all-time "Telstar". Burt also had a solo hit with a tribute to Eddie Cochran "Just Like Eddie" that featured Deep Purple guitarist Ritchie Blackmore.
2001: Paul McCartney bought the Beverly Hills home of Courtney Love for $3.995 million.
2002: Gareth Gates, who was runner-up at the UK Pop Idol contest, hit #1 with his cover of "Unchained Melody", making him the seventh artist to have a hit with the Righteous Brother classic.
2002: Celine Dion had a huge #1 album with A New Day Has Come .
2003: Jury selection began in a wrongful death suit against Tommy Lee of Motley Crue following the 2001 drowning death of a boy at a pool party.
2003: Bass guitarist Dirk Lance, a founding member of Incubus, left the band.
2004: Janet Jackson debuted at #2 with the album Damito Jo.
2004: More trouble for Motley Crue as Vince Neil was charged with a misdemeanor of battery after a fight on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles.
2008: Feist took home five awards, including Album of the Year The Reminder, Artist of the Year and Songwriter of the Year at the annual Juno Awards in Canada.
2008: Panic at the Disco topped the Australian album chart with Pretty. Odd.
Born This Day:
1937: Charlie Thomas of the Drifters
1938: Spencer Dryden, drummer of Jefferson Airplane. Dryden died of cancer January 10, 2005
1943: Alan Buck of the Four Pennies ("Juliet" in 1964)
1943: Mick Abrahams, guitarist of Blodwyn Pig and Jethro Tull
1946: Bill Kreutzmann, drummer of Grateful Dead
1947: Florian Schneider-Esleben of Kraftwerk, who scored their biggest hit with "Autobahn" in 1975
1947: Patricia Bennett of the Chiffons
1948: Carol Douglas of the Chantels
1949: John Oates of Hall and Oates
1950: Steve Ellis, vocalist of Love Affair (#1 UK hit "Everlasting Love")
1952: Janis Ian ("Society's Child" and "At Seventeen")
1952: Bruce Gary of the KnackSource URL: http://acsblogrock.blogspot.com/2011/04/this-day-in-rock-history-april-7.html
Visit You Tube Music Blog for Daily Updated Hairstyles Collection
