ON THIS DAY IN MUSIC

September 15th

1956 - Elvis Presley

Elvis Presley started a five-week run at No.1 on the US charts with 'Don't Be Cruel'. The track went on to become Presley's biggest selling single, with sales over six million by 1961. This “double-sided hit” which had 'Hound Dog' on the B side, became the most successful on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart. One side reached No.1 on the chart, the other No.2. The two titles spent a combined 55 weeks in the Top 100 in 1956-1957.

1961 - The Pendletones

A group from Hawthorne, California called The Pendletones attend their first real recording session at Hite Morgan's studio in Los Angeles. The band recorded 'Surfin', a song that would help shape their career as The Beach Boys.

By Jiminy this DREADFUL!

1964 - The Beatles

The Beatles on tour in the USA, appeared at the Public Auditorium in Cleveland, Ohio. During the performance a group of fans managed to break through the line of police fronting the stage and get up on-stage. Police ordered The Beatles off-stage in the middle of a song, and the concert only resumed after Derek Taylor got on the PA system and pleaded for order to be restored so that the rest of the performance would not be cancelled by the police.

1965 - Otis Redding

Otis Redding released his third studio album Otis Blue. The album mainly consists of cover songs by popular R&B and soul artists, and, bar one track, was recorded in a 24-hour period over July 9/10 1965 at the Stax Recording Studios in Memphis, Tennessee and includes the classic tracks 'Ole Man Trouble", 'Respect', and 'Down in the Valley'.

1966 - Small Faces

The Small Faces were at No.1 on the UK singles chart with 'All Or Nothing', their only No.1 hit. According to Kay Marriott, Steve Marriott's mother, Steve wrote the song about his split with ex-fiancee Sue Oliver, though first wife Jenny Rylance states that Marriott told her he wrote the song for her as a result of her split with Rod Stewart.


1967 - The Beatles

Filming continued for The Beatles 'Magical Mystery Tour'. Lunch was at James and Amy Smedley's fish and chip shop in Taunton, Somerset with The Beatles being filmed and photographed eating their fish and chips.

1968 - The Doors

The Doors were forced to perform as a trio at a concert in Amsterdam after singer Jim Morrison collapsed while dancing during the Jefferson Airplane's performance. 

1970 - Spiro Agnew

US Vice-President Spiro Agnew said in a speech that the youth of America were being "brainwashed into a drug culture" by rock music, movies, books and underground newspapers.

Yeah like we'd take advice from another tax dodging crook!

1975 - Pink Floyd

Pink Floyd released their ninth studio album Wish You Were Here in the UK. The album which explores themes of absence, the music business, and former band-mate Syd Barrett's mental decline peaked at No.1 on both sides of the Atlantic and went on to spend a total of 84 weeks on the chart.

1978 - Bob Dylan

Bob Dylan kicked off his longest and most continuous US tour of his career in Augusta, Maine, playing the first of sixty-five gigs in sixty-two cities.
Weird spin on this from On this day as 78 was the date of The Bob Dylan World Tour 1978 was a concert tour by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan. In 1978, Dylan embarked on a year-long world tour, performing 114 shows in Asia, Oceania, North America and Europe, to a total audience of two million people.

1984 - Frankie Goes To Hollywood

Frankie Goes To Hollywood's 'Relax' became the longest running chart hit since Engelbert Humperdink's 'Release Me', after spending 43 weeks on the UK singles chart.

1990 - Steve Miller Band

The Steve Miller Band had a UK No.1 with 'The Joker' 16 years after it's first release. The song topped the US Billboard Hot 100 in early 1974. More than 16 years later, it reached No.1 in the UK Singles Chart after being used in "Great Deal", a Hugh Johnson-directed television advertisement for Levi's, thus holding the record for the longest gap between transatlantic chart-toppers.

1994 - The Quarry Men

A reel to reel tape of The Quarry Men appearing at St Peter's Parish Church garden party Liverpool in July, 1957, sold for £69,000 at a Sotheby's auction.

2003 - ABBA Elvis Presley

ABBA tribute acts overtook Elvis Presley impersonators in the battle of British covers singers according to a survey. The Swedish group jumped from third most tributed act in 2001 to top in 2002 with imitators like Abba Fever and Voulez Vous putting on Abba shows. Elvis dropped to number two while The Beatles dropped to three. The Performing Rights Society carried out the research.

2004 - Johnny Ramone

Ramones guitarist Johnny Ramone (John Cummings) died in Los Angeles after a five-year battle with prostate cancer. Founding member of The Ramones, major influence on many punk and 90’s bands. Scored the 1977 hit single 'Sheena Is A Punk Rocker'.

2006 - The Beatles

The Casbah Coffee Club in Liverpool where The Beatles played their first gig was given a Grade II listed building status after a recommendation from English Heritage. John Lennon, Paul McCartney and George Harrison played in the converted coal cellar of the house in West Derby, in August 1959 as The Quarrymen.

2008 - Pink Floyd

Pink Floyd keyboard player and founder member Richard Wright died aged 65 from cancer. Wright appeared on the group's first album, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, in 1967 alongside Syd Barrett, Roger Waters and Nick Mason. David Gilmour who joined the band at the start of 1968 said: "He was such a lovely, gentle, genuine man and will be missed terribly by so many who loved him." In 2005, the full band reunited - for the first time in 24 years - for the Live 8 concert in London's Hyde Park. Wright had also contributed vocals and keyboards to Gilmour's 2006 solo album On An Island.

BIRTHDAY

1941 - Signe Toly Anderson

American singer Signe Toly Anderson who was one of the founding members of the American rock band Jefferson Airplane. She sang on the first Jefferson Airplane album, Jefferson Airplane Takes Off, most notably on the song 'Chauffeur Blues'. She died on 28 January 2016. Jorma Kaukonen said of her 

"Signe was one of the strongest people I have ever met. She was our den mother in the early days of the Airplane… a voice of reason on more occasions than one… an important member of our dysfunctional little family. I always looked forward to seeing her when we played the Aladdin in Portland. She never complained and was always a joy." 

It was rumoured that her husband, Merry Prankster, Jerry Anderson, was part of the reason she left the band so suddenly apart from being pregnant, the rest of the band not getting along with him. She continued to sing with various local bands wherever she ended up throughout her life and passed away on the same day as Paul Kantner

thanks to This Day In Music