Today in 1956, London police were called to break up a crowd of teenagers after the showing of the film “Rock around the Clock” at the Trocadero Cinema.
That prompted a letter to the editor in the Sept. 12, 1956 London Times:
The hypnotic rhythm and the wild gestures have a maddening effect on a rhythm loving age group and the result of its impact is the relaxing of all self control.
The British demonstrated their lack of First Amendment by banning the film in several cities.
The Beatles had the number one album today in 1965 thanks to the help of record-buyers:
The Beatles had the number one U.K. single three years later:
The number one single today in 1976:
The number one single today in 1982:
Today in 1987, Peter Gabriel won several MTV Video Music Awards for …
The anniversary everyone knows about today (more on that in the next post) has one music link. Comic book illustrator Gerard Way was walking to work in New York when he witnessed the World Trade Center attacks. The attacks inspired Way to start the band that would become My Chemical Romance:
Today in 1962, the BBC banned playing the newly released “Monster Mash” by Bobby “Boris” Pickett on the grounds that it was offensive. To use today’s vernacular, really?
Eleven years later, the BBC banned the Rolling Stones’ “Star Star,” but if you play the clip you can hear why:
Today in 1926, Radio Corporation of America created the National Broadcasting Co.
The number one single in Britain today in 1965:
Today in 1971, five years to the day after John Lennon met Yoko Ono, Lennon released his “Imagine” album:
The number one album today in 1976 was the second time Fleetwood Mac released an album named “Fleetwood Mac”:
The winner of the best video award at today’s 1992 MTV Video Music Awards (made memorable because Nirvana’s Krist Novoselic threw his guitar up in the air, and his guitar knocked him unconscious on the way back down):
Birthdays begin with Otis Redding …
… born one year before Luther Simmons of the Main Ingredient:
Doug Ingle of Iron Butterfly …
… was born one year before Bruce Palmer of Buffalo Springfield:
Today in 1962, the Beatles recorded “Love Me Do,” taking 17 takes to do it right:
Three years later, the Beatles had the number one single …
… which referred to something The Who could have used, because on the same day the Who’s van was vandalized and $10,000 in musical equipment was stolen from them while they were buying … a guard dog:
The number one song in the U.S. today in 1955 was written 102 years earlier:
The number one song in the U.S. today in 1966:
Today in 1970, Arthur Brown demonstrated what The Crazy World of Arthur Brown was like by getting arrested at the Palermo Pop ’70 Festival in Italy for stripping naked and setting fire to his helmet during …
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