1959 - This is the day when novelty song, The Battle Of New Orleans by Johnny Horton went to #1 on both the Country and Pop charts in the US, and all over the western world, and it remained in most charts for a couple of months. Originally a poem written in 1936 by high school teacher, James Morriss, the song was given a musical treatment by Horton's producer, with music of an old fiddle tune known as The Eighth Of January. Believe it or not, Horton later won a Grammy Award for the song.
1961 - Precisely 50 years ago today, Elvis Presley was at #1 on the UK singles chart with Surrender, his 8th UK #1. The song was based on the 1911 Italian song, Return To Sorrento. Just two years later and on the same day, Lesley Gore started a two week run at #1 on the US singles chart with the Quincy Jones (then a staff producer for Mercury Records) produced It's My Party. For more information, videos and dates on Gore and Presley, please go to our archive search engine. And in 1964 on this day, new Brit group The Rolling Stones, flying on British Airways flight 505, arrived at Kennedy Airport in New York. This is such a rare clip nobody knows where it's from, but it is clearly from 1964 as this is the song they released that year, PLUS Brian Jones is still in the band.
1964 - As the Stones cruised into what would eventually become their American gold mine, a very young Dolly Parton moved to Nashville, Tennessee, one day after she graduated from high school. Ever the businesswoman, Dolly spent her first day in Nashville in search of a record deal. This was Dolly aged 17, her first record (b-side) as a pop singer...and howzabout the hair?
1966 - During a 12 hour recording session at Abbey Road studios, The Beatles added overdubs on Yellow Submarine, reportedly with John Lennon blowing bubbles in a bucket of water and shouting, "Full speed ahead Mister Captain!" Roadie, the late Mal Evans played on a bass drum strapped to his chest, marching around the studio with The Beatles following behind (conga-line style) singing "We all live in a yellow submarine." And a year later, same day, same studio, same band, the Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album was released by the Beatles. This is a promo for the pioneer LP, awesome and clever, if a little dark in the lighting department. Following that is the version from McCartney and U2 at LIVE8.
1968 - This was the day, too, when Simon and Garfunkel went to #1 around the world with their song Mrs Robinson, featured in the Dustin Hoffman and Ann Bancroft film The Graduate. For info and video of this and other Simon & Garfunkel stuff go to our archive search engine. Evan Dando's Lemonheads did a version on London TV 19 years ago, just a little different from the original.
1971 - The band Chicago appeared at London's Royal Albert Hall, London, today and on the same day, the two-room shack in Tupelo, Mississippi, where Elvis Presley was born, opened to the public as a tourist attraction. Same day, a year later and Pink Floyd were working at Abbey Road studios, London, on their Dark Side Of The Moon album. Still again on the same day and in the same year, Former Soft Machine drummer Robert Wyatt broke his spine after attempting to leave a party by climbing down a drainpipe and falling three stories. It left Wyatt permanently crippled and confined to a wheelchair. This was also the day in '74 when England's NME magazine published it's 100 Great Albums: at #3 was The Beach Boys' Pet Sounds, at #2, Bob Dylan's Blonde On Blonde, and The Beatles came in at #1 with Sergeant Peppers. All three albums feature on *MUSICBACKTRACK* archives, just do a search on our search engine. Tonight in 1977, Bob Marley and The Wailers played the first of four nights at the Rainbow Theatre in London. There were actually six nights booked at the Rainbow, but the last two shows were cancelled due to a serious toe injury Marley received, (in a friendly football game with French journalists just before the tour's start in Paris). Subsequently the tour's second leg in the United States was postponed and then cancelled.
1978 - This was the day that a very young and raw U2 appeared at Mount Temple Comprehensive School in Dublin, Ireland, while a very young Police, supported by The Cramps, appeared a year later on the same day, at the Odeon Theatre, Edinburgh, Scotland. Tickets were just £2.00. And in 1980 on June 1, Devo kicked off a 7-date UK tour at the Apollo, Glasgow, while a year later the first issue of the Heavy Metal magazine Kerrang! was published as a special pull-out by UK weekly music paper Sounds. AC/DC had the front cover, plus features on Motorhead, Girlschool and Saxon. Same year and this is the day when Madness were at #1 on the UK singles chart with House Of Fun. This would be the group's only #1 from 27 UK Top 40 hits.
1985 - Still on chart placings, with Prince & The Revolution starting a three-week run at #1 on the US album chart with Around The World In A Day, while on the same day, Bruce Springsteen kicked off the European leg of his Born in the USA world tour at Slane Castle, in Dublin, Ireland. Fast forward to June 1, 1991, and American soul singer David Ruffin died of a drug overdose. After taking a large amount of cocaine Ruffin passed out, a friend drove him to a hospital in Philadelphia, where he later died. With The Temptations, Ruffin had the 1971 world hits, Just My Imagination and My Girl. Sad, so sad that someone so, so talented took himself away from us through cocaine. This man was an original Temptation, with one of the greatest soul voices of all time.
2000 - It's the turn of the century, Beach Boys big gun Brian Wilson launched his official website with streaming audio feeds of songs from his latest double album, Live At The Roxy Theater. Tingles down my spine in this first video as Ronnie Spector - one of the ultimate female rock singers of all time - sings Wilson's I Can Hear Music, with Brian responding side stage. This guy is a genius. This is followed by Brian Wilson live at Abbey Road, around the same time. The song is God Only Knows, the song that inspired the Beatles' Penny Lane. Indeed, Pet Sounds, the album from which God Only Knows comes, inspired The Beatles' Sgt Peppers.
2005 - And finally, today, June 1, The White Stripes’ Jack White married his sweetheart, Karen Elson, a red haired model who appeared in the White Stripes' Blue Orchid video. The pair were wed in a canoe standing at the confluence of the Rio Negro, the Solimones and the Amazon rivers. And here are the lucky couple, from the video of Blue Orchid, hubbie and wife.
1961 - Precisely 50 years ago today, Elvis Presley was at #1 on the UK singles chart with Surrender, his 8th UK #1. The song was based on the 1911 Italian song, Return To Sorrento. Just two years later and on the same day, Lesley Gore started a two week run at #1 on the US singles chart with the Quincy Jones (then a staff producer for Mercury Records) produced It's My Party. For more information, videos and dates on Gore and Presley, please go to our archive search engine. And in 1964 on this day, new Brit group The Rolling Stones, flying on British Airways flight 505, arrived at Kennedy Airport in New York. This is such a rare clip nobody knows where it's from, but it is clearly from 1964 as this is the song they released that year, PLUS Brian Jones is still in the band.
1964 - As the Stones cruised into what would eventually become their American gold mine, a very young Dolly Parton moved to Nashville, Tennessee, one day after she graduated from high school. Ever the businesswoman, Dolly spent her first day in Nashville in search of a record deal. This was Dolly aged 17, her first record (b-side) as a pop singer...and howzabout the hair?
1966 - During a 12 hour recording session at Abbey Road studios, The Beatles added overdubs on Yellow Submarine, reportedly with John Lennon blowing bubbles in a bucket of water and shouting, "Full speed ahead Mister Captain!" Roadie, the late Mal Evans played on a bass drum strapped to his chest, marching around the studio with The Beatles following behind (conga-line style) singing "We all live in a yellow submarine." And a year later, same day, same studio, same band, the Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album was released by the Beatles. This is a promo for the pioneer LP, awesome and clever, if a little dark in the lighting department. Following that is the version from McCartney and U2 at LIVE8.
1968 - This was the day, too, when Simon and Garfunkel went to #1 around the world with their song Mrs Robinson, featured in the Dustin Hoffman and Ann Bancroft film The Graduate. For info and video of this and other Simon & Garfunkel stuff go to our archive search engine. Evan Dando's Lemonheads did a version on London TV 19 years ago, just a little different from the original.
1971 - The band Chicago appeared at London's Royal Albert Hall, London, today and on the same day, the two-room shack in Tupelo, Mississippi, where Elvis Presley was born, opened to the public as a tourist attraction. Same day, a year later and Pink Floyd were working at Abbey Road studios, London, on their Dark Side Of The Moon album. Still again on the same day and in the same year, Former Soft Machine drummer Robert Wyatt broke his spine after attempting to leave a party by climbing down a drainpipe and falling three stories. It left Wyatt permanently crippled and confined to a wheelchair. This was also the day in '74 when England's NME magazine published it's 100 Great Albums: at #3 was The Beach Boys' Pet Sounds, at #2, Bob Dylan's Blonde On Blonde, and The Beatles came in at #1 with Sergeant Peppers. All three albums feature on *MUSICBACKTRACK* archives, just do a search on our search engine. Tonight in 1977, Bob Marley and The Wailers played the first of four nights at the Rainbow Theatre in London. There were actually six nights booked at the Rainbow, but the last two shows were cancelled due to a serious toe injury Marley received, (in a friendly football game with French journalists just before the tour's start in Paris). Subsequently the tour's second leg in the United States was postponed and then cancelled.
1978 - This was the day that a very young and raw U2 appeared at Mount Temple Comprehensive School in Dublin, Ireland, while a very young Police, supported by The Cramps, appeared a year later on the same day, at the Odeon Theatre, Edinburgh, Scotland. Tickets were just £2.00. And in 1980 on June 1, Devo kicked off a 7-date UK tour at the Apollo, Glasgow, while a year later the first issue of the Heavy Metal magazine Kerrang! was published as a special pull-out by UK weekly music paper Sounds. AC/DC had the front cover, plus features on Motorhead, Girlschool and Saxon. Same year and this is the day when Madness were at #1 on the UK singles chart with House Of Fun. This would be the group's only #1 from 27 UK Top 40 hits.
1985 - Still on chart placings, with Prince & The Revolution starting a three-week run at #1 on the US album chart with Around The World In A Day, while on the same day, Bruce Springsteen kicked off the European leg of his Born in the USA world tour at Slane Castle, in Dublin, Ireland. Fast forward to June 1, 1991, and American soul singer David Ruffin died of a drug overdose. After taking a large amount of cocaine Ruffin passed out, a friend drove him to a hospital in Philadelphia, where he later died. With The Temptations, Ruffin had the 1971 world hits, Just My Imagination and My Girl. Sad, so sad that someone so, so talented took himself away from us through cocaine. This man was an original Temptation, with one of the greatest soul voices of all time.
2000 - It's the turn of the century, Beach Boys big gun Brian Wilson launched his official website with streaming audio feeds of songs from his latest double album, Live At The Roxy Theater. Tingles down my spine in this first video as Ronnie Spector - one of the ultimate female rock singers of all time - sings Wilson's I Can Hear Music, with Brian responding side stage. This guy is a genius. This is followed by Brian Wilson live at Abbey Road, around the same time. The song is God Only Knows, the song that inspired the Beatles' Penny Lane. Indeed, Pet Sounds, the album from which God Only Knows comes, inspired The Beatles' Sgt Peppers.
2005 - And finally, today, June 1, The White Stripes’ Jack White married his sweetheart, Karen Elson, a red haired model who appeared in the White Stripes' Blue Orchid video. The pair were wed in a canoe standing at the confluence of the Rio Negro, the Solimones and the Amazon rivers. And here are the lucky couple, from the video of Blue Orchid, hubbie and wife.
