1957: Jerry Lee Lewis made his first appearance on The Steve Allen Show on NBC performing “Whole Lot of Shakin’ Going On.” After the program aired, sales of the record pushed it to #3 on the pop chart and #1 on the Billboard R&B chart.

1963: Martha Reeves and the Vandellas released their debut album, Come and Get These Memories.

1965: “I’m Henry the Eighth, I Am” by Herman’s Hermits was released. Originally a British music hall song from 1910, their version became their second #1 record on the Billboard Hot 100. Despite its success in the US, the song was never released as a single in the UK.

1967: The Supremes performed for the first time since altering their name to Diana Ross & the Supremes at the Flamingo Hotel in Las Vegas.

1967: The Who paid tribute to their friends the Rolling Stones by recording covers of two Stones songs, “The Last Time” and “Under My Thumb,” in an effort to help Mick Jagger and Keith Richards make bail after being jailed for drug possession. The single was in stores just two days after recording, but by then Jagger and Richards had already been released. The Who had intended to continue recording Stones songs for as long as Jagger and Richards were in jail. Despite having recently had a hit with “Pictures of Lily,” the new single reached #44 on the UK chart. The bigger hit to emerge from the events was the Rolling Stones’ song “We Love You,” which opens with the sound of prison doors banging shut. The single was the band’s expression of appreciation to their supportive fans and peaked at #8 by November.

1968: “Voices in the Sky” by the Moody Blues was released. The single was included on the band’s third studio album, In Search of the Lost Chord, and was issued in the US in October.

1968: Small Faces released “The Universal.” The follow-up to their #2 hit single “Lazy Sunday,” the song only reached #16 on the UK, which disappointed writer Steve Marriott, who considered “The Universal” the best song he’d even written.

1968: The fifth studio album by The Easybeats, Vigil, was released in the UK.

1968: Following its release in the US in early May under the title The Mighty Quinn, Manfred Mann’s fifth and final studio album, Mighty Garvey! was released in the UK.

1969: Fleetwood Mac, John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers, Led Zeppelin, The Nice, Ten Years After, and many others appeared at The Bath Festival of Blues at the Bath Pavilion Recreational Ground in Bath in Somerset, England. Both townsfolk and promoters were surprised the concert sold all 30,000 tickets in the first week. The following year, the Bath Festival of Blue and Progressive Music was held with an even larger audience, which exceeded 150,000.

1969: A re-issue of the Youngbloods’ single “Get Together” entered the Billboard Hot 100. The song was originally released two years earlier and peaked at #62, but after it was used in a radio public service announcement as a call for brotherhood by the National Conference of Christians and Jews, it was re-released and this time made it to #5.

1970: “Lola,” the first single from the Kinks’ eighth studio album, Lola Versus Powerman and the Moneygoround, Part One, was released in the US two weeks after it was issued in the UK. The song reached #9 on Billboard’s Hot 100.

1973: America released “Musktrat Love,” the first single from their third studio album, Hat Trick. Written by Willis Alan Ramsey, it was the second song the band had recorded that was written by a member of the group.

1974: Elton John’s eighth studio album, Caribou, was released. Two weeks later the LP rose to #1 on the US and UK charts.

1975: Wings went to #1 on the UK with their fourth studio album, Venus and Mars.

1980: A live version of Paul McCartney’s song “Coming Up,” recorded with his band Wings in Glasgow, Scotland six months earlier, became the group’s last #1 hit in the US. The same week, the single peaked at #2 in the UK.

1980: Roxy Music scored their second #1 album in the UK with their fourth studio LP, Flesh and Blood.

1982: Former Led Zeppelin lead vocalist Robert Plant’s debut solo album, Pictures at Eleven, was released. It was Plant’s only solo release on Led Zeppelin’s Swan Song label, which ceased to function before his next release, which was put out under Plant’s new label, Es Paranza.

1987: The Pet Shop Boys had their second #1 single on the UK chart with “It’s a Sin.”

1990: Paul McCartney performed the John Lennon songs “Strawberry Fields Forever,” “Help!,” and “Give Peace A Chance” for the first time in public at a concert at Kings Dock in Liverpool, England.

1991: Paul McCartney’s Liverpool Oratorio, his first major foray into classical music composed in collaboration with Carl Davis to commemorate The Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra’s 150th anniversary, premiered at Liverpool Cathedral.

1999: R.E.M. released “Suspicion,” the fourth single from their eleventh studio album, Up.

Birthdays Today

Richard Rodgers, composer of nine hundred songs and forty-three Broadway musicals and one of the most significant composers of 20th-century American music whose compositions have had a significant impact on popular music, was born in New York City in 1902.

David Knights, original bassist for Procol Harum, was born in Islington, North London, England in 1945.

Saul Davies, multi-instrumentalist and member of James, was born in Liverpool, England in 1965.

Mark Stoermer, musician, songwriter, and solo artist best known as the bassist for The Killers, was born in Houston, TX in 1977.