1957: Buddy Knox hits #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 with “Party Doll.”

What makes that special? Knox was the first rock singer to hit #1 with a song he wrote himself. He would not be the last.

2001: A 3-hour all-star tribute to Brian Wilson is held at Radio City Music Hall. Billy Joel sings “Don’t Worry Baby” and Paul Simon performs “Surfer Girl.” Others who appear included Ann and Nancy Wilson of Heart, Carly Simon, David Crosby, Jimmy Webb, Elton John, the Go-Go’s and Wilson Phillips.

Brian himself joins in on the finale.

1996: Phil Collins announces his intention to leave the band Genesis where he had served as drummer and lead singer.

2017: Genesis announces they will reunite for another tour.

1979: Eric Clapton finally gets “Layla.” It was on this day that the guitarist married Pattie Boyd, ex-wife of his best friend George Harrison in a ceremony in Tucson, Arizona.

Harrison attends the wedding as do Ringo Starr and Paul McCartney.

Eric and Pattie would divorce 9 years later.

On this day recording studios were busy. Here’s who was recording what:

1957: Ricky Nelson “I’m Walkin’”

1958: Eddie Cochran “Summertime Blues”

1964: Chuck Berry “No Particular Place to Go”

1974: Dionne Warwick & the Spinners “Then Came You”

1971: New York radio station WNBC bans the Brewer & Shipley song “One Toke Over the Line” because they are shocked – shocked I tell you – to discover that the song may refer to drug use!

The ban doesn’t hurt sales as the song eventually reached the Billboard Top 10.

1966: In a photo session, the Beatles pose in butcher’s smocks with dismembered doll parts and pieces of meat. The lads decide to use that photo as the cover for an American album called “Yesterday… And Today.”

For the boys, it’s a cheeky commentary on what their American label, Capitol Records, did to their British albums, cutting them up, omitting some songs, adding other tracks never intended for a particular album and changing the playing order of other songs.

American parents are horrified when the album hits the stores. Capitol pulls the album. It replaces the photo with a more sedate shot of the group sitting in and around a steamer trunk.

However, many of the original “butcher covers” were simply pasted over with the new photo, creating a collector’s item that is still highly sought after today.

1955: A “daring” Hollywood expose of the surging problem of juvenile delinquency, The Blackboard Jungle opens in movie theaters across the U.S.A. A pretty good film, featuring Glenn Ford and a very young Sidney Poitier, gains more notoriety for the music playing behind the opening titles.

Bill Haley & the Comets‘ “Rock Around the Clock” had been released on its own a year earlier, but hadn’t really attracted much airplay. The movie’s popularity sends “Rock Around the Clock” to the top of the charts, kicking off the rock ‘n’ roll era in earnest and establishing a link between Hollywood and the sales of rock music that continues to this day.

1956: On his way to perform his song “Blue Suede Shoes” on The Perry Como Show, Carl Perkins is involved in a serious car accident that takes the life of his brother and lands Carl in the hospital. While he’s recovering Elvis Presley’s version of Carl’s song overtakes his in the record charts.

While Carl goes on to a fairly successful career, many wonder how things might have been different had he gotten to national TV with “Blue Suede Shoes” before Elvis.

1952: What many consider the very first rock & roll concert took place on this day in Cleveland. Legendary DJ Alan Freed stages his Moondog Coronation Ball at the Cleveland Auditorium. Billy Ward and the Dominoes, Tiny Grimes, and Paul Williams and the Hucklebuckers are the featured attractions.

The event draws 20,000 fans to a 10,000 seat venue causing police to shut down the show early. That touches off the first rock concert near-riot as well.