This Week In Rock
This Week In Rock
2007
Bob Dylan celebrates 30 years in the recording industry with a star-studded bash - “Columbia Records Celebrates The Music Of Bob Dylan” at New York’s Madison Square Gardens.
The list of artists paying tribute to Dylan includes Eric Clapton, George Harrison, Roger McGuinn, Lou Reed, Stevie Wonder, Ron Wood and Neil Young among others.
The night is marred when Sinead O’Connor attempts to sing Dylan’s “I Believe In You”, only to be booed off stage by a large section of the 20,000 crowd angry at her ripping up a picture of The Pope on Saturday Night Live.
October 16th 1992
Chriss Oliva, guitarist with Savatage, dies when his car is hit by a drunk driver in Thonotosassa, Florida. His wife, who is sitting in the passenger seat next to him, is seriously injured.
This clip is the promo video from the band’s single, “Jesus Saves”, a minor hit from 1991.
October 17th 1993
October 18th 1942
Bernard Jewry is born in Muswell Hill, London.
He’ll go on to pop stardom. first in the 1950’s as Shane Fenton and then again in the 1970’s as Alvin Stardust.
Here he is, recorded at his home in November 2006, playing the classic, “Peggy Sue”.
October 19th 1945
Jeannie C. Riley is born Jeannie Carolyn Stephenson in Anson, Texas.
Here, she sings her one-hit-wonder, “Harper Valley PTA” accompanied by Harold Morrison on The Wilburn Brothers Show in the late 1960s.
From being a secretary and part-time demo singer, Jeannie was catapulted into the spotlight. One of her demos was heard by legendary producer Shelby Singleton who was desperate for just the right voice for this Tom T. Hall song which he was convinced would be a monster smash. He was right. It sold six million copies.
October 20th 1969
John Lennon’s Plastic Ono Band releases “Cold Turkey”/”Don’t Worry Kyoko” in the U.S.A. as Apple 1813. It doesn’t make the top 20.
Here’s the original promo video for the track.
October 21st 1965
Bill Black, Elvis Presley’s stand-up bass player from 1954 to 1957 dies from cancer in Memphis, Tennessee.
Fired by Col. Tom Parker for asking for a raise, Black set up his own band, The Bill Black Combo, in 1958. The had a number of hits including the million selling, “White Silver Sands” and even a cover of Elvis’s hit, “Don’t Be Cruel”. In 1962 he set up a record and production company.
Black was diagnosed with a brain tumour early in 1965.
October 22nd 1969
Paul McCartney releases an official denial to the rumours that he is dead!
Conspiracy theorists held the belief that Paul had been the one who, “blew his mind out in a car” from the track “A Day In The Life”. He was replaced by someone called Willie Campbell who continues in his role as Paul McCartney to this day.
Here’s an Australian news clip from the period explaining the background.
Whilst the information contained within this page is copyright Rockmine Archives, we acknowledge that the copyright of any video embedded here is held by others. It is used to illustrate events which happened on these days across the years. All video is sourced from YouTube and is embedded using links provided by them. Needless to say, we will happily remove any links to footage should the copyright holders request us to do so.
Every day, we’ll take one event from the Rockmine Almanac and link it to an interesting or unusual piece of footage we’ve found on YouTube. We’ll also give you the story behind the anniversary or the event. In the future we’ll be including classic TV performances from rocks legendary performers. Try and check us out every week!