It was another crazy week in the history of Rock:
The Monkees’ debut single, “Last Train To Clarksville,” hits #1 in America in 1966
In 1971, the album iconic Led Zeppelin IV, which included the song “Stairway to Heaven,” was released.
The Steve Miller Band’s “Rock ‘N’ Me” hits #1 in the US in 1976, their second song to top the chart.
In 1981, Daryl Hall and John Oates’ “Private Eyes” would hit #1, their 3rd of 6 to do so.
The Joe Cocker and Jennifer Warnes song “Up Where We Belong,” from the film An Officer And A Gentleman, goes to #1 in America in 1982 and would be Cocker’s only #1 hit.
In 1988, The Beach Boys top the charts with “Kokomo” which would NOT feature Brian Wilson. The song was written by John Phillips of the Mamas & the Papas and Scott McKenzie, best known for his 1967 song “San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Flowers in Your Hair)”
Roxette’s “Listen To Your Heart” would become their second of 4 Number 1 hits on the billboard in 1989.
In 1993, Meat Loaf’s I’d Do Anything for Love (But I Won’t Do That) would become his first and only #1 song.
The Miami Vice soundtrack album, featuring the #1-hit theme song, tops the albums chart in America in 1985 for 11 consecutive weeks, becoming the most successful soundtrack of all time until 2006’s High School Musical Soundtrack.
Photo Credit: Rick Diamond/Getty Images
Some exciting news to many artists:
James Taylor and Carly Simon got married in 1972.
Michael Jackson popularized The Robot when he busts out some futuristic dance moves during a Jackson 5 performance of “Dancing Machine” on Soul Train in 1973
In 1979, The Who’s musical film Quadrophenia, featuring a small part played by Sting, opened in US theaters
Prince kicked off his Purple Rain tour with a show at Detroit’s Joe Lewis Arena in 1984. His opening act is Sheila E.
Sonny Bono, half of Sonny and Cher and former mayor of Palm Springs, Calfornia, is elected to the US House of Representatives in 1994
Michael Jackson announced that wife Debbie Rowe is pregnant with his first child in 1996.
In 2003, Skid Row’s Sebastian Bach started his recurring role on Gilmore Girls in the episode “The Festival of Living Art,” as a guitarist who joins Lane Kim’s band.
The Queen biopic Bohemian Rhapsody, starring Rami Malek as Freddie Mercury, opens in theaters in 2018.
Photo Credit: 20th Century Studios
And of course, some sad news for some artists.
Brian Wilson and The Beach Boys would part ways in 1982 on the orders of Wilson’s new psychiatrist and caretaker, Dr. Eugene Landy
In 1999, Van Halen announced that lead singer Gary Cherone, who joined in 1996 and sang on the Van Halen III album, was leaving the band.
Aretha Franklin would play at Elton John’s AIDS Foundation gala at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City in what turned out to be her final performance in 2017.
