More About Music History On This Day

24 Mar 1958
At 6.35am, Elvis Presley reported to the Memphis draft board. From there Elvis and twelve other recruits were taken by bus to Kennedy Veterans Memorial Hospital where the singer was assigned army serial number 53310761.

24 Mar 1965
The Beatles continued filming Help! at Twickenham Studios, England. They shot the interior temple scenes, including the one where they dive through a hollow sacrificial altar and into water. That scene was then cut to the swimming pool scene filmed in the Bahamas on February 23.

24 Mar 1965
The Temptations released 'Its Growing', the follow-up to 'My Girl'. The track was the first to feature David Ruffin as the Temptations new lead singer. Interestingly both 'My Girl' and 'Its Growing' were the only Motown tunes ever covered by Otis Redding.

24 Mar 1966
Simon And Garfunkel made their UK singles chart debut with 'Homeward Bound.' Paul Simon is said to have written the song at Farnworth railway station, Widnes, England, while stranded overnight waiting for a train. A plaque is displayed in the station to commemorate this, although memorabilia hunters have stolen it many times. The song describes his longing to return home, both to his then girlfriend, Kathy Chitty in Brentwood, Essex, England, and to return to the United States. The song was also a No.5 hit in the US.

24 Mar 1973
During a Lou Reed show in Buffalo, New York, a fan jumped on stage and bit Lou on the bottom. The man was thrown out of the theatre and Reed completed the show.

24 Mar 1973
The O'Jays went to No.1 on the US singles chart with 'Love Train.' The song's lyrics of unity mention a number of countries, including England, Russia, China, Egypt and Israel, as well as the continent of Africa.

24 Mar 1976
Transvestite singer Wayne County appeared in court charged with assault after an incident at New York club CBGB's. County had attacked Dictator's singer Handsome Dick Manitoba with a mike stand fracturing his collarbone.

24 Mar 1977
Fleetwood Mac released 'Dreams' from their eleventh studio album Rumors which became their first and only US No.1 hit single. Stevie Nicks wrote the song in early 1976 at the Record Plant studio in Sausalito, California in around 10 minutes, on a day when she wasn't required in the main studio.

24 Mar 1979
The Bee Gees started a two-week run at No.1 on the US singles chart with 'Tragedy', the group's eighth US No.1. and also No.1 in the UK.

24 Mar 1985
'Easy Lover' by Philip Bailey and Phil Collins was at No.1 on the UK singles chart. Bailey was a former vocalist with Earth, Wind & Fire. Phil Collins produced, drummed and sang on the track. 'Easy Lover' won an MTV Video Music Award for Best Overall Performance in a Video.

24 Mar 1986
Van Halen released their seventh studio album 5150 (pronounced fifty-one-fifty) which became their first album to top the US chart. The first of four albums to be recorded with lead singer Sammy Hagar, who replaced David Lee Roth was named after Eddie Van Halen's home studio, 5150, in turn named after a California law enforcement term for a mentally disturbed person.

24 Mar 1990
Sinead O’Connor went to No.1 on the UK album chart with 'I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got', featuring the single 'Nothing Compares To You. Also No.1 in 13 other countries and six weeks at No.1 in the US.

24 Mar 1992
A Chicago court settled the Milli Vanilli class action suit by approving cash rebates of up to $3 to anyone proving they bought the group’s music before November 27 1990, the date the lip-synching scandal broke. Milli Vanilli won the 1989 best new artist Grammy after hits like 'Blame it on the Rain' and 'Girl, You Know It's True,' selling 30 million singles and 14 million albums. But in late 1990, the performers were stripped of the award after it was revealed that neither actually sang on the Milli Vanilli album.

24 Mar 1997
Harold Melvin singer with Philly soul group Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes, died aged 57. They dad the 1972 US No.3 & 1974 UK No.9 single 'If You Don't Know Me By Know' and 1973 hit ‘The Love I Lost.’

24 Mar 1998
UK singer Mark Morrison was jailed for a year after trying to con his way out of doing community service. He sent his minder Gabriel Mafereka who wore sunglasses and hid his hair under a hat so he looked like the star.

24 Mar 2000
A film company paid £635,000, ($1,079,500) for over nine hours of film shot during the 70s by Yoko Ono's first husband Tony Cox. The film contained shots of John Lennon smoking hash and talking about his political beliefs.

24 Mar 2001
A stretch of road on Highway 19 in Macon, Georgia, was named Duane Allman Boulevard, near where The Allman Brothers Band guitarist died aged 24 in a motorcycle crash on October 29, 1971.

24 Mar 2002
Gareth Gates became the youngest male solo artist to score a UK No.1 with his debut release 'Unchained Melody' Gates was 17 years and 255 days old and had won second place on TV's Pop Idol show. This was the fourth time that the song had been at No.1 in the UK.

24 Mar 2009
The prosecutor in the Phil Spector murder retrial told the jury he was a 'demonic maniac' when he drinks and 'a very dangerous man' around women. Deputy District Attorney Truc Do urged jurors to find the music producer guilty of murdering Hollywood actress Lana Clarkson in 2003. During her closing argument, she also accused Mr Spector of demonstrating a 'conscious disregard for human life'.

24 Mar 2009
Motown drummer Uriel Jones died aged 74 after suffering complications from a heart attack. Jones played on many Motown classics including 'I Heard It Through the Grapevine' by Marvin Gaye, ‘Cloud Nine’ by the Temptations, ‘I Second That Emotion’ by Smokey Robinson & the Miracles and ‘For Once In My Life’ by Stevie Wonder.

24 Mar 2013
Pictures of The Beatles' 1965 Shea Stadium concert, taken by an amateur photographer who bluffed his way backstage, sold for £30,000 at auction. Marc Weinstein used a fake press pass to get next to the stage for the historic New York show. His 61 black and white images with copyright fetched $32,000, the successful bidder was a South American gentleman currently living in Washington who is a huge collector of Beatles memorabilia.

24 Mar 2013
American songwriter and record producer Deke Richards died of esophageal cancer aged 68. He is notable for being a member of both The Clan and The Corporation, the latter being a hitmaking production team that wrote and produced The Jackson 5's early hits, including 'I Want You Back', 'ABC', and 'The Love You Save'. He produced Diana Ross and the Supremes after Holland, Dozier and Holland left Motown in 1968 and co-wrote the US No.1 hit 'Love Child' for the Supremes, and was solely responsible for 'I'm Still Waiting', a UK No.1 hit, for Diana Ross.

24 Mar 2016
Adele returned to No.1 on the UK album chart for the third time with her third studio album 25. Globally, 25 was the biggest-selling music release in 2015 and 2016. To promote the album, Adele embarked on her third worldwide concert tour, Adele Live 2016 which started on 29 February 2016 and ended on 30 June 2017.

24 Mar 2020
American musician Bill Rieflin died age 59. Rieflin came to prominence in the 1990s mainly for his work as a drummer with groups (particularly in the industrial rock and industrial metal scenes) such as Ministry, the Revolting Cocks, Swans, Chris Connelly, and Nine Inch Nails. He worked regularly with R.E.M. following the retirement of Bill Berry in 1997. He was a member of King Crimson from 2013 until his death.

24 Mar 2021
American drummer, percussionist, and songwriter Don Heffington died age 70. He was a founding member of the Los Angeles alternative country band Lone Justice, and was a session and touring musician for various artists, including Lowell George, Bob Dylan, Emmylou Harris, Jackson Browne, the Wallflowers and the Jayhawks.

Date & Time

March 24, 2025

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