More About Music History On This Day

13 Jan 1962
Chubby Checker went back to No.1 on the US singles chart with 'The Twist'. The song first went to No.1 in Sept 1960 and became the only record in American chart history to top the charts on two separate occasions.

13 Jan 1963
The Beatles recorded a TV appearance on the ABC Television program "Thank Your Lucky Stars" in Birmingham playing their new single, 'Please Please Me' The show was broadcast on January 19.

13 Jan 1965
The first day of recording sessions for Bob Dylan's Bringing It All Back Home album were held at Studio A, Columbia Recording Studios in New York City. Dylan recorded Subterranean Homesick Blues and 'It's All Over Now, Baby Blue'.

13 Jan 1967
Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr both went to the Bag O'Nails Club, London, England to see the Jimi Hendrix Experience.

13 Jan 1968
Johnny Cash played a show, which was recorded, for his forthcoming live album at Folsom Prison, near Sacramento, California in front of 2,000 inmates. When released, the lead single, 'Folsom Prison Blues' (an update of his 1956 hit) became one of the most famous recordings of his career.

13 Jan 1969
Elvis Presley began a ten day recording session that would produce his final US number one record, 'Suspicious Minds'. The tracks were laid down at American Sound Studios in Memphis and marked the first time Presley had recorded in his hometown since his Sun Records days in 1956.

13 Jan 1970
Steel Mill, (featuring Bruce Springsteen) played at The Matrix in San Francisco, California. Boz Scaggs was the scheduled headliner but he cancelled at that last minute due to illness. Rock critic Philip Elwood, who turned up intending to review Scaggs ended up writing a highly favorable review of Steel Mill for The San Francisco Examiner.

13 Jan 1973
Eric Clapton made his stage comeback at the Rainbow Theatre, London, with Pete Townsend, Ronnie Wood, Stevie Winwood, Rebop, Jim Capaldi and support from The Average White Band. The night's two shows were recorded for the 'Rainbow Concert' album. Pete Townshend from The Who had organised the concert to help Clapton kick his heroin addiction.

13 Jan 1978
With a budget of only $1,500 borrowed from Stewart Copeland's brother Miles Copeland III, The Police started recording their debut album at Surrey Sound Studios, Surrey, England with producer Nigel Gray. The album 'Outlandos d'Amour' which was released in November of this year featured the hits 'So Lonely', 'Roxanne' and 'Can't Stand Losing You'.

13 Jan 1979
American soul and gospel singer, songwriter Donny Hathaway committed suicide falling from a 15th floor New York hotel window. At the height of his career Hathaway was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia and was known to not take his prescribed medication regularly enough to properly control his symptoms. He scored the 1972 UK No.29 single with Roberta Flack 'Where Is The Love', (which won the Grammy Award for Best Pop Performance by a Duo in 1973) and the 1978 US No.2 single 'The Closer I Get’, also with Roberta Flack.

13 Jan 1984
BBC Radio 1 announced a ban on 'Relax' by Frankie Goes To Hollywood, after DJ Mike Read called it 'obscene', a BBC TV ban also followed. The song went on to become a UK No.1 and spent a total of 48 weeks on the UK chart.

13 Jan 1986
Sex Pistols members John Lydon, Steve Jones and Paul Cook, as well as the mother of Sid Vicious, sued former manager Malcom McClaren for £1 million ($1.7 million). They later settled out of court.

13 Jan 1990
New Kids On The Block had their second and last No.1 UK single with 'Hangin' Tough.' They had a further 7 Top 10 hits by the end of 1991. They broke up after that, but set the scene for numerous boy bands throughout the 90s.

13 Jan 2003
Diana Ross appeared in a US court charged with driving while twice over the drink driving limit. Police in Tucson reported that Miss Ross could not walk in a straight line, touch her nose or count to 30 after she had been stopped for swerving across the road.

13 Jan 2003
Who guitarist Pete Townshend was arrested on suspicion of child porn offences. Police officers impounded seven computers from his $25.5 million home in Richmond, Surrey.

13 Jan 2005
A report showed that more songs had been written about Elvis Presley than any other artist. It listed over 220 songs including: ‘Graceland’ by Paul Simon, ‘A Room At The Heartbreakhotel’ by U2, ‘Calling Elvis’, Dire Straits, ‘Happy Birthday Elvis’, Loudon Wainwright III, ‘There's A Guy Works Down The Chip Shop Swears He's Elvis’, Kirsty MacColl, ‘I Saw Elvis in a UFO’, Ray Stevens. ‘Elvis Has Left the Building’ by Frank Zappa and 'My Dog Thinks I'm Elvis' by Ray Herndon.

13 Jan 2010
Beyonce and Jay-Z were named Hollywood's top-earning couple by Forbes magazine. The pair earned an estimated $122m between June 2008 and June 2009 - more than any other couple married or unmarried.

13 Jan 2010
Soul singer Teddy Pendergrass died at the age of 59 following a difficult recovery from colon cancer surgery. Pendergrass enjoyed early success with Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes, whose hits included If You Don't Know Me By Now, before going solo in 1976. He was the first black male singer to record five consecutive multi-platinum albums in the US.

13 Jan 2010
A plaque of The Beatles iconic yellow submarine, which was stolen six months ago from Liverpool's Albert Dock, was set to be replaced by a new creation. The 5ft design featured the faces of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr and George Harrison peering through its portholes. The new submarine would hang outside the museum dedicated to the band, The Beatles Story.

13 Jan 2016
The Rolling Stones first manager, Giorgio Gomelsky, passed away at the age of 82. He owned the Crawdaddy Club in London where The Rolling Stones were the house band. After he was replaced by Andrew Loog Oldham in May, 1963, Gomelsky went on to manage The Yardbirds, Julie Driscoll and Brian Auger before moving to New York in 1978 and opening The Green Door nightclub.

13 Jan 2016
Ed Sheeran's new singles 'Shape of You' and 'Castle On The Hill' entered the UK singles chart at No.1 and No.2 respectively. The Official Charts Company said it was the first time in history an artist had taken the top two chart positions with brand new songs.

13 Jan 2017
Magic Alex (Alexis Mardas) a Greek electronics engineer died aged 74. He is best known for his close association with the Beatles. His nickname was given to him by John Lennon when he was involved with the group between 1965 and 1969, during which time he became head of Apple Electronics. Mardas often said that the Abbey Road studio was "no good", much to producer George Martin's annoyance. He allegedly said that he could build a 72-track tape machine and was then given the job of designing the new Apple Studio in Savile Row, London. His schemes lost Apple at least $300,000.

13 Jan 2021
American musician Tim Bogert died from cancer age 76. He was bass guitarist and vocalist with Vanilla Fudge, Cactus and the power trio Beck, Bogert & Appice.

13 Jan 2021
New York Dolls guitarist Sylvain Sylvain died from cancer at the age of 69. Along with the Velvet Underground and the Stooges, they were one of the bands later credited as influences of the soon to be punk scene, the band's first two albums, New York Dolls (1973) and Too Much Too Soon (1974), became among the most popular cult records in rock. Prior to joining the New York Dolls, Sylvain and future band mate Billy Murcia ran a clothing company called Truth and Soul, which would play a role in the band's ground-breaking look.

13 Jan 2021
American Hip hop producer and rapper Duke Bootee died age 69. His best known single, ‘The Message’, was released in 1982 on Sugar Hill Records under the name Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five.

Date & Time

January 13, 2025

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