Pick a Day

10 JULY

In Music History

1969 The Temptations Show, a Motown special featuring the group, airs in syndication. They perform, among other hits, "Get Ready," "Cloud Nine," and "Runaway Child, Running Wild."

1968 Early prog-rockers The Nice are banned from London's Royal Albert Hall after burning an American flag on stage as an antiwar protest.

1968 Eric Clapton announces the breakup of the supergroup Cream, currently finishing up its last tour.

1967 Bobbie Gentry's first single, "Ode To Billie Joe," is released. It would go on to top the Hot 100 for four weeks.

1967 Kenny Rogers leaves the The New Christy Minstrels and forms The First Edition, who have a hit the next year with "Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In)."

1965 Wilson Pickett releases "In The Midnight Hour."

1965 Peter DiStefano (guitarist for Porno For Pyros) is born in Santa Monica, California.

1965 The Rolling Stones "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" hits #1 in America. It stays for four weeks, becoming the biggest hit of 1965.

1965 The Kinks play the Seattle Center Coliseum in what turns out to be their last show on American soil until December 1969, as the powerful American Federation of Musicians union bans them. The group fell afoul of the union with petulant behavior, canceled concerts, and an indifference toward their audiences - at a Sacramento show on June 26 they filled their set with an extended jam of "You Really Got Me." Poor ticket sales and disputes with their management set the stage for their ill-fated American trek.

1964 Manfred Mann release a little ditty called "Do Wah Diddy Diddy," which shoots to #1 in America three months later.

1964 The Beatles return to their hometown of Liverpool for a showing of their first movie, A Hard Day's Night. They get a warm welcome, with thousands of fans turning up to see them.

1963 Martha and the Vandellas release "(Love Is Like a) Heat Wave."

1962 NASA launches the Telstar 1 satellite, the first active communications satellite, inspiring the Tornadoes' instrumental hit "Telstar" later that year.

1962 Christopher "Play" Martin (of Kid 'N Play) is born in Queens, New York City.

1961 Bobby Lewis's "Tossin' And Turnin'" hits #1 for the first of seven weeks.