Calendar Search Results: i he w
October 18, 1957 The second Frank Sinatra Show debuts on ABC, lasting only one season. The singer's first version of the show lasted two seasons.
October 15, 1957 Elvis Presley's first Christmas album, titled Elvis' Christmas Album, is released. It goes on to become the best-selling holiday album of all time by a wide margin.
October 14, 1957 The Everly Brothers score their first #1 hit with "Wake Up Little Susie."
October 13, 1957 The Four Preps, Rosemary Clooney, Frank Sinatra and Bing Crosby all appear on a CBS television special to introduce the brand new Edsel automobile.
October 12, 1957 Little Richard renounces rock and embraces God, telling the crowd at his show in Sydney, Australia: "If you want to live for the Lord, you can't take rock 'n' roll, too. God doesn't like it." After the tour, Richard gives up secular music, gets ordained as a minister, and records Gospel. He doesn't return to rock until 1962.
October 7, 1957 The idea of expanding his gospel album into a Christmas album works out well when Elvis Presley's Elvis' Christmas Album earns pre-orders of 500,000 copies, going Gold before it is even released. It eventually becomes the best-selling Christmas album of all time.
October 3, 1957 ABC premieres The Pat Boone Chevy Showroom variety show, later featured in Michael Moore's documentary Roger and Me. The show features unobjectionable acts like The Four Lads, Ella Fitzgerald and Johnny Mathis; TV Guide says it's "about as exciting as a milkshake with two straws." It runs for three years and helps launch the career of Woody Allen, who is one of the writers.
September 26, 1957 The musical West Side Story, a retelling of Romeo and Juliet with New York City gang members, debuts on Broadway at the Winter Garden Theatre. It runs for 732 performances.
September 25, 1957 With $600 saved up from working at a gas station and doing maintenance at LSU, Buddy Guy leaves Louisiana and catches a train to Chicago, where he makes his mark in the blues.
September 24, 1957 The movie Mister Rock And Roll, starring the famous disc jockey Alan Freed, debuts in America. In the film, Freed tells the story of Rock and Roll, with performances by Little Richard, Chuck Berry, Frankie Lymon and Brook Benton.
September 23, 1957 Buddy Holly's group The Crickets hits #1 in America with "That'll Be The Day." The title comes from something John Wayne says in the movie The Searchers.
September 23, 1957 "Honeycomb" by Jimmie Rodgers (the pop singer, not the country singer born in 1897) hits #1 for the first of four weeks. It's one of the few non-Elvis chart-toppers on 1957.
September 22, 1957 Nick Cave is born in Warracknabeal, Australia, to teacher Colin Cave and librarian Dawn Cave. With his band The Bad Seeds, he releases music of artistic daring starting in 1983 and spanning decades, earning a cadre of appreciative fans while staying safely out of the mainstream.
September 18, 1957 The Big Record, CBS-TV's answer to American Bandstand, premieres with host Patti Page and guests Billy Ward & the Dominoes and Tony Bennett.
September 12, 1957 Hans Zimmer is born in Frankfurt, Germany. Known for his innovative style of combining electronic and traditional instrumentation, he becomes one of the most sought-after film composers in Hollywood. He lands his breakthrough gig with the 1988 movie Rain Man, starring Tom Cruise and Dustin Hoffman, and writes the music on a Fairlight digital synthesizer. He goes on to score hit movies like Gladiator (2000), The Dark Knight (2008), The Lion King (1994), and Dune (2021), with the latter two earning him his first Academy Award wins for Best Original Score.More
September 9, 1957 Paul Anka's "Diana" hits #1, where it stays for one week.
September 5, 1957 Elvis Presley, flush from his new fame, gives his mother, Gladys, his pink 1955 Cadillac Fleetwood.
September 2, 1957 Pete Seeger plays "We Shall Overcome" at the Highlander Folk School in Tennessee as part of its 25th anniversary celebration. On hand is Martin Luther King, Jr., who gives the closing speech at the celebration. The song becomes ingrained with the civil rights movement as King and Seeger fight for equality.
September 1, 1957 Gloria Estefan is born Gloria Fajardo in Havana, Cuba. Raised in Miami, she joins Miami Sound Machine in 1977 and marries their leader, Emilio Estefan, a year later. She becomes a formative figure in Latin pop, crossing over to an English-speaking audience with hits like "Conga," "Anything For You" and "Coming Out Of The Dark."
September 1, 1957 A young Jimi Hendrix catches Elvis Presley's performance at Seattle's Sicks Stadium.
August 19, 1957 In a "Special Music Report," Newsweek puts Pat Boone on the cover with the tagline, "His Refreshing Song Fills The Air."More
August 19, 1957 Debbie Reynolds' "Tammy" hits #1 for the first of five weeks.
August 16, 1957 Buddy Holly's group The Crickets play the first show of a six-night engagement at Harlem's Apollo Theater. They were booked due to confusion with a black group (led by Dean Barlow) that was also called The Crickets. Nonetheless, Holly and his band win over the crowd.
August 15, 1957 Notorious Californian groupie Sable Starr is born. As well as counting Alice Cooper, Rod Stewart and David Bowie among her conquests, she is the muse for Iggy Pop's 1996 song "Look Away."
August 7, 1957 The Quarrymen (minus new member Paul McCartney, away at Scout camp) make their debut at Liverpool's Cavern Club. Manager Alan Sytner instructs them not to play Rock and Roll, but midway through their skiffle performance, John lights into a version of Elvis' "Don't Be Cruel," which the crowd loves. The group, of course, becomes The Beatles.
August 5, 1957 American Bandstand goes national when it airs for the first time on ABC. The show will run for five years on the Philadelphia TV station WFIL as Bandstand. Hosted by Dick Clark throughout its national run, the show remains on network TV until 1987. The first song the kids dance to this day is "That'll Be The Day" by Buddy Holly.
August 4, 1957 The Everly Brothers perform "Wake Up Little Susie" on the Ed Sullivan Show. It is one of the more controversial songs ever played on the show, as there are some questions as to what Susie and her date were doing before she fell asleep.
July 28, 1957 Jerry Lee Lewis makes his first national TV appearance, singing "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On" on The Steve Allen Show.
July 24, 1957 Pat Boone makes his acting debut in the musical comedy Bernardine. The movie also features his hit songs "Love Letters In The Sand" and "Bernardine."
July 18, 1957 Keith Levene (of The Clash) is born Julian Keith Levene in Muswell Hill, London, England.
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