Calendar Search Results: i he w
October 16, 1954 With the Rock Era yet to arrive, Rosemary Clooney lands the #1 song in America with "Hey There."
October 10, 1954 Longtime Van Halen frontman David Lee Roth is born in Bloomington, Indiana. Wildly extroverted, he's one of the most flamboyant frontmen in rock and helps the band earn lots of airtime on early MTV. As a solo artist, his hits include the MTV favorites "California Girls" (a Beach Boys cover) and "Just Like Paradise."
October 2, 1954 Elvis Presley makes his one and only appearance at the Grand Ole Opry, where he sings "Blue Moon Of Kentucky." It doesn't go over well with the crowd, which does not approve of his take on traditional country music. The Opry's talent director, Jim Denny, reportedly tells Presley he should go back to driving a truck. Elvis swears never to return.
September 30, 1954 R&B performer Patrice Rushen is born in Los Angeles, California. Known for her 1982 single "Forget Me Nots," which earned her a Grammy Nomination for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance.
September 30, 1954 Julie Andrews makes her Broadway debut in The Boy Friend.
September 29, 1954 The original musical version of A Star Is Born, featuring Judy Garland, opens in Hollywood. The first non-musical version debuted in 1932 as What Price Hollywood?, starring Constance Bennett.
September 14, 1954 Barry Cowsill (drummer, then bassist for The Cowsills) is born in Newport, Rhode Island.
September 9, 1954 Rising young star Elvis Presley performs at the opening of Memphis' Lamar-Airways shopping mall, and, afterward, meets audience member Johnny Cash for the first time.
September 8, 1954 The DJ Alan Freed makes his move from Cleveland to New York, where he begins broadcasting his "Alan Freed Rock 'n' Roll Show" on WINS. The first white DJ to play black music, Freed brings R&B music to a wider audience in New York, and the sound quickly goes mainstream with the rise of Elvis and the popularization of rock music.
August 25, 1954 Rock singer/songwriter Elvis Costello is born Declan Patrick Aloysius MacManus in Paddington, London, England. He would adopt his stage surname from his dad, who performed as Day Costello.
August 23, 1954 Perez Prado records "Cherry Pink And Apple Blossom White."
August 11, 1954 Guitarist Bryan Bassett (of Wild Cherry) is born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
July 28, 1954 Guitarist Steve Morse is born in Hamilton, Ohio. After forming The Dixie Dregs, he joins Deep Purple in 1994.
July 28, 1954 Elvis Presley gets his first interview through an article published in his hometown paper, the Memphis Press-Scimitar.
July 28, 1954 The Crew-Cuts' cover of "Sh-Boom" hits #1 for the first of nine weeks in the US.
July 17, 1954 The Newport Jazz Festival, the world's first such event, debuts on the tennis courts of the Newport Casino in Rhode Island.
July 13, 1954 Country singer Louise Mandrell is born Thelma Louise Mandrell in Corpus Christi, Texas. She is the younger sister of fellow singer Barbara Mandrell.
July 8, 1954 Dewey Phillips at WHBQ in Memphis becomes the first DJ to play an Elvis Presley song when he spins "That's Alright Mama" on his Red Hot & Blue show. The switchboard lights up, so Phillips keeps playing the song, giving Elvis some prime publicity early in his career.
July 2, 1954 Pete Briquette (bassist for The Boomtown Rats) is born Patrick Martin Cusack in Ballyjamesduff, County Cavan, Ireland. His stage name is a nod to his homeland, where peat briquettes were burned for heat.
June 17, 1954 Danny Cedrone, guitarist featured on Bill Haley & His Comets' "Rock Around The Clock," dies at age 33 after falling down stairs and breaking his neck.
June 16, 1954 Garry Roberts (lead guitarist for The Boomtown Rats) is born in Dublin, Ireland.
June 5, 1954 Jazz drummer Pete Erskine (of Weather Report) is born in Somers Point, New Jersey.
June 3, 1954 Dan Hill, known for the 1977 ballad "Sometimes When We Touch," is born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
May 31, 1954 Vicki Sue Robinson ("Turn The Beat Around") is born in New York.
May 20, 1954 Bill Haley and His Comets' "Rock Around The Clock" is released for the first time. It stalls on the charts, but becomes a hit a year later when it is used in the movie Blackboard Jungle.
May 2, 1954 Prescott Niles (bassist for The Knack) is born in New York City.
May 1, 1954 Guitarist and songwriter Ray Parker, Jr., writer and performer of the Ghostbusters theme, is born in Detroit, Michigan.
April 24, 1954 Keeping an eye on the new trends, Billboard publishes an article titled, "Teenagers Demand Music With A Beat - Spur Rhythm And Blues."
April 12, 1954 At his first session for Decca Records, Bill Haley records "Rock Around The Clock" and "Thirteen Women" (a post-nuclear song that was originally the A-side of the single).
March 10, 1954 Disco singer Tina Charles, known for the 1976 hit "I Love to Love (But My Baby Loves to Dance)," is born Tina Hoskins in Whitechapel, London, England. Her dad is actor Charles Hoskins.
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