Pick a Day

Music History Events: Memorable Concerts

February 8, 1958 The Quarrymen perform at the Wilson Hall in the Garston section of Liverpool, England. Afterwards, member Paul McCartney introduces his friend George Harrison to John Lennon.

September 1, 1957 A young Jimi Hendrix catches Elvis Presley's performance at Seattle's Sicks Stadium.

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.

April 27, 1957 Elvis Presley makes his second and last appearance outside of the US, wearing his classic gold lame suit for the last time as he plays Toronto's Maple Leaf Gardens.

April 2, 1957 Elvis Presley appears for the first time outside the United States, performing at the Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto. This and a show the next day in Ottawa would be the only Elvis concerts ever given outside the US.

March 31, 1957 Sun Records stars Johnny Cash and Carl Perkins begin a tour of the South in Little Rock, Arkansas, with Jerry Lee Lewis as a support act.

February 5, 1957 Bill Haley arrives in London for his first British tour. He's the first American rock star to tour there and is met by about 4,000 fans at Heathrow Airport, mostly thanks to promoters who hyped his coming as "the second battle of Waterloo."

January 19, 1957 Pat Boone performs at the inaugural ball for President Dwight D. Eisenhower.

September 26, 1956 Elvis Presley returns to his hometown of Tupelo, Mississippi, to play the Mississippi-Alabama Fair and Dairy Show. One of the many smitten teenage girls in the audience is Wynette Pugh, who goes on to stardom as Tammy Wynette. Security issues soon make small-time appearances like this impossible for Elvis.

August 24, 1956 Buddy Holly is in the audience when Little Richard plays the Cotton Club in Lubbock, Texas.

July 24, 1956 Ten years to the day after their act began, Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis break up their wildly popular musical-comedy act after a farewell show at New York's Copacabana nightclub.

July 7, 1956 With his song "I Walk The Line" climbing the charts, Johnny Cash makes his first appearance at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville. There, he meets his future wife, June Carter.

May 26, 1956 Liberace, at the peak of his powers, plays to a crowd of 16,000 at Madison Square Garden in a three-hour solo set that draws mostly ladies.

March 23, 1956 Fats Domino headlines the first day of a 3-day concert organized by the DJ Alan Freed in Hartford, Connecticut. Over the course of the shows, 11 fans are arrested by over-zealous police. It's a litmus test for rock concerts and their effect on young people, as psychiatrist Francis Braceland testifies afterwards that rock music is "a communicable disease with music appealing to adolescent insecurity and driving teenagers to do outlandish things. It is cannibalistic and tribalistic."

February 1, 1956 The Roxy Theater in New York City presents The Rock and Roll Ice Revue, billed as "the hottest production ever staged on ice."

January 3, 1956 Elvis Presley plays a show at the Von Theater in Booneville, Mississippi, where he is advertised as "The Folk Music Fireball."

December 9, 1955 Elvis Presley performs at the B&I Club in Swifton, Arkansas, and introduces his new song, "Heartbreak Hotel," by claiming "It's gonna be my first hit."

October 20, 1955 Bill Haley, Pat Boone and Elvis Presley all appear together in concert at a Cleveland High School (the concert is filmed for a documentary of Cleveland DJ Bill Randle but is never released).

June 3, 1955 Buddy Holly opens for Elvis Presley at a matinee concert in Lubbock, Texas. After the show, they sign autographs in a promotional appearance at the Johnson-Connelley Pontiac car dealership.

May 13, 1955 Johnny Tillotson is the opening act and sees fans rip the shirt off Elvis Presley's back after their Jacksonville, Florida, concert.

March 12, 1955 Dave Brubeck performs at Carnegie Hall in New York, as Jazz becomes increasingly popular.

February 16, 1955 Elvis Presley plays at the Odessa Senior High School in Odessa, Texas. A young Roy Orbison is in the audience.

January 28, 1955 The "Top 10 R&B Show" package tour kicks off its 42-date, 60-day national excursion in New York City, featuring The Clovers, Faye Adams, The Charms, Joe Turner, The Moonglows, Lowell Fulson, and The Bill Doggett Trio.

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.

June 11, 1949 Hank Williams makes his debut at the Grand Ole Opry, where he plays his new single "Lovesick Blues" and earns an amazing six encores.

September 18, 1947 The first-ever country music presentation is held at Carnegie Hall, featuring Ernest Tubb and Roy Acuff.

October 2, 1945 Elvis Presley, just 10 years old, makes his first public appearance when he takes part in a talent contest at the Mississippi-Alabama Fair and Dairy Show singing "Old Shep." He comes in second.

January 18, 1944 New York City's Metropolitan Opera House holds its first Jazz concert, featuring Louis Armstrong, Benny Goodman, Lionel Hampton, Artie Shaw, Roy Eldridge and Jack Teagarden.

March 10, 1937 Benny Goodman brings his swinging Jazz sound to the Paramount Theatre in New York City, where adoring (mostly teenage) fans dance in the aisles. A newspaper report says that kids were "Jitterbugging" to the music, the first time the phrase is used to describe the new dance style.

December 3, 1925 George Gershwin premieres his "Concerto In F," the first jazz concerto for piano and orchestra, at New York City's Carnegie Hall. Gershwin is also the featured soloist on flugelhorn.