Pick a Day

Music History Events: Odds And Ends

December 14, 1959 The Ohio State University Research Center issues a report showing that rock and roll is the overwhelming favorite music of people aged 14-18. However, most over the age of eighteen who were polled considered it their least favorite form of music.

November 9, 1959 Sam Cooke is guaranteed $100,000 by RCA if he chooses to leave his current home, Keen Records.

November 1, 1959 Ray Charles leaves his old label, Atlantic, for a better deal at ABC-Paramount Records.

October 20, 1959 Patty Duke opens on Broadway in The Miracle Worker.

February 18, 1959 While on leave from the US Army in Paris, Elvis Presley visits the famous Lido Club, performing an impromptu show there.

December 27, 1958 While attending a class at the Liverpool College of Art, John Lennon meets student Cynthia Powell, later to become his first wife.

December 1, 1958 Neil Sedaka signs with RCA Records as a solo artist.

November 3, 1958 PFC Elvis Presley goes on maneuvers for the first time, with the 32nd Tank regiment near the border of Germany and Czechoslovakia.

August 1, 1958 His contract up at Sun Records, Johnny Cash leaves Memphis, moves to Los Angeles, and signs with Columbia Records.

June 13, 1958 Frank Zappa graduates from Antelope Valley High School in Lancaster, California (also the alma mater of Captain Beefheart).

June 11, 1958 Jerry Lee Lewis finds that the marriage scandal involving his 14-year-old second cousin has migrated back to the States when he is booed off a New York stage. The second show is canceled due to poor ticket sales, and Lewis' career, for the time being anyway, is ruined.

June 2, 1958 Barry Sadler joins the US Air Force (he's later a Green Beret in the US Army).

June 1, 1958 Private Elvis Presley completes basic Army training at Ft. Hood, Texas, earning a two-week furlough.

May 28, 1958 Buddy Holly gets his draft notice, but poor eyesight keeps him out of the Army.

May 26, 1958 After just three shows, Jerry Lee Lewis cancels his British tour when he is again met by a hostile crowd that have learned of his marriage to Myra Gale Brown, his 13-year-old second cousin. When he returns to America, he is met with similar hostility, derailing his career.

March 29, 1958 Elvis Presley begins boot camp in Ft. Hood, Texas, where he insists on doing KP and guard duty just like the other soldiers.

February 21, 1958 Gibson's "Flying V" guitar goes on the market, retailing for $247.50. Early adopters include Lonnie Mack and Albert King.

October 27, 1957 Police in Oakland, California, inform Elvis Presley that he is not allowed to swivel his hips onstage in tonight's performance at the Oakland Auditorium; Elvis responds by sarcastically wiggling only his little finger while singing. The cops film the show anyway, just in case.

September 5, 1957 Elvis Presley, flush from his new fame, gives his mother, Gladys, his pink 1955 Cadillac Fleetwood.

April 18, 1957 Second Lt. Buddy Knox is called up for six months active duty by the US Army Reserves.

March 28, 1957 Ral Donner, later to hit with the Elvis-soundalike "The Girl Of My Friend," sees Elvis for the first time, performing at the International Amphitheater in Chicago.

March 25, 1957 Elvis Presley buys the Graceland Mansion in Memphis for $102,500.

January 4, 1957 Elvis Presley reports for his pre-induction Army physical in Memphis.

August 15, 1956 "Colonel" Tom Parker, actually a Dutch immigrant who merely played at being a Southern aristocrat, becomes "special adviser" to Elvis Presley, effectively taking over management duties from Bob Neal, who knew managing the King was about to become a full-time job.

August 14, 1956 Washington DC disc jockey Bob Rickman forms the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Elvis Presley after reading too many news articles that make him out to be a hick and/or a threat to society.

June 1, 1956 Doris Day signs a five-year recording contract with Columbia Records worth $1 million.

April 27, 1956 Capitol Records signs Gene Vincent, intending to market him as the next Elvis.

April 14, 1956 Bobby Helms auditions for, and signs with, Decca Records.

April 6, 1956 Having impressed Paramount Studios with his screen test five days earlier, Elvis Presley is signed to a seven-year, three-picture deal worth nearly half a million dollars.

March 15, 1956 Colonel Tom Parker officially becomes Elvis Presley's manager.