This Week in
Rock History
Feb. 19 (1940) — William Robinson Jr. is born in Detroit, Mich. Smokey Robinson will become the founder and front man of the Miracles, one of the original acts signed by Motown Record Corp. The group will produce 25 Top 40 hits with Robinson as lead vocalist, principal songwriter and producer, including a 1970 No. 1, “The Tears of a Clown.”
Feb. 19 (1966) — Lou Christie’s “Lightning Strikes” reaches No. 1 on the Billboard pop chart. A plea for a sexual double standard — “Listen to me, baby, it's hard to settle down/Am I asking too much for you to stick around” — it will remain atop the chart for only one week, and Christie won’t record another Top 10 hit.
Feb. 25 (1957) — Buddy Holly and the Crickets record their first charting single, “That’ll Be the Day,” in a Clovis, N.M., studio. The song is a No. 1 hit, and is considered a rock classic — but is not the first version Holly and his band recorded.
This Week in
Rock History
July 5 (1966) — Capitol Records releases Best of the Beach Boys, the first compilation album by the most popular American rock band of the early 1960s. The LP drops less than two months after the group’s ground-breaking Pet Sounds album is released — allegedly because the record company didn’t think that Sounds, a significant departure from their previous work, would sell well or produce hits.
July 12 (1957) — The Big Beat, hosted by legendary disc jockey Alan Freed, debuts on the ABC television network. Airing three weeks before American Bandstand debuts, it becomes the first nationally-televised rock and roll dance show. Initially a summer replacement series, the network planned to make it a regular-season program if it drew a large enough audience — but despite strong ratings, it was cancelled after one month. On the second episode, black rock and roll star Frankie Lymon is seen dancing with a white girl, and the resulting protests from ABC’s southern affiliates are believed to have caused the show’s demise.