American disc-jockey Alan Freed died from uraemia and cirrhosis brought on by alcoholism at the age of 42. Freed called himself the “father of rock and roll”, appeared in the movies such as Rock Around the Clock and Don’t Knock the Rock. His career was destroyed by the payola scandal that hit the broadcasting industry in the early 1960s.
Beach Boy Brian Wilson finished recording the future classic song ‘Good Vibrations’, which went on to become the band’s third US number-one hit. As a child, his mother told him that dogs could pick up “vibrations” from people, so that the dog would bark at “bad vibrations” Wilson turned this into the general idea for the song.
The Beatles were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. George Harrison, Ringo Starr and Yoko, Sean, and Julian Lennon all attend. Paul McCartney did not attend, sending instead a letter stating that continuing business differences with the other ex-Beatles was the reason for his absence.
Tourism departments in Liverpool were banned from putting up motorway signs saying ‘Liverpool, the Birthplace Of The Beatles’ because the Highways Agency thought the signs would distract motorists.
George Harrison had the posthumous UK No.1 single with the re-release of the 1971 former No.1 ‘My Sweet Lord’. Harrison’s single replaced Aaliyah’s ‘More Than A Woman’, the only time in chart history that one deceased artist had taken over from another at No.1.
A 1976 Rolling Stones album bought for £2 at a car boot sale sold for £4,000 at an auction. The ‘Black and Blue’ LP was signed by John Lennon, Yoko Ono, Paul and Linda McCartney and George Harrison as well as members of the Rolling Stones. The seller obtained the album after haggling the cost down from £3.
Sir Paul McCartney was suing Sony over control of The Beatles’ back catalogue. McCartney had gone to a US court, seeking to regain the publishing rights to 267 of the band’s classic songs. He had been trying to get them back since the 1980s, when Michael Jackson famously out-bid him for the rights. Jackson’s debt-ridden estate sold the songs to Sony in 2016.
