188 Classic Rock

Wilco Johnson, born on 12th July 1947, guitar, Dr Feelgood, (1979 UK No.9 single 'Milk And Alcohol') and a founding member of Solid Senders. Wilko stated in early 2013 that he had terminal cancer and was given just 10 months to live, and aptly announced...

12th July 1954, 19 year old Elvis Presley signed a recording contract with Sun Records. He also gave in his notice at his day job at The Crown Electric Company. Sam Phillips from Sun Records originally wanted to use the 19 year old to make demos of songs...

July 12th 1962, Ray Charles was at No.1 on the UK singles chart with the Don Gibson penned country ballad 'I Can't Stop Loving You'. His only UK No.1 was taken from his Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music album.

July 12th 1979, American singer songwriter Minnie Riperton died of cancer aged 31. The Stevie Wonder produced 'Loving You' gave Minnie a US No.1 single in 1975. She worked at Chess records singing backup for various artists such as Etta James, Fontella...

July 12th 1943, Born on this day, Christine McVie, keyboards, vocals, Chicken Shack, Fleetwood Mac, (1987 UK No.5 single 'Little Lies' and 1977 US No.1 single 'Dreams', from world wide No.1 album Rumours). Solo.

July 12th 1962, The Rolling Stones made their live debut at the Marquee Jazz Club, London, with Dick Taylor on bass (later of The Pretty Things) and Mick Avory on drums, (later of The Kinks). Billed as The Rollin’ Stones, they were paid £20 for the gig,...

11th July 1970, Three Dog Night started a two-week run at No.1 in the US with their version of the Randy Newman song 'Mama Told Me Not To Come', which was also a No.3 hit in the UK. The song was first covered by Eric Burdon on his first solo album in...

11th July 2014, Producer and drummer Tommy Ramone (Thomas Erdelyi), from the influential punk rock band the Ramones died aged 65 following unsuccessful treatment for bile duct cancer. In 1970, Erdelyi was an assistant engineer for the production of the...

July 11th 1969, 'Space Oddity' by David Bowie was released in the UK for the first time. It was timed to coincide with the Apollo moon landing but had to be re-released before it became a hit, later in the year in the UK (but not until 1973 in the US...

July 11th 1970, Self Portrait gave Bob Dylan his fifth UK No.1 album. Released by Columbia Records, his tenth studio album was Dylan's second double album, and featured mostly cover versions of well-known pop and folk songs.