October 31 Rock And Roll History
We've got some great rock and roll history facts for you this morning!
On this day in 1963, The Beatles returned to London after their tour around Sweden and were greeted by hundreds of avid fans and a mass of paparazzi. American TV host Ed Sullivan was at Heathrow when the band landed and was inspired by seeing Beatlemania in full swing. He decided he was going to get the group to appear on his TV show.
In 1964, the Beatles didn't have a song on the Billboard Hot 100 for the first time since January of that year. Over the past ten months they'd had 14 records on the chart with five different labels.
In 1969, David Bowie gave a Halloween show at the General Gordon, Gravesend, England. The gig lasted about 15 minutes: the crowd was delighted when Bowie sang "Space Oddity," but booed him off the stage after he brought a huge book onstage and began to read poetry from it.
In 1969, "Something," a Beatles song written by George Harrison, was released in the U.K. on "Abbey Road." It was released as a single with "Come Together."
In 1970 on this day, Michelle Phillips, former singer with the Mamas and Papas, got married to actor Dennis Hopper. Their union only lasted for eight days.
In 1971, Pink Floyd released Meddle, their sixth album, in the US.
In 1975, "Bohemian Rhapsody" by Queen was released as a single. It spent 17 weeks on the chart, topping at #1 for nine of them, and ended up going platinum. The song was re-released in December, 1991 after it was featured in the movie Wayne's World and relived its initial popularity.
And in 1998, Kiss launched their Psycho Circus tour with a show in L.A. on Halloween. Coincidentally enough, Smashing Pumpkins opened for them.