April 13th
1965 The Beatles record “Help!” in 12 takes.
Take 9 is the keeper and it subsequently goes to #1.
The song is the title track of their second film.
2005 Crossfade’s ’04 self-titled album drops.
The set is subsequently certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America. “Our fans include all these young girls who think Ed (singer Ed Sloan) is hot and their dads who like our music,” says bassist Mitch James.
2013 Imagine Dragons’ “Radioactive,” tops Billboard’s Rock Songs chart.
The song also peaks at #3 on the Hot 100 chart and is the band’s first top 10 single.
It’s from the band’s “Night Vision” album.
2024 No Doubt end their nine-year hiatus with a main stage set at Coachella.
Frontwoman Gwen Stefani (pictured) and band roll out favorites including “Just A Girl,” “Don’t Speak” and “Hella Good,” backed by a brass ensemble.
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1944 Influential bassist Jack Cassady enters the world. Aside from his lengthy stint with Jefferson Airplane, Cassady is also heard on the Jimi Hendrix album “Electric Ladyland.”
1957 Elvis Presley’s “All Shook Up,” written by Otis Blackwell (who also composed “Don’t Be Cruel”), starts an eight-week run at #1.
1965 The Beatles win Best New Artist and Best Performance by a Vocal Group for “A Hard Day’s Night” at the 7th annual Grammy Awards in Beverly Hills. The Beatles do not attend.
1966 Guitarist Marc Ford (Black Crowes) starts his life in L.A.
1967 The Rolling Stones perform their first concert behind the Iron Curtain. It’s in Warsaw, Poland. Of course, there is a riot when fans attempt to crash the sold-out show.
1970 Led Zeppelin’s “Whole Lotta Love” (with a riff lifted from a Willie Dixon song) goes gold. The song is on “Led Zeppelin II.”
1972 Staind’s Aaron Lewis is born in Rutland, VT.
1972 The Allman Brothers Band’s classic and epic album, “Eat A Peach,” reaches gold status (500,000 units moved).
1974 “Band On The Run,” the third album by Paul McCartney & Wings, tops the Billboard 200. The album, which features the title track, “Jet” and “Helen Wheels,” raises McCartney’s standing with critics.
1974 Though it sounds like a live recording, Elton John’s “Bennie And The Jets” is a studio creation. It’s a #1 song (for a week).
1981 Billy Squire’s second album “Don’t Say No” is released. The platinum effort contains “The Stroke” and “In The Dark.”
1985 “We Are The World” is #1. The song, which raises money for Africa relief, has performances (singing a line of the song) by Bob Geldof (organizer and member of Boomtown Rats), Lindsey Buckingham (Fleetwood Mac), Steve Perry (Journey), Bruce Springsteen and Stevie Wonder.
1991 “Losing My Religion” (R.E.M.) begins a three-week run atop on Billboard’s Mainstream Rock chart.
1996 Rage Against The Machine make their national T.V. debut on Saturday Night Live. They hang U.S. flags upside down on their amps (protesting the show’s host Steve Forbes of Forbes Magazine and General Electric, owner of NBC, SNL’s network). And after “Bulls On Parade” the band is not allowed to perform another song.
2000 Metallica files a lawsuit against Napster over file sharing. Rightly or wrongly, Metallica are seen as record industry shills. It practically wrecks their credibility. Napster doesn’t fare any better.
2009 Legendary Wall Of Sound producer Phil Spector (The Beatles, John Lennon, George Harrison, Tina Turner, Righteous Brothers) is found guilty of second-degree murder in the ’03 shooting death of actress Lana Clarkson. A Los Angeles Superior Court jury deliberates for nine days before finding the verdict. A mistrial was declared in ’07 following a jury deadlock.
2010 Public Image Ltd. launch their first U.S. tour in 18 years at Club Nokia in L.A. “What a f***ing audience,” says frontman John Lydon. “The only one spitting is me.”
2011 U2’s 360⁰ tour is the highest grossing tour of all time following three concerts in Sao Paulo, Brazil. The group’s $558 million in earnings tops the Rolling Stones’ “A Bigger Bang” trek.
2013 Deftones bassist Chi Cheng passes away. He had been in a coma-like semi- conscious state since an ’08 car accident.
2019 Pearl Jam are the official Record Store Day ambassador for independent record stores around the world. “(Record stores are) a place to learn. It’s a place to have fun. And it’s a place to discover new music,” Pearl Jam guitarist Mike McCready says in a statement.” Record Store Day was founded in ’08 to draw attention to the 1,400 independent record stores operating in the U.S.
2022 Poison frontman Bret Michaels, who’s a Type 1 diabetic, backs the Affordable Insulin Now Act, which implements a price cap for insulin for those with certain health insurance and Medicare plans.
2022 The Library of Congress announces that Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” and Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin’” have been selected to be added to the National Recording Registry. Both are multi-platinum songs with over a billion streams each.
2023 A film chronicling Metallica’s 11th studio album, “72 Seasons,” is screened in cinemas worldwide. Every song on the album has its own video and commentary from the band.
2023 Former Iron Maiden vocalist Blaze Bayley undergoes triple bypass surgery following a recent heart attack.
2024 “The Glass” tops Billboard’s Mainstream Rock Airplay chart. The Foo Fighters’ third consecutive #1 follows “Rescued” and “Under You.” All three are from the band’s eleventh studio album, “But Here We Are.”
2024 Bassist Dan Lilker rejoins Anthrax for the first time in 40 years, appearing onstage at The Metal Fest in Mexico. He steps in for Frank Bello who is sitting out a short run of dates for “personal reasons.” An original Anthrax member, Lilker played on the band’s debut album, “Fistful Of Metal.”
2025 It’s “Coheed And Cambria Day” in Nyack, New York. The band returns to the community that supported them and provided their earliest notoriety to accept the key to Nyack and perform a short acoustic set.
