May 26th

May 26th

1967 “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” is released in the U.K.

The U.S. release of The Beatles’ eighth studio album is a week later.

Praised for its innovations in songwriting, production and graphic design, the album spends 27 weeks at #1 on the U.K.’s Record Retailer chart.

1973 The Beatles compilation “1967–1970” (aka the “Blue Album”) tops the U.S. album chart. 

2010 “Black Gives Way To Blue,” Alice In Chains’ first album in 14 years, goes gold (500,000 units shipped).

It entered the Billboard 200 at #5 with first-week sales exceeding 125,000 copies. The singles “Check My Brain” and “Your Decision” went to #1 on the Rock Songs chart.

2023 Pantera’s major label debut, “Cowboys From Hell” released in ‘90, is certified double platinum.

The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) acknowledges sales in excess of 2-million copies in the U. S.

The set has been called one of the most influential Metal albums of the ’90s. 

MORE TODAY IN ROCK…

1942 The Band’s drummer, Levon Helm, has a birthday. He’s from Marvell, AR.

1948 One-time hostess at Bob’s Big Boy Hamburgers, Stevie Nicks achieves even greater fame as a lead singer with Fleetwood Mac. It’s her birthday.

1964 Lenny Kravitz is born into a showbiz family in Brooklyn.

1969 All we are saying… John Lennon and Yoko Ono begin their eight-day bed-in for peace at Montreal’s Fairmont Queen Elizabeth Hotel (Suite 1742). During their stay, the couple is interviewed by journalists from around the world.

1973 One of the few mega-successful Rock instrumentals, “Frankenstein,” by the Edgar Winter Group, is #1 on the U.S. pop survey.

1977 KISS provide Marvel Comics with a vial of their blood to mix with the red ink used to print their comic book. 

2000 Motley Crue drummer Tommy Lee begins a five-day jail sentence for violating his parole by drinking alcohol.  

2004 Blink-182 (Tom DeLonge, Mark Hoppus and Travis Barker on crutches) help paint a home in Harrisburg, PA, as part of “Raise The Roof,” a partnership between Clear Channel Entertainment and Habitat for Humanity, which provides homes for people in need. The band plays a show that evening at the Star Pavilion in nearby Hershey.

2008 Paul McCartney receives an honorary Doctor of Music degree from Yale University in New Haven, during the school’s commencement ceremony. A Yale band plays “Hey Jude” as McCartney is presented with the doctorate.

2011 Alice Cooper cancels his first concert in 30 years. “Alice got food poisoning somewhere on our trip between Phoenix, Mexico City and Santiago (where the concert was scheduled). Once we were on the plane to Santiago after an 8-hour layover in Mexico City, Alice started to feel ill,” says Coop’s rep. Alice is back on stage the following evening.

2015 The Vaccines question the decision to make The Who one of the headline acts at Glastonbury saying that Florence & The Machine should have been given the honor instead. “The Who are such a safe booking,” says The Vaccines’ Justin Young. “People are complaining about the lack of women at the top of festival bills and the lack of new artists.”

2016 The Duff McKagan documentary “It’s So Easy And Other Lies: Live At The Moore” is screened in the U.S. Directed by Christopher Duddy, the Guns N’ Roses bassist tells his life story during a ’13 live performance in Seattle.

2017 In the week following Chris Cornell’s death, his work (solo, with Soundgarden and Audioslave) is streamed 32.5 million times (up 549%), his album catalog sells 38,000 copies (up 1,732%), and his songs garner 144,000 downloads (up 2,222%).  The top song is Soundgarden’s “Black Hole Sun.”  

2017 Disturbed’s cover of the Simon & Garfunkel’s ‘60’s hit “The Sound Of Silence” is officially certified double platinum (2 million units) by the Recording Industry Association of America.  

2021 Rage Against The Machine drummer Brad Wilk undergoes surgery to repair a torn meniscus. “Got a lot of hard notes outa this knee,” Wilk writes on Instagram. 

2022 Yes drummer Alan White passes away at home (in the Seattle area) after a short illness at age 72.  White joined Yes in ’72. 

2023 After a fan in the audience displays a sign that includes Confederate flag imagery during a Pantera concert in Sofia, Bulgaria, frontman Philip Anselmo publicly “disavows” the Confederate flag… a symbol the band has used in stage production and merchandise design. 

2025 Linkin Park takes the Favorite Rock Song honor at the American Music Awards with “The Emptiness Machine.”