October 12th

Rocktober 12th


1968 Big Brother & The Holding Company’s “Cheap Thrills” is the #1 album in the U.S. 

The set features Janis Joplin.


1996 The Rolling Stones’ “Rock and Roll Circus” is finally released.

Filmed in ’68, the planned TV special never airs. Aside from the Stones, the show features The Who and a performance by John Lennon (with Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix Experience drummer Mitch Mitchell, and Stones’ guitarist Keith Richards playing bass).


2013 Lorde’s “Royals” is #1 on the Billboard 100

MORE TODAY IN ROCK…

1955 The Smithereens Pat DiNizio is born.

1957 Little Richard quits Rock n’ Roll to attend Oakwood College with the intention of becoming a minister. A near-death experience on a plane while on tour (in Australia) convinces Richard to “do God’s work.” He denounces Rock n’ Roll but returns in a few years (after being ordained).

1958 Jeff Keith, vocalist for Telsa, is born. 

1962 On the comeback trail, Little Richard headlines a show in New Brighton, England. One of the opening acts is the soon-to-be-famous Beatles. Little Richard teaches Paul McCartney his scream. Whooooo.

1971 Rock N’ Roll great, Gene Vincent (“Be-Bop-A-Lula”), passes away. Vincent dies from a ruptured stomach ulcer while visiting his father in California and is interred in the Eternal Valley Memorial Park in Newhall.

1978 Nancy Spungen, girlfriend of Sex Pistols bassist Sid Vicious, dies under mysterious circumstances at the Hotel Chelsea in New York. Spungen is found on the bathroom floor, dead from a single stab wound. Vicious gives the police a variety of stories ranging from how he stabbed Spungen to how she fell on the knife. He is arrested but dies from a heroin overdose while out on bail.

1979 New Found Glory’s lead vocalist, Jordan Isaak Pundik, has a birthday.

1979 Fleetwood Mac’s “Tusk,” the platinum title track from the band’s twelfth album, is released.

1981 “October” is U2’s sophomore set. The album gets mixed reviews and only limited radio play.

2002 “Elvis: 30 #1 Hits” begins a three-week run atop the Billboard 200

2004 John Mellencamp performs at the Milburn Elementary School gym in Baldwin, NY for Nickelodeon’s ‘Speak Up, Rock Out’ contest. The winner is seven-year-old third grader Anthony Viggiano who originates the phrase “I feel tomorrow holds out its hand to me.”

2006 U2’s Bono is in Chicago to promote the (RED) line of products that benefit the fight against AIDS in Africa. He and Oprah Winfrey go shopping at retailers participating in the initiative. The effort is supported by the GAP, Apple, Converse, and others.

2008 A few thousand Nickelback fans are on hand at the Los Angeles Forum to film a Citibank commercial. The ad features the Canadian group performing “Gotta Be Somebody” (a single from their sixth album, “Dark Horse”).

2009 Blue Cheer’s Dickie Peterson dies in Germany of liver cancer at the age of 63. The band crashed into the Top 20 in ’68 with a brutal Heavy Metal remake of Eddie Cochran’s “Summertime Blues.”

2010 Gene Simmons (KISS) speaks out against file sharing at the MIPCOM convention in Cannes, France. “The music industry was asleep at the wheel,” says Simmons. “And (they) didn’t have the balls to sue every fresh-faced, freckle-faced college kid who downloaded material. And so now we’re left with hundreds of thousands of people without jobs.”

2012 Co-headliners Marilyn Manson and Rob Zombie exchange insults during a show at DTE Energy Music Theatre in Clarkston, MI. Manson, upset over an abbreviated set, tells fans “I’m going to kick his (Zombie’s) a**.” When Zombie hits the stage he shouts, “Some tours just don’t go (expletive) together,” and yells ” (expletive) you Marilyn Manson!”

2013 Kings Of Leon’s “Mechanical Bull” debuts at #2, behind Drake, on the Billboard 200. The album sells 110,000 copies in its first week.

2016 Foo Fighters’ lawsuit against Lloyd’s Of London is dismissed. Several Foo Fighters shows were canceled during the band’s ‘15 world tour due to the Paris terrorist attacks and frontman Dave Grohl’s onstage accident which resulted in a broken leg. Lloyd’s Of London, along with several other insurance companies and the insurance broker, were accused of having “failed to pay amounts that even they appear to recognize are due and owing” on insurance claims the band made for the lost concerts.

2019 “Panic Attack,” is #1 on the Mainstream Rock Chart.  The Glorious Sons’ track is from their 2019 album “A War On Everything.” 

2021 Guitarist Robby Krieger (The Doors) publishes his memoir, “Set The Night On Fire: Living, Dying, And Playing With The Doors.”  The story includes his first songwriting session with Jim Morrison –  not to mention everything that came after. 

2021 Several people on Twitter revive sexual misconduct allegations made the previous year against A Day To Remember bassist Joshua Woodard.  The issue leads Woodard to step down so as not to drag the band through the controversary. 

2024 Saturday Night Live mocks the oft-feuding Gallagher bothers (Liam and Noel) after the Oasis’ world reunion tour sells out. The skit portrays the Gallaghers. who for years said Oasis would never get back together, as childish and petulant. When asked about the skit on X Liam responds saying it was “excruciating.” He goes on to criticize the SNL performers. “I wouldn’t expect anything else from them” and “Are they meant to be comedians.”