This Day in History: 2023-10-21

ROCKTOBER 21^st

Evanescence’s “The Open Door” tops the Billboard 200 chart. Selling 450,000 copies in its first week of release, the album only needs five-weeks to pass the 1-million sales mark. 2006

“.5: The Gray Chapter” by Slipknot is out. The group’s fifth studio album is their first in six years. Bassist Paul Gray died in ’10 (the album’s title being a reference to him). 2014

The Pretty Reckless unveil their third studio album, “Who You Selling For.”  “We had so much we wanted to say, it was like shaking a can of soda on tour, and then when we started writing we cracked the seal,” says frontwoman Taylor Momsen about the album’s songs.  2016

The set reaches #13 on the Billboard 200 with the lead single “Take Me Down” topping Billboard’s Mainstream Rock chart.

MORE TODAY IN ROCK…

The Go-Go’s Charlotte Caffey has a birthday. The guitarist-songwriter hails from Santa Monica, CA. 1953

One of Elvis Presley’s best songs, “Jailhouse Rock,” is #1 in the U.S. for the first of seven weeks. 1957

Buddy Holly conducts his last recording session. Among the songs recorded is “It Doesn’t Matter Anymore.” 1958

Nick Oliveri (Queens Of The Stone Age) is born. 1971

The silly “My Ding-A-Ling” is Chuck Berry’s most commercially successful single (#1 in U.S.). Yes, bigger than “Roll Over Beethoven,” or “Johnny B. Goode.” 1972

Queen unleashes their single “Killer Queen.”  1975

A cocaine overdose claims the life of Blind Melon singer Shannon Hoon in New Orleans.  1995

Radiohead’s “Kid A” is #1 on the Billboard 200.  2000

Nightwish fires vocalist Tarja Turunen.  2005

Alice In Chains are among more than 20 bands that perform in different cities across North America as part of MySpace.com’s Rock For Darfur initiative to help the battle-torn region of Sudan. A.I.C. play in Winston-Salem, NC, and a portion of profits benefit the Oxfam humanitarian organization. 2006

Neil Young’s 20th annual Bridge School Benefit Concert gets underway. The two-day event at the Shoreline Amphitheater in Mountain View, CA, features Pearl Jam, Foo Fighters and Nine Inch Nails’ Trent Reznor, who gives a rare acoustic performance. Proceeds go to the nonprofit learning organization for physically or verbally impaired children that Young’s wife co-founded. 2006

Sandy West, founding member (along with Joan Jett) of the all-female ’70s power-pop group, the Runaways (“Cherry Bomb”), dies of lung cancer at age 47. “We shared the dream of girls playing Rock n’ Roll,” says Jett. “Sandy was an exuberant and powerful drummer.” 2006

Always go to IHOP after a gig. Kid Rock is arrested for simple battery early in the morning after a scuffle with a patron who argued with a woman in Rock’s entourage at the Waffle House in Atlanta. Rock and five other “associates” are taken into police custody. They’re released after posting a bond. 2007

Tom Petty’s “Greatest Hits” is #2 on the Billboard chart in the week following Petty’s death.  The ’94 compilation is lodged behind Country singer Shania Twain’s comeback album “Now.”  2017

Several My Chemical Romance singles from the ’06 album “The Black Parade” are certified gold (500,00 units) and multi-platinum.  The platinum songs are “Welcome To The Black Parade” (5-million units sold), “Teenagers” (4-million units) and “Famous Last Words” (1-million units). The gold singles are “Dead!,” “Cancer,” “Mama” and “I Don’t Love You.”  2021