July 9 Music et al
Roots of Rock
July 9, 1955: “Rock Around the Clock” became the first rock and roll recording to hit the top of Billboard’s Pop charts, a feat it repeated on charts around the world. (see Aug 21)
July 9 Music et al
Dick Clark
July 9, 1956: Dick Clark took over as the host of Philadelphia’s TV dance show on WFIL, called Bandstand. He got the job after the former host Bob Horn was arrested for DUI. The show would go national on ABC the following year, with the name changed to American Bandstand. (see Sept 9)
July 9 Music et al
Bob Dylan
July 9, 1962: Dylan recorded “Blowin’ In the Wind” A few weeks earlier when he performed it live he stated, “This here ain’t no protest song or anything like that, ’cause I don’t write no protest songs” while onstage at Gerde’s Folk City in Greenwich Village, talking about a song he claims to have written in just 10 minutes. (see July 30)
Cultural Milestone
July 9, 1962: the first one-man exhibition for artist Andy Warhol opens at Ferus Gallery in Los Angeles, consisting of 32 silk-screened portraits of Campbell’s soup cans. (see March 5, 1963)
The Beatles
see Paperback Writer for more
July 9 – 15, 1966: “Paperback Writer” #1 on the Billboard Hot 100. From Rolling Stone magazine: In the annals of Beatles singles, we have what we might think of as a game-starter in “Please Please Me,” a game-ender in something like “Let It Be,” and a host of game-changers, the most important of which is rarely discussed as one of the band’s top efforts.
And yet, “Paperback Writer” – “just a little bluesy song,” according to its modest/understating author, Paul McCartney – which was cut 50 years ago in mid-April 1966, and released May 30th of that year, is perhaps the single that best suggests how the Beatles were about to change things up in their most radical way yet.