Today in Rock and Roll History

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Today in the History of Rock.......

1955
Solomon Burke releases his first recording, "Christmas Presents" b/w "When I'm All Alone" - on Apollo Records.

1960
Ray Charles has his first Top Ten album with 'The Genius Hits the Road,' his debut on the ABC label after leaving Atlantic Records.

1966
After being convicted of possessing heroin and marijuana, Ray Charles is given a five-year suspended sentence. A drug user since the age of 16, he thereupon kicks his heroin addiction at a California sanitarium.

1966
Number of British singles in 'Billboard's' Top 100: 13

1966
The New Vaudeville Band reaches #1 with "Winchester Cathedral".

1967
The first successful human heart transplant takes place in Cape Town, South Africa.

1968
NBC airs "Elvis," a television special that revitalizes Elvis' career as a rock and roll performer.

1972
I Am Woman (Helen Reddy) was a hit.

1973
Bob Wills suffers a crippling stroke in his sleep after the first day of sessions for a album that is released as 'For the Last Time'. He remains in a coma until his death.

1976
Bob Marley and his entourage are attacked by gunman. A wounded but undeterred Marley electrifies a crowd two nights later at a free "Smile Jamaica" concert.

1977
In the thick of the punk-rock blitzkrieg, Paul McCartney tops the U.K. charts for nine weeks with the pastoral waltz "Mull of Kintyre." It surpasses the Beatles' "She Loves You" as the best-selling U.K. single of all time; curiously, it is only a B-side (of the "Girls School" single) in America.

1978
Le Freak (Chic) was a hit.

1983
Tears For Fears hits #24 in the UK with "The Way You Are".

1988
Al Green makes the Top 40 for the first time in over a decade with "Put a Little Love in Your Heart," a duet with Annie Lennox.

1991
MTV and Dodge strike major sponsorship deal, marking the first pro-social partnership for MTV with an advertiser in this product category.

1994
Goldie hits #49 in the UK with "Inner City Life".