Tuesday in The College of Rock n’ Roll Knowledge: 11/24/2020

It’s Tuesday Bluesday in the College of Rock n’ Roll Knowledge, and we press on with some great events in our musical history.

***The Kingston Trio made musical history in 1958***

Here’s today’s classic rock lesson:

November 24, 1958: The Kingston Trio became the first group to have a #1 album. Only solo artists had achieved that prior to them.

November 24, 1961: Howlin’ Wolf arrived in London for his first European tour.

November 24, 1965: The Young Rascals begin recording Good Lovin’ which will hit #1 early the next year.

November 24, 1966: The Beatles begin recording sessions for Sargeant Pepper’s Lonely Heart’s Club Band by laying down tracks for Strawberry Fields Forever. In the end, the song doesn’t make the album, but it will appear on Magical Mystery Tour the following year.

November 24, 1972: ABC-TV’s In Concert debuts with Alice Cooper, Chuck Berry, Blood, Sweat & Tears, Poco, and The Allman Brothers Band. Don Kirschner is the producer, and he also produces The Monkees.

November 24, 1979: The Eagles spend a fourth week on top of the album charts with The Long Run.

November 24, 1980: Steely Dan releases the single Hey Nineteen, one of my all-time favorite songs.

November 24, 1985: Blues pioneer Big Joe Turner died of kidney failure at the age of 74. Turner was one of the first artists to ever play rock n’ roll when he wrote and recorded Shake, Rattle and Roll in 1954.

November 24, 1991: Freddie Mercury dies of bronchopneumonia, a complication from AIDS, at his home in London at the age of 45. He had just publicly acknowledged having the disease the day before. His friend (and nothing more), Dave Clark, of The Dave Clark Five, was with him when he died.