Classic Rock: A Journey Through Timeless Music

Ronnie James Dio, the powerful voice for Elf, Rainbow, Black Sabbath, Dio and Heaven & Hell, lost his battle with stomach cancer at the age of 67.

When I found out she used to teach English at Gainesville high School, I asked her if she had ever taught a student named Tom Petty....

The Animals record "House Of The Rising Sun" in one take at De Lane Lea Studios on Kingsway in London. The song would top the UK singles chart the following July and reach number one in America two months later. In 1999, the record was given a Grammy Hall of Fame Award

Rudy Lewis, the lead singer of The Drifters on their hits "On Broadway" and "Up On The Roof", died under mysterious circumstances the night before the group was set to record "Under the Boardwalk". He was 28 years old. Rather than reschedule the studio session to find a new front man, former Drifters backup singer Johnny Moore...

Songwhip: Bush - Alien

Sony introduces the Walkman, the first portable audio cassette player. Over the next thirty years they will sell over 385 million Walkmans in cassette, CD, mini-disc and digital file versions, but later struggled against Apple's iPod and other new devices.

I hope Tom Petty can be grandfathered in, even though it's not "classic rock" era?

While on sabbatical in France, The Doors' lead singer, Jim Morrison died of heart failure and acute respiratory distress. News of his death wasn't made public until after his burial in a Paris cemetery on July 9th. Interviewer Gary James would later speak to Morrison's brother-in-law Alan Graham about the circumstances...

"Little Richard" Penniman, a founding father of Rock 'n' Roll, died of bone cancer at the age of 87. Placing just nine songs in the Billboard Top 40 between 1956 and 1958, he nonetheless influenced dozens of prominent musicians and set the standard for showmanship with his pompadour hairdo, over the top makeup, and glass-beaded...

The Cooper-Hewitt Museum, a part of the Smithsonian Institute, auctions off John Lennon's psychedelic-painted 1965 Rolls-Royce Phantom V at Sotheby's in New York. The car, which Lennon donated to the museum in 1977, was sold to the Ripley's Believe It Or Not museum for a then record price of $2,299,000. When John had the car...

Jefferson Airplane make the cover of Life magazine under the headline: "Music That's Hooked the Whole Vibrating World. The New Rock." Photographer Art Kane snapped the band in plexiglas boxes in front of a mound of gypsum on the bank of New York's East River across from the United Nations Building. The cost of the issue was 35...

Peter Criss dropped out of KISS and was replaced by drummer Eric Carr. Carr was first heard on the concept album, "The Elder" in 1981. Both Ace Frehley and Criss had been opposed to the idea of "The Elder" and when it bombed, Frehley also quit the band. Criss had co-written KISS' biggest hit single, "Beth", and the band had...