What happened on December 11
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196165 yrs ago
The Marvelettes give Motown its first No. 1 with "Please Mr. Postman"
The Marvelettes' single reached the top of the Hot 100 this week, the first time a Motown record had done so. It also sold a million copies.
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196858 yrs ago
The Rolling Stones start filming Rock and Roll Circus
Over two days the Stones hosted The Who, Jethro Tull and the Dirty Mac, a one-off group with John Lennon and Eric Clapton. Apart from one clip, the show went unreleased until 1996.
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198244 yrs ago
The Jam play their farewell show in Brighton
An extra date at the Brighton Conference Centre became the band's last concert. Within months Paul Weller had launched the Style Council with keyboardist Mick Talbot.
Play on Spotify Source: The Jam - Wikipedia -
198244 yrs ago
Toni Basil's "Mickey" tops the Hot 100
Basil's single spent this one week at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 before Hall & Oates took over with "Maneater."
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1803223 yrs ago
French composer Hector Berlioz is born
The French composer, conductor and critic introduced his Symphonie fantastique in 1830.
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1916110 yrs ago
Pérez Prado, the King of the Mambo, is born in Cuba
His big-band mambos travelled the world. His "Cherry Pink and Apple Blossom White" held No. 1 in America for ten weeks in 1955, and he wrote "Mambo No. 5."
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1926100 yrs ago
Blues singer Big Mama Thornton is born
Her 1952 recording of "Hound Dog" spent seven weeks at No. 1 on the R&B chart. Janis Joplin's band later took her "Ball 'n' Chain" to a huge audience.
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194482 yrs ago
Brenda Lee, "Little Miss Dynamite," is born
She recorded "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" at 13 in 1958. Sixty-five years later, in December 2023, it finally hit No. 1 on the Hot 100, with Lee aged 78.
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197353 yrs ago
Brooklyn rapper Yasiin Bey (Mos Def) is born
He teamed with Talib Kweli as Black Star in 1996, then won strong reviews for his 1999 solo debut, Black on Both Sides.
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196462 yrs ago
Sam Cooke is shot dead days before "A Change Is Gonna Come" single
He was killed at a Los Angeles motel, and an edited single of his civil-rights song reached shops two weeks later. It grew into an anthem of the movement.
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201214 yrs ago
Sitar master Ravi Shankar dies at 92
George Harrison travelled to India in 1966 to study sitar with him. He also played the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967 and Woodstock in 1969.
Nothing matches these filters on December 11.