This Day in Rock History: April 7

Breakthrough Hits and Milestones

• 1978: The Police released their first-ever single, "Roxanne," from their debut album Outlandos d'Amour. It initially failed to chart but was re-released a year later, peaking at No. 12 on the UK singles chart.
• 1979: The top album on the Billboard 200 chart on this day was Minute by Minute. This Doobie Brothers album stayed on the Billboard chart for 87 weeks and was the band's last album with members John Hartman and Jeff Baxter.
• 2002: With his "Unchained Melody" cover song, originally performed by Rock & Roll Hall of Famers the Righteous Brothers, Gareth Gates debuted at No. 1 on the U.K. singles chart. The song stayed on top for four weeks.

Cultural Milestones

• 1956: Hosted by DJ Alan Freed, CBS broadcast the first regularly scheduled rock 'n' roll show. The show, named Rock 'n' Roll Dance Party, aired until the early '60s.
• 1962: Mick Jagger and Keith Richards went to a London blues club and saw their future bandmate Brian Jones perform for the first time. The two were playing in a local band called Little Boy Blue and the Blue Boys, but hadn't yet considered a full-time musical career at that point.
• 1975: Deep Purple guitarist Richie Blackmore officially announced that he was leaving the band. His final show with Deep Purple was in Paris, and he confirmed a couple of months later that he was starting a new band called Rainbow with vocalist Ronnie James Dio.
• 1985: Wham!, whose cofounder George Michael was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2023, was the first Western pop act to perform a tour in China. The duo was in China for 10 days, performing in Beijing and Canton.
• 2008: Bob Dylan was awarded the Pulitzer Prize, becoming the first rock musician to get this honor. It was seen as a major cultural shift, as the Pulitzer committee had previously favored jazz and classical music over rock.

Notable Recordings and Performances

• 1968: Just a few days after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., Jimi Hendrix, B.B. King, and Buddy Guy gathered for an all-night jam session at The Generation Club in New York City. The event is commonly referred to as The King's Jam, and the location later became Hendrix's Electric Lady Studios.
• 1978: Warner Bros. Records Inc. released Prince's debut album, For You. Although it wasn't commercially successful, the album's single "Soft and Wet" was the artist's first to reach the Hot 100 chart.
• 1981: Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band started their first full-scale European tour at the Congress Centrum in Hamburg, Germany. They had played a few shows in Europe before, but this full tour skyrocketed their popularity on the Old Continent.
• 1988: While performing a gallows stunt, Alice Cooper was almost hanged for real. The safety wire snapped, leaving Cooper hanging in the air until his road crew rescued him; unperturbed, he continued the show.
• 1990: Elton John performed an emotional rendition of "Candle in the Wind" at Farm Aid IV, at the Hoosier Dome in Indianapolis, Indiana. He dedicated it to AIDS activist Ryan White, in a show that also featured Guns N' Roses, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, Bonnie Raitt, and John Mellencamp.

Industry Changes and Challenges

• 1967: San Francisco's KMPX-FM radio station became the first to play deeper album cuts instead of only focusing on singles. DJ Tom "Big Daddy" Donahue was responsible for this change in format, and they started playing lesser-known songs and full albums from beginning to end, including The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.
• 1994: At the Peninsula Hotel in Beverly Hills, California, Courtney Love was arrested on suspicion of cocaine possession. Nearly 24 hours later, her husband, Kurt Cobain, was found dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
• 2008: At a private event, the Stone Temple Pilots announced they would reunite for a 65-day tour. The presence of Scott Weiland, the band's lead vocalist, confirmed his return to the band after a long absence due to substance abuse issues.