This is a list of notable events in music that took place in the year 1962.
This is a list of notable events in music that took place in the year 1961.
Earl Cyril Palmer was an American drummer. Considered one of the inventors of rock and roll, he is a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Jackie DeShannon is an American singer-songwriter and radio broadcaster with a string of hit song credits from the 1960s onwards, as both singer and composer. She was one of the first female singer-songwriters of the rock and roll period. She is best known as the singer of "What the World Needs Now Is Love" and "Put a Little Love in Your Heart", and as the writer of "When You Walk in the Room" and "Bette Davis Eyes", which became hits for The Searchers and Kim Carnes, respectively.
Liberty Records was a record label founded in the United States by chairman Simon Waronker in 1955 with Alvin Bennett as president and Theodore Keep as chief engineer. It was reactivated in 2001 in the United Kingdom and had two previous revivals.
The Funk Brothers were a group of Detroit-based session musicians who performed the backing to most Motown recordings from 1959 until the company moved to Los Angeles in 1972.
Melbourne Robert Cranshaw was an American jazz bassist. His career spanned the heyday of Blue Note Records to his later involvement with the Musicians Union. He is perhaps best known for his long association with Sonny Rollins. Cranshaw performed in Rollins's working band on and off for over five decades, starting with a live appearance at the 1959 Playboy jazz festival in Chicago and on record with the 1962 album The Bridge.
Shindig! was an American musical variety series which aired on ABC from September 16, 1964 to January 8, 1966. The show was hosted by Jimmy O'Neill, a disc jockey in Los Angeles, who also created the show along with his wife Sharon Sheeley, British producer Jack Good, and production executive Art Stolnitz. The original pilot was rejected by ABC and David Sontag, then executive producer of ABC, redeveloped and completely redesigned the show. A new pilot with a new cast of artists was shot starring Sam Cooke. That pilot aired as the premiere episode.
Robert Thomas Velline, known professionally as Bobby Vee, was an American singer who was a teen idol in the early 1960s and also appeared in films. According to Billboard magazine, he had thirty-eight Hot 100 chart hits, ten of which reached the Top 20. He had six gold singles in his career.
Norman Rae Taurog was an American film director and screenwriter. From 1920 to 1968, Taurog directed 180 films. At the age of 32, he received the Academy Award for Best Director for Skippy (1931), becoming the youngest person to win the award for eight and a half decades until Damien Chazelle won for La La Land in 2017. He was later nominated for Best Director for the film Boys Town (1938). He directed some of the best-known actors of the twentieth century, including his nephew Jackie Cooper, Spencer Tracy, Mickey Rooney, Judy Garland, Deanna Durbin, Fred Astaire, Gene Kelly, Deborah Kerr, Peter Lawford, Dean Martin, Jerry Lewis, Elvis Presley and Vincent Price. Taurog directed six Martin and Lewis films, and nine Elvis Presley films, more than any other director.
Thomas Joseph Tedesco was an American guitarist and studio musician in Los Angeles and Hollywood. He was part of the loose collective of the area's leading session musicians later popularly known as The Wrecking Crew, who played on thousands of studio recordings in the 1960s and 1970s, including several hundred Top 40 hits.
The beach party film is an American film genre of feature films which were produced and released between 1963 and 1968, created by American International Pictures (AIP), beginning with their surprise hit, Beach Party, in July 1963. With this film, AIP is credited with creating the genre. In addition to the AIP films, several contributions to the genre were produced and released by major and independent studios alike. According to various sources, the genre comprises over 30 films, with the lower-budget AIP films being the most profitable.
That'll Be the Day is a 1973 British coming of age drama film directed by Claude Whatham, written by Ray Connolly, and starring David Essex, Rosemary Leach and Ringo Starr. Set primarily in the late 1950s and early 1960s, it tells the story of Jim MacLaine (Essex), a British teenager raised by his single mother (Leach). Jim rejects society's conventions and pursues a hedonistic and sexually loose lifestyle, harming others and damaging his close relationships. The cast also featured several prominent musicians who lived through the era portrayed, including Starr, Billy Fury, Keith Moon and John Hawken. The film's success led to a sequel, Stardust, that followed the life of Jim MacLaine through the 1960s and 1970s.
Hollywood a Go Go was a Los Angeles–based music variety show that ran in syndication from 1965 to 1966. The show was hosted by Sam Riddle, with music by The Sinners and dancing by The Gazzarri Dancers. It was filmed at the KHJ-TV studios in Los Angeles. Rights to surviving footage of the show are now represented by Retro Video, Inc.
The Schaefer Music Festival in Central Park was a recurring music festival held in the summer between 1967 and 1976 at Wollman Rink in New York City's Central Park. It featured a number of notable performances. The sponsorship was taken over by Dr. Pepper in 1977 and the name changed to the Dr. Pepper Central Park Music Festival until the location of the festival was moved to Pier 84 in 1981 and the Wollman Skating Rink ceased being used as a concert venue.
The History of Rock and Roll is a radio documentary on rock and roll music, originally syndicated in 1969, and again in 1978 and 1981. It is currently distributed as both a 2+1⁄2-minute short feature on internet networks, and a two-hour weekly series hosted by Wink Martindale, distributed to radio stations nationwide. This list below reflects the contents of the more widely heard 1978 version of The History of Rock & Roll.
"For Your Precious Love" is a song written by Arthur Brooks, Richard Brooks and Jerry Butler, and performed by Jerry Butler and The Impressions in 1958. The song was ranked #335 on Rolling Stone magazine's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time in 2010.
Happening '68 was a rock-and-roll variety show produced by Dick Clark Productions, which aired on the American Broadcasting Company (ABC) network. The show followed American Bandstand on Saturday afternoons. Happening '68 premiered on January 6, 1968 and was popular enough that ABC added a weekday spin-off. It's Happening ran on Mondays through Fridays from July 15, 1968 through October 25, 1968. When 1968 ended, Happening '68 became just Happening, which was canceled in October 1969.
