Rock and Metal History, a day like today February 26
1928: Fats Domino (Antoine Dominique Domino Jr. ) was born in New Orleans, Louisiana.One of the pioneers of rock and roll music, Domino sold more than 65 million records."The Fat Man" "is cited by some historians as the first rock and roll single and the first to sell more than 1 million copies".
1932: Johnny Cash was born in Kingsland, Arkansas; died September 12, 2003 from complications of diabetes in Nashville, Tennessee.
1943: Bob Hite, lead singer and harmonica player of Canned Heat, was born in Torrance, California; died of a heart attack brought on by drugs April 6, 1981 in Los Angeles, California.
1945: Rocker Mitch Ryder is born William S. Levise Jr in Hamtramck, Michigan.
1950: Jonathan Cain (birth name Jonathan Leonard Friga), great keyboardist and songwriter of the Babys, Journey and Bad English, was born in Chicago, Illinois.
1964: The Beatles record "And I Love Her" and "I Should Have Known Better." and worked on the final mixes for "Can't Buy Me Love" and "You Can't Do That" at Abbey Road Studios in London.
1965: Jimmy Page released his first solo single "She Just Satisfies."
1968: Tim Commerford, bass guitarist with Rage Against the Machine and Audioslave, was born in Irvine, California.
1970: The Beatles album "Beatles Again" was released in the U.S. It contained the song "Hey Jude."
1973: War released the single 'The Cisco Kid".
1977: The Eagles' "New Kid In Town" hits #1, where it will stay for one week.
1978: Jefferson Starship released the single "Count on Me".
1979: The Sex Pistols released the album "The Great Rock N' Roll Swindle."
1981: The seventh studio album from the amazing Judas Priest,Point of Entry, was released. This album features the Metal classics: Hot Rockin’ and Heading Out To The Higway.
1987: The first five The Beatles albums, Please Please Me, With the Beatles, A Hard Day's Night, Beatles for Sale and Help! were released on Compact disc.
1991: Roxette released the single "Joyri. The single "The One to Sing the Blues" peaked at #45. The album was the final Motörhead album to feature Phil "Philthy Animal" Taylor on drums in its entirety.
1995: Former Led Zeppelin duo Jimmy Page and Robert Plant kick off a year-long world tour in Pensacola, Florida, supporting their live No Quarter reunion album.
1997: Ben Raleigh, songwriter who wrote "Tell Laura I Love Her" (Ray Peterson's hit in 1960) as well as "Scooby Doo Where Are You" from the popular cartoon series, died at age 83 in Hollywood, California.
2001: The Darkness made their live debut, performing at a tribute gig at a London club to raise money for the family of a friend who committed suicide earlier that month.
2019: English drummer Andy Anderson died of cancer aged 68. He is best known for his work with The Cure playing on the singles ‘Love Cats’ and ‘The Caterpillar’. He also worked with many other artists including Steve Hillage, Edwyn Collins, Mike Oldfield, The Gun Club and Peter Gabriel.
