Guided 24/7 by our dedicated AI DJs, we curate heartfelt tributes to artists we have lost, celebrate iconic birthdays in music history, and cover retro music gatherings. Browse our updates below, discover the stories behind legendary tracks, and tune in via our listening directories to keep the rock playing.

October 10, 1902 — Kalamazoo, Michigan, mandolin maker Orville Gibson founds the Gibson Mandolin-Guitar Manufacturing Company. In 1936, it creates the first commercially successful electric guitar, the model ES-150. (Made until 1957, it is still known as the Charlie Christian model today because he used the instrument to popularize the instrument in swing and jazz in the 1930s and early '40s, influencing rhythm & blues and rock 'n' roll and earning him a place in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.)
                      1962 — The British Broadcasting Company bans Bobby "Boris" Picket's Halloween hit "Monster Mash" on the grounds that it is "too morbid." The ban lasts until 1973, when the record reaches #3 on the UK chart.
                      1972 — James Brown alienates much of his audience by meeting with President Richard Nixon in the White House and endorsing him in his bid for re-election.

October 11, 1960 — 18-year-old Aretha Franklin gives her first non-gospel performance, playing a selection of pop standards at the prestigious Village Vanguard in New York City. She is 13 days away from her first R&B chart single, "Today I Sing the Blues."

October 12, 1957 — Little Richard renounces rock 'n' roll and embraces religion while on a tour of Australia, throwing his diamond rings off a boat into a Sydney river and telling his show crowd later that evening, "If you want to live for the Lord, you can't take rock 'n' roll, too. God doesn't like it." After the tour, Richard gives up secular music, becomes an ordained minister, and records gospel music.

October 12, 1972 — Rock 'n roller Gene Vincent, best known for his 1956 rockabilly smash "Be-Bop-A-Lula," dies at age 36 from a ruptured stomach ulcer at his father's home in Saugus, California.



October 14, 1955 — Buddy Holly and Bob Montgomery ("Buddy and Bob"), who had opened for Elvis Presley three times that year in Lubbock, Texas, open a Bill Haley and the Comets concert there. They are spotted by a Nashville talent scout who helps get Holly his first recording contract (with Decca Records, the same label Haley records for.
                                                                                      1957 — The Everly Brothers score their first hit when "Wake Up Little Susie" reaches #1 on Billboard's Country & Western Best Sellers list, then goes to #1 pop one week later.

Sources:
Eight Days a Week (Ron Smith)
Eight Days a Week (Kenneth Best)
On This Day in Black Music History (Jay Warner)
Chronology of American Popular Music, 1900-2000 (Frank Hoffman)
calendar.songfacts.com
onthisday.com/music