.

October 30-31, 1976 — Elvis Presley's final recording session is held overnight in the Jungle Room at his Graceland mansion amidst carved fur-covered furniture, a lime green shag carpet on the floor and ceiling, and a waterfall wall bathed in red light. Having recorded the evening before his final chart hit to appear while still alive, "Way Down" b/w "Pledging My Love," Presley tapes only one song this night — a cover of the Jim Reeves hit "He'll Have To Go," which winds up on the album Moody Blue, released only four weeks before his August 16, 1977 death.

October 31, 1962 — The "Monster Mash" by Bobby "Boris" Picket rules the airwaves, becoming the most popular Halloween song of all time.
                     1963 — American TV variety show host Ed Sullivan sees 50,000 fans cheer the Beatles at London's Heathrow Airport and books them for three appearances on his program for early 1964.
                     1964 — Landing in Boston, Ray Charles is arrested when heroin and marijuana are found during a search at customs. He enters rehab to avoid jail.

November, 1923 — Columbia Records begins marketing its rapidly expanding blues, jazz, and gospel catalog through a specifically designated "race series," separating it from its popular series. Included are such luminaries as Bessie Smith, Clara Smith, Bo Carter (Chatmon), Ethel Waters, Lonnie Johnson, Lil Armstrong (Satchmo's wife), and Edith Wilson.



November 1, 1894 — Billboard Advertising, a trade publication dealing with all types of billboard ads, begins publication. Within a few years, it will begin focusing on entertainment shows advertised by billboards. By the 1930s, Billboard, as it has come to be known, covers radio and juke box record sales.

                       1955 — James Brown cuts his first record, "Please, Please, Please" for King Records. Boss Syd Nathan complains, "That's the worst piece of crap I've heard in my life," but releases it anyway on the company's Federal Records subsidiary so the producer can be humiliated when it fails. Instead, the disc becomes a #5 R&B hit, later enshrined in the Grammy Hall of Fame, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and at #142 on the 2010 The Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Hits of All Time.
                       1963 — The Beatles make their first appearance as tour headliners at a show in Gloucestershire, England.

November 2, 1984 — Marvin Gay Sr., father of singer Marvin Gaye (who added the "e" when he joined Motown) is found guilty of manslaughter in the shooting death of his son earlier in the year. Los Angeles courts, however, rule the action was taken in self-defense and the elder Gay is given a six-year suspended system and five years' probation.

November 3, 1971 — John Lennon flies from London to New York, where he is shot to death nine years later, having never set foot on British soil again.

November 4, 1986 — Soul legend Jerry Butler ("For Your Precious Love," "He Will Break Your Heart") is elected to the Cook County Board of Commissioners from his home district in Chicago, where he serves until 2018.


November 5, 1960 — Country and rockabilly star Johnny Horton ("The Battle of New Orleans,""North to Alaska") dies at age 35 in a head-on collision with a drunk driver near Milano, Texas, after finishing a performance at the Skyline Club in Austin. In an eerie coincidence, his widow Billy Jean's first husband, Hank Williams, had also performed his final show at the same venue just days before his death almost seven years earlier.

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