Music History Today: May 22, 2020

May 22, 1965: The Beatles went to number 1 on the US singles chart with "Ticket To Ride. "

Lennon once claimed that "Ticket to Ride" — the first track the Beatles recorded for the soundtrack to their second feature film, Help!, on February 15th, 1965 — was "one of the earliest heavy-metal records." 

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"It was [a] slightly new sound at the time, because it was pretty f*ckin' heavy for then," Lennon told Rolling Stone in 1970.  

Read more: Rolling Stone

May 22, 1958: Jerry Lee Lewis arrives in London for a tour. Word spreads that Lewis has married his 13-year-old second cousin, Myra Gale Brown, tanking the tour and sending him back home to America a pariah.  

The arrival in the United Kingdom of one of the biggest figures in rock and roll was looked forward to with great anticipation in May of 1958.  

Jerry Lee Lewis &
wife Myra in London

Unbeknownst to the British public and the organizers of the coming tour, Jerry Lee Lewis would be traveling to England as a newly married man, with his pretty young wife in tow. Just how young that wife really was would be revealed on this day in 1958, when Jerry Lee “The Killer” Lewis arrived at Heathrow Airport with his new “child bride.”  

Read more: History

May 22, 1976: Wings started a five week run at Number 1 on the US singles chart with "Silly Love Songs."

1976 was the year of the great disco takeover — the first year when you could plausibly put together a K-Tel compilation of nothing but hit songs with the word “boogie” in the title. And yet Billboard’s number 1 single for the entire year was a song that, if anything, only barely nodded in the direction of disco. This was the attention-seizing power of the post-Beatles soap opera — Paul McCartney could defensively bristle about the value of his own corniness, and the resulting song could be at #1 for a huge chunk of the summer.  

Read more: Stereogum

May 22, 1981: Hall And Oates' "Kiss on My List" is awarded a Gold record. 

From their first hit in 1974 through their heyday in the '80s, Daryl Hall and John Oates' smooth, catchy take on Philly soul brought them enormous commercial success -- including six number one singles and six platinum albums. 

Hall & Oates

Hall & Oates' music was remarkably well constructed and produced; at their best, their songs were filled with strong hooks and melodies that adhered to soul traditions without being a slave to them, incorporating elements of new wave and hard rock.  

Read more: All Music

Ticket To Ride
The Beatles