TIM MAGUIRE

Julia Fiona Roberts is 49 today.

Julia Roberts wanted to be a veterinarian, but ended up signing
with Click Modeling Agency in New York.

Elvis Presley made his second appearance on “The Ed Sullivan Show” and
sang, “Don’t Be Cruel” and “Love Me Tender.” After Señor Wences’s
ventriloquism act, Elvis returned to perform “Love Me.” During this song
the camera moved in for a close-up of Elvis’ face, and then, as if on cue,
he smiled and snarled his upper lip. The studio audience went wild. Elvis
closed with another performance of his hit, “Hound Dog.” Again viewers
were shown a head-to-toe Elvis.

Following the broadcast, which again enjoyed huge ratings, Elvis was
burned in effigy by angry crowds in Nashville and St. Louis. The popular
press was also critical of his style and movements. Rock and roll was
increasingly attacked and there was growing opposition to its supposedly
negative influence on America’s youth. The more the establishment
pushed back, the more Elvis’s support grew from millions of teenagers.

Bruce Springsteen was simultaneously on the magazine cover of both"Time" and "Newsweek." This was the first time it happened
for a rock star.

Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen turned 67 in September.

ROSS SIMPSON

John Marwood Cleese is 77 today. He once studied Law at
Cambridge.

2001

According to the documentary History of Rock ‘n’ Roll, Ben E.
King had no intention of recording the song “Stand By Me” 
himself. King had written it for The Drifters, who passed on
recording it.

The song went to No. 1 on the R&B charts and was a Top
Ten hit when it peaked at no. 4 on the charts. "Stand by
Me" was ranked 122nd on Rolling Stone‘s list of the 500
Greatest Songs of All Time. In 1999, BMI named it as the
fourth most-performed song of the 20th century, with
about seven million performances.

Benjamin Earl King (September 28, 1938 – April 30, 2015)