The King of Rock and Roll teamed up with TV’s reigning variety
program, as Elvis Presley appeared on “The Ed Sullivan Show”
for the first time on September 9, 1956.

After earning big ratings for “The Steve Allen Show,” the
Dorsey Brothers “Stage Show” and “The Milton Berle Show,”
Sullivan finally reneged on his Presley ban, signing the
controversial singing star to an unprecedented $50,000 contract
for three appearances.

With 60 million viewers—or 82.6 percent of TV viewers at the time—tuning in, the appearance garnered the show’s best
ratings in two years and became the most-watched TV
broadcast of the 1950s.

   Ed Sullivan

If you took out a map of the United States and traced a line
beginning at New Orleans and running up the Mississippi
River to Memphis, the tip of your finger would pass through
the very birthplace of rock and roll—a region where nearly
every step in its early development took place and where
nearly every significant contributor to that development was
born. But if the foundation of rock and roll was mostly laid
down within 100 miles of the Mississippi River in the mid-
1950s, the blueprint for what would follow required the further contributions of a young man born 700 miles to the west on
this day in 1936: Charles Harden Holley. Writing and performing
under the name Buddy Holly, this Lubbock, Texas, native would
have an influence on rock and roll that would far outlast his
tragically shortened career.

CAMILLE
BOHANNON

Sir George Ivan Morrison is 77 years old today.

Van Morrison, is a Northern Irish singer-
songwriter and multi-instrumentalist whose
recording career spans six decades. He has
won two Grammy Awards.

The Beatles came together for their final live performance on this
day in history, August 29, 1966.

The concert at Candlestick Park in San Francisco was never
announced as the band’s last dance, but there was plenty of
speculation that the boys were looking to call it quits, according
to The Beatles Bible.

Although the Fab Four made a surprise appearance on the rooftop
of the Apple building in London on Jan. 30, 1969, Ringo Starr wrote
in an anthology that it was clear the Candlestick Park performance
would be the band’s official finale.

Jerry Ivan Allison (August 31, 1939 – August 22, 2022)

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame member Jerry Allison, who played to screaming crowds as a member of the 1950s rock band Buddy
Holly and the Crickets and co-wrote some of their biggest hits,
died Monday.

Allison’s writing contributions included co-penning “That’ll Be
the Day” and “Peggy Sue.” He said he also co-wrote “Not Fade
Away” with Holly but went uncredited, due to the producer
allegedly switching his own name in instead.

From left: Jerry Allison, Joe B. Mauldin, and Buddy Holly.