They were the most successful American pop group of the 1960s—
a group whose 12 #1 hits in the first full decade of the rock and roll
era places them behind only Elvis and the Beatles in terms of chart dominance. They helped define the very sound of the 60s, but like
fellow icons the Beatles and Simon and Garfunkel, they came apart
in the first year of the 70s. The curtain closed for good on Diana
Ross and the Supremes on January 14, 1970, at the Frontier Hotel
in Las Vegas, Nevada.

NEW YORK (AP) — Ronnie Spector, the cat-eyed, bee-hived rock ‘n’
roll siren who sang such 1960s hits as “Be My Baby,” “Baby I Love
You” and “Walking in the Rain” as the leader of the girl group The
Ronettes, has died. Spector died Wednesday after a brief battle
with cancer, 

The Ronettes in 1964.

SANDY KOZEL

Introducing… The Beatles is the first Beatles album released in the United States. Originally scheduled for a July 1963 release, the LP
came out on 10 January 1964, on Vee-Jay Records, ten days before Capitol‘s Meet the Beatles!. The latter album, however, entered the
U.S. album chart one week before the former. Consequently, when
Meet The Beatles! peaked at #1 for eleven consecutive weeks, Introducing…The Beatles stalled at #2 where it remained nine consecutive weeks. It was the subject of much legal wrangling,
but ultimately, Vee-Jay was permitted to sell the album until late
1964, by which time it had sold more than 1.3 million copies. On 24
July 2014 the album was certified gold and platinum by the RIAA. 

In competing versions of the story, what Elvis Presley really wanted
for his birthday was a rifle or a bicycle—both fairly typical choices
for a boy his age growing up on the outskirts of Tupelo, Mississippi.

Instead, Elvis’s highly protective mother, Gladys,”She never let me
out of her sight”, Elvis would say—took him to the Tupelo Hardware
Store and bought a gift that would change  the course of history: a
$6.95 guitar. It was January 8, 1946, and Elvis Aaron Presley was 11
years old.

The historical significance of putting a guitar into the hands of a
young man who would later help define rock and roll is obvious
and for Elvis himself, however, getting that guitar was just one
more step in a thorough yet totally unplanned program of
childhood musical development that prepared him perfectly to
ignite a revolution 10 years later.

Elvis Aaron Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977)
(Note: Elvis was 11 years old when this photo was taken)

Scotty Moore and bassist Bill Black accompany Elvis (center)
in a little-seen photo from late 1954 or ’55.