This Week in Music

1957 - Sammy Davis Jr. hosts a syndicated radio talk show with a round-table discussion of rock & roll. His guests are Columbia Records executive Mitch Miller and MGM Records president Arnold Maxim. When Davis and Miller blast rock & roll as "the comic books of music," Maxim takes an opposing viewpoint and says, "I don't see any end to rock & roll in the near future."

1963 - James Carroll at WWDC in Washington, DC, became the first disc jockey to broadcast a Beatles record on American airwaves. Carroll played "I Want To Hold Your Hand", which he had obtained from his stewardess girlfriend, who brought the single back from Britain. Due to listener demand, it played daily, every hour. Since it hadn't been released yet in the States, Capitol Records initially considered court action, but instead released the single earlier than planned.

1977 - Elvis Costello appears on NBC-TV's Saturday Night Live, where producer Lorne Michaels refuses to allow him to perform "Radio, Radio" (because of the song's criticism of the broadcasting industry). A few measures into "Less than Zero", Costello halts his group and goes into "Radio, Radio". He will never be invited back.