Today in rock history 8th October

1948 – Johnny Ramone – the Ramones’ famed one-chord guitarist – is born in Long Island, N.Y. His real name is John Cummings. 1957 – Jerry Lee Lewis cuts “Great Balls of Fire” after a lengthy dispute with his producer over whether he was supposed to be playing the devil’s music. 1964 – Ringo Starr successfully passes his driving test on the same day the Beatles have their first recording session for “I Feel Fine.” 1966 - Cream drummer Ginger Baker collapsed during a concert at Sussex University in the U.K. after a twenty minute drum solo on “Toad”. 1968 – The Beatles work on recording “The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill,” and Yoko Ono cuts the first female “lead vocal” on a Beatles song. 1977 – Jimmy Page plays down rumors of a Led Zeppelin split at the band’s Swan Song offices. He lashes out at the press, which accused him of dabbling in black magic. 1987 – Chuck Berry receives a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame the same day that Hail! Hail! Rock ‘n’ Roll, a documentary about a Berry tribute concert organized by Keith Richards, premieres. 1988 – Keith Richards, probably fully recovered from doing battle with Chuck Berry, performs on Saturday Night Live. 1988 – Farewell to Dark Side of the Moon. The Pink Floyd album finally drops out of the Billboard 200 chart, 741 weeks after it first debuted there. 1994 – U2, Iggy Pop, Cheap Trick, and others perform on the pay-per-view special A Tribute to Elvis. 2004 – The Strokes, Blondie, Sonic Youth, Queens of the Stone Age’s Josh Homme and Joan Jett perform at a charity tribute to the Ramones in New York. 2006 – The Killers started a three week run at No.1 on the UK album chart with ‘Sam’s Town’ the US bands second album. 2010 – Ozzy Osbourne has blasted religious leaders in Kansas for using the lyrics to his song “Crazy Train” to promote messages of hate and evil. The rocker was appalled when he learned that members of the Westboro Baptist Church had paraphrased lyrics from the song 2010 - A Weezer anti-fan has launched an online campaign to stop the band from releasing another album – and he’s hoping to raise $10 million to silence them. Weezer anti-fan, from Seattle, Washington claims he was inspired by friends who are fans of the “Buddy Holly” rockers but disappointed by their recent musical offerings. 2010 - According to Nine.com.au, AC/DC have beaten Nirvana, Red Hot Chilli Peppers and The Beatles in an online poll to find the best acts of all time.