This Week In Rock History

THIS WEEK IN ROCK HISTORY

1959—Borrowing $800 from friends and family a 29-year-old Barry Gordy opens his first record company, Tamla Records. The following year Gordy would change the name of the studio to reflect it's home base of Detroit, the Motor City, rechristening it Motown.

1961—Motown signs The Primettes to a recording contract and gets them to agree to change their name. After debating a series of possible new names, the band finally settles on The Supremes.

1966—In an effort to avoid confusion with The Monkees' Davy Jones, singer David Jones decides to change his name. He renames himself after the "big American bear killin' knife" the Bowie knife, changing his name to David Bowie.

1967—The Rolling Stones agree to appear on the Ed Sullivan Show changing the words of the song "Let's Spend The Night Together" to "Let's Spend Some Time Together"

1968—The Supremes appear on the NBC television series Tarzan playing a group of singing nuns.

1970—Diana Ross appears for the last time with The Supremes at the Frontier Hotel in Las Vegas. The Supremes would go on to have seven more top forty hits with Ross' replacement Jean Terrell.

1979—The Young Men's Christian Association file a lawsuit against The Village People over their hit song "Y.M.C.A." The suit would later be dropped.

1982—Harry Casey (KC of KC and The Sunshine Band) is partially paralyzed in a car accident in Hialeah, Florida. His full physical recovery would take years.