Events in 1959
- Martin Atkins, English drummer known for his work with Public Image Ltd, Ministry, and Nine Inch Nails, was born in Coventry.
- The Kingston Trio appeared on the cover of Life magazine under the headline “Top Sellers in Albums.” At the time, they had three million-selling LPs: “The Kingston Trio,” “At Large,” and “...from the Hungry i.”
- “A Big Hunk O' Love” became Elvis Presley’s 14th consecutive gold record.
- Robbin Crosby, guitarist with Ratt, was born in La Jolla, California.
- Pat Smear, born Georg Albert Ruthenberg, co-founder and lead guitarist of the punk band The Germs and later a member of Nirvana and Foo Fighters, was born in Los Angeles, California.
- Frankie Avalon released the single “Just Ask Your Heart.”
- Pete Burns, born Peter Burns, founder and frontman of Dead or Alive, was born in Port Sunlight, England.
- The Isley Brothers recorded “Shout” at RCA Victor's Music Center of the World in Manhattan, New York City.
- Dean Martin entered Capitol Records' studio at 1750 North Vine Street in Hollywood, where he recorded his version of “Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow.” The recording first entered the Billboard Hot 100 in 2018, reaching No. 8.
- Elvis Presley was serving in the military in Germany.
- American singer and songwriter Joyce Sims was born. Her biggest hit, “Come into My Life,” reached the Top 10 on both the U.S. R&B chart and the UK singles chart in 1987 and 1988.
- American rap pioneer, songwriter, DJ and producer Kurtis Walker, known professionally as Kurtis Blow, was born in New York City. He became known for hits such as “The Breaks” and “Basketball”.
- Lloyd Price reached No. 1 on the US chart with “Stagger Lee”.
- Singer Aleš Brichta was born.
- Elvis Presley reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 with “A Big Hunk O' Love.” The song was recorded during Elvis’s only recording session while serving in the US Army, in four takes, with the released version assembled from the third and fourth takes.
- Fats Domino entered the Billboard singles chart with “I Want to Walk You Home,” which later climbed to No. 8. Although he had 18 million-selling singles during his career, he never reached No. 1.
- Brook Benton reached No. 1 on the R&B chart with “Thank You Pretty Baby.”
- Mark Price, drummer of All About Eve, was born.
- Four male members of The Platters were arrested in Cincinnati and charged with aiding prostitution, obscenity and immoral conduct after police found them at the Sheraton Gibson hotel at a post-concert party with four nineteen-year-old women, three of whom were white. The charges were dismissed in December, but the arrests damaged the group's career in the meantime and led to their recordings being dropped from some major radio markets.
- Bobby Darin signed a six-year film contract with Paramount, which was expected at the time to earn him $1 million. As he transitioned from a teenage idol to a more universal artist, he wanted to move beyond roles aimed solely at teenage audiences and insisted on quality acting and serious filmmaking.
- She recorded “Sweet Nothin's”, a song about young love that became her breakthrough hit, reaching No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 and becoming the first of her 29 Top 40 songs. She was only 15 at the time of the recording.
- Danny Bonaduce was born in Broomall, Pennsylvania. He later became famous as a member of The Partridge Family.
- Mark Nevin was born. He became the singer and songwriter of Fairground Attraction, who had the 1988 UK No. 1 hit “Perfect”.
- The film A Private's Affair, starring Sal Mineo, premiered in New York. It also featured the song “The Same Old Army”.
- Accompanied by the Anita Kerr Singers, he recorded “The Rebel-Johnny Yuma”, “The Little Drummer Boy”, “I’ll Remember You”, “Lorena”, “The Ballad Of Boot Hill” and “Remember The Alamo” at Owen Bradley's Quonset Hut Studio in Nashville.
- “The song “There Goes My Baby” performed by The Drifters with Ben E. King reached No. 1 on the Cashbox chart and No. 2 on Billboard. The recording was among the first to combine orchestral strings with a Black vocal group and later ranked No. 196 on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 greatest songs.
- Elvis Presley had the song “A Big Hunk O’ Love” at No. 1 on the chart for a second consecutive week, bringing his career total to 60 weeks at the top.
- Miles Davis released the album Kind of Blue, one of the most influential jazz albums in history. John Coltrane, Bill Evans and Cannonball Adderley also participated in the recording, and the album had a major influence on the subsequent development of jazz.
- Bobby Darin released the classic single “Mack the Knife”.
- Paul Anka released the song “Put Your Head on My Shoulder”.
- Scottish singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer and music publisher Edwyn Collins was born in Edinburgh. He became known as co-founder and singer of the post-punk band Orange Juice. With the band, he had the 1983 UK hit “Rip It Up”, and as a solo artist he had the internationally successful 1995 single “A Girl Like You”. He co-founded the indie label Postcard Records and in 2011 also co-founded Analogue Enhanced Digital.
- Billboard published the headline „Rock and Roll Ain't Ready For The Ol' Rockin' Chair Yet“ and reported that after an earlier decline in popularity, rock'n'roll was once again gaining listeners' interest thanks to Elvis Presley, Lloyd Price, Fats Domino, The Everly Brothers, The Drifters and Ricky Nelson.
- The Browns began a four-week run at No. 1 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 with „The Three Bells“. The song also reached No. 1 in Australia and No. 6 in the U.K. It was an English version of the 1945 French song „Les Trois Cloches“.
- The Quarry Men, consisting of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ken Brown, performed in front of approximately 300 teenagers at the grand opening of the Casbah Coffee Club in the basement of Mona Best's house in Liverpool. It was the first of seven consecutive Saturdays on which The Quarry Men performed there. The group still had no drummer and used a single microphone connected to a home sound system. Pete Best did not play that night, but the performance brought him into the band's inner circle, and exactly one year later he became the group's permanent drummer. The group was supposed to receive 15 shillings for each performance.
- Bobby Darin’s “Mack the Knife” debuted at No. 59 on the Billboard Hot 100 on August 30. It came from the 1928 German play “Three Penny Opera”, later became Darin’s biggest hit, reached No. 1 and won the Grammy Award for Record of the Year.
- Tony DeFranco, frontman of The DeFranco Family, was born in Port Colborne, Ontario, Canada. In 1973, the group had the U.S. No. 3 single "Heartbeat-It's A Lovebeat", which was the best-selling U.S. single of 1973.
- Drummer of the American group The Mavericks Paul Deakin was born. The group had the 1998 UK hit “Dance The Night Away”, which reached number four, and won a Grammy Award for the song “Here Comes the Rain”.
- The Isley Brothers released the single “Shout”. It was not particularly successful at the time of release and reached only number 47, but became very popular in later years.
- “A Big Hunk O’ Love” became Elvis Presley’s fourteenth consecutive gold record. The recording was made in Nashville during his military service and was Presley’s first hit without guitarist Scotty Moore and bassist Bill Black.
- The Browns entered the Billboard Top 40 with their country version of “The Three Bells”. The recording later reached No. 1 on the Hot 100, the country chart and, surprisingly, the Billboard R&B chart.
- Following the stabbing deaths of two teenagers by a 17-year-old perpetrator and other similar violent incidents in New York, radio station WCBS banned all versions of “Mack the Knife.” Bobby Darin's version later won Grammy Awards for Record of the Year and Best New Artist and was added to the National Recording Registry in 2016.
- Dick Clark's touring show began its run at the Michigan State Fair. The program featured Frankie Avalon, Annette Funicello, Duane Eddy, The Coasters, LaVern Baker and Jan & Dean. The huge crowds eventually convinced Clark to launch his iconic nationwide Caravan of Stars bus tour.
- “The Bad Boys” by The Miracles became the first single released on Barry Gordy's newly established Motown Records label.
- Mattel Toy Corporation introduced the first Barbie doll.
- Craig Douglas reached No. 1 on the UK singles chart with his own version of Sam Cooke's hit “Only Sixteen”. Born Terence Perkins, he worked as a milkman before becoming a professional singer, earning him the nickname “Singing Milkman”.
- Frankie Avalon, The Coasters, Lou Rawls, Bobby Rydell and Annette Funicello performed on the final night of their four-day engagement at the Michigan State Fair as part of a tour organized by Dick Clark.
- Lloyd Price returned to No. 1 on the rhythm & blues chart with “I’m Gonna’ Get Married”.
- Paul Anka moved up the chart from No. 67 to No. 41 with “Put Your Head On My Shoulder”.
- Jimmy Driftwood, writer of “The Battle of New Orleans”, appeared as a guest on the CBS television program To Tell the Truth.
- Senegalese singer, songwriter, musician, percussionist, and film composer Youssou N'Dour was born.
- In communist East Germany, 15 teenagers were imprisoned in Leipzig after marching through the streets, chanting “Long live Elvis Presley,” and mocking officially approved local music. Authorities described their rock 'n' roll demonstration as capitalist subversion and sentenced them to terms ranging from six months to more than four years in prison; one source gives the upper limit as four and a half years.
- The television series The Twilight Zone premiered on CBS-TV. The original orchestral opening used during the first season was composed by Bernard Herrmann; it was later replaced by the now-iconic theme by French composer Marius Constant.
- Chris Lowe was born in Blackpool, Lancashire, England. He is an English musician, songwriter, producer, and multi-instrumentalist who, together with Neil Tennant, forms the synth-pop duo Pet Shop Boys. He began working with Tennant in 1981, and the pair later achieved worldwide success, including with the song “West End Girls.”
- Bobby Darin's “Mack the Knife” reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 on October 5, beginning its first six-week period at the top. After a brief interruption, it returned to No. 1 and spent a total of nine weeks there. The recording won the Grammy for Record of the Year, and Bobby Darin won the Grammy for Best New Artist; in 2003 the song was ranked No. 251 on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 greatest songs.
- MGM released the film Girls Town starring Mamie Van Doren, Mel Tormé, and Ray Anthony. Paul Anka made his acting debut in the film and sang four songs: “Lonely Boy,” “It's Time to Cry,” “Girls Town Blues,” and “Ave Maria.” The Platters performed “Wish It Were Me” in the nightclub scene.
- Nina Simone's debut single “I Loves You Porgy” reached No. 18 on the Billboard Hot 100, her highest position on the chart.
- At the age of 23, Bobby Darin became the youngest headliner in the history of the Sands Hotel in Las Vegas.
- Jerry Keller reached No. 1 on the UK singles chart with “Here Comes Summer.” Although it was his only major hit, he later worked as a singer of television advertising jingles during the 1970s and 1980s.
- The detective series Hawaiian Eye premiered on ABC, with Connie Stevens as Cricket Blake. The series ran for four seasons.
- American tenor and actor Mario Lanza, born Alfredo Arnold Cocozza, died in Rome at the age of 38. He was known for hits including “Be My Love” and “Because You're Mine.”
- English television producer, personality, and entrepreneur Simon Cowell was born. He served as a judge on Pop Idol, The X Factor, Britain's Got Talent, American Idol, and America's Got Talent.
- Elvis Presley was staying at Goethestrasse 14 in Bad Nauheim, Germany, during his military service.
- James Johnstone, a member of the British post-punk group Pigbag, was born. The group became known for the instrumental song “Papa's Got a Brand New Pigbag,” which reached No. 3 on the British chart in 1982.
- Bobby Darin became the youngest performer to headline the Copa Room at the Sands Hotel in Las Vegas, at age 21, breaking Johnny Mathis' previous record of 23. He was touring in support of his hit "Mack the Knife," which was No. 1 in the US that week.
- Brenda Lee was hospitalized in Nashville, Tennessee, with a thyroid deficiency.
- One-hit wonder Jerry Keller reached No. 1 on the UK Singles Chart with "Here Comes Summer."
- Ken Brown left The Quarrymen after John Lennon, Paul McCartney and George Harrison decided he should not receive a share of the performance fee because he had missed a Casbah Coffee Club performance due to a heavy cold.
- Swiss musician Thomas Wydler was born. He is best known as the drummer of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, whom he joined in 1985. He appeared on almost every Bad Seeds album, beginning with "Kicking Against the Pricks" in 1986.
- Elvis Presley's compilation album A Date With Elvis reached number 32 on the U.S. chart.
- “Here Comes Summer” by Jerry Keller reached number one on the UK singles chart. In the United States, it reached number 14 earlier that year.
- British singer and songwriter Kirsty MacColl was born in Croydon, England. She became known for songs including “There's a Guy Works Down the Chip Shop Swears He's Elvis,” “A New England” and “Days,” and recorded the hit “Fairytale of New York” with The Pogues. Her father was folk singer Ewan MacColl. She died in 2000 in a speedboat accident in Mexico.
- The first Berry Gordy recording for the newly founded Motown Records, The Miracles' “Bad Girl,” entered the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 at number 98. It remained on the chart only briefly and was later recognized as a doo-wop classic.
- The Quarry Men performed at the Casbah Coffee Club in Liverpool. Ken Brown was unable to play because of a severe cold. After the concert, a dispute arose over the division of the fee because Paul McCartney said Brown should not receive a share if he had not performed. Lennon and Harrison sided with McCartney, and Brown subsequently left the group.
- Gerry Darby was born. He was a member of the British jazz and soul group Carmel, which reached number 15 on the UK chart in 1983 with the single "Bad Day".
- American singer, actress, and doll designer Marie Osmond, born Olive Marie Osmond, was born in Ogden, Utah. Her single "Paper Roses" reached number five in the United States and number two in the United Kingdom in 1973. She co-hosted the television variety show Donny & Marie with her brother Donny.