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.
- Elvis Presley vykonával vojenskou službu v Německu.
- 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”.
- “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.