On this day October 23 in Rock history: 

1961 - Dion DiMucci continued his hit streak after leaving The Belmonts when "Runaround Sue" went to number one in the US and #11 in the UK. Dion stated in his 1980s autobiography The Wanderer, that although his wife's name was Susan, "Runaround Sue" had nothing to do with her.

1964 - J. Frank Wilson is injured and his manager, Sonley Roush is killed in a head-on car crash in Lima, Ohio. At the time of the wreck, their hit "Last Kiss" was sitting inside the Billboard Top Ten, where it would climb to #2.

1965 - The Temptations enter the Hot 100 for the seventh time with "My Baby", which will reach #13. The song also did well on the R&B chart where it climbed to #4.

1966 - The Jimi Hendrix Experience recorded "Hey Joe" at De Lane Lea Studios in London, England. The single became Hendrix's debut UK chart entry, peaking at #6. Though released in the United States on May 1, 1967, it failed to crack the Billboard charts.

1968 - Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer releases the Elvis Presley musical comedy Live A Little, Love A Little. This time out, Elvis shares the screen with legendary 1920s crooner Rudy Vallee, who does not sing in this film. The featured song in the movie was "A Little Less Conversation", which would return Presley to the music charts when it was re-mixed in 2002. That version topped the UK chart and reached #50 on the Hot 100.

1975 - Arriving in a glittering gold golf cart, Elton John is awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6901 Hollywood Blvd, directly in front of the historic TCL Chinese Theatre.

1976 - Chicago's "If You Leave Me Now" reached #1 on the Billboard Hot 100. It would go on to become their biggest international seller, also topping the UK Singles Chart. At the following spring's Grammy Awards, the track earned the band their first-ever Grammy for Best Pop Vocal Performance by a Duo, Group or Chorus. While it was also nominated for Record of the Year, it lost to George Benson's "This Masquerade",

Led Zeppelin make their US television debut on Don Kirshner's Rock Concert, where they were shown performing "Black Dog" and "Dazed And Confused", culled from their upcoming concert film, The Song Remains the Same. At the time of the broadcast, the band had already established massive commercial success, scoring seven Top Ten albums on the Billboard Top LPs & Tape chart, five of which had reached #1.

1978 - Punk rocker Sid Vicious, bassist for the Sex Pistols, attempted suicide by slashing his wrists at Manhattan's Hotel Seville while out on bail for the murder of his girlfriend Nancy Spungen. He would die on February 2, 1979, from what the medical examiner officially ruled an accidental heroin overdose.

1980 - Mark David Chapman quit his security guard position in Honolulu, Hawaii and signed out for the last time. Instead of the usual "Chappy", he allegedly wrote "John Lennon" in the logbook. Chapman would murder Lennon on December 8th, becoming the most hated man in Rock 'n' Roll history.