On this day August 23 in Rock history:

1962 - John Lennon marries his pregnant girlfriend, Cynthia Powell at the Mount Pleasant Registry Office in Liverpool. Brian Epstein served as the best man and paid for the couple's luncheon afterwards. Others in attendance included Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Cynthia's half-brother, Tony Powell, and his wife, Marjorie. John's Aunt Mimi boycotted the wedding because she disapproved of the union. Efforts to keep the marriage quiet were dashed when they were spotted coming out of the registry office. John spent his wedding night playing a gig with The Beatles at the nearby Riverpark Ballroom.

1963 - The Beatles' single "She Loves You" with "I'll Get You" on the flip side is released in the UK. It will enter the British charts on August 31st and remain there for thirty-one consecutive weeks, eighteen of those in the top three. With sales of 1.93 million, the song set a record for the best-selling UK single of all time, a mark that wssn't eclipsed until 1977, when Paul McCartney releases "Mull Of Kintyre".

1966 - The Beatles play Shea Stadium for the second time, with The Remains, Bobby Hebb, The Cyrkle and The Ronettes as warm-up acts. The Fab Four performed eleven songs and made $189,000 for their efforts. Brian Epstein was unsettled by the fact that the concert did not sell out, with 11,000 of the 55,600 tickets still available.

1967 - The Beatles continued recording "Your Mother Should Know" at Chappell Recording Studios in London's Mayfair, a temporary move necessitated by scheduling conflicts at EMI Studios. During this session, they focused on layering backup vocals for the track, which was destined for the "Magical Mystery Tour" project. The night remains historically significant as it marked the final time the band was visited in the studio by their manager, Brian Epstein, who passed away just four days later.

1968 - The Jimi Hendrix Experience, Soft Machine and Big Brother And The Holding Company play at the New York Rock Festival in Flushing Meadows, Queens. The atmosphere was somewhat dampened by a heavy police presence due to a violent chair-throwing melee that had occurred at the same venue during a previous festival date on August 2, which featured The Doors and The Who.

1969 - The Rolling Stones enjoy their fifth American chart topper with "Honky Tonk Women". The record also made #1 in the UK. It was the last hit that included original guitarist Brian Jones, who had drowned in his swimming pool on July 3rd.

Johnny Cash started a four-week run at #1 on the Billboard Top LPs And Tape chart with his second live album, "Johnny Cash At San Quentin". The LP was nominated for several Grammy Awards, including Album Of The Year and won Best Male Country Vocal Performance for "A Boy Named Sue". The album would eventually be certified 3X Platinum in America and Gold in Great Britain.

Johnny Cash's song, "A Boy Named Sue" hit #1 on the Billboard Hot Country Singles chart and reached #2 on the Hot 100.

1970 - Emerson, Lake And Palmer made their debut at Plymouth Guild Hall in Plymouth, England. The show was a major success, serving as their only warm-up before they exploded onto the international stage six days later at the massive Isle of Wight Festival. During their career the trio would sell over forty million records and place ten albums on the Billboard chart and the same number in the UK.

1975 - This week's number one song on Billboard's Hot 100, "Fallin' In Love", was credited to Hamilton, Joe Frank And Reynolds, although drummer Tommy Reynolds had actually left the group three years earlier. He was replaced by Alan Dennison, who would eventually have his name included in the band's moniker. In the UK, the record reached #33.

1976 - While solo artists had already appeared on the cover of People magazine, The Beach Boys become the first Rock band ever to do so. The caption that accompanied a picture of the five original members, all sporting beards, read: "Still Riding The Crest, 15 Hairy Years Later."

1978 - Comedian Steve Martin was awarded a Gold record for his novelty song "King Tut", which had reached #17 on the Billboard chart and sold over 500,000 copies. It would go on to reach the one million mark in US sales. Though credited to "Steve Martin and the Toot Uncommons", his backing band was actually The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band.

1980 - According to Cashbox, The SOS Band had the best selling tune in America with "Take Your Time (Do It Right)". It peaked at #3 on the Hot 100. The Atlanta, Georgia based group, whose acronym stood for Sounds Of Success, was fronted by Mary Davis.

David Bowie's "Ashes To Ashes" tops the UK Official Singles Chart for the first of two weeks, giving him his first #1 single since "Space Oddity" in 1975. At the time of its release, it was Bowie's fastest-selling single.