| 84 | years ago | 1941 | Maurice White of Earth, Wind & Fire is born. |
| 81 | years ago | 1944 | Alvin Lee, guitarist and vocalist for Ten Years After, is born. |
| 70 | years ago | 1955 | Carl Perkins records what will be his biggest pop hit, Blue Suede Shoes, at Sun Studios in Memphis. The song reaches #2. |
| 63 | years ago | 1962 | Berry Gordy Jr. brings the Tamla-Motown Rock & Roll Show to New York City's Apollo Theatre for a ten-day run. The show features The Supremes, The Miracles, Marvin Gaye, Mary Wells, and The Contours. |
| 61 | years ago | 1964 | Downtown, the first U.S. hit by British pop singer Petula Clark, enters the Hot 100 where it will remain for 15 weeks. It hits #1 next month and stays their for two weeks. |
| 55 | years ago | 1970 | President Nixon commends MGM chief, Mike Curb for taking the intiative in ridding the music biz of drug users through his well-publicized dismissal of 18 MGM acts who supposedly advocated drug use. |
| 50 | years ago | 1975 | C.W. McCall earns a gold record for his novelty hit Convoy, which climbs to #1 on the pop chart early next year. The song is a saga of interstate truck drivers and their run-ins with the law. It makes extensive use of, and helps popularize, CB radio language. |
| 44 | years ago | 1981 | The Rolling Stones play the last show of their 1981 U.S. tour in Hampton, Virginia. This show is televised via closed-circuit cable and viewed by thousands across the country. |
| 38 | years ago | 1987 | Both Paul Simon the musician, and Paul Simon, the presidential candidate, host Saturday Night Live. |
| 32 | years ago | 1993 | Original Byrds drummer Michael Clarke dies of liver failure. He was 49. |
| 31 | years ago | 1994 | Aerosmith plays the last date of their Get A Grip tour at the new Boston club Mama Kin Complex, named after a song from their first album. |
| 21 | years ago | 2004 | Bruce Springsteen performs two sold-out benefit concerts at Harry's Roadhouse, a tavern in downtown Asbury Park, New Jersey. The Boss raises $100,000 for local charities. |