| 80 | years ago | 1945 | Ron Pigpen McKernan, keyboardist for the Grateful Dead, is born. |
| 78 | years ago | 1947 | Cars bassist and sometimes vocalist, Benjamin Orr, is born. |
| 67 | years ago | 1958 | Philly teen heartthrob Paul Anka leaves for a month long tour of the Orient. |
| 67 | years ago | 1958 | According to Billboard, Dick Clark has inked an album deal with ABC-Paramount Records. His first album will be of intrumental versions of contemporary hits by Bandstanders. The LP would be called Dance with Dick Clark. |
| 63 | years ago | 1962 | The novelty song Monster Mash by Bobby “Boris” Pickett enters the Hot 100 at #85. It's a tounge in cheek take-off on the late night monster movies. He recorded it with sound effects: the creaky door opening is a nail being pulled from a piece of wood, the boiling cauldron is Pickett blowing bubbles into a cup of water with a straw and the chains are him moving chains up and down. He also did all the voices. The song will make it to #1 for two weeks on October 20. |
| 54 | years ago | 1971 | Elvis Presley receives the Bing Crosby award. It was first presented to Crosby by the Naitonal Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences and is bestowed to members of the recording industry who “during their lifetimes, have made creative contributions of outstanding artistic or scientific significance to the field of phonograph records.” Presley becomes only the sixth artist so honored, preceded by Crosby, Frank Sinatra, Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, and Irving Berlin. |
| 53 | years ago | 1972 | Neil Young and actress Carrie Snodgrass are the proud parents of son Zeke who is born at Young's ranch near San Francisco. |
| 49 | years ago | 1976 | Rock and election year politics have a strange mix when Steven Ford, the president's son, invites Peter Frampton and his girlfriend Penny McCall and manager Dee Hall to the White House. The trio gets the grand tour, and the day concludes with a visit to the First Family's living quarters, mostly spent watching television with the president. |
| 49 | years ago | 1976 | Disco band Wild Cherry's self-titled album, which includes their #1 single, Play that Funky Music, goes gold. |
| 49 | years ago | 1976 | The debut album by Vancouver band rock band Heart, Dreamboat Annie goes gold. The album contains Magic Man (a #9 hit) and Crazy on You. |
| 48 | years ago | 1977 | Guitarist Jimmy McCulloch quits Paul McCartney & Wings to join a reformed lineup for the Small Faces. |
| 43 | years ago | 1982 | Peter Gabriel's Security LP is released. |
| 37 | years ago | 1988 | Elton John sells some of his costumes and concert memorabilia at an auction in London for $6.2 million. |
| 14 | years ago | 2011 | Kid Rock, Lady Antebellum, and Maroon 5 perform in a pre-game show to kick off the 2011 NFL season. The last two Super Bowl winners, The New Orleans Saints and the Green Bay Packers tee it up at Lambeau Field. The Packers win, 42-34 when the Saints couldn't punch it in from the one-yard line with no time left. |
| 14 | years ago | 2011 | Katy Perry romps through her Candyland-themed concert setting at the New Orleans Arena. She opens the show with Teenage Dream in a bustier equipped with two spinning peppermint discs. At the time, she and Michael Jackson are the only recording artists to ever put five singles at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart from the same album. |