| 105 | years ago | 1921 | Billy Taylor of Bobby Taylor And The Vancouvers is born. He'll discover and mentor The Jackson 5 and include Tommy Chong as one of the Vancouvers. |
| 85 | years ago | 1941 | Barbara Jean Love of Friends of Distinction is born. |
| 84 | years ago | 1942 | Heinz Burt of The Tornados is born. |
| 82 | years ago | 1944 | Jim Armstrong of Them is born. |
| 79 | years ago | 1947 | Alan Whitehead of Marmalade is born. |
| 78 | years ago | 1948 | Kim Berly of The Stampeders is born. |
| 72 | years ago | 1954 | The Four Aces’ Three Coins In The Fountain hits #1. |
| 70 | years ago | 1956 | Ten years to the day after their act began, Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis break up their wildly popular musical/comedy act after a farewell show at New York's Copacabana nightclub. |
| 66 | years ago | 1960 | The Ventures Walk Don't Run enters the pop chart and at the same time introduces the instrumental surf sound to rock & roll. The song will peak at #2. |
| 62 | years ago | 1964 | Fans overreact to a Rolling Stones concert in Blackpool, England. Police are summoned when a riot ensues. |
| 61 | years ago | 1965 | The Beach Boys' California Girls is released, and Dino, Desi and Billy’s I’m A Fool enters the charts. |
| 60 | years ago | 1966 | The New York Times reports that British Prime Minister Harold Wilson was present at the re-opening of Liverpool's Cavern Club. Bankruptcy had closed the doors but thousands of Beatles fans signed a petition requesting Wilson to reopen the club. |
| 59 | years ago | 1967 | Jefferson Airplane's second album Surrealistic Pillow is certified gold thanks to the Top Ten hits, Somebody to Love and White Rabbit. |
| 59 | years ago | 1967 | The Beatles and manager Brian Epstein, among other celebrities, takes out a full-page ad in The Times newspaper in Britain calling for the legalization of marijuana. On the same day, Asia's edition of Life magazine features The Beatles on the cover, sporting a new look featuring long hair and facial hair, a major stylistic statement at the time, and carrying the headline “The New, Far-Out Beatles.” |
| 58 | years ago | 1968 | Jimmy Drake, known as Nervous Norvus, dies from cirrhosis of the liver at age 56. |
| 57 | years ago | 1969 | Pop singer and actress Jennifer Lopez is born. |
| 55 | years ago | 1971 | Get it On by T-Rex is #1 in the U.K. The group has a tougher time in the U.S. where the record is known as Bang a Gong. It climbs to #10 and is its only smash hit. Meanwhile, back in the States, The Raiders' Indian Reservation (The Lament of the Cherokee Reservation Indian) hits #1. |
| 54 | years ago | 1972 | Bobby Ramirez, drummer with Edgar Winter's White Trash, is beaten to death in a Chicago barroom brawl after several patrons complain about the length of his hair. |
| 53 | years ago | 1973 | Mecca of Digable Planets is born. |
| 50 | years ago | 1976 | Hall & Oates' She's Gone is released as The Manhattans' Kiss And Say Goodbye hits #1. Over in the UK, Don't Go Breaking My Heart by Elton John and Kiki Dee hits #1. |
| 49 | years ago | 1977 | The original Led Zeppelin plays their last ever show in the United States. Two days after the concert at the Oakland Coliseum, Robert Plant learns that his son Karac has died, which cancels the rest of their tour. Their next stop would have been July 30 in the Louisiana Superdome. |
| 48 | years ago | 1978 | The movie Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, starring Peter Frampton and the Bee Gees, opens in New York City. It doesn't do well at all at the box-office nor with the critics. |
| 47 | years ago | 1979 | Little Richard -- billed as the Reverend Richard Penniman -- speaks to a revival meeting in San Francisco about the dangers of rock & roll. |
| 44 | years ago | 1982 | Survivor's Eye of the Tiger, the theme song of Sylvester Stallone's Rocky III, climbs to #1 on the U.S. pop charts. |
| 42 | years ago | 1984 | Several people collapse from heat exhaustion during a concert by Huey Lewis and the News at the North Dakota State Fair. |
| 42 | years ago | 1984 | Aretha Franklin’s father, Reverend Clarence LaVaughn Franklin, dies. |
| 41 | years ago | 1985 | A stretch of Detroit's Washington Boulevard is renamed “Aretha Franklin's Freeway Of Love,” in honor of her recent comeback hit. |
| 39 | years ago | 1987 | The movie biography of Richie Valens -- La Bamba opens. The film stars Lou Diamond Phillips as Valens. It also features Marshall Crenshaw and Brian Setzer. |
| 36 | years ago | 1990 | A wrongful death trial involving Judas Priest opens in Reno, Nevada. Parents had charged in a lawsuit that the band's Stained Class album contained subliminal messages that drove two teen-agers to attempt suicide. The judge eventually clears the group. |
| 31 | years ago | 1995 | A three-night career retrospective honoring Frank Sinatra on his 80th birthday begins at Los Angeles' Shrine Auditorium. A visibly ailing Sinatra attends but does not perform. Meanwhile, in New York City, the Empire State Building is lit with blue lights in his honor. |
| 31 | years ago | 1995 | Performing in the heavily Jewish suburb of West Bloomfield, Michigan, Blood, Sweat And Tears lead singer David Clayton-Thomas makes an inappropriate comment about the weather, saying it was “as hot as the last train car going to Auschwitz.” The press make sure to find an Auschwitz survivor in the crowd to declare the remark “stupid.” |
| 28 | years ago | 1998 | Country legend Tanya Tucker files suit against her label, Capitol Nashville, for $300,000, claiming the label has not promoted her properly. |
| 19 | years ago | 2007 | Blues legend Etta James enters Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles for complications stemming from recent abdominal surgery. |
| 15 | years ago | 2011 | Dan Peek of America dies. |