| 67 | years ago | 1959 | New Orleans blues and R&B guitarist/singer Eddie Guitar Slim Jones dies of pneumonia in New York City. His wildly electrified guitar style influences Jimi Hendrix among others. Jones was 33 years old. |
| 67 | years ago | 1959 | Brian Travers of UB40 is born. |
| 66 | years ago | 1960 | Barrett Strong's Money enters the pop chart where it tops out at #23. On the R&B chart it climbs to #2. The song will be covered by the likes of The Beatles, Kingsmen, Flying Lizards and Jr. Walker and the All Stars. |
| 64 | years ago | 1962 | Bon Jovi's David Bryan is born. |
| 62 | years ago | 1964 | The Beatles arrive at New York's Kennedy Airport for their first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show. They are greeted by thousands of screaming fans in what is the first demonstration of Beatlemania in America. It was also the day that Baskin-Robbins introduced Beatle-Nut ice-cream. |
| 60 | years ago | 1966 | The Beatles' Nowhere Man is released. |
| 60 | years ago | 1966 | The Beach Boys album, Summer Days goes gold, it's their sixth album to do so. |
| 59 | years ago | 1967 | The Bee Gees, made up by Barry, Maurice and Robin Gibb, return to their homeland after nine years in Australia. While down under, the group had their own weekly TV show and a #1 single. They are back and ready to be stars in England and a feat they achieve with their first U.K. Top Ten hit, New York Mining Disaster. |
| 57 | years ago | 1969 | At London's University College Hospital, George Harrison is admitted with an infected back molar that has infected his tonsils. |
| 57 | years ago | 1969 | Vanilla Fudge opens a two-night stand at the Kinetic Playground in Chicago. Led Zeppelin & Jethro Tull are the opening acts. |
| 56 | years ago | 1970 | Johnny Cash's album, Hello, I'm Johnny Cash goes gold. His label, Columbia, report his LPs At Folsom Prison and At San Quentin have sold over 2 million copies each and his Greatest Hits album has sold over a million copies. |
| 56 | years ago | 1970 | Joe Cocker's version of The Beatles classic She Came In Through The Bathroom Window peaks at #30 on the pop chart. |
| 52 | years ago | 1974 | Soul artist Barry White receives four gold records on this date: for the singles Never, Never Gonna Give Ya Up (#7), Love's Theme (#1 by the Love Unlimited Orchestra, conducted by White), and the album's Under the Influence of Love Unlimited (#3) and Sonte Gon' (#20). |
| 52 | years ago | 1974 | Ex-Hot Licks John Girton and Maryanne Price are married at the home of a judge in Zephyr Cove, Nevada. Price is due shortly to fly to England to record and tour with the Kinks. |
| 50 | years ago | 1976 | Paul Simon's 50 Ways To Leave Your Lover peaks at #1 on the chart. |
| 47 | years ago | 1979 | The Clash kick off their first American tour at the Berkeley Community Theatre outside San Francisco. Bo Diddley opens and the first song the Clash belts out in America is I'm so bored with the U.S.A. |
| 47 | years ago | 1979 | Stephen Stills becomes the first rock performer to record on digital equipment in Los Angeles' Record Plant Studio. However, his digital stuff is never released and a singer by the name of Ry Cooder will be the first rock performer to release a digitally recorded record. |
| 46 | years ago | 1980 | Pink Floyd begins one of the more unusual coast-to-coast tours in rock history, playing the first of only 14 shows in Los Angeles. The only other city they would play would be New York. The stage, to promote the band's latest album The Wall, features a 120 by 60 foot wall made of Styrofoam blocks, which gradually envelops the group as the show goes on. |
| 45 | years ago | 1981 | John Lennon's Woman peaks at #1 on the U.K. singles chart. |
| 45 | years ago | 1981 | Rod Stewart's Passion peaks at #5 on the pop chart. |
| 40 | years ago | 1986 | The Rolling Stones shoot the video for their new single, Harlem Shuffle in New York City using dancers and animation. |
| 32 | years ago | 1994 | Blind Melon's late lead singer Shannon Hoon is ejected from the American Music Awards for loud and disruptive behavior. He's eventually charged with battery, assault, resisting arrest and destroying a police station phone. |
| 31 | years ago | 1995 | Rapper Tupac Shakur is sentenced to one-to-four-and-a-half years in jail for sexual abuse. |
| 21 | years ago | 2005 | Keith Knudsen, drummer for the Doobie Brothers, dies of pneumonia in San Francisco at the age of 56. |
| 20 | years ago | 2006 | David Bowie, Robert Johnson, and Richard Pryor get lifetime achievement awards from the Recording Academy the day before the 48th Annual Grammy Awards show. |
| 16 | years ago | 2010 | The Who Dat Nation is elated after their long suffering New Orleans Saints win Superbowl XLIV, their first, beating native son Peyton Manning and the Indianapolis Colts, 31-17 in Miami. Appropriately, The Who rocked the crowd at halftime. |