| 81 years ago (1944) | Guitarist Johnny Winter is born. |
| 73 years ago (1952) | Brad Whitford, guitarist with Aerosmith, is born. |
| 66 years ago (1959) | Three weeks after their death, Buddy Holly's It Don't Matter Anymore enters the Hot 100 at #82 and the Big Bopper's LP Chantilly Lace is released on Mercury Records. |
| 62 years ago (1963) | Motown singer Mary Wells' Laughing Boy becomes her sixth Hot 100 entry. The tune peaks at #15 in its nine weeks on the chart. |
| 62 years ago (1963) | The Chiffons' He's So Fine enters the pop chart on its way to #1. Years later, Beatle George Harrison would be sued for “unconsciously plagiarizing” the melody of He's So Fine for his 1971 hit, My Sweet Lord. |
| 55 years ago (1970) | The Doors' album Morrison Hotel goes gold becoming the group's fifth gold album in a row. |
| 55 years ago (1970) | Ringo Starr guest stars on Laugh-In. |
| 54 years ago (1971) | Jeff Beres of Sister Hazel is born. |
| 53 years ago (1972) | Elvis and Priscilla Presley separate. |
| 51 years ago (1974) | Gregg Allman's solo rendition of The Allman Brothers Midnight Rider peaks at #19 on the pop chart. |
| 51 years ago (1974) | Columbia Records releases Billy Joel's Piano Man. |
| 51 years ago (1974) | Doo Doo Doo Doo Doo (Heartbreaker) by the Rolling Stones peaks at #15 on the chart. |
| 47 years ago (1978) | Some of the winners of the 20th annual Grammy awards for 1977 include: The Eagles (who boycotted the ceremony) winning Best Record of the Year for Hotel California and Best Arrangement for Voices for New Kid in Town. Fleetwood Mac wins Album of the Year for Rumours. Song of the Year was a tie between Love Theme from A Star is Born by Paul Williams and Barbra Streisand and Joe Brooks' You Light Up My Life. |
| 46 years ago (1979) | Elvis Costello's Armed Forces turns gold, the first of his albums to reach that mark. |
| 46 years ago (1979) | Dire Straits launch their first U.S. tour in Boston. |
| 45 years ago (1980) | Queen's Crazy Little Thing Called Love hits #1 on the pop chart, a position it would hold for 4 weeks. The tune was written by group leader Freddie Mercury and was from their multi-platinum album, The Game. |
| 45 years ago (1980) | I Don't Like Monday's by the Boomtown Rats peaks at #73 on the pop chart. |
| 42 years ago (1983) | Toto wins six Grammys, including Album of the Year for their Toto IV disc, a record that included the hits Africa and Rosanna. |
| 40 years ago (1985) | Rockin' At Midnight by the Honeydrippers peaks at #25 on the pop chart. The group consists of Robert Plant, Jimmy Page, and Jeff Beck. |
| 39 years ago (1986) | The Rolling Stones make an appearance at London's 100 Club and play almost a dozen tunes for an intimate gathering of invited guests to pay tribute to late keyboardist, Ian Stewart. Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, and Pete Townshend are among those who join The Stones on stage. It marks the first time The Stones had played live in almost 5 years. |
| 31 years ago (1994) | Eddie Van Halen, Chris Issak, and B.B. King are among those who gather for the groundbreaking ceremony for the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. |
| 30 years ago (1995) | Original Temptations singer Melvin Franklin dies of a brain seizure. |
| 25 years ago (2000) | The Grammys for 1999 are announced and Santana ties Michael Jackson's record of eight Grammys in one night, including ones for Album of the Year for Supernatural, and Record of the Year. The album's single Smooth wins Song of the Year, giving the album a total of nine awards. Sting wins Best Pop Album for Brand New Day, Phil Collins wins Best Soundtrack for Tarzan, and Jimi Hendrix wins his first Grammy for Best Long Form Music Video for Band of Gypsies - Live at Fillmore East. Elton John is honored with the Living Legend Award. At a press conference afterwards, John calls award shows like the Grammys “bulls--t.” |
| 17 years ago (2008) | Christian rock pioneer Larry Norman dies of heart failure at his home in Salem, Oregon. He was the lead singer of the band People! Their cover of the Zombies’ I Love You peaked at #7 on the Billboard chart in June of 1968. |