| 93 | years ago | 1933 | Mel Taylor of The Ventures is born. |
| 86 | years ago | 1940 | Barbara Allbut of The Angels is born. Her group will have a #1 hit in 1963 with My Boyfriend’s Back. |
| 85 | years ago | 1941 | Linda McCartney, wife of Paul and his keyboardist, is born. She dies in 1998. |
| 84 | years ago | 1942 | Phyllis “Jiggs” Allbut of The Angels is born, exactly two years after her older sister Barbara, also one of The Angels. Also born today is Gerry Marsden of Gerry and the Pacemakers. |
| 71 | years ago | 1955 | Judy Garland makes her television debut on CBS’ variety show Ford Star Jubilee, breaking all previous ratings records. |
| 69 | years ago | 1957 | Alan Freed tells his story in Mister Rock and Roll, debuting at Freed's favorite theatre, the Paramount in New York City. The cameos in the flick alone are worth the price of the popcorn: Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Brook Benton, the Moonglows, Clyde McPhatter and Frankie Lymon & the Teenagers. |
| 68 | years ago | 1958 | The Donna Reed Show (with Shelley Fabares and Paul Petersen) debuts on ABC-TV, where it will run for seven seasons. |
| 68 | years ago | 1958 | Tommy Edwards’ It's All In The Game tops the Billboard chart. |
| 60 | years ago | 1966 | The Beatles' Eleanor Rigby peaks at #11 on the singles chart, while Cherish by the Association hits #1. |
| 60 | years ago | 1966 | Jimi Hendrix and his manager Chas Chandler arrive in London from New York, where Chandler discovered Hendrix working in Greenwich go-go clubs. Chandler convinces Hendrix that Britain would be more receptive to his style. During the trans-atlantic flight, Hendrix changes the spelling of his first name from Jimmy to Jimi. |
| 60 | years ago | 1966 | Stevie Wonder's Up-tight Everything's Alright enters the LP chart. It features the top-10 hits, Uptight (Everything's Alright) and a remake of Bob Dylan's Blowin' In The Wind. |
| 59 | years ago | 1967 | The Beatles film the dance scene to their song I>Your Mother Should Know for their film Magical Mystery Tour. Paul McCartney stokes the rumors that he is dead by wearing a black carnation while the other guys wear red. |
| 58 | years ago | 1968 | The Vogues’ Turn Around, Look At Me is certified gold. |
| 55 | years ago | 1971 | The Jackson 5 appear on the cover of Life magazine with the headline “Rock Stars At Home With Their Parents.” |
| 55 | years ago | 1971 | Marty Cintron of No Mercy is born. |
| 52 | years ago | 1974 | WIXO in New Orleans is sold and signs off the air at 4 PM. Golden Slumbers, Carry That Weight, and The End from The Beatles’ Abby Road album are the last songs played. Program Director and morning jock Michael Greene reads the sign off announcement. The abrupt-ending Her Majesty, also from Abby Road, follows. White noise fills the dial at 98.5 as soon as it ends, and remains there until February of the following year when WYLD-FM signs on. |
| 49 | years ago | 1977 | The first Elvis Presley convention is held in Memphis. |
| 49 | years ago | 1977 | Fleetwood Mac's Don't Stop peaks at #3 on the singles chart while E.L.O.'s Telephone Line peaks at #7. |
| 49 | years ago | 1977 | Styx' Come Sail Away is released. |
| 43 | years ago | 1983 | Billy Joel's Tell Her About It hits #1 on the singles chart. |
| 43 | years ago | 1983 | The Moody Blues' The Present enters the LP chart. |
| 42 | years ago | 1984 | Paul McCartney releases No More Lonely Nights. |
| 38 | years ago | 1988 | Bobby McFerrin's Don't Worry, Be Happy hits #1 on the singles chart, a first for an a cappella recording. |
| 38 | years ago | 1988 | James Brown is arrested in Georgia after leading police on a hour-long, two-state car chase. |
| 38 | years ago | 1988 | The Hollies go to the top of the UK singles chart with He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother after the song is used in a UK TV beer commercial. The record was originally a hit for them in 1970. |
| 38 | years ago | 1988 | Graham Parker opens a solo acoustic tour at the University of Rhode Island. |
| 37 | years ago | 1989 | Bob Dylan plays flute and recorder at the L'Chaim - To Life! telethon, backing up the band Chopped Liver with his son-in-law Peter Himmelman, who is married to Dylan's daughter Maria. |
| 36 | years ago | 1990 | AC/DC releases The Razor's Edge. The only album by the band to feature Chis Slade on drums, it will reach #2 on the US album charts and #4 in the UK. |
| 35 | years ago | 1991 | Nirvana's breakthrough album Nevermind is released. |
| 35 | years ago | 1991 | The Red Hot Chili Peppers release Blood Sugar Sex Magik in the US. Containing the hits Under the Bridge and Give It Away, the album sells over 10 million copies worldwide and makes the group bona-fide headliners. |
| 33 | years ago | 1993 | Former Guns N'Roses drummer Steven Adler reaches a $2.5 million dollar settlement with his former band mates, who threw him out of the band because he couldn't kick his heroin habit. |
| 32 | years ago | 1994 | Eric Clapton performs on the season premiere of Saturday Night Live. |
| 30 | years ago | 1996 | Weezer releases their second album, the self-produced Pinkerton. |
| 30 | years ago | 1996 | That Thing You Do, the title track to That Thing You Do!, a musical film directed by and starring Tom Hanks, is released. The track is written by Adam Schlesinger, bass player for Fountains of Wayne, and performed by fictional band The Wonders. The song will go on to peak at #41 on the US chart. It will also be nominated for Best Original Song at the Academy Awards and Golden Globe Awards, but will lose out on both occasions to Madonna's You Must Love Me, from Evita. |
| 29 | years ago | 1997 | Larry Hall dies, 37 years after his lone hit in 1960, Sandy. |
| 29 | years ago | 1997 | In his second cross-genre appearance of the year, Sting performs I'm So Happy I Can't Stop Crying with country singer Toby Keith at the 31st annual Country Music Association Awards. Earlier in the year, Sting performed the song I'll Be Missing You with rapper Puff Daddy at the MTV Video Music Awards. |
| 28 | years ago | 1998 | Former Guns N' Roses drummer Steven Adler, 33, is sentenced to 150 days in jail for beating two women he dated and for violating his probation from an earlier domestic violence conviction. |
| 28 | years ago | 1998 | Aerosmith's Steven Tyler, dressed in a Cardinal jersey, throws out the first pitch at the Expos-Cardinal game at Busch Stadium in St. Louis. The band was in town, and came to the game to meet and see home run king Mark McGwire in action. McGwire had set the single season home run record earlier in the month. |
| 28 | years ago | 1998 | The film SLC Punk! premieres. Set in the unlikely location of Salt Lake City, Utah, the film documents the '80s punk movement in the western US through the eyes of a narrator. The film becomes a favorite in punk culture for being one of the accurate, if stylized, portrayals of the genre. The soundtrack includes songs by the Ramones, Blondie, The Velvet Underground, Dead Kennedys, and Generation X. |
| 24 | years ago | 2002 | Tim Rose, a gruff-voiced American singer-songwriter who had much more success in Europe than in the States, dies. Rightly or wrongly, he had claimed songwriting credit on hits such as Hey Joe and Morning Dew. |
| 23 | years ago | 2003 | Gordon Lightfoot is inducted into the Canadian Songwriter Hall of Fame. |
| 20 | years ago | 2006 | Us Weekly reports pop singer Aaron Carter has broken off his engagement to his older brother Nick’s ex-girlfriend, Kari Ann Peniche. It comes a week after he proposed to her onstage in Las Vegas. Nick is one of the Backstreet Boys, of course, and Kari is a former Miss Teen USA and Playboy Playmate. |