| 70 | years ago | 1956 | Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers' Why Do Fools Fall in Love and the Teen Queens' Eddie, My Love enter the R&B chart. |
| 66 | years ago | 1960 | The House of Representatives Special Subcommittee on Legislative Oversight opens hearings on disc jockey “payola.” DJs from Boston and Cleveland testify. |
| 65 | years ago | 1961 | Mötley Crüe's Vince Neil is born. |
| 62 | years ago | 1964 | Max Firetag, publisher of Louie Louie as recorded by the Kingsmen for Wand Records, denies Indiana Governor Matthew Welsh's claim that the song is “pornographic.” Firetag offers $1,000 to anyone who can find anything “suggestive” in the song's lyrics. |
| 62 | years ago | 1964 | Songs released today include the Temptations' The Way You Do the Things You Do on Motown, the Beach Boys' Fun, Fun, Fun is out on Capitol and the album Beatlemania in the USA! by the Liverpools is released on Wyngate Records. |
| 61 | years ago | 1965 | The Supremes' Stop in the Name Of Love is released. |
| 57 | years ago | 1969 | George Harrison's tonsils are removed at London's University College Hospital. The tonsils are destroyed so that they can not be sold. |
| 57 | years ago | 1969 | Ex-Cream guitarist Eric Clapton and drummer Ginger Baker and ex-Traffic keyboardist and singer Stevie Winwood announce they are forming a new band and auditioning for a bassist, with the addition of ex-Family bassist Rich Grech, the band will become the “supergroup” Blind Faith. |
| 55 | years ago | 1971 | Bob Dylan's one-hour long documentary film, Eat the Document, is screened at New York's Academy of Music. Much of the footage is from Dylan's 1966 U.K. tour. |
| 54 | years ago | 1972 | Frank Zappa's concert at London's Royal Albert Hall is canceled because of obscene lyrics in the score of 200 Motels. |
| 53 | years ago | 1973 | Carly Simon is awarded a gold record for her single You're So Vain, the only #1 song of her career. Many speculate as to the identity of the song's subject. Many assume it's Mick Jagger, whose voice can be clearly heard singing behind Simon in the chorus. However, it turns out that the subject is actor Warren Beatty. |
| 51 | years ago | 1975 | Queen's Killer Queen is released. |
| 49 | years ago | 1977 | Phoenix of Linkin Park is born. |
| 46 | years ago | 1980 | In London, David Bowie and his wife Angie are divorced after nearly ten years of marriage. David gets custody of their nine-year old son, Zowie. |
| 36 | years ago | 1990 | Del Shannon dies of a self-inflicted gun shot wound. He was 50 years old. |
| 26 | years ago | 2000 | The Better Life is released by Gulfport's 3 Doors Down. It becomes one of the surprise hits of the summer of 2000, reaching double platinum status and breaking into the Billboard Top 10. The single Kryptonite reaches the Top 5 on the Hot 100. |
| 17 | years ago | 2009 | Robert Plant and Alison Krauss are the big winners at the 51st annual Grammy Awards, tallying five trophies, including album of the year for "Raising Sand" and record of the year for "Please Read The Letter." New Orleans' rapper Li'l Wayne won rap album of the year for "Tha Carter III" as well as best rap solo performance for "A Milli," Best Rap Song for "Lollipop" and Best Rap/Sung collaboration for "Swagga Like Us." He joined Allen Toussaint, Terence Blanchard, and Robin Thicke for a musical salute to New Orleans. |