| 83 | years ago | 1942 | Bobby Elliot of The Hollies is born. |
| 82 | years ago | 1943 | Singer Jim Morrison of the Doors is born in Melbourne, Florida. He dies in 1971. |
| 78 | years ago | 1947 | Gregg Allman, keyboardist for the Allman Brothers, is born. |
| 69 | years ago | 1956 | Billboard reports Elvis Presley is setting new sales records in Canada. Usually, a hit record makes 100,000 sales. However, Hound Dog and Don't Be Cruel have sold over 225,000 copies, with Love Me Tender selling 135,000 in sixteen weeks. |
| 68 | years ago | 1957 | Def Leppard's Phil Collen is born. |
| 64 | years ago | 1961 | Surfin', the Beach Boys first recording, is released by Candis Records, a small L.A. based company. The song was written by Brian Wilson and his cousin Mike Love and recorded with Brian's brothers, Carl and Dennis and their friend Alan Jardine -- Carl playing acoustic guitar, Al on double bass, and Brian keeping time on a garbage can. |
| 63 | years ago | 1962 | After three months, Alan Freed leaves Miami's WQAM to appear at his payola trial in New York. He testifies to receiving $2,000 in 1958 from Cognat Distributors for a promise to play their records on his New York radio show. He also worked a similar deal with Superior Records for $700. He pleads guilty to payola and is fined $300 and given six months probation. |
| 59 | years ago | 1966 | Sinead O'Connor is born. |
| 58 | years ago | 1967 | Traffic's Mr. Fantasy LP is released. |
| 57 | years ago | 1968 | Graham Nash quits the Hollies. He intends to form a trio with ex-Byrd David Crosby and ex-Buffalo Springfield member Stephen Stills. |
| 56 | years ago | 1969 | Testifying at his trial for possesion of hashish and heroin in the Toronto Supreme Court, Jimi Hendrix claims that he has smoked pot four times and hashish five times, taken LSD five times and sniffed cocaine twice and that he had now “outgrown” drugs. After eight hours of deliberations, the jury finds him not guilty. |
| 53 | years ago | 1972 | An advertisement placed in Variety magazine claims Frank Zappa will give private instruction in craps, roulette, keno, and blackjack -- Frank Zappa Sr., that is, who teaches how to win through mathematics at your place or his. |
| 53 | years ago | 1972 | Ryan Newell of Sister Hazel is born. |
| 50 | years ago | 1975 | A Night of the Hurricane benefit show at Madison Square Garden brings the Rolling Thunder Revue to a climax. In addition to Bob Dylan and company, Muhammad Ali, Roberta Flack, and others show up. The highlight is when a phone call from “Hurricane” Carter reaches the Garden stage. The show raises $100,000 for legal fees for Carter and alleged accomplice John Artis. |
| 45 | years ago | 1980 | John Lennon is assassinated by Mark David Chapman. Lennon was returning to his apartment building with Yoko Ono from a recording session. Lennon is shot in his chest, back, and left arm, and pronounced dead thirty minutes later. Earlier in the day, Lennon had autographed an album for Chapman. |
| 45 | years ago | 1980 | Pat Benatar receives a platinum record for her debut album, In the Heat of the Night. The former waitress and bank teller was discovered late one night at the Catch a Rising Star club in New York. Her album made it to the Top Ten and the follow up, Crimes of Passion, will go to #2. |
| 44 | years ago | 1981 | A letter carrying this post date is printed on the last page of Rolling Stone's January 21, 1982 issue. The date is, of course, the first anniversary of the murder of John Lennon. The letter begins: “I think of John's death as a war casualty -- it is the war between the sane and the insane.” It's signed “Love, Yoko.” |
| 30 | years ago | 1995 | The surviving members of the Grateful Dead disband the group following Jerry Garcia's death in August. |
| 21 | years ago | 2004 | R&B singer Usher, who scored the biggest album of the year and four #1 singles, picks up 11 trophies at the Billboard Music Awards in Las Vegas. He recently became the first artist in 34 years to top the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart four times in a calendar year. Last month, he swept the American Music Awards and the MTV Europe Awards. The 26-year-old singer (last name: Raymond) adds to his trophy collection with Billboard awards in such categories as artist of the year, album of the year, and Hot 100 single of the year for Yeah! (featuring Lil Jon & Ludacris). R&B singer Alicia Keys walks off with seven Billboard awards, hip-hop duo OutKast gets five, and rapper Kanye West takes four. In a sign of the times, Billboard inaugurates an award for ringtone of the year, with the prize going to rapper 50 Cent's infectious dance hit In Da Club. Stevie Wonder receives Billboard's lifetime achievement honor, the Century Award, with Quincy Jones and fellow Motown alumna Diana Ross turning up to sing his praises. Performers include Usher, who opens the show, Keys, rock bands Green Day and Evanescence, pop singer Gwen Stefani, and rapper Nelly. |
| 21 | years ago | 2004 | Jimmy Buffet broadcasts a live performance from the Mahalia Jackson Theatre of Performing Arts in New Orleans to 500 movie theatres around the country. Called “A Coastal Confession,” the concert includes Jimmy reading passages from his new novel, A Salty Piece of Land, an audience question-and-answer session, plus the stripped-down “beach” version of his Coral Reefers Band. Buffet owns the Margaritaville Café on Decatur Street in New Orleans, and wrote and performed many songs in French Quarter bars before his career took off. Parrotheads snapped up all the tickets in under five minutes. |
| 15 | years ago | 2010 | A music video of Michael Jackson's duet with Akon, Hold My Hand, is released on the Internet. It was recorded before his death in 2009, and comes from the new 10-song CD Micheal which is released about a week later. |