| 82 | years ago | 1944 | Roger Waters, bass player for Pink Floyd, is born. |
| 65 | years ago | 1961 | Bob Dylan debuts at the Gaslight Cafe in New York City. |
| 63 | years ago | 1963 | Jerry Lee Lewis' contract with Sun Records expires. Within the month he'll sign with Smash Records. |
| 59 | years ago | 1967 | In the British papers, the U.K. government takes out advertisements explaining its recent enacting of legislation outlawing pirate radio. The prime reason is the interference with ship-to-shore radio frequencies caused by pirate radio stations broadcasting from boats anchored off Britian's coast. |
| 58 | years ago | 1968 | Eric Clapton records his guitar solo on The Beatles' While My Guitar Gently Weeps. George had previously contributed a guitar solo of his own to Eric and his band Cream for the song Badge. The credits on that record attributed it to “Angelo Mysterioso.” |
| 57 | years ago | 1969 | After a show in the Memphis Mid-Southern Coliseum, James Brown announces his retirement from live performance after July 4, 1970. The hardest working man in show business says he's tired. At the same time, he's fighting a paternity suit filed in Sacramento, California by a one-time president of the local James Brown fan club. |
| 57 | years ago | 1969 | Bob Dylan's Lay Lady Lay peaks at #7 on the pop singles chart. |
| 54 | years ago | 1972 | John and Yoko appear on Jerry Lewis' Muscular Dystrophy Telethon. |
| 52 | years ago | 1974 | George Harrison inaugurates his new Dark Horse label with the release of The Place I Love by a group called Splinter. Harrison produced the album. |
| 51 | years ago | 1975 | The Rolling Stones' Out Of Time peaks at #81 on the pop chart while ZZ Top's Tush peaks at #20. |
| 50 | years ago | 1976 | Fleetwood Mac tops the U.S. LP chart for the first time with Fleetwood Mac. |
| 46 | years ago | 1980 | Paul Simon's One Trick Pony enters the album charts, as does The Cars' Panorama, The Allman Brothers' Reach For The Sky and Eddie Money's Playing For Keeps. |
| 44 | years ago | 1982 | Paul McCartney releases Tug Of War. |
| 37 | years ago | 1989 | Neil Young's This Note For You wins the MTV award for Best Video -- it was very ironic since the channel had initially refused to air the video. |
| 37 | years ago | 1989 | The Pittsburgh Steelers are banned from practicing on their own field, Three Rivers Stadium, because The Rolling Stones are rehearsing for their upcoming concert. |
| 36 | years ago | 1990 | Former Creedence Clearwater Revival member, Tom Fogerty, brother of John, dies at age 48. |
| 33 | years ago | 1993 | Don Henley, Jimmy Buffett, Elton John, Sting, and Aerosmith perform at a benefit concert in Boston for Walden Woods. |
| 31 | years ago | 1995 | Bruce Hornsby and New Orleans' Branford Marsalis perform the National Anthem in Baltimore's Camden Yards before Cal Ripken Jr. sets baseball's all-time consecutive games played record. |
| 20 | years ago | 2006 | Bob Dylan makes it to the top of the charts for the first time in 30 years with his Modern Times album. It sells 192,000 copies in its first week of release. Meanwhile, Jessica Simpson debuts at #5 on the chart with A Public Affair, her best chart performance yet. The eponymous Danity Kane album drops from the top to #2, and Christina Aguilera’s Back to Basics slips a notch to #4. |
| 15 | years ago | 2011 | The “Creole Beethoven,” Wardell Quezergue (pronounced ka-ZAIR), Sr., dies at age 81. He was a New Orleans arranger and producer whose credits include Jean Knight’s Mr. Big Stuff, the Dixie Cups’ Iko Iko and Chapel of Love, Professor Longhair’s Big Chief, King Floyd’s Groove Me, and Robert Parker's Barefootin’. He also produced Dr. John’s landmark 1992 album Goin’ Back to New Orleans. |