| 80 | years ago | 1945 | Singer Don McLean is born. |
| 75 | years ago | 1950 | Mike Rutherford, guitarist for Mike & the Mechanics and Genesis, is born. |
| 74 | years ago | 1951 | Sting, bassist and vocalist for Police, is born. |
| 70 | years ago | 1955 | Human Leagu'es Phil Oakey is born. |
| 68 | years ago | 1957 | Specialty Records releases Bony Maronie backed with You Bug Me, Baby, by Larry Williams. Bony Maronie peaks at #14 on the pop chart. |
| 65 | years ago | 1960 | Stay by Maurice Williams and the Zodiacs, enters the R&B chart and peaks at #3. On the pop chart, it climbs to #1 and popularizes the beach sound of the Carolina beach resorts. |
| 64 | years ago | 1961 | Vanguard Records releases the album Volume Two and the single Banks of the Ohio by 22-year-old Joan Baez. She will go on to be one of the most popular and outspoken protest singers of the '60s. |
| 60 | years ago | 1965 | The Who make their U.S. TV debut on Shindig! performing I Can't Explain. Also on the show are the Four Tops and Gerry & the Pacemakers. |
| 60 | years ago | 1965 | Soul Singer Fontella Bass' Rescue Me enters the Hot 100. It remains on the pop charts for thirteen weeks where it peaks at #4. |
| 60 | years ago | 1965 | The McCoys' Hang On Sloopy hits #1 on the singles chart. |
| 58 | years ago | 1967 | All six members of the Grateful Dead are busted by California narcotics agents for possession of marijuana. It happens at the groups' 710 Ashbury Street House in San Francisco. After six hours, they are released on bail. |
| 58 | years ago | 1967 | Bud Gaugh of Sublime is born. |
| 57 | years ago | 1968 | Motown Records and its publishing affiliate, Jobete Music, file a $4 million suit against songwriters and producers Edward Holland, Lamont Dozier, and Brian Holland, the team responsible for many of the company's biggest hits. Motown claims the trio has not put out any new songs since late 1967 -- a breach of contract. |
| 54 | years ago | 1971 | After years of singing in other stars' bands including Jeff Beck's, Rod the Mod Stewart establishes himslef as a star in his own right. On this date both the single Maggie May and his Every Picture Tells a Story LP hit #1. While maintaining his successful solo career, Stewart is also the lead singer for the Faces-something he'll continue keep doing through 1976. |
| 54 | years ago | 1971 | John Lennon's Imagine LP enters the chart as does The Beach Boys' Surf's Up LP. |
| 54 | years ago | 1971 | Pop singer Tiffany is born. |
| 52 | years ago | 1973 | The best of the Bay area's rock talent come together for a performance to benefit a friend named Badger. Promoter Bill Graham is ticked because Badger turns out to be a member of the Hell's Angels who needs legal aid. Graham is well known to be no fan of the outlaw motorcycle gang. |
| 50 | years ago | 1975 | After a bomb scare clears out Milwaukee's Upton Theatre where Bruce Springsteen is performing, he goes back to the Hotel Phister to wait before the gig's rescheduled midnight commencement. Making use of the bar, the usually conservative Springsteen gets -- in his own words -- a little loose and proceeds to give a wild performance. The comment of a British writer along for the ride when, on the way back to the hall, Bruce rides on top of the car: “I have seen the future of rock & roll and he is on my windshield.” |
| 49 | years ago | 1976 | John Belushi comes out during the second verse of Joe Cocker's rendition of Feeling Alright on Saturday Night Live. Belushi performs his exaggeratedly spastic imitation of Cocker. The crowd goes nuts and Cocker, familiar with Belushi's “tribute” to him, claims that since “my band likes it, I'm as happy as a pig in shit.” |
| 49 | years ago | 1976 | Rod Stewart's Tonight's The Night is released. |
| 48 | years ago | 1977 | After a month following what appeared to be an attempt to steal the body of Elvis Presley from Forest Hill Cemetary, both Presley's and his grandmother's bodies are moved to Graceland. |
| 47 | years ago | 1978 | Gene Simmons, bass player for Kiss, receives a platinum record for his solo LP, one of four released concurrently by the members of Kiss. Simmons' charts the highest, getting up to #22. |
| 45 | years ago | 1980 | Tenor singer Leaveil Degree of the soul group the Whispers, starts serving a two-year prison term in Boron, California, for his part in a 1979 gem heist. At the same time, the groups self-titled album is in the soul Top Ten LPs chart. |
| 43 | years ago | 1982 | Bruce Springsteen's Nebraska enters the rock albums chart at #24. Though the record, which consists mainly of solo acoustic songs, will receive virtually no radio play, it remains on the best-seller charts for several months. |
| 43 | years ago | 1982 | The Clash's Rock the Casbah enter the Hot 100 at #90. It eventually makes the pop Top Ten and the funk-dub remix, Mustapha Dance makes the disco singles Top Ten, helping the group's latest album Combat Rock become its first gold and platinum LP. |
| 43 | years ago | 1982 | At a WOMAD benefit concert in England, former Genesis members Peter Gabriel and guitarist Steve Hackett join current members Mike Rutherford, Tony Banks, and Phil Collins for a set. |
| 43 | years ago | 1982 | Aerosmith's Rock In A Hard Place album enters the chart. The LP was recorded without guitarists Joe Perry and Brad Whitford. |
| 43 | years ago | 1982 | Rush's Signals enters the LP chart. |
| 43 | years ago | 1982 | John Cougar's Jack & Diane hits #1 on the singles chart while .38 Special's You Keep Runnin' Away peaks at #38. |
| 40 | years ago | 1985 | Bruce Springsteen's Born in the U.S.A. tour ends at the L.A. Coliseum. |
| 39 | years ago | 1986 | The Everly Brothers are awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame. |
| 32 | years ago | 1993 | Rod Stewart's unplugged version of Reason To Believe hits #19 on the pop singles chart. |
| 32 | years ago | 1993 | Meat Loaf's Bat Out of Hell II: Back Into Hell enters the LP chart. |
| 31 | years ago | 1994 | On the second day of Neil Young's two day Bridge benefit concert, drummer Stan Lynch plays his last gig with Tom Petty's Heartbreakers. |
| 31 | years ago | 1994 | A 42-year-old John Mellencamp confirms he recently had a mild heart attack brought on by an 80-cigarettes-per-day habit and a cholesterol level of 300. |
| 30 | years ago | 1995 | Journey announces plans to reunite for an album and possibly a tour. |
| 27 | years ago | 1998 | Cheap Trick is inducted into Hollywood's Rockwalk at Guitar Center. |
| 21 | years ago | 2004 | 55-year-old Billy Joel hopes the third time is the charm as he marries 23-year-old Kate Lee, a restaurant correspondent for the PBS show George Hirsch: Living It Up!. The recent Miami University of Ohio graduate had been dating Billy since last year. The wedding was at sunset at his waterfront Long Island home. |
| 21 | years ago | 2004 | Mick Jagger tells the London Daily Mirror that Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts has beaten throat cancer. “Charlie has had all his treatments, and he's now been cleared and is free of any illness.” Jagger says he's been writing lots of songs with Keith Richards for a new Stones album, and hopes to schedule another Stones tour soon. |
| 8 | years ago | 2017 | Rock iconoclast Tom Petty is removed from life support after suffering a full cardiac arrest the night before. He was found unconscious and not breathing in his Malibu home. He was taken to UCLA Santa Monica Hospital. |