| 78 | years ago | 1948 | Kenny Loggins, guitarist and vocalist with Loggins and Messina, is born. |
| 63 | years ago | 1963 | Gary U.S. Bonds files a $100,000 suit against Chubby Checker, charging Checker stole Quarter to Three and turned it into Dancin' Party. The suit is settled out of court. |
| 58 | years ago | 1968 | San Francisco's KMPX-FM, one of America's pioneering “underground” radio stations, holds a “grass ballot” vote among its listeners. Among those elected are Bob Dylan (president), Paul Butterfield (vice-president), George Harrison (U.N. ambassador), Jefferson Airplane (Secretary of Transportation), and the Grateful Dead (attorney general). |
| 57 | years ago | 1969 | Look magazine, in an issue devoted to relations between blacks and whites, has an article on Jimi Hendrix called “Jimi Hendrix Socks It to the White House.” There is a picture of the black musician lounging beside a swimming pool surrounded by bikini-clad white women. The story reads, “...Jimi is not so much the Experience as a menace to public health. Plugged in and zonked, he only has to step across the stage to turn on their high-pitched passion.” |
| 56 | years ago | 1970 | Max Yasgur, on whose New York farm the August 1969 Woodstock Festival was held, is sued for $35,000 in property damages by neighboring farmers. |
| 52 | years ago | 1974 | James Taylor and Carly Simon have their second child, Sarah Martin, in New York. |
| 50 | years ago | 1976 | Kenneth Moss, former record company executive who already pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter in the 1974 drug induced death of Average White Band drummer Robbie McIntosh, is sentenced to 120 days in the Los Angeles County Jail and four years probation. |
| 48 | years ago | 1978 | The soundtrack album of the hit disco movie Saturday Night Fever, featuring the Bee Gees, the Trammps, Tavares, K.C. & the Sunshine Band, Kool & the Gang, MFSB and others enter the soul album chart. It will peak at #1 for six weeks starting February 18 in its 39 weeks on the chart. |
| 48 | years ago | 1978 | Veteran Memphis soul band the Bar-kays, known backing the late Otis Redding, enter the soul chart with Let's Have Some Fun. It peaks at #11. Also on this day, Stevie Wonder's 27th album, Looking Back enters the soul album chart and Roberta Flack enters the soul LP chart with Blue Lights in the Basement. It will peak at #5. |
| 46 | years ago | 1980 | Carl White, one of the four singers that made up the Rivingtons, dies in his Los Angeles home. The Rivingtons' claim to fame was in 1962 with Papa-Oom-Mow-Mow. He was 48 years old. |
| 46 | years ago | 1980 | Led Zeppelin's In Through the Out Door turns platinum. It's the last album issued before the September 25th death of drummer John Bonham. |
| 46 | years ago | 1980 | Foreigner's Head Games goes gold, but group leader Mick Jones is ticked. The album was a disappointment even to the band and Jones is forces to reconsider the current lineup. A big change will happen later in the year. |
| 45 | years ago | 1981 | The Eagles Live album goes platinum. The two-record set will turn out to be the final Eagles album until 1994's comeback LP, Hell Freezes Over. The group dissolves next year. |
| 44 | years ago | 1982 | Hooked on Classics, using the extended medley format made popular by Stars on 45, sets popular classical music to a disco beat. The result: It goes platinum on this date. |
| 27 | years ago | 1999 | Rod Stewart and supermodel wife Rachel Hunter announce their separation after eight years of marriage. |
| 27 | years ago | 1999 | Paul McCartney attends the debut of his step-daughter Heather's first house wares collection at the Atlanta International Gift & Home Furnishings Market in Georgia. The collection features various house wares inspired by ancient art from Mexican Indian tribes (the Huichol and Tarahumara Indian nations). |
| 6 | years ago | 2020 | Neil Peart, the drummer and lyricist for Rush, dies in Santa Monica, California at age 67. The cause is brain cancer, which he had been quietly battling for three years. |