| 84 years ago (1940) | Pianist, singer, and songwriter Mac Rebennack is born in New Orleans. They call him Dr. John, the Night Tripper. He dies June 6, 2019 of a heart attack. |
| 82 years ago (1942) | Norman Greenbaum is born. |
| 78 years ago (1946) | Duane Allman, guitarist with the Allman Brothers, is born. |
| 77 years ago (1947) | Joe Walsh, guitarist and vocalist for The James Gang and The Eagles, is born in Wichita, Kansas. |
| 65 years ago (1959) | Alan Freed, refusing to say he never accepted payola, is fired from WABC television in New York. Eight days later he will be canned from WNEW-TV New York. |
| 63 years ago (1961) | Billboard reports on the global Twist Craze: WOR-TV, New York, has shot a series of one- and five-minute “Twist Lessons” with Chubby Checker to be shown hourly every day. Checker has also been inked for a British-American film production; Joey Dee & the Starlighters, whose album, Doin' the Twist at the Peppermint Lounge is released this week, have signed for the Paramount film, Hey, Let's Twist; Dion has signed to star in Columbia's Twist Around the Clock; and in France there are 45 different “Twist” records on the the market. |
| 62 years ago (1962) | Todd Nance of Widespread Panic is born. |
| 62 years ago (1962) | The Four Seasons' Big Girls Don't Cry is released on Vee Jay Records. It goes up to #1, as does their first (and current) hit, Sherry. Both songs feature lead singer Frankie Valli's falsetto. |
| 59 years ago (1965) | Beastie Boy Mike D (Michael Diamond) is born. |
| 57 years ago (1967) | Time Magazine, reviewing the Doors second album, Strange Days, reports the group's music “takes its listeners not only past such familiar landmarks of the youth odyssey as alienation and sex, but into symbolic realms of the unconscious--eerie night worlds filled with throbbling rhythms, shivery metallic tones, unsettling images.” The album will soon hit #3 on the national chart. |
| 57 years ago (1967) | The Beach Boys Smiley Smile album featuring the song Vegetables, produced by Paul McCartney and the Beach Boys is released in the U.K. on Capitol and in the U.S. on the band's own Brothers label. Unfortunately, the album doesn't make it to the Top Forty in either country and the single will not chart at all, demonstrating the Beach Boys dwindling popularity and sending leader Brian Wilson further into reclusiveness. |
| 54 years ago (1970) | For the second time this year, Kinks singer Ray Davies flies to London to re-record one word in a new Kinks single. Back in June it was to change “Coca-Cola” to “Cherry Cola” in the song Lola. This time, Ray has to change a line from Apeman, “The air pollution is a-foggin' up my eyes” for reasons which should be obvious. |
| 53 years ago (1971) | Inner City Blues becomes the third R&B #1 single from Marvin Gaye's, What's Goin' On album. The others are the title track and Mercy, Mercy Me. The LP represents the first time a major Motown artist has taken a public stand on controversial social issues. |
| 51 years ago (1973) | Keith Moon collapses twice during the first date of The Who's U.S. tour, in San Francisco. First, he falls over his set during Won't Get Fooled Again. Then, after being tended to backstage, Moon plays for another ten minutes before he's carried off again, allegedly due to jet lag. So, Pete Townsend asks for a volunteer from the crowd to replace him, and a 19-year-old comes up and finishes the show. The kid is Scot Halpin, who takes a shot of brandy and sits down at his idol Moon's drum kit. Townsend counts off and Halpin begins drumming. He lasts for three songs: Smokestack Lightning, Naked Eye, and the anthem My Generation. |
| 51 years ago (1973) | Allan Sherman, the great comedian/songwriter whose album My Son, the Folksinger,sold well over a million copies in the early sixties, dies of respiratory ailments. He was 48. |
| 49 years ago (1975) | The Who kick off a month-long American tour in Houston at the Summit. At a party afterwards, band member John Entwistle is arrested for disorderly conduct and spends a few hours in jail. |
| 37 years ago (1987) | Prince's third movie, Sign 'O' The Times opens. |
| 33 years ago (1991) | The Rolling Stones sign a $45 million deal with Virgin, making them rock's highest paid group (the record has since been eclipsed), |
| 30 years ago (1994) | David Crosby gets a liver transplant. |
| 19 years ago (2005) | London-based pop diva Kylie Minogue, diagnosed with breast cancer in her hometown of Melbourne, Australia, postpones until the end of 2006 her “Showgirl: The Greatest Hits” tour. It was to have started in May of that year. |
| 17 years ago (2007) | Lynyrd Skynrd drummer Artimus Pyle is arrested a second time after failing to register in Florida as a sex offender. He pleaded guilty in 1993 to charges of attempted capital sexual battery by an adult to a victim younger than 12 and being principal to lewd and lacivious behavior with a child younger than 16. He was sentenced then to 8 years probation. |