| 104 | years ago | 1921 | Country singer Webb Pierce is born in West Monroe, Louisiana. He'll have Top 40 success with I Ain't Never in 1959. |
| 102 | years ago | 1923 | A fourteen-year-old clarinet player named Benny Goodman lands his first professional gig, playing for a cruise ship operating on Lake Michigan near Chicago. |
| 91 | years ago | 1934 | Bing Crosby becomes the first singer to record for the newly created Decca Records. His songs, Just A-Wearyin' For You and I Love You Truly, are waxed as Decca number D-100. |
| 91 | years ago | 1934 | R & B singer Joe Tex is born. |
| 87 | years ago | 1938 | Singer Connie Stevens is born. |
| 86 | years ago | 1939 | Baritone singer Phil Balsley of The Statler Brothers is born in Staunton, Virginia. |
| 83 | years ago | 1942 | John David of Dr. Hook & The Medicine Show is born. |
| 81 | years ago | 1944 | Country/Pop singer Michael Johnson is born in Alamosa, Colorado. He'll have Top 40 hits in 1978 and 1979. |
| 76 | years ago | 1949 | Actor and singer Keith Carradine is born in San Mateo, California. He'll appear in Madonna's Material Girl music video. |
| 76 | years ago | 1949 | Airrion Love of The Stylistics is born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. |
| 75 | years ago | 1950 | Vocalist and guitarist Andy Fairweather Low is born in Ystrad Mynach, Wales, United Kingdom. He’ll sing backing vocals on The Who’s Who Are You. |
| 72 | years ago | 1953 | Les Paul and Mary Ford's Vaya Con Dios (May God Be With You) hits #1. |
| 69 | years ago | 1956 | A Flock Of Seagulls’ Ali Score is born. |
| 68 | years ago | 1957 | Dennis Drew, keyboardist for 10,000 Maniacs, is born. |
| 67 | years ago | 1958 | Chris Foreman, guitarist for Madness, is born in London, England. |
| 67 | years ago | 1958 | Bing Crosby and his second wife, Kathryn, have their first child together: Harry Lillis Crosby III (Harry is Bing's real first name). Crosby has a total of six children - all boys. |
| 66 | years ago | 1959 | Rikki Rockett of Poison is born. |
| 65 | years ago | 1960 | 16-year-old Brian Hyland hits #1 on the U. S. singles chart with Itsy Bitsy Teeny Weeny Yellow Polka Dot Bikini. |
| 65 | years ago | 1960 | Billboard reports Decca Records dumped 25,000 copies of Ray Peterson's Tell Laura I Love Her. They felt the song, which recounts the last thoughts of a teenager dying from a car accident, is too tasteless and vulgar for the English sensibility. |
| 64 | years ago | 1961 | The Edge (David Evans), guitar player for U2, is born. |
| 64 | years ago | 1961 | Paul Jackson, bassist for T'Pau, whose Heart and Soul would chart at #4 in 1987, is born. |
| 64 | years ago | 1961 | Rikki Rocket, drummer for Poison, is born Richard Allan Ream in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania. |
| 63 | years ago | 1962 | Rapper Kool Moe Dee is born Mohandas Dewese in New York City, New York. |
| 63 | years ago | 1962 | Ralph Rieckermann of The Scorpions is born. |
| 62 | years ago | 1963 | The Kingsmen release Louie, Louie. Radio stations label it obscene. |
| 61 | years ago | 1964 | A single by The Young World Singers called Ringo For President is released in the U. S. |
| 61 | years ago | 1964 | The Rolling Stones have another riot at one of their concerts. This one is in the Hague, Netherlands. |
| 61 | years ago | 1964 | Eric Burdon tells Billboard the origin of the Animals namesake. He explains it was the group's followers which called them “The Animals” when they were known as the Alan Price Combo. Burdon explains, “(it) was probably an association with the kind of music that we play, earthy and gutty. It's sort of an animal sound, and on stage we can be pretty wild.” Also, it is on this date that the group's tune House of the Rising Sun is released. |
| 59 | years ago | 1966 | The Beatles release the Revolver album. From it, they also release Eleanor Rigby on a double A-side single with Yellow Submarine. |
| 56 | years ago | 1969 | The Beatles shoot the cover for their Abbey Road album outside Abbey Road studios in London. Six shots are taken and the photo session is complete in less than ten minutes. |
| 55 | years ago | 1970 | Thousands of Americans are denied entry into Canada for the Strawberry Fields Rock Festival in Mosport, Ontario. Officials denied the concert goers-to-be on the grounds that they “failed to produce adequate monies to support themselves.” 8,000 Americans make it there. |
| 55 | years ago | 1970 | Singer Bessie Smith finally gets a marker for her grave in Philadelphia, 33 years after her death. Janis Joplin purchased the marker for the grave, stating that Smith was one of her influences. |
| 55 | years ago | 1970 | Creedence Clearwater Revival's Looking Out My Back Door is released. |
| 55 | years ago | 1970 | Blood, Sweat & Tears’ Blood Sweat & Tears 3 LP hits #1. |
| 52 | years ago | 1973 | Scott Stapp of Creed is born. |
| 51 | years ago | 1974 | Eric Clapton receives a gold record for 461 Ocean Boulevard. It's his comeback album and contains his #1 version of I Shot the Sheriff. The album reaches the top of the charts. Also collecting a gold record today is Roberta Flack for Feel Like Makin’ Love. |
| 50 | years ago | 1975 | The Rolling Stones end their U.S. tour before a crowd of 80,000 in Buffalo. |
| 50 | years ago | 1975 | Tom Linton of Jimmy Eat World is born. |
| 50 | years ago | 1975 | Jazz alto saxophonist Cannonball Adderley dies of a stroke at age 46 in Gary, Indiana. His Top 40 success came in 1967 with Mercy, Mercy, Mercy. |
| 50 | years ago | 1975 | Hank Williams Jr. nearly meets his doom when he falls 500 feet down Ajax Mountain in Montana. He survives, but with some facial scars he will often cover with a hat, beard, and sunglasses. |
| 49 | years ago | 1976 | Drew Lachey of 98 Degrees is born in Cincinnati, Ohio. And J. C. Chasez (of 'N Sync) is born Joshua Scott Chasez in Washington, D.C. |
| 45 | years ago | 1980 | The Greater London Council orders a halt to the plans of American heavy metal, punk-destructo band The Plasmatics to blow up a car onstage tonight. It's at the Hammersmith Odeon, and is the group's first performance in the U.K. The band’s vocalist is Wendy O. Williams, a high school class mate of JD’s. |
| 44 | years ago | 1981 | The Pretenders begin their second U.S. tour. It's an eleven-week stint that begins in Fort Pierce, Florida. The tour is in support of their new album, Pretenders II. |
| 43 | years ago | 1982 | Jefferson Starship singer Mickey Thompson marries Sara Kendrick in San Francisco. |
| 42 | years ago | 1983 | Harold Melvin and three members of Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes are arrested for cocaine, marijuana, and meth possession at Caesars Boardwalk Regency Hotel Casino in Atlantic City. |
| 39 | years ago | 1986 | David Crosby is released from prison after serving a sentence for drug and weapons possession. |
| 38 | years ago | 1987 | U2's I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For hits #1 on the Billboard chart. |
| 37 | years ago | 1988 | N.W.A., featuring Dr. Dre and Easy-E, release the Gangsta Rap classic Straight Outta Compton, which gets a lot of attention for its song F--k Tha Police. |
| 34 | years ago | 1991 | Billy Preston is charged with exhibiting pornography to a minor, and Carlos Santana pleads no contest to a marijuana possession charge. |
| 33 | years ago | 1992 | Madonna reaches #1 on the Billboard chart with This Used To Be My Playground. The song is from the soundtrack of the movie A League Of Their Own. |
| 33 | years ago | 1992 | Metallica singer James Hetfield is injured by a stage explosion at a concert in Montreal. At the same show, Guns 'n' Roses lead singer Axl Rose loses his voice and cuts short their set. Fans aren't too pleased and riot. |
| 27 | years ago | 1998 | The Spice Girls have the U. K.’s #1 single, Viva Forever. Brandy and Monica are at #1 on the U. S. singles chart with The Boy Is Mine. |
| 25 | years ago | 2000 | A class action lawsuit is filed against the major record labels, claiming that they kept CD prices high by punishing retailers who sold the discs for less than their “minimum advertised price.” The case is eventually settled for $143 million, with 3.48 million claimants who bought CDs between January 1, 1995 and December 22, 2000 receiving checks for $13.86. |
| 25 | years ago | 2000 | The first gathering of the Juggalos takes place in Novi, Michigan at the Expo Center. This becomes an annual event for cult fans of the Horror-Rap group Insane Clown Posse. While the first event only lasts two days and is basically an extended concert, the event is transformed over the years into a full-on festival with concerts by many bands and artists, contests, games, wrestling, and other attractions - sort of a Lollapalooza for the Underground/Indie Rap/Hip-Hop genre. The annual tradition eventually settles on Cave-In-Rock, Illinois, as its permanent location, and attracts as many as 20,000 attendees every year. |
| 21 | years ago | 2004 | The Dave Matthews Band's tour bus allegedly empties its septic tank while crossing a grated bridge over the Chicago River, dousing more than 100 tour boat passengers below with raw sewage. Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan files suit charging violation of state water pollution and public nuisance laws. Band members offer to provide DNA to identify the sewage source, and the band says on its Web site that it will “work quickly to make amends, with the people on the boat and with Chicago” if it is found responsible. The band settles the suit and pays $200,000 to an environmental fund the next year. |
| 20 | years ago | 2005 | Two jurors in the Michael Jackson molestation case tell NBC-TV's Today that they have come to regret their ruling of “not guilty.” |
| 19 | years ago | 2006 | A security guard at Paul McCartney’s London home calls police when one of his estranged wife’s guards climbs a wall to let her in after the locks had been changed. The police talk to Heather Mills McCartney briefly, then leave. She goes in with the McCartneys’ 2-year-old daughter Beatrice, and stays the night. The two are in the midst of acrimonius divorce proceedings according to the British media, but this event seems to be no big deal. |
| 14 | years ago | 2011 | While on tour with Maroon 5 and Train, Gavin DeGraw is attacked by a group of men on a New York City street. He suffers a broken nose and is taken to Bellevue Hospital for treatment. |
| 8 | years ago | 2017 | Singer, songwriter, and TV star Glen Campbell dies from Alzheimer's disease at age 81. |