| 98 | years ago | 1928 | Andy Warhol, eventual manager for The Velvet Underground and designer of the Rolling Stones lips logo, is born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. |
| 97 | years ago | 1929 | Mike Elliott (saxophonist for The Foundations) is born in Jamaica, West Indies. |
| 78 | years ago | 1948 | Allan Holdsworth (guitarist for Soft Machine, among other groups) is born in Bradford, West Yorkshire, England. |
| 74 | years ago | 1952 | Singer, songwriter, and musician Pat MacDonald, co-founder of Timbuk3, is born in Green Bay, Wisconsin. |
| 68 | years ago | 1958 | Randy DeBarge, singer and bassist for DeBarge, is born in Detroit, Michigan. |
| 67 | years ago | 1959 | ABC-Paramount acquires British teen idol Cliff Richard's hit, Livin' Doll for U.S. release. |
| 66 | years ago | 1960 | Chubby Checker performs The Twist on American TV for the first time on American Bandstand. |
| 62 | years ago | 1964 | Rod Stewart makes his television debut with the Hootchie Coo Men on the British television show, The Beat Room. |
| 60 | years ago | 1966 | As the Fleet Street press in London reports on the “bigger than Jesus” controversy in America, Beatles manager Brian Epstein cuts his vacation short and flies to New York City for a televised press conference where he defends John Lennon’s remarks, stating, “The quote which John Lennon made to a London columnist has been quoted and misrepresented entirely out of context of the article, which was in fact highly complimentary to Lennon as a person... Lennon didn't mean to boast about The Beatles’ fame. He meant to point out that The Beatles’ effect appeared to be a more immediate one upon, certainly, the younger generation. John is deeply concerned and regrets that people with certain religious beliefs should have been offended.” |
| 56 | years ago | 1970 | On the 25th anniversary of the U.S. dropping the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, 20,000 people, paying $5.50 to $8.50, gather in New York's Shea Stadium for an anti-war rock festival. The attendance is below expectations despite acts such as Janis Joplin, Paul Simon, Steppenwolf, and Johnny Winter. |
| 54 | years ago | 1972 | Procol Harum records Conquistador live with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra. |
| 54 | years ago | 1972 | Geri Halliwell (The Spice Girls' “Ginger Spice”) is born in Watford, Hertfordshire, England. |
| 53 | years ago | 1973 | Stevie Wonder suffers head injuries when a car he was riding in collides with a logging truck in North Carolina. He is in intensive care for four days because of a coma induced by a brain contusion. Doctors say because he is blind, the impact of the accident is magnified three times. He mostly recovers, including his temporarily lost sense of taste, but does suffer some permanent damage--a partial loss of his sense of smell. |
| 47 | years ago | 1979 | The Cars don't pay attention to the sophomore jinx predictions and go two-for-two: Candy-O is their second straight album to go platinum. |
| 45 | years ago | 1981 | Stevie Nicks' Bella Donna LP is released. |
| 45 | years ago | 1981 | Travis “Travie” McCoy, lead singer for rap group Gym Class Heroes, is born in Geneva, New York. |
| 44 | years ago | 1982 | Pink Floyd The Wall, a $10 million film version of Pink Floyd's best selling double-album, The Wall has its U.S. premiere in New York City. The film has virtually no dialogue or play. It's a series of surreal episodes equating rock & roll with fascism, women and sex with pain and death, and life in general with an inescapable madness. Though it does well at the box office, the critics have a problem with all the negativity. |
| 42 | years ago | 1984 | The Cars release their video for Drive. Actor Timothy Hutton directs it. |
| 42 | years ago | 1984 | Eric Roberts, bassist for Gym Class Heroes, is born in Edmeston, New York. |
| 39 | years ago | 1987 | The Beastie Boys sue the city of Jacksonville, Florida for including the phrase “mature audience” on their concert tickets and ads. |
| 38 | years ago | 1988 | The Traveling Wilburys begin a surprise mini-tour prior to releasing their debut album. The group consists of George Harrison, Jeff Lynne, Bob Dylan, Rob Orbison, and Tom Petty. |
| 38 | years ago | 1988 | Yo! MTV Raps premieres on MTV, with Run-DMC hosting the pilot episode. |
| 37 | years ago | 1989 | With their song F--k tha Police causing an uproar, Detroit police stop N.W.A.’s performance before they can perform the song, and escort them back to their hotel. No charges are filed, and officers tell the rappers that they just “wanted to show the kids that you can't say ‘F--k the police’ in Detroit.” |
| 37 | years ago | 1989 | U2 bassist Adam Clayton is arrested at his home in Dublin, Ireland for pot possession. |
| 32 | years ago | 1994 | Michael Jackson and Lisa Marie Presley make their first public appearance as newlyweds in Budapest while Jackson shoots a Communist-themed video. |
| 32 | years ago | 1994 | Singer/actor Domenico Modugno dies of a heart attack at age 66 in Lampedusa, Sicily, Italy. |
| 30 | years ago | 1996 | The Ramones give their last concert at L.A.'s Palace. Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder and Soundgarden's Chris Cornell jam with the boys on stage. |
| 30 | years ago | 1996 | The soundtrack to the film She's The One, starring Edward Burns and Jennifer Aniston, is released. The album is recorded by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers and features the single, Walls. |
| 29 | years ago | 1997 | U2's giant lemon from which they are supposed to emerge onstage doesn't open at a show in Oslo. |
| 22 | years ago | 2004 | R&B performer Rick James dies from a combination of health problems - including heart issues, diabetes, and stroke - at age 56 in Los Angeles, California. |
| 21 | years ago | 2005 | Carlo Little, The Rolling Stones’ original drummer, dies of lung cancer at age 66 in Cleadon, Tyne and Wear, England. |
| 21 | years ago | 2005 | Brad Diaz, a photographer staking out a Malibu, California home where he believed Britney Spears was attending a bridal shower, is shot in the leg with a BB gun. Nobody knows from where the shot came. |
| 18 | years ago | 2008 | Radiohead, Rage Against The Machine, Nine Inch Nails, and Kanye West take over the Windy City as yet another Lollapalooza weekend sweeps into Chicago. |
| 14 | years ago | 2012 | Marvin Hamlisch, who composed the Barbra Streisand hit The Way We Were, plus scores for dozens of movies including The Sting, and who won a Tony for A Chorus Line, dies in Los Angeles at age 68. |