| 84 | years ago | 1941 | Tom Fogerty, guitarist with Creedence Clearwater Revival, is born. |
| 72 | years ago | 1953 | Author/poet Dylan Thomas dies in New York at age 39. Robert Zimmerman of Minnesota took Dylan's name and became Bob Dylan. |
| 66 | years ago | 1959 | RCA A&R executives Hugo and Luigi offer a guarantee of $100,000 to Sam Cooke in an effort to lure him to their label when his Keen Records contract expires. |
| 66 | years ago | 1959 | Today marks the start of what Billboard calls “one of the most frantic weeks in the history of the music business,” as the government probe into disc jockey payola steps up. |
| 64 | years ago | 1961 | Brian Epstein, the manager of several record shops in Liverpool, pays a noontime visit to the Cavern Club to see The Beatles, whom he heard about from a teenage customer looking for their record My Bonnie. He's impresed by the performance and introduces himself to George Harrison and Paul McCartney. By the end of the month, Epstein persuades the group that he should be their manager, and on January 24, 1962, a contract is signed. He will manage The Beatles until his death in August, 1967. |
| 63 | years ago | 1962 | Motown Records releases the Miracles' You've Really Got a Hold on Me, which will top out at #8 on the pop chart and will be covered by The Beatles, Cayle McCormick, and Eddie Money. The song marks the first production by Miracles lead singer/songwriter Smokey Robinson. |
| 62 | years ago | 1963 | The Kingsmen classic, Louie, Louie is released. |
| 59 | years ago | 1966 | John Lennon meets Yoko Ono for the first time at the Indica Gallery in London's West End, where she is giving an exhibition of her avant-garde art. She supposedly doesn't know who Lennon is. |
| 59 | years ago | 1966 | Supposedly on this day, as rumor and morbid speculation grows from the “Paul is Dead” hoax of 1969, Paul McCartney is fatally decapitated in a car crash somehwere in England and is replaced in The Beatles by a lookalike, one William Campbell--or is it Billy Shears? |
| 58 | years ago | 1967 | In a move which is later described by boths sides as being conflicting egos, Roger McGuinn expels David Crosby from the Byrds. Crosby is replaced by Gene Clark, an original member of the group returning after two years away. Crosby does some sailing in the next year and by December 1968 he hooks up with ex-Buffalo Springfield member Stephen Stills and ex-Hollie Graham Nash to form Crosby, Stills and Nash. |
| 58 | years ago | 1967 | The first issue of rock-oriented magazine Rolling Stone, which includes a free “roach clip,” is published in San Francisco. |
| 57 | years ago | 1968 | “Rock and Roll music contributes to both the usage of drugs and the high VD rate among listed men in the army today,” a U.S. Army captain tells Rolling Stone. |
| 55 | years ago | 1970 | The Moody Blues earn a gold LP, their fifth this year, with In Search of the Lost Chord. |
| 52 | years ago | 1973 | Cat Stevens makes his national TV debut on ABC's In Concert. Stevens' 90-minute special is taped live at the Hollywood bowl and includes some of his animated cartoons. |
| 52 | years ago | 1973 | After years of struggling as a member of two New York area bands, the Hassels and Attila, and as a bar piano player, Billy Joel releases what will ultimately be his breakthrough album, Piano Man. The title song will be released as a single and become a Top Twenty-five hit early next year. |
| 50 | years ago | 1975 | David Bowie appears on Cher's CBS TV show and in addition to singing his recent #1 hit Fame, performs a duet with the hostess on a medly of Young Americans, Song Sung Blue, One, Da Doo Ron Ron, Wedding Bell Blues, Maybe, Day Tripper, Ain't No Sunshine, and Youngblood. |
| 49 | years ago | 1976 | In the wake of the reformed Fleetwood Mac's great success with their latest, self-titled album, one of the band's earlier albums Mystery to Me goes gold. |
| 49 | years ago | 1976 | Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention earn a gold record for the 1973 album, Overnite Sensation. |
| 48 | years ago | 1977 | Donna Summer is awarded a gold record for I Feel Love, an erotic recording that turns on the electronic ticker-tape sounds of a sequencer. The tune is her second Top Ten hit and though not as big as her first hit, Love to Love You Baby,, which was #2 on the pop charts, I Feel Love will peak at #6 on the pop charts. |
| 32 | years ago | 1993 | Motley Crue's Tommy Lee is arrested for trying to conceal a gun on an airplane. |
| 30 | years ago | 1995 | Rapper Flavor Flav, a.k.a. William Drayton, is arrested on gun and drug charges while driving a cab in New York City. He had just gotten out of prison two months earlier. |
| 28 | years ago | 1997 | The Rolling Stones play the first of two nights at Dodger Stadium. The Stones play for 2-1/2 hours on their Bridges To Babylon tour. |
| 27 | years ago | 1998 | Pete Townshend plays a concert in the U.K. for the first time in 12 years. |
| 26 | years ago | 1999 | Bonnie Raitt and actor-husband Michael O'Keefe announce they are planning to divorce after eight years of marriage. |
| 18 | years ago | 2007 | More than 100 members of George Osmond, father of Donnia and Marie and many others, appear on The Oprah Winfrey Show despite George's death a few days earlier at the age of 90. He had intended to attend the taping, and all seemed to think that he would have felt the show must go on. |
| 18 | years ago | 2007 | Prince takes legal action to stop Web sites from using copyrighted images. He says he intends to offer some material for free online, bypassing “phony fan sites that exploit both consumers and artists.” |
| 10 | years ago | 2015 | Legendary New Orleans pianist and songwriter Allen Toussaint dies of a heart attack following a performance in Spain. He was 77 years old. |