| 125 | years ago | 1901 | Trumpeter and singer Louis “Satchmo” Armstrong is born in New Orleans. Until the mid 80's, it was believed his birth day was July 4. His Hello, Dolly! will top the charts in 1964. |
| 90 | years ago | 1936 | Elsbeary Hobbs of The Drifters is born. |
| 87 | years ago | 1939 | Singer Frankie Ford is born in Gretna, Louisiana. |
| 86 | years ago | 1940 | Larry Knechtel, who'll be a session bassist and keyboard player on records by The Mamas and the Papas, The Beach Boys, The Monkees, The Doors, Simon & Garfunkel, Duane Eddy, and Elvis Presley, as well as a member of Bread, is born in Bell, California. Also born today in Chicago is singer Timi Yuro, who will have a #4 hit with Hurt in 1961. |
| 83 | years ago | 1943 | David Carr, keyboardist for the Fortunes, is born in Leyton, Essex, England. |
| 79 | years ago | 1947 | Paul Layton, bassist and vocalist for The New Seekers, is born in Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire, England. |
| 75 | years ago | 1951 | Roy Flowers of Sweet Sensation is born in Kingston, Jamaica. |
| 70 | years ago | 1956 | Elvis Presley's Hound Dog is released. |
| 70 | years ago | 1956 | The Platters’ My Prayer hits #1. |
| 69 | years ago | 1957 | The Everly Brothers make their second appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show and introduce their upcoming single, Wake Up Little Susie, a song which would go on to cause some major controversy and be banned from some radio stations. |
| 68 | years ago | 1958 | Billboard combines its unwieldy system of five separate sales, jukebox, and DJ charts to make one master chart, the “Billboard Hot 100” we know today. The first #1 listed on it is Ricky Nelson's Poor Little Fool. |
| 67 | years ago | 1959 | Robbin Crosby of Ratt is born. |
| 64 | years ago | 1962 | Paul Reynolds of A Flock Of Seagulls is born. |
| 63 | years ago | 1963 | The Beatles crack the US charts for the first time with From Me To You, which debuts at #116 in Billboard. It's not ’til 5 months later that I Want To Hold Your Hand becomes their breakout hit in America. |
| 60 | years ago | 1966 | The day after the South African government bans Beatle records from airing in response to John Lennon's statement that the band was now more popular than Jesus Christ, a ban on the broadcast of any and all Beatles records on U.S. radio stations goes into effect on most of the country's radio stations. |
| 59 | years ago | 1967 | After a show in Minneapolis, a 16-year-old girl stows away on The Monkees' plane to St. Louis. The girl's father threatens to bring charges for transporting a minor across state lines. |
| 58 | years ago | 1968 | The two day Newport Pop Festival begins in Costa Mesa, California. 100,000 fans show up to see and hear Sonny & Cher, Tiny Tim, Jefferson Airplane, Steppenwolf, the Grateful Dead, the Byrds, Iron Butterfly and Eric Burdon & the Animals among others. |
| 57 | years ago | 1969 | Bill Graham, concert promoter and the owner of the Fillmores East and West, says that he's done with San Francisco as of December 31. That's when the new owners will assume responsibility of the Fillmore West. |
| 56 | years ago | 1970 | The Medicine Ball Caravan, featuring the Grateful Dead and hippie groups like Wavy Gravy, becomes rock's first movable festival. It starts in San Francisco and makes it over to the U.K. |
| 56 | years ago | 1970 | The Doors' Jim Morrison is arrested in Los Angeles for public drunkenness after being found lying unconscious on a resident's doorstep. |
| 56 | years ago | 1970 | Beach Boys drummer Dennis Wilson marries his second wife, Barbara Charren, in Los Angeles. The couple will divorce just four years later. |
| 55 | years ago | 1971 | Actress and rapper Yo-Yo is born. She'll chart in 1991 with You Can't Play With My Yo-Yo. |
| 54 | years ago | 1972 | The famous “Blaxploitation” movie Superfly is released, featuring a score from The Impressions' Curtis Mayfield, and his famous song of the same name. |
| 53 | years ago | 1973 | Maureen McGovern's The Morning After (The Song From The Poseidon Adventure) hits #1. It will remain there for two weeks. |
| 52 | years ago | 1974 | Paul Simon’s Love Me Like A Rock is released. |
| 51 | years ago | 1975 | Led Zeppelin's vocalist Robert Plant and his family suffer extensive injuries in a car accident. It happens during their vacation on the Mediterranean island of Rhodes. His wife, son, daughter and himself suffer broken bones and assorted bruises. This delays the groups U.S. tour in the fall. It would be a full two years before Led Zeppelin plays in the U.S. again. |
| 47 | years ago | 1979 | A benefit for the widow and kids of late Little Feat singer Lowell George pulls in 20,000 people at the Forum in Inglewood. It grosses over $230,000. Performers include the remaining members of Little Feat plus Linda Ronstadt, Jackson Browne, Nicolette Larson, Emmylou Harris, Bonnie Raitt and Michael McDonald. |
| 47 | years ago | 1979 | Led Zeppelin plays its first U.K. concert date in four years to a capacity throng of 120,000 at the annual Knebworth Festival in Knebworth Park, Hertfordshire, England. |
| 46 | years ago | 1980 | John Lennon and Yoko Ono begin recording their album Double Fantasy at New York's Hit Factory Studio. |
| 45 | years ago | 1981 | Marques Houston of Immature is born. |
| 42 | years ago | 1984 | Phil Collins marries Jill Tavelman. They later divorce. |
| 39 | years ago | 1987 | The soundtrack to Dirty Dancing is released. |
| 21 | years ago | 2005 | Regarding her year long fight with breast cancer, Melissa Etheridge tells AP Radio, “I would say I'm 97 percent back now. It is very hard. ... Chemotherapy is so hard on a person. And I would say I'm fully recovered, yeah.” The 44-year-old rocker has appearances booked for October, when her greatest hits collection, The Road Less Traveled, is due for release. |
| 21 | years ago | 2005 | Little Milton dies. His hit was 40 years before in 1965. It was We're Gonna Make It. |
| 20 | years ago | 2006 | John Locke of Nazareth and Spirit dies. |
| 20 | years ago | 2006 | The Newark Bears, a minor league baseball team in New Jersey, hosts a “Britney Spears Baby Safety Night” to spread the message about keeping babies safe in vehicles. Fans who come dressed as babies, bring a toy, or bring their babies, get in free. Britney had taken criticism after being photographed recently driving with her infant son Sean Preston in her lap, and another time with him in a car seat which safety experts say should have been rear-facing rather than forward-facing. |
| 19 | years ago | 2007 | Singer and producer Lee Hazlewood dies. Several of his duets with Nancy Sinatra in the late 60's were Top 40 hits. |
| 18 | years ago | 2008 | Bono proves he reads RollingStone.com as the U2 frontman posts a long comment reminiscing about the band's first album Boy. |
| 14 | years ago | 2012 | Blues guitarist Johnnie Bassett dies in Detroit. |