| 66 | years ago | 1959 | The four male members of the Platters are acquitted of charges of aiding and abetting prostitution, lewdness. and assignation stemming from their August 10 arrest in Cincinnati. Municipal Court judge Gilbert Bettman, in handing down the decision, tells the black singers: “You have lost an opportunity to be an example to your people...You have taken that which can be the core of reproductive life and turned it into a socially abhorrant, tawdry indulgence in lust...For these transgressions you will be accountable in that highest court before which you must in the end stand final judgement.” |
| 59 | years ago | 1966 | The Electric Prunes' I Had Too Much To Dream Last Night is released. |
| 58 | years ago | 1967 | The Steve Miller Blues Band, an unrecorded San Francisco group via Texas and Chicago, signs with Capitol Records for an unheard of $750,000. In doing so, the group drops the “Blues” from its name. |
| 58 | years ago | 1967 | Otis Redding, one of the giants of soul music, is killed when his tour plane crashes into a Wisconsin lake. He wrote and sung many hits, however his only #1, Dock of the Bay, is not released until after he passes on. Also killed were members of Redding's tour band. Otis Redding was 26. |
| 54 | years ago | 1971 | Frank Zappa breaks his leg and ankle and fractures his skull when he is pushed from a London stage by the jealous boyfriend of a Zappa fan. Zappa spent months in a wheelchair recovering. |
| 53 | years ago | 1972 | Roberta Flack and two members of her backup band are injured while driving into Manhattan. Bassist Jerry Lemon lost control of Flack's new Citroen, totaling the car. Flack needs surgery on her lip and plans to keep her scheduled European tour, beginning next month. |
| 50 | years ago | 1975 | The Who by Numbers, which contains the hit single Squeeze Box, earns The Who another gold record. |
| 49 | years ago | 1976 | A three-record set of live performances from the U.S. Wings tour, Wings over America, summarizes Paul McCartney's post-Beatles career with its 30-song selection, is released. The compilation, which includes My Love, Silly Love Songs, Titanium Man and Maybe I'm Amazed, reaches #1. |
| 46 | years ago | 1979 | Michael Jackson's Off the Wall goes platinum. It contains four Top Ten singles. Also on the same day, Kool & the Gang receive a gold record for Ladies Night, their third Top Ten hit. |
| 41 | years ago | 1984 | The group assembled by Bob Geldof, Band-Aid, releases the single Do They Know It's Christmas. The proceeds of the song will go to famine relief. And Bob Geldof is eventually knighted on behalf of his efforts. |
| 34 | years ago | 1991 | Legendary rock & roll deejay, and in fact the man who coined the phrase Rock & Roll, Alan Freed is posthumously awarded a Hollywood Walk of Fame Star. |
| 26 | years ago | 1999 | Rick Danko, bass player for The Band, dies in his sleep in Woodstock, New York one day after celebrating his 56th birthday. |
| 21 | years ago | 2004 | Rapper Snoop Dogg sues a woman and her attorneys for extortion, alleging they demanded $5 million to keep quiet about an alleged assault against her. |
| 21 | years ago | 2004 | Police raid the city home of former Bay City Rollers manager Tam Paton. He accuses the police of carrying out a “witch-hunt” after officers force their way in by cutting through a metal gate and smashing through doors. The 67-year-old says he was handcuffed and held down on a sofa as officers searched his mansion on the outskirts of Edinburgh, Scotland for drugs. Paton, who suffered a stroke last month, said officers “came in like the Gestapo.” Drugs worth £26,000 were seized when police raided Paton’s mansion in March, 2003. He was fined £200,000 in May of 2004. |
| 19 | years ago | 2006 | HBO’s The Wire concludes its fourth season. Paul Weller’s version of Dr. John’s Walk on Guilded Splinters is heard on the soundtrack. Other New Orleans music on this season’s soundtrack has included snippets of songs by The Iguanas, The Wild Magnolias, Deacon John, Raymond Winnfield, and The Meters. |