| 84 | years ago | 1942 | Al Jardine of the Beach Boys is born. |
| 71 | years ago | 1955 | Bill Haley & the Comets turn down their first invitation to tour outside of the U.S. because of a fear of flying. The Australian offer of $2,000 for 15 dates isn’t enough to get them on a plane. |
| 71 | years ago | 1955 | Billboard reports independent record manufacturers are continuing to expand at an unprecented rate. They took in $20 million last year. |
| 71 | years ago | 1955 | Sex Pistols' guitarist Steve Jones is born. |
| 60 | years ago | 1966 | The Four Tops Reach Out I'll be There enters the Hot 100 where it claims the #1 position on October 15. |
| 60 | years ago | 1966 | Donovan's Sunshine Superman hits #1 on the chart, while Stevie Wonder's Blowin' In The Wind peaks at #9. |
| 60 | years ago | 1966 | Question Mark and the Mysterians' 96 Tears makes it into the Hot 100 where it will peak at #1 for a week on October 29. |
| 59 | years ago | 1967 | Folk singer Woody Guthrie, father of Arlo, dies of Huntington's Chorea in New York City. He was 52. |
| 57 | years ago | 1969 | The Four Seasons' I've Got You Under My Skin is released. |
| 56 | years ago | 1970 | Rolling Stone reports that the Bob Dylan bootleg Great White Wonder has sold over 350,000 copies and that the Dave Clark Five has broken up. |
| 56 | years ago | 1970 | At the Palermo Pop '70 Festival in Italy, Arthur Brown (of the Crazy World of..) is arrested and put in solitary confinement for four days after he set fire to his helmet and stripped naked during his stage performance. The audience threw all sorts of things at him. While in solitary, he is given a note signed by over 200 locals telling him to get out of Italy and stay out. |
| 53 | years ago | 1973 | The Rolling Stones' Angie is released. |
| 50 | years ago | 1976 | 110,000 fans descend on Old Bridge, New Jersey for an eleven-hour concert by the Grateful Dead, the New Riders of the Purple Sage, and the Marshall Tucker Band. |
| 49 | years ago | 1977 | Heart's Barracuda peaks at #11 on the pop singles chart. |
| 49 | years ago | 1977 | Styx' The Grand Illusion LP enters the charts. |
| 44 | years ago | 1982 | The three-day U.S. Festival gets under way in San Bernardino, California. Over 400,000 people show up to hear Fleetwood Mac, the Police, Jackson Browne, Tom Petty, the Grateful Dead, the Cars, Pat Benatar, Talking Heads, Dave Edmunds, Santana, the B-52's, the Kinks, Eddie Money, the Ramones, Gang of Four, the English Beat, and Jerry Jeff Walker. It's financed by Steve Wozniak, the founder of the Apple Computer Company. |
| 43 | years ago | 1983 | Stevie Ray Vaughn and Double Trouble’s Texas Flood LP enters the chart. |
| 43 | years ago | 1983 | The Eurythmics’ Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This) hits #1 on the pop singles chart. |
| 34 | years ago | 1992 | David Bowie appears on the cover of Architectural Digest, the first human to do so in four years. He tells the magazine that, “my ambition is to make music so uncompromising that I will have no audience left.” |
| 32 | years ago | 1994 | Former Stray Cat leader Brian Setzer marries Christine Schmidt. |
| 32 | years ago | 1994 | The Rolling Stones' Love Is Strong peaks at #91 on the singles chart. |
| 32 | years ago | 1994 | John Mellencamp and Me'Shell NdegéOcello’s remake of Van Morrison's Wild Night peaks at #3 on the singles chart. |
| 32 | years ago | 1994 | Crosby, Stills and Nash release the LP, After The Storm. |
| 20 | years ago | 2006 | A 63-year-old priest phones in a fake bomb threat to a Madonna concert in Amsterdam, hoping to stop her from performing her famous crucifixion act. The concert goes on as scheduled, as does the one scheduled the next night. |
| 9 | years ago | 2017 | Steely Dan co-founder and guitarist Walter Becker dies at age 67. |