1955, The song that changed popular music history ‘Rock Around the Clock’ by Bill Haley & His Comets went to No.1 on the UK singles chart. The song was used under the opening credits of the film Blackboard Jungle. The song entered the charts a further six times until 1974.
1955, Bo Diddley appeared on US The Ed Sullivan Show television show. The show had requested that he sang his version of ‘Sixteen Tons’, but, when he appeared on stage, he sang his own song ‘Bo Diddley’ resulting in him being banned from further appearances on the show.
1961, Bob Dylan started recording his debut album over two days at Columbia Recording Studios in New York City
1965, The Supremes had their sixth US No.1 single with the Motown production team, Holland–Dozier–Holland’s, ‘I Hear A Symphony’.
1967, Strawberry Alarm Clock were at No.1 on the US singles chart with ‘Incense And Peppermints’.
1968, The Monkees film ‘Head’ opened in six US cities. Reviews were harsh and the picture was a box office disaster.
1971, Isaac Hayes started a two week run at No.1 on the US singles chart with ‘Theme From Shaft’, it made No.4 in the UK. Hayes won a Grammy award for Best Original Film Score with ‘Theme From Shaft’.
1973, American musician, parodist, satirist Allan Sherman died of emphysema ten days before his 49th birthday. Had the 1963 US No.2 & UK No.14 single ‘Hello Muddah, Hello Faddah’.
1974, Drummer with The Who, Keith Moon collapsed during a concert after his drink was spiked with horse tranquilliser. 19 year-old Scott Halpin who was in the audience, volunteered to replace him on drums for the remaining three numbers.
1975, The Bay City Rollers’ Les McKeown was found not guilty of causing the death of a 76 year old woman that he had hit with his car the previous May. Witnesses said that Euphemia Clunie was walking across the road and had changed directions four times. McKeown was convicted of driving recklessly and fined £150 pounds and banned from driving for a year.
1975, The Who kicked off a month-long North American tour at The Summit in Houston. At a party afterwards drummer Keith Moon was arrested for disorderly conduct and spent the night in jail.
1976, Paul Simon hosted NBC’s Saturday Night Live where he performed live with George Harrison on ‘Here Comes The Sun’ and ‘Homeward Bound’. Paul McCartney and John Lennon were both in New York City watching the show on TV.
1984, A large crowd of fans watched the unveiling of a Hollywood Walk of Fame Star for Michael Jackson in front of Mann’s Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles. Jackson became star number 1,793 on the famed walk.
1991, The Rolling Stones announced they’d signed a £20 million deal with Virgin Records, to make three albums over six years.
1998, A study comparing noise levels of rock music, found that older people rated rock music much higher on a loudness scale than younger people. The researchers carried out by Ohio University tested people age 18 to 21 and people ranging in age from 51 to 58. The study asked participants to rate the loudness of rock music played at nine intensities, ranging from 10 decibels to 90 decibels. Participants listened to ‘Heartbreaker’ by Led Zeppelin for 10 seconds at different intensities. At each intensity, the older subjects gave the music higher numerical ratings based on loudness than the younger subjects.
2001, Madonna’s childhood home in Oakland County Michigan, sold at an auction in just 12 minutes. The house, along with a few items of Rock memorabilia was purchased for $331,000.
2002, Former Ultravox member Midge Ure was fined £500 and ordered to pay £35 costs by magistrates in King’s Lynn, Norfolk, after he admitted driving without due care and attention. The court heard that Ure was involved in a minor accident in Norfolk while driving his Chrysler people carrier to a concert near Fakenham where he was performing.
2003, Michael Jackson flew to Santa Barbara to be arrested by police. He was seen in handcuffs being taken into the police station. The singer had his mug shot and fingerprints taken before being freed on $3m bail.
2004, Oasis singer Liam Gallagher was fined £40,000 after a fight in a German hotel. Gallagher was arrested along with drummer Alan White and three other members of the band’s entourage after the brawl in Munich in December 2002. Gallagher lost two front teeth in the fight, which led to the band abandoning their German tour.
2005, Robbie Williams smashed a Guinness World Record by selling more than 1.6 million tickets for his 2006 World Tour in one day. The tickets, snapped up on the first day of sale, were valued at an estimated £80 million.
2007, Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke admitted he was among the thousands of people who paid nothing to download the band’s latest album In Rainbows. Speaking to BBC 6 Music’s Steve Lamacq, Yorke said: “There wasn’t any point. I just move some money from one pocket to the other.” According to one survey, three in five people paid nothing at all for it. Yorke added that no one was allowed to have copies of the master recording in case it was leaked beforehand.
2012, Mick Dunford lead guitarist with British group The Nashville Teens died of a cerebral hemorrhage. The Nashville Teens are best known for their 1964 hit single ‘Tobacco Road’, a top 10 UK hit and a top 20 hit in the United States.
2015, Associated Newspapers lost its challenge to a High Court decision to award £10,000 ($15,000), privacy damages to Paul Weller. The singer and his wife won the damages in 2014 after pictures of his three youngest children were featured on The Mail Online in 2012.
2015, Justin Bieber topped the UK singles chart with ‘Sorry’ breaking a chart record for the most tracks inside the top 40. The chart featured eight songs from Bieber’s new album Purpose, the first time a living artist had so many simultaneous entries. His eight entries saw him break a record set by Elvis Presley in 1957, when he had seven songs in the top 40 singles chart.
2016, Craig Gill, drummer of the Inspiral Carpets, died at the age of 44. Gill was one of the founding members of the group who scored the hits ‘Joe’, ‘This Is How It Feels’, ‘She Comes In The Fall’, ‘Dragging Me Down’ and ‘Saturn 5’. Gill, who was a DJ at The Hacienda nightclub in Manchester, England, was also a music historian and ran music-themed tours around Greater Manchester.
