1955, Elvis Presley (with Scotty Moore and Bill Black), Slim Whitman, Hoot and Curley, Johnny Horton, Tibby Edwards and Floyd Cramer all appeared at the Louisiana Hayride broadcast from Shreveport Auditorium in Shreveport, Louisiana, and shown on KWKH Television.
1964, The Beatles had their fourth UK No.1 single with ‘Can’t Buy Me Love.’ With advanced sales of over 2.1 million, it holds the record for the greatest advanced orders for a single in the UK.
1964, The Beach Boys recorded their next single ‘I Get Around’, which became their first US No.1 in the summer of this year. The song begins with a multi-part a cappella introduction that quickly shifts into rock-style verses sung by Mike Love and a pop chorus sung in falsetto by Brian Wilson.
1965, The first edition of new music show ‘Ready Steady Goes Live!’ was shown on UK TV, featuring presenters Cathy McGowan and Keith Fordyce.
1965, The Who made their first radio appearance on the UK BBC’s ‘Joe Loss Pop Show.’
1966, A charity concert at The Hollywood Bowl, Hollywood, California, took place featuring, Jan and Dean, Sonny & Cher, The Mamas And The Papas, The Turtles, Otis Redding, Donovan and Bob Lind.
1967, 154 Austrian Rolling Stones fans were arrested when a riot broke out at a 14,000-seated Town Hall gig; a smoke bomb was thrown on the stage.
1969, Bruce Springsteen’s new group Child made their live debut at the Pandemonium Club in Wanamassa, New Jersey.
1970, Phil Spector completed final editing and mixing for The Beatles Let It Be album, 16 months after the ‘Get Back project had begun.
1971, Janis Joplin was at No.1 on the US album charts with the posthumously released Pearl. The album features the No.1 hit ‘Me and Bobby McGee’, written by Kris Kristofferson and Fred Foster on which she played acoustic guitar.
1975, The Bay City Rollers were at No.1 on the UK singles chart with their version of The Four Seasons song ‘Bye Bye Baby.’ It gave the Scottish group the best selling single of 1975.
1977, ABBA were at No.1 on the UK singles chart with their fifth No.1 ‘Knowing Me, Knowing You.’ The song was also a Top 10 hit in over 15 countries.
1977, Fleetwood Mac went to No.1 on the US album chart with Rumours. The album is Fleetwood Mac’s most successful release; along with winning the Grammy Award for Album of the Year in 1978, the record has sold over 45 million copies worldwide.
1977, Frank Sinatra scored his first ever UK No.1 album with ‘Portrait Of Sinatra’, his 46th album release.
1981, CBS records launched the ‘Nice Price’ series of back catalogue albums in the UK. The first batch priced at £2.99 included early albums by Bob Dylan, Santana, Billy Joel, ABBA, Janis Joplin and Simon and Garfunkel.
1987, One of the greatest jazz drummers of all time, Buddy Rich died aged 69 due to complications caused by a brain tumour. Rich worked with many acts including, Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong, Tommy Dorsey’s band, Dizzy Gillespie and Oscar Peterson. Rush’s Neil Peart organized a pair of 90s tribute albums (titled Burning for Buddy), which also featured the work of Kenny Aronoff, Dave Weckl, Steve Gadd, Max Roach, Steve Smith and Matt Sorum.
1987, U2 kicked off their 29-date North American Joshua Tree tour at Arizona State Activity Centre.
1990, Eric Clapton was fined £300 with £10 costs by Walton-on- Thames Magistrates court, after being booked for speeding at 105mph; Clapton was also banned from driving for three months.
1990, Nirvana went into Smart Studios in Madison, Wisconsin and started work on demo versions of ‘In Bloom’, ‘Dive’, ‘Lithium’, ‘Pay To Play’, ‘Imodium’, ‘Sappy’ and ‘Polly’ with Butch Vig producing.
1991, LL Cool J gave a pair of sneakers to every student and teacher at The Thompson Middle School in Dorchester, to celebrate them winning the ‘foot locker cool school video’ contest.
1997, Joni Mitchell was reunited with Kilauren Gibb, the daughter she gave up for adoption 32 years earlier.
1998, Rob Pilatus, one half of pop duo Milli Vanilli was found dead in a Frankfurt Hotel room after taking a lethal combination of drugs and alcohol. Milli Vanilli won the 1989 best new artist Grammy after hits like ‘Blame it on the Rain’ and ‘Girl, You Know It’s True,’ selling 30 million singles and 14 million albums. But in late 1990, the performers were stripped of the award after it was revealed that neither actually sang on the Milli Vanilli album.
1999, The Black Crowes played a concert in Knoxville, Tennessee. Joshua Harmon, a teenager sitting in the second row sued the band a year later for $5,000 claiming significant hearing loss.
2000, Westlife went to No. 1 on the UK singles chart with ‘Fool Again’. It made the Irish group the first in chart history to debut at No.1 with their first five releases.
2001, Mariah Carey signed the richest recording deal in history. The 31-year old singer signed a deal with Virgin for three albums worth £60m. The singer had sold over 120 million records worldwide, scoring 14 US No.1 singles.
2003, US soul singer Edwin Starr died at his British home in Nottingham aged 61. Formed The Future Tones in 1957, had the 1970 US No.1 and UK No.3 anti-Vietnam War protest song ‘War’, (which according to Starr was recorded in one take).
2004, Coldplay singer Chris Martin was accused of attacking a photographer after leaving a London restaurant with his wife Gwyneth Paltrow. A Coldplay spokesman said photographer Alessandro Copetti had been running after Paltrow’s taxi and tripped. Mr Copetti said he had been taking pictures of the singer and his wife outside a restaurant when Martin kicked him from behind.
2005, Kanye West had to abandon a signing appearance in Fresno, California, after a fight broke out between a fan and a security guard. West was taken out of the back door of the new FTK urban boutique, while the owners locked all the doors and cleared around 1,000 fans from the store’s parking area.
2006, A John Lennon schoolbook containing the 12-year-old’s drawing of Lewis Carroll’s poem The Walrus and the Carpenter was sold at auction for £126,500, ($239,733). The poem inspired Lennon to write The Beatles’ 1967 song ‘I Am the Walrus’. Also sold for £12,000, ($22,741) was a ship’s log book written by Lennon during a stormy trip to Bermuda in 1980, and a letter from Paul McCartney to his bandmates Lennon, George Harrison and Ringo Starr failed to reach its £50,000, ($94,742) reserve price.
2006, Gnarls Barkley started an eight-week run at No.1 on the UK singles chart with ‘Crazy.’ The American duo made chart history by becoming the first act ever to reach No.1 through computer downloads only. The single was not available to buy in shops until the following week.
2006, An area in Washington D.C. formally called Watts Branch Park, was officially rededicated as Marvin Gaye Park on what would have been the singer’s 67th birthday. Gaye grew up in East Capitol Dwellings, at #12 60th Street, NE, near the east end of the park.
2013, A grand piano used in the Motown Records studios was fully restored and put on display at a museum dedicated to the legendary record label in Detroit. Sir Paul McCartney helped fund the restoration of the 1877 Steinway, which was originally in Motown’s Studio B. and was used to create hits for names including Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder and Edwin Starr.
2013, Coldplay beat the likes of Pink Floyd and The Beatles to the top of a BBC Radio 2 poll to find listeners’ favourite album of all time. A Rush Of Blood To The Head, came top of the list. Keane’s ‘Hopes And Fears’ took second place, with Duran Duran’s ‘Rio’ in third. Pink Floyd’s ‘Dark Side Of The Moon’ came fourth, while The Beatles’ 1967 classic ‘Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band’ could only manage eighth place. The poll was held to tie in with the recent BBC season The Golden Age of the Album.
(This Day in Music)
