1964, The Beatles performed another two shows at Centennial Hall, Adelaide, South Australia. For the four shows that The Beatles performed in Adelaide there were 12,000 tickets, for which 50,000 requests had been placed. The two shows on this day were drummer’s Jimmy Nicol’s last as a “temporary Beatle”. Ringo Starr (who had been ill), re-joined The Beatles in Melbourne the next day.
1967, The Bee Gees appeared live on the UK TV show ‘As You Like It’. The group were promoting their debut single ‘New York Mining Disaster 1941.’
1969, The Rolling Stones held a photo call in Hyde Park to introduce new guitarist Mick Taylor. The 20 year-old former member of John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers made his live debut with The Stones the following month at a free concert in Hyde Park, London.
1970, The Beatles started a two week run at No.1 on the US singles chart with ‘The Long And Winding Road’, the group’s 20th US No.1. The album ‘Let It Be’ started a four-week run at No.1 the US album chart on the same day. The 12th and final studio album by The Beatles, was recorded in January 1969, before the recording and release of Abbey Road.
1970, Grand Funk Railroad, supported by Steel Mill, (featuring Bruce Springsteen) appeared at the Ocean Ice Palace in Bricktown, New Jersey, tickets $5.00.
1972, Clyde McPhatter, original lead vocalist with The Drifters, died of a heart attack in New York. Joined Billy Ward & the Dominoes in 1950, formed The Drifters in 1953, had several solo hits including 1962 ‘Lover Please,’ was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987.
1975, John Lennon made his last ever TV appearance when he appeared on ‘Salute To Sir Lew Grade’, performing ‘Slippin And Slidin’, and ‘Imagine’. The performance was recorded at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel on April 18, 1975.
1975, Peter Frampton played the first of two nights at the Winterland Ballroom, San Francisco, California. Recordings from these two shows were used as part of his No.1 double album ‘Frampton Comes Alive’. It became the best-selling album of 1976, selling over 6 million copies in the US and Frampton Comes Alive! was voted “Album of the year” in the 1976 Rolling Stone readers poll. It stayed on the chart for 97 weeks.
1981, Smokey Robinson was at No.1 on the UK singles chart with a song he wrote in the late 60’s. ‘Being With You’, the American singers first solo No.1.
1987, Whitney Houston started a six-week run at No.1 on the UK album chart with her second LP Whitney. With this album, Houston set various records on the US charts. Houston became female artist, to debut at No.1 with an album and its first four singles, ‘I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me)’, ‘Didn’t We Almost Have It All’, ‘So Emotional’ and ‘Where Do Broken Hearts Go’, all peaked at No.1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, making her the first female artist to achieve that feat.
1988, The biggest charity Rock concert since Live Aid three years earlier took place at London’s Wembley Stadium, to denounce South African apartheid. Among the performers were Sting, Stevie Wonder, Bryan Adams, George Michael, Whitney Houston and Dire Straits. Half the money raised went towards anti-apartheid activities in Britain, the rest was donated to children’s charities in southern Africa.
1992, Billy Ray Cyrus started a 17-week run at No.1 on the US album chart with ‘Some Gave All’. His debut album featured the world-wide breakthrough song ‘Achy Breaky Heart’, which was originally recorded as ‘Don’t Tell My Heart’ by The Marcy Brothers on their 1991 self-titled album.
1992, Erasure started a five-week run at No.1 in the UK with the ‘Abba-Esque EP’. The release featured four covers of Abba hits and Vince Clark & Andy Bell dressed up as the two Abba girls for the videos.
1995, Alanis Morissette released her studio album, Jagged Little Pill. The album went on to sell over 30 million copies world-wide, and made Morissette the first female Canadian to score a US No.1 album. ‘Jagged Little Pill’ featured the massive hits, ‘You Oughta Know’, ‘Hand in My Pocket’, ‘Ironic’, and ‘You Learn’.
2000, 37-year-old Susan E Santodonato collapsed and died of a heart attack outside New York radio station Star 105.7. after a Britney Spears impersonator left the building. A crowd had gathered after a DJ claimed Britney Spears was in the studio.
2000, A roadie who worked for The Spice Girls, Oasis, Elton John and Whitney Houston was arrested and charged with smuggling millions of pounds worth of Ecstasy into the UK.
2000, Bobby Brown admitted he was an alcoholic, saying, ‘I have a disease, I am an addict, I am an alcoholic’. The singer made the admission while appearing in a Florida court.
2003, Former East 17 member Brian Harvey was cleared of drugs charges after the prosecution’s key witness refused to give evidence and left the UK for Spain. Harvey had been arrested after a News Of The World investigation and charged with possessing and supplying cocaine.
2003, The elder statesman of music were rewarded in this year’s Queen’s Birthday Honours list for their services to music. Sting was awarded a CBE, Gerry Marsden an MBE, Errol Brown an MBE and Pink Floyd’s David Gilmour a CBE.
2003, The Arctic Monkeys made their live debut at The Grapes pub in Sheffield, England. They received £27 from ticket sales.
2004, After 50 Cent mentioned R. Kelly’s pending child pornography trial during an appearance at the New York Summer Jam XI concert, chairs were thrown onstage forcing 50 Cent and his G-Unit crew to leave the stage area.
2005, Michael Jackson was cleared of all charges of child abuse by a jury of eight women and four men at the end of a 16-week hearing in Santa Maria, California. Jackson was found not guilty of all 10 charges including abusing a 13-year-old boy, conspiracy to kidnap and supplying alcohol to a minor to assist with a felony.
2008, A Chicago jury acquitted R. Kelly of all 14 charges of child pornography against him. The US singer was found not guilty of making an explicit sex video that prosecutors had said showed him having sex with a girl as young as 13. Both Kelly and the alleged victim, now 23, denied they were the people shown on the tape, which the jury saw. The defence argued that the man in the tape did not have a large mole on his back as does Mr Kelly, and that the tape could have been doctored.
2015, Rapper MC Supreme was killed in Malibu, California when a pickup truck hit his parked car on the shoulder of the Pacific Coast Highway. The 47-year-old ‘Black in America’ performer, whose real name was Dewayne Coleman, was pronounced dead at the scene. The driver of the truck was arrested on suspicion of DUI.
(This Day in Music)
