1959, UK music paper Melody Maker introduced a Juke Box Top 20 Chart compiled from 200 Juke Boxes around the UK.
1964, Gene Vincent and the Shouts appeared at The Rhodes Centre, Bishop’s Gate, England. The poster advertised that the first 50 girls would be admitted free; tickets cost six shillings and six pence, ($0.94).
1964, Chuck Berry began his first ever UK tour at The Astoria Theatre, London, supported by The Animals, The Swinging Blue Jeans, Karl Denver and the Nashville Teens.
1964, Louis Armstrong went to No.1 on the US singles chart with ‘Hello Dolly’ making him the oldest artist to hit No.1 at the age of 62. In 2011, 85 year-old Tony Bennett broke this record when his Duets album topped the US album chart.
1965, During a UK tour Bob Dylan played the first of two sold out nights at London’s Royal Albert Hall. All four members of The Beatles were in the audience.
1966, The Doors played at the Whisky A Go Go, West Hollywood, California auditioning for the position of the venue’s house band.
1967, Sandie Shaw was at No.1 on the UK singles chart with ‘Puppet On A String’. This week’s two highest new entries were Jimi Hendrix with ‘The Wind Cries Mary’ and The Kinks ‘Waterloo Sunset’.
1969, Beatles guitarist George Harrison’s experimental album Electronic Sounds was released on Zapple records.
1970, Guess Who started a three-week run at No.1 on the US singles chart with ‘American Woman’, it was the group’s sixth Top 30 hit and only chart topper. The song was born by accident when guitarist Randy Bachman was playing a heavy riff on stage after he had broken a string, the other members joined in on the jam. A fan in the audience who had recorded the gig on tape presented it to the group after the show and they developed it into a full song.
1973, Mick Jagger added $150,000 of his own money to the $350,000 by The Rolling Stones January benefit concert for victims of the Nicaraguan earthquake.
1974, Bonnie Raitt played two shows at Harvard Square Theatre in Cambridge, Massachusetts; opening act was Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band. Rolling Stone critic John Landau saw Springsteen and wrote ‘I have seen rock & roll’s future and his name is Bruce Springsteen’.
1975, KISS, The James Gang and Rush all appeared at Ohio Northern University in Ada Ohio. Advance tickets cost $5.00.
1978, Fee Waybill of The Tubes, broke a leg after falling from the stage at the Hammersmith Odeon, London whilst wielding a chainsaw during the bands set. See – Accidents Will Happen
1980, ‘I Don’t Like Mondays’ by The Boomtown Rats won the best pop song and outstanding British lyric categories at the 25th Ivor Novello Awards. And Supertramp’s ‘The Logical Song’ won Best Song Musically and Lyrically. Boomtown Rats lead singer Bob Geldoff was inspired to write the song after reading about the tragic shooting spree when 16-year-old Brenda Spencer killed two people and wounded nine others when she fired from her house across the street onto the entrance of San Diego’s Grover Cleveland Elementary School.
1981, Adam and the Ants were at No.1 on the UK singles chart with ‘Stand And Deliver.’ The song enjoyed a five-week run at No.1.
1987, Starship started a four-week run at No.1 on the UK singles chart with a song co-written by Albert Hammond and Diane Warren, ‘Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now.’ At 48, it made lead singer Grace Slick the oldest female to reach No.1 on the UK chart, (later broken by Cher’s ‘Believe’ in 1999).
1992, Bruce Springsteen made his North American network television debut on Saturday Night Live with host Tom Hanks.
1998, Jimmy Page appeared on US TV’s ‘Saturday Night Live’ with rapper Sean ‘Puffy’ Combs and performed ‘Come With Me’ from the ‘Godzilla’ movie soundtrack. The song sampled the guitar riff from Led Zeppelin’s song ‘Kashmir’.
1999, The Backstreet Boys scored their first UK No.1 single with ‘I Want It That Way’ their 8th UK Top 10 hit and a hit in over 25 countries.
2005, Country singer Kenny Chesney married ‘Bridget Jones’ and ‘Chicago’ actress Renee Zellweger in the Caribbean.
2005, Akon was at No.1 on the UK singles with ‘Lonely’, Gwen Stefani held the US No.1 spot with ‘Hollaback Girl’ and Snoop Dogg and Justin Timberlake were at No.1 on the Australian chart with ‘Signs’.
2008, Foxy Brown avoided a further spell in prison after pleading guilty in a New York court to menacing her neighbour with a BlackBerry phone. The 28-year-old rapper admitted hitting Arlene Raymond during an argument over the volume of her car stereo last July. The incident landed the star in prison for violating the terms of her probation on a separate assault charge.
2013, David Bowie’s latest video, which starred Gary Oldman and Marion Cotillard, was temporarily pulled from YouTube over its graphic content. “The Next Day” featured heavy religious imagery, including Cotillard bleeding from stigmata marks. The video sees Bowie performing in a basement bar, surrounded by religious figures, while Oldman, dressed as a priest, punches a beggar before dancing with a prostitute, played by Oscar-winner Cotillard. YouTube admitted making the “wrong call” in removing the video, and reinstated it with an adult content warning.
(This Day in Music)
