| 98 | years ago | 1927 | Mindy Carson is born. She'll put records in the Top 40 in 1955 (Wake The Town And Tell The People) and 1957 (Since I Met You Baby). |
| 86 | years ago | 1939 | Denise LaSalle is born in Sidon, Mississippi. She'll crack the Top 20 in 1971 with Trapped By A Thing Called Love. |
| 86 | years ago | 1939 | Soul singer William Bell is born. |
| 85 | years ago | 1940 | Tony Jackson of The Searchers is born. |
| 83 | years ago | 1942 | Desmond Dekker is born. |
| 78 | years ago | 1947 | Thomas Boggs of The Box Tops is born. |
| 77 | years ago | 1948 | Actor-singer Ruben Blades is born. |
| 73 | years ago | 1952 | Stewart Copeland, drummer for The Police, is born. |
| 70 | years ago | 1955 | Elvis Presley makes his first appearance on the national charts as Baby, Let's Play House enters the Cash Box country charts at #15. |
| 66 | years ago | 1959 | The Coasters record Poison Ivy at the Atlantic Recording Studio in New York City. The song was written by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller. |
| 66 | years ago | 1959 | The Coasters record Poison Ivy. |
| 65 | years ago | 1960 | Hank Ballard and the Midnighters’ Finger Poppin' Time, Let's Go, Let's Go, Let's Go, and his original version of The Twist are all on Billboard's Hot 100 chart, the first time any act has had three charting records simultaneously. |
| 63 | years ago | 1962 | The Beach Boys sign with Capitol Records following the success of their independently released 45, Surfin’, and a four-song demo recorded the previous month, featuring work versions of Surfer Girl, 409, and Surfin’ Safari. |
| 62 | years ago | 1963 | The Beach Boys record In My Room. |
| 59 | years ago | 1966 | Three musicians in London, Eric Clapton, Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker form the band Cream. The band would go on to become regarded as rock's first supergroup as well as one of the most popular and influential bands of the 60's. |
| 59 | years ago | 1966 | The Lovin' Spoonful's Summer In The City is released, as is The Who’s I’m Free. Tommy James and the Shondells’ Hanky Panky hits #1. |
| 58 | years ago | 1967 | Arlo Guthrie's signature song Alice’s Restaurant Massacree debuts at the 1967 Newport Folk Festival. The song spans 18 minutes and mixes humorous narrative story-telling in which Guthrie relates a real-life experience of how a littering ticket on his record made him ineligible for the later draft to go fight in the Vietnam War. The song has since become one of the most iconic landmarks of the '60s folk music scene, often broadcast by radio stations every Thanksgiving due to the time of year of the original incident. |
| 57 | years ago | 1968 | The Beatles record Cry Baby Cry. |
| 56 | years ago | 1969 | The Beatles record Here Comes The Sun and Something for the Abbey Road album. Meanwhile, The Ballad Of John And Yoko is certified gold. |
| 56 | years ago | 1969 | The Who's I'm Free is released. |
| 54 | years ago | 1971 | Ed Kowalczyk of Live is born. |
| 53 | years ago | 1972 | After 13 years together, Smokey Robinson and the Miracles give their farewell concert at Carter Barron Amphitheater in Washington, D.C. This follows 42 Top 100 Hits and a six-month “swan song” tour. Smokey will continue in the music biz as a solo artist, producer, writer and vice-president for Motown Records. |
| 52 | years ago | 1973 | Bob Dylan releases the soundtrack to Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid. Dylan stars in the flick with Kris Kristofferson. One song off the LP, Knocking On Heaven's Door reaches #12 while the soundtrack goes to #16. |
| 49 | years ago | 1976 | Loggins and Messina break up. So do the Allman Brothers, but they re-unite two years later. |
| 48 | years ago | 1977 | The Commodores get their second R&B #1 hit with Easy, Shaun Cassidy’s Da Doo Ron Ron hits #1 on the Hot 100, and Barry Manilow’s album Barry Manilow Live hits #1. |
| 45 | years ago | 1980 | No Nukes -- the film documentary of anti-nuclear concerts -- premieres in New York. Among the performers: Jackson Browne, the Doobie Brothers, Bruce Springsteen, and James Taylor. |
| 45 | years ago | 1980 | Donna Summer marries Bruce Sudano, former member of Brooklyn Dreams, who appeared on her 1979's hit Heaven Knows. |
| 44 | years ago | 1981 | Jefferson Starship get a gold record for Modern Time. Grace Slick only makes some vocal appearances on the LP, because it was nearly finished when she rejoined the group. |
| 44 | years ago | 1981 | Folk-pop singer and songwriter Harry Chapin dies in a car crash on the Long Island Expressway in Jericho, New York on the way to a benefit concert. He was 38. |
| 33 | years ago | 1992 | Fleetwood Mac's Don't Stop is played (over and over) as Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton accepts the Democratic nomination for President. |
| 30 | years ago | 1995 | Sinead O'Connor drops out of Lollapalooza because she's pregnant. |
| 30 | years ago | 1995 | At North Carolina's Duke University Medical Center, Wayne Osmond of The Osmonds undergoes an operation to remove a brain tumor. |
| 29 | years ago | 1996 | John Panozzo of Styx dies. |
| 29 | years ago | 1996 | Sultan of Brunei, who is a big fan of Michael Jackson, pays the singer about $15 million to perform at his birthday party. |
| 29 | years ago | 1996 | Styx drummer John Panozzo dies of a gastrointestinal hemorrhage at his home in Chicago. He was 47. |
| 29 | years ago | 1996 | Singer Dolores O'Riordan of the Cranberries accepts an undisclosed settlement after a London newspaper reported she appeared on stage without panties. |
| 21 | years ago | 2004 | Out-of-work shock jock “Bubba the Love Sponge” Clem announces his candidacy as the sole Democrat in the race for Pinellas County, Florida sheriff. Bubba was fired from his sexually explicit morning show by Clear Channel Communications back in February. The corporation was fined $750,000 by the FCC. Bubba paid an $8,500 filing fee to get his name on the ballot. “For over a decade I've been the voice of the people,” says Bubba. “Now I want to give the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office back to the people.” He pulls 30% of the vote--not enough to win. |
| 20 | years ago | 2005 | The Vocal Group Hall of Fame inducts its seventh annual group of honorees in Wildwood, NJ: The Angels, Brooklyn Bridge, The Chiffons, The Chi-Lites, the Del-Vikings, Fleetwood Mac, The Hilltoppers, the Mel-Tones, The Neville Brothers, The Pointer Sisters, The Rascals, The Righteous Brothers, the Sons of the Pioneers, and the Tymes. |
| 17 | years ago | 2008 | Jo Stafford dies at age 90. She put a handful of records in the Top 40 in the mid Fifties, and did some acting as well. |
| 14 | years ago | 2011 | Party Rock Anthem by LMFAO hits #1 after first appearing on the Hot 100 on February 12 (at #78). The song would spend a staggering 68 weeks on the chart (six at #1), which was longer than any other chart-topper - some songs that did not hit #1 stayed longer. |
| 13 | years ago | 2012 | Jon Lord of Deep Purple and Whitesnake dies after battling pancreatic cancer and suffering a pulmonary embolism. |
| 11 | years ago | 2014 | American blues guitarist and singer Johnny Winter dies in a hotel room in Switzerland. He was 70, and had played his last show 4 days before in Austria. |