| 74 years ago (1940) | Dean Torrence of Jan & Dean is born. |
| 67 years ago (1947) | Tom Scholz, guitarist with Boston, is born. |
| 55 years ago (1959) | Elvis Presley's I Need Your Love Tonight backed with A Fool Such as I is released on RCA Records. The following day, based on advanced orders for the disc totaling nearly one million, RCA ships a gold record for the platter to Elvis, who is stationed in Germany. |
| 54 years ago (1960) | The British music weekly Record Retailer, known later as Music Week, publishes the first U.K. LP chart. The first #1 LP in the U.K. is The Explosive Freddy Cannon. |
| 53 years ago (1961) | Twenty-two year old songwriter Jeff Barry whose Tell Laura I Love Her was a Top Ten hit for Ray Peterson, signs an exclusive writing and recording deal with Trinity Music. In 1962, he hooks up with Phil Spector and Shadow Moaton, and with his new wife Ellie Greenwich, they start cranking out the hits. They include Da Doo Ron Ron and Then He Kissed Me (Crystals), Be My Baby (Ronettes), Chapel of Love (Dixie Cups), Do Wah Diddy (Manfred Mann), Leader of the Pack (Shangri-Las). |
| 51 years ago (1963) | Pearl Jam bassist Jeff Ament is born. |
| 48 years ago (1966) | Singer Edie Brickell is born. |
| 42 years ago (1972) | The group America receive a gold record for the self-titled debut album. Two weeks later, the single A Horse with No Name also goes gold. |
| 37 years ago (1977) | Pink Floyd's second album since 1973's landmark The Dark Side of the Moon, Animals goes platinum. It hits #3. |
| 37 years ago (1977) | Two months after EMI nullified its contracts with the Sex Pistols, A&M Records signs the band, in a ceremony in front of Buckingham Palace. The group has been banned from airplay and from virtually every concert venue in the U.K. Nine days later, A&M terminates the deal reportedly because of the reputation for attracting violence which the media has pinned on them. |
| 36 years ago (1978) | The Bee Gee's Night Fever moves into the #1 spot on the chart. It replaces another Gibb Brothers tune, Stayin' Alive. |
| 35 years ago (1979) | James Brown plays the Grand Ole Opry. |
| 26 years ago (1988) | Singer Andy Gibb dies of a heart ailment. He was 30 years old. |
| 26 years ago (1988) | Onstage in Perth, Australia, George Michael thanks Tipper Gore, head of the Parents Musical Resource Committee, for helping boost sales of his Faith LP. |
| 22 years ago (1992) | Prince wins a lifetime achievement award at the Soul Train awards. |
| 17 years ago (1997) | Singer Laverne Baker dies in New York at the age of 67. She had been suffering from diabetes. |
| 9 years ago (2005) | Molly Hatchett singer Danny Joe Brown dies from diabetes in Davie, Florida. He was 53. |
| 8 years ago (2006) | Sex Pistol Johnny Rotten appears on bandmate Steve Jones’ radio show, Jonesy’s Jukebox, and says harassing fans, such as those who threw bottles at the band at a Danish music festival, are “the very people we hate the most.” He says he misses the Sex Pistols, but a reunion is not likely. |