| 62 years ago (1956) | Fats Domino appears on The Ed Sullivan Show singing his hit Blueberry Hill. |
| 56 years ago (1962) | Kirk Hammett, guitarist and contributing songwriter for Metallica since 1983, and founder of Exodus before that, is born. |
| 54 years ago (1964) | The Supremes appear on Shindig! singing Baby Love and Come See About Me. The Righteous Brothers are also on the show and perform Little Latin Lupe Lu. |
| 50 years ago (1968) | Glen Campbell, a former session musician for Frank Sinatra, Nat “King” Cole, and the Beach Boys, receives two gold records - one for By The Time I Get To Phoenix and one for Gentle On My Mind. |
| 50 years ago (1968) | The Jimi Hendrix Experience's third album, Electric Ladyland, earns the group its third gold LP. Crosstown Traffic, a version of Bob Dylan's All Along the Watchtower, and Voodoo Chile are the two-record set's highlights. |
| 48 years ago (1970) | Jerry Lee Lewis and wife Myra Brown are divorced in Memphis. Brown claims her marriage “has turned into a nightmare.” The marriage started with controversy: she is his cousin and was just fourteen when they married. |
| 47 years ago (1971) | Procol Harum records a concert with the Edmonton Symphony in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Portions will be released as the album Live with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra. Conquistador will be a surprise hit single. |
| 46 years ago (1972) | Danny Whitten, former singer/songwriter for Neil Young's Crazy Horse, dies in Los Angeles of a heroin overdose. Whitten is later memorialized in Neil Young's anti-drug album, Tonight's the Night, released in 1975. |
| 43 years ago (1975) | The pressures of instant stardom get to Bruce Springsteen, when on unfamiliar turf in London, he reacts to the hype that preceded him across the ocean. At his European debut in London's Hammersmith Odeon, Springsteen tears down lobby posters reading, “Finally the world is ready for Bruce Springsteen.” Fed up with his new found fame, the Jersey rocker puts on a lackluster performance. His return to the hall five nights later is much better. |
| 38 years ago (1980) | The B-52's self-titled debut goes gold. The group is indirectly responsible for John Lennon's return to music later in the year: when Lennon hears the B-52's, he realizes the time is right. |
| 31 years ago (1987) | U2 opens for itself -- pretending to be a country-rock group called The Dalton Brothers - during a concert in Los Angeles. |
| 30 years ago (1988) | Phil Collins makes his big screen debut in a starring role, as Buster opens. It wasn't his official screen debut, because as a kid he was an extra in A Hard Days Night. |
| 28 years ago (1990) | Paul McCartney's birth certificate goes for $18,000 in an auction. |
| 24 years ago (1994) | The Rolling Stones become the first act to broadcast a concert on the Internet. |
| 23 years ago (1995) | Goldeneye the latest James Bond movie, opens, featuring a title song by Tina Turner. |
| 14 years ago (2004) | Poison's lead singer Bret Michaels gets his $3,000 guitar back a week after it was stolen from an Indiana concert. It’s delivered anonymously to staff members of radio station WLUP (“The Loop”) who are hosting a promotional event at a Chicago nightclub. |
| 12 years ago (2006) | Managers of Graceland, Elvis Presley’s Memphis home, say Elvis impersonators will be welcome and next August’s 30th anniversary of Presley's death in 1977. They'll hold a series of contests to find the best tribute artists. |
| 1 year ago (2017) | Malcolm Young, guitarist and co-founder of AC/DC, dies at the age of 64. Young had been suffering with dementia for the past three years, an illness that forced his retirement from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame-inducted band he founded with his brother Angus Young in 1973. |