| 98 | years ago | 1928 | Antoine “Fats” Domino Jr. is born in New Orleans. One of nine children, he learns the fundamentals of music from his brother-in-law, Harrison Verret. |
| 94 | years ago | 1932 | Johnny Cash is born. |
| 83 | years ago | 1943 | Paul Cotton of Poco is born. |
| 81 | years ago | 1945 | Mitch Ryder of Mitch Ryder & The Detroit Wheels is born. |
| 81 | years ago | 1945 | Bob “Bear” Hite of Canned Heat is born. |
| 76 | years ago | 1950 | Jonathan Cain of Journey is born. |
| 71 | years ago | 1955 | Billboard reports for the first time since their introduction in 1949, 45 rpm discs are outselling the old standard 78. Another change in the industry is also noted. On some New York City jukeboxes, it now costs ten cents instead of five cents to play a record. |
| 71 | years ago | 1955 | LaVern Baker appeals to Congress in a letter to Michigan Representative Charles Digges Jr., to revise the Copyright Act of 1909 so recording artists can be protected against “note-for-note copying” of all ready recorded R&B tunes and arrangements by white artists and arrangers. |
| 61 | years ago | 1965 | London guitarist Jimmy Page, who has all ready played on some Kinks records, releases his first solo single, She Just Satisfies. Page will go on to join the Yardbirds and become a founding member of Led Zeppelin. |
| 60 | years ago | 1966 | The Rolling Stones' 19th Nervous Breakdown is released. |
| 60 | years ago | 1966 | The Temptations' Get Ready enters the Hot 100. It peaks at #29 on the pop chart and goes to #1 on the R&B. |
| 56 | years ago | 1970 | The Beatles' album Hey Jude, consisting of singles previously unavailable on an album, is released in the U.S. |
| 55 | years ago | 1971 | Singer Erykah Badu is born. |
| 49 | years ago | 1977 | The Eagles' Hotel California is released. |
| 47 | years ago | 1979 | In London, the Sex Pistols court case, in which they and their manager Malcolm McLaren try to divvy up the band's earnings, it is revealed only £30,000 are left of the bands gross of £800,000. |
| 41 | years ago | 1985 | The 1984 Grammy Awards are awarded. Tina Turner's What's Love Got To Do With It wins Grammys for Best Record and Song while Cyndi Lauper wins Best New Artist. |
| 39 | years ago | 1987 | Capitol Records releases the first 4 Beatles albums on CD. |
| 36 | years ago | 1990 | Former lead tenor for The Coasters, Cornell Gunter, is murdered in Las Vegas. He is 53. |
| 29 | years ago | 1997 | The Grammys are held at New York's Madison Square Garden with host Ellen DeGeneres. The big winners are Eric Clapton and The Beatles. Clapton wins 3 awards, all for the song Change The World. He wins Record of the Year, Song of the Year, and Male Pop Vocal. The Beatles win Best Pop Performance by a duo or group for Free As A Bird, and they also win Best Music Video Short as well as Best Music Video Long for Free As a Bird. Bruce Springsteen wins the Best Contemporary Folk LP award for The Ghost of Tom Joad. |
| 22 | years ago | 2004 | Howard Stern lashes out at Congressional Republicans and President Bush for leading a crackdown on broadcast indecency. Stern, who referred to the country as “Fear Channel,” noted these were “the last days of The Howard Stern Show” and “spontaneity and creativity must be dangerous things” in today's world. The radio personality also said he wants to appear in front of Congress to apologize for being “a visionary broadcaster.” The day before, Clear Channel had pulled the Stern show from all of its stations where it was airing in connection with its new “Responsible Broadcasting Initiative.” |
| 13 | years ago | 2013 | The Who tour ends with a show in Providence, Rhode Island, at the same venue where one of their concerts was cancelled in 1979 by the Providence Mayor, who was concerned about safety. 11 people died in a stampede at a Who concert earlier that year in Cincinnatti. Tickets for the 1979 show, when the highest ticket price was $14, are honored at this show 34 years later when prices range from $57.50 to $127.50. |
| 7 | years ago | 2019 | Veteran drummer Andy Anderson, who recorded and performed with The Cure and went on to do session work with Iggy Pop, Peter Gabriel and others, dies after battling cancer. He was 68. |