| 91 | years ago | 1935 | Rock pianist Jerry Lee Lewis is born. |
| 78 | years ago | 1948 | Mark Farner, guitarist and vocalist for Grank Funk Railroad, is born. |
| 70 | years ago | 1956 | So far, RCA Victor has received over 856,327 advance orders for Elvis Presley's Love Me Tender. |
| 68 | years ago | 1958 | The Big Bopper's Chantilly Lace enters the pop chart at #27 and the Moonglows' Ten Commandments of Love, enters the pop charts at #41. |
| 65 | years ago | 1961 | New York Times music critic Robert Shelton sees Bob Dylan open at Gerde's Folk City. His review describes Dylan as “a cross between a choir boy and a beatnik” and “bursting at the seams with talent.” It's Dylans first press notice. |
| 63 | years ago | 1963 | The Everly Brothers leave for a tour of the British Isles. On the bill are Bo Diddley, the Rolling Stones and as of October 5, Little Richard. |
| 59 | years ago | 1967 | Gladys Knight & the Pips' I Heard It Through the Grapevine is released on Motown's Soul label. The song reaches #2 on the pop chart and #1 on the R&B. |
| 59 | years ago | 1967 | Mickey Hart joins the Grateful Dead. |
| 54 | years ago | 1972 | Cat Stevens opens his new tour before a sold out crowd of 6,500 at the Shrine Auditorium in L. A. He is backed by an 11-piece orchestra for the 31-date tour. |
| 53 | years ago | 1973 | Grand Funk's We're An American Band hits #1 on the singles chart. |
| 51 | years ago | 1975 | Jackie Wilson falls into a coma from which he will never recover. |
| 50 | years ago | 1976 | Jerry Lee Lewis, attempting to shoot a soda bottle somewhere in the distance with a .357 magnum, hits his bass player, Norman Owens twice in the chest. Lewis is charged with shooting a firearm within the city limits. |
| 49 | years ago | 1977 | James Brown's band, complaining that the Hardest-Working Man in Show Business has been underpaying them, walks out on him in Hallendale, Florida. |
| 47 | years ago | 1979 | Cheap Trick's Ain't That A Shame peaks at #35 on the singles chart, while Robert Palmer's Bad Case Of Loving You peaks at #14, Nick Lowe's Cruel To Be Kind peaks at #12, and Dave Edmunds' Girls Talk peaks at #65. |
| 46 | years ago | 1980 | In an interview with Newsweek magazine, John Lennon gives details about the soon-to-be released album he's making with Yoko Ono, Double Fantasy. |
| 42 | years ago | 1984 | The Cars' Drive peaks at #3 on the pop singles chart. |
| 37 | years ago | 1989 | While taking a motorcycle trip from L.A. to the Grand Canyon, Bruce Springsteen stops in a small saloon on Prescott, Arizona and jams with the house band, The Mile High Band. Bruce and the band play Don't Be Cruel, I'm On Fire, Route 66 and others. One of the barmaids, Brenda Techanec, talks about her problems paying her hospital bills -- Springsteen overhears her and a week later she gets a check for $100,000. |
| 22 | years ago | 2004 | Stevie Wonder, Travis Tritt, Michael McDonald, James Ingram, and Patti Austin perform at a Ray Charles tribute concert at the Beverly Hills Hilton, helping raise money for the $15 million Morehouse College Center for the Arts in Atlanta. While alive, Ray Charles had donated $2 million of his own money to help fund the complex. Georgia On My Mind, What'd I Say, and Hit the Road, Jack are a few of the Genius' songs performed at the show. He died June 10 of this year. |
| 18 | years ago | 2008 | Bob Dylan's new CD, Tell Tale Signs, is streamed for free a week before its official release by Columbia Records on National Public Radio's Web site. It's the eighth in the “Bootleg Series.” |