| 85 | years ago | 1941 | Aaron Neville is born in New Orleans. He grows up to sing with the Hawkettes, the Meters, and the Neville Brothers, not to mention Linda Ronstadt and his solo career. |
| 85 | years ago | 1941 | Singer/songwriter Neil Diamond is born in Brooklyn, NY. |
| 79 | years ago | 1947 | Warren Zevon is born. |
| 69 | years ago | 1957 | Elvis Presley records Teddy Bear. |
| 68 | years ago | 1958 | The Quarry Men perform at the Cavern in Liverpool’s market district. This would be the only performance billed as The Quarry Men at the club. It would be a long wait, an amazing three years, before the band would turn up again at the Cavern, but under their new name, The Beatles. |
| 66 | years ago | 1960 | Johnny Preston hits #1 on the pop chart with Running Bear, a song penned by the late J.P Richardson (alias the Big Bopper). Preston's smash will make it to #1 on the U.K. pop chart and #3 on the U.S. R&B chart. |
| 64 | years ago | 1962 | Teenage twist star Danny Peppermint--who had earlier released a version of The Peppermint Twist different from, but competing with, the version by Joey Dee & the Starlighters -- is nearly electrocuted when he touches a microphone stand at the Thunderbird Hotel in Las Vegas and is severely shocked. He's rushed to a hospital where he recovers. |
| 64 | years ago | 1962 | Brian Epstein signs The Beatles to a management deal. |
| 57 | years ago | 1969 | Jethro Tull plays its first U.S. concert in New York City. The band, already popular with critics and audiences in England, opens for heavy-metal supergroup Led Zeppelin. |
| 56 | years ago | 1970 | It's announced that John Lennon and Yoko Ono have shaved their heads to commemorate the start of Year One for Peace. |
| 56 | years ago | 1970 | James “Shep” Sheppard, the lead singer for The Heartbeats and Shep and the Limelites, is found murdered in his car on the Long Island Expressway. |
| 56 | years ago | 1970 | Robert Moog begins to market the “Mini-Moog” Synthesizer. |
| 50 | years ago | 1976 | The live version of Rock & Roll All Nite by Kiss peaks at #12 on the chart. |
| 48 | years ago | 1978 | Singer/songwriter Randy Newman receives a gold record for his hit Short People, which made it to #2 on the chart. Newman had angered many short people with the song, especially the line that states, “short people got no reason to live.” Newman claims it was a subtle poke at prejudice. |
| 47 | years ago | 1979 | The Clash's first U.S. single, their version of I Fought the Law is released on Epic Records. Though it gets lots of play on the college stations and in the new wave dance rock clubs, it will not be a hit on the pop chart. |
| 34 | years ago | 1992 | The producer of the New Kids on the Block LP Hangin' Tough claims that the boys only sang about 20% of the lyrics. He sues for a few million bucks for creative contributions and royalties. The group denies the allegations and the suit is eventually dropped. |
| 31 | years ago | 1995 | Van Halen releases their Balance LP. It would be the last album with lead singer Sammy Hagar. |
| 22 | years ago | 2004 | Lynn Anderson, whose Country crossover hit Rose Garden reached number 3 on the US pop charts in December 1970, is arrested for shoplifting. The 57-year-old singer is accused of stealing a Harry Potter DVD from a New Mexico supermarket and punching a police officer during her arrest. |
| 21 | years ago | 2005 | Singer Ray Peterson dies of cancer in Smyrna, Tennessee at the age of 65. Ray enjoyed a handful of pop hits during the early 1960s, among them the Phil Spector-produced Corrina Corrina and the car-crash melodrama Tell Laura I Love Her. |
| 9 | years ago | 2017 | Drummer Butch Trucks, who was a founding member of The Allman Brothers Band, dies in West Palm Beach, Florida from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. He was 69. |