| 84 | years ago | 1942 | Sterling Morrison, guitarist with the Velvet Underground, is born on Long Island. |
| 68 | years ago | 1958 | Alan Freed's Big Beat Show opens at the Fox Theatre in Brooklyn. The usual venue, The Paramount, is vacated because management didn't like the fact there was a riot after Freed's Boston concert. The opener in Brooklyn brought in $200,000, and those performing included Frankie Avalon, Jimmy Clanton, Bobby Freeman, the Elegants, Bill Haley & the Comets and Chuck Berry. |
| 68 | years ago | 1958 | John Lennon and Paul McCartney of a Liverpool band called the Quarrymen, welcome George Harrison to the group. |
| 62 | years ago | 1964 | Billboard reports guitar sales in both the U.S. and U.K., in the wake of the British Invasion, have hit their peak since 1957, when Elvis Presley sparked a boom. |
| 62 | years ago | 1964 | Rob Orbison's Oh, Pretty Woman is released. |
| 60 | years ago | 1966 | The Beatles perform their last public concert. It's in front of 25,000 faithful at Candlestick Park in San Francisco. The boys played 11 songs in just over a half an hour, opening with Rock & Roll Music and closing with Long Tall Sally. The show is filmed by Beatles press officer Tony Barrow, though the film is never released. |
| 57 | years ago | 1969 | Musician Me'shell Ndegeocello is born. |
| 56 | years ago | 1970 | The Kinks' Lola is released. |
| 56 | years ago | 1970 | Edwin Starr's War hits #1 on the pop singles chart. |
| 56 | years ago | 1970 | Eric Clapton's self-titled debut solo album peaks at #13 on the LP charts. |
| 55 | years ago | 1971 | Led Zeppelin fans in New Orleans willing to part with $6 see the band live at Municipal Auditorium. They give the crowd a preview of Stairway to Heaven from their fourth album to be released about three months later. And the levee does indeed break exactly 34 years later. |
| 50 | years ago | 1976 | Jimmy Reed, the Big Boss Man of the blues, who was a major influence on Pete Townshend, the Rolling Stones, and others dies in San Francisco. He was 50. |
| 50 | years ago | 1976 | At a reunion concert of the original Spirit in Santa Monica, California, Neil Young joins the band on stage during their encore rendition of Bob Dylan's Like a Rolling Stone. Bass player Mark Andes requested Young to come up on stage but guitarist Randy California objects to his presence and pushes him away. The song is completed when the misunderstanding is cleared up. |
| 49 | years ago | 1977 | 3 people are arrested in Memphis after trying to steal Elvis' body. As a result of that incident, the King's body is moved to Graceland. |
| 45 | years ago | 1981 | The Pretenders II LP enters the chart. |
| 45 | years ago | 1981 | The soundtrack to the film, Heavy Metal enters the album charts. The LP features tracks by Stevie Nicks, Cheap Trick, Devo, and Sammy Hagar. |
| 39 | years ago | 1987 | An American liquor company reports a 200% sales increase of its Brass Monkey cocktail mix, thanks to the Beastie Boys hit, Brass Monkey. |
| 39 | years ago | 1987 | Los Lobos' remake of Ritchie Valens' 1959 classic, La Bamba hits #1 on the pop singles chart. |
| 39 | years ago | 1987 | The soundtrack to the Kiefer Sutherland vampire movie The Lost Boys enters the album chart. It features songs by INXS and Roger Daltrey. |
| 36 | years ago | 1990 | Elton John checks into a rehab center in Chicago for bulimia, drinking, and drugs. |
| 35 | years ago | 1991 | Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers begin their U.S. tour in Denver. |
| 34 | years ago | 1992 | Billy Joel's remake of Elvis' All Shook Up peaks at #92 on the pop singles chart. The song was from the soundtrack of the film Honeymoon In Vegas. |
| 34 | years ago | 1992 | Guns 'n' Roses November Rain peaks at #3 on the pop singles chart. |
| 30 | years ago | 1996 | Isaac Hayes, who co-wrote the Stax classic Soul Man, sends a protest letter to presidential candidate Bob Dole requesting Dole to stop using his song, which his supporters had changed to I'm A Dole Man. |
| 21 | years ago | 2005 | Hurricane Katrina roars into New Orleans and the Mississippi Gulf Coast, breaking levees and drowning Barry Cowsill, drummer and bassist for The Cowsills, the family band that inspired TV's Partridge Family. Barry and his sister Susan were living in New Orleans. Susan evacuated for the storm, but Barry didn't. His body is found floating under a wharf four months after the storm. |