| 77 | years ago | 1949 | Cliff Fish, bassist with Paper Lace, is born. |
| 75 | years ago | 1951 | Solo artist Dan Fogelberg is born. |
| 74 | years ago | 1952 | The original version of Hound Dog is recorded by Willie Mae (“Big Mama”) Thornton. It is the first hit for the song-writing team of Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller. Four years later, Hound Dog gets the world's attention when it is recorded by Elvis Presley. Musician-composer Johnny Otis, who hit with his Willie and the Hand Jive, says he helped Leiber and Stoller with the writing of Hound Dog. All is fine as long as Big Mama Thornton is doing the singing because Otis is her producer; but as soon as the Elvis version starts bringing in the bucks, Otis gets cut out of the picture. Otis goes to court but loses the suit. |
| 71 | years ago | 1955 | Due to the number of pop hits which are remakes, especially R&B hits, Savoy Records announces that those wanting to record “cover” versions of songs must obtain permission from the copyright office. |
| 67 | years ago | 1959 | Brenda Lee records Sweet Nothin's. |
| 67 | years ago | 1959 | Jimmy McCulloch, a rock guitarist who recorded with Wings, Roger Daltrey, Thunderclap Newman, John Entwistle, Stone The Crows, and The Bluesbreakers, is born. |
| 62 | years ago | 1964 | The Supremes record Baby Love. |
| 62 | years ago | 1964 | Ian Haughland, heavy metal rock musician and member of the groups Europe and The Final Countdown, is born. |
| 61 | years ago | 1965 | The Beatles fly to New York for the start of a second U. S. tour. |
| 61 | years ago | 1965 | The Jefferson Airplane makes its stage debut at the Matrix Club in San Francisco. Before the year's out, they'll become the first San Francisco rock group to sign a major recording contract. |
| 61 | years ago | 1965 | The Beatles' Help! single is released. |
| 60 | years ago | 1966 | The Supremes' You Can't Hurry Love is released. |
| 60 | years ago | 1966 | Lovin' Spoonful starts a three week run at #1 on the U. S. singles chart with Summer In The City. |
| 59 | years ago | 1967 | The Daughters of the American Revolution refuse to allow Joan Baez to perform at Constitution Hall in Washington D.C. because of her opposition to the Vietnam War. |
| 57 | years ago | 1969 | The Guess Who record American Woman. |
| 57 | years ago | 1969 | The movie Easy Rider opens in Los Angeles. It stars Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper, and Jack Nicholson. The soundtrack has music of The Byrds, Steppenwolf, and The Electric Prunes, among others. And it makes New Orleans’ Mardi Gras a must-do for its generation. |
| 55 | years ago | 1971 | John Lennon flies from Heathrow Airport to New York, and he never sets foot on British soil again. Meanwhile, Paul and Linda McCartney released The Back Seat of My Car in the U. S. |
| 55 | years ago | 1971 | Legendary saxophonist King Curtis is stabbed to death outside his New York home. He appeared on many hits in the 50's and 60's, including the Coasters hit, Yakety Yak. He was 37. |
| 54 | years ago | 1972 | John Lennon and Stevie Wonder perform at New York's One-To-One Concert to aid the retarded. |
| 51 | years ago | 1975 | Bruce Springsteen and the E Street band start a five-night, two-show-an-evening run at New York's showcase club at the Bottom Line. The performances, just before the release of Born to Run, are instrumental in spreading the gospel of rock's purported future and hype of the Boss. Columbia Records supposedly papers the place each night with influential industry people. |
| 50 | years ago | 1976 | The Clash gives a private show at a rehearsal hall in the Calk Farm suburb of London, revealing themselves to both the invited press and to the world at large. |
| 49 | years ago | 1977 | Bachman-Turner Overdrive disbands. |
| 47 | years ago | 1979 | Cheap Trick has the biggest hit of their career, I Want You to Want Me. The tune was originally on their second L.P., In Color, which came out in 1977. However the song took off when it was included on the Live at Budokan album. The record goes gold on this date. |
| 46 | years ago | 1980 | Todd Rundgren's home in Woodstock, New York is invaded by four masked men. Rundgren, his girlfriend and three houseguests are bound and gagged while the masked men strip the house of valuables. Reportedly, one of the thieves hummed Rundgren's I Saw the Light during the heist. |
| 44 | years ago | 1982 | R&B soul singer Joe Tex dies of a heart attack in Navasota, Texas. His biggest chart hit was I Gotcha, which made it up to #2 in 1972. He was 44. |
| 38 | years ago | 1988 | Robert Smith of The Cure marries his childhood sweetheart, Mary Poole. |
| 36 | years ago | 1990 | Singer Curtis Mayfield is paralyzed after a tower fell on him before a concert in Brooklyn, New York. |
| 32 | years ago | 1994 | Over 400,000 fans attend Woodstock 94, billed as two more days of peace and music, with Dylan, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Aerosmith, Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young plus dozens of other acts. It rains. |
| 31 | years ago | 1995 | R.E.M. lead singer Michael Stipe has surgery for a hernia, the day after the group finishes a European tour. |
| 27 | years ago | 1999 | Ex-Guns N' Roses member Slash is arrested by Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies and accused of assaulting his girlfriend at his Sunset Boulevard recording studio . He is released on bail. |
| 24 | years ago | 2002 | Adam Ant pleads guilty to threatening drinkers at The Prince Of Wales pub in London in January 2002. The former 1980’s star had returned to the bar with a starting pistol after being refused entry. He had also thrown a car alternator through the window of the pub. |
| 19 | years ago | 2007 | For the first time in 20 years, all of the Osmond siblings--Donnie, Marie, Jimmy, Wayne, Allan, Merrill, and Jay--appear on stage together to tape a PBS show celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Osmond family's original forary into show business with the Osmond Brothers barbershop quartet in 1957. The show will air in 2008. |