| 91 | years ago | 1934 | Singer Billy Paul is born. |
| 90 | years ago | 1935 | Singer Lou Rawls is born. |
| 80 | years ago | 1945 | John Densmore, drummer for The Doors, is born, as is Blue Öyster Cult's Eric Bloom. |
| 68 | years ago | 1957 | Ed Sullivan presents three rock and roll acts, each making its national television debut, on his Sunday evening show: Buddy Holly & the Crickets, playing That'll Be the Day, Sam Cooke, singing You Send Me and The Rays perform their hit Silhouettes. |
| 59 | years ago | 1966 | California folk-pop vocal group, The Mamas and the Papas earn their fourth gold record for their album, Cass, John, Michelle & Denny. |
| 56 | years ago | 1969 | “Magic” Sam Maghett, the Chicago bluesman best known for his 1964 recording of High Heel Sneakers, dies after suffering a heart attack in Chicago. He was 32. |
| 49 | years ago | 1976 | The Sex Pistols, who have just released their first single, Anarchy in the U.K., appear on British TV's Today Show as a last-minute replacement for Queen. Interviewer Bill Grundy, taunting them about their “nasty” reputation, provokes bass player Glenn Matlock to say “f*ck” on the air. In the resulting uproar, the Sex Pistols are banned from appearing in all but five cities on the itinerary of their first U.K. tour. By next month, no club or concert hall in Great Britain will book the group. |
| 48 | years ago | 1977 | Billy Joel's fifth album, The Stranger, becomes his vehicle to stardom, making it to #2 and containing the hits Just the Way You Are, She's Always a Woman, Movin' Out and Only the Good Die Young. |
| 48 | years ago | 1977 | Brad Delson of Linkin Park is born. |
| 47 | years ago | 1978 | British new wave music-hall rocker Ian Dury releases his biggest hit single Hit Me with Your Rhythm Stick. It will reach #1 in the U.K. and sell two million copies worldwide without entering the U.S. chart. |
| 45 | years ago | 1980 | The newly expanded nine-piece Talking Heads start a brief U.K. tour at London's Hammersmith Palais. A new Irish band which will go on to great things in the U.S. within two years, opens the show. |
| 43 | years ago | 1982 | Epic Records releases Thriller, Michael Jackson's first solo album in three years. It will yield four smash singles This Girl is Mine (a duet with Paul McCartney), Wanna Be Startin' Somethin', Billy Jean and Beat It. |
| 39 | years ago | 1986 | New Orleans’ own Lee Dorsey dies, leaving a legacy of several national hits from the 60’s. |
| 37 | years ago | 1988 | Steve Winwood and his fire Eugenia become parents to daughter Elizabeth Dawn. |
| 31 | years ago | 1994 | While recovering from gunshot wounds suffered the day before, rapper Tupac Shakur is convicted on charges of sexually abusing a woman in a hotel room. |
| 20 | years ago | 2005 | Long-time New Orleans disc jockey Bob Walker returns to the air at WTIX-FM doing afternoon drive. He says that when he retired from the same station nearly three years earlier, he “meant it. But it was a different world then.” He says if he can bring a little comfort and fun to listeners in the post-Hurricane Katrina era, he'll accomplish his mission. |
| 16 | years ago | 2009 | John Mellencamp’s son Speck uses Facebook in an effort to convince his Rock and Roll Hall of Fame father to quit smoking. “I made a deal with my dad that if I get a 1,000,000 to join this group he will quit smoking,” Mellencamp had a heart attack in 1994 and hasn't been able to quit the habit. |