| 106 | years ago | 1920 | The author of The Everly Brothers' hits Bye Bye Love and Wake Up, Little Susie, as well as Love Hurts by Nazareth, Boudleaux Bryan, is born in Shellman, Georgia. |
| 84 | years ago | 1942 | Monkees bass player Peter Tork is born. |
| 81 | years ago | 1945 | King Floyd is born in New Orleans. His singing career starts at the Sho-Bar on Bourbon Street and peaks with Groove Me, a national Top 10 hit in 1971. |
| 76 | years ago | 1950 | Peter Gabriel is born. He was co-founder of the band Genesis, which he left in 1976. |
| 70 | years ago | 1956 | New York disc jockey Alan Freed signs with Coral Records for the second time. The first year of the contract calls for him to compile and promote four dance and party albums set. |
| 65 | years ago | 1961 | The Reprise recording label is founded by its “Chairman of the Board,” Frank Sinatra. He sells it to Warner Brothers two years later in 1963. |
| 61 | years ago | 1965 | Jr. Walker and the All Stars hit the charts for the first time with the saxophone-driven Shotgun. It climbs to #4 on the pop chart, and reaches the top of the R&B chart. |
| 60 | years ago | 1966 | The Rolling Stones appear on The Ed Sullivan Show. They do Satisfaction, As Tears Go By, and 19th Nervous Breakdown. Wayne Newton, Ethel Merman, and Hal Holbrook are other Sullivan guests that night. |
| 59 | years ago | 1967 | Penny Lane backed with Strawberry Fields Forever is released in the U. S. It reaches #1 in the U.S., and #2 in the U.K., where it was released four days later. |
| 57 | years ago | 1969 | The Doors, and Sly and the Family Stone get gold records for Touch Me, and Everyday People, respectively. |
| 56 | years ago | 1970 | The Ozzman cometh, as the first Black Sabbath album is released. |
| 55 | years ago | 1971 | New Orleans' songwriter/producer/trumpeter Dave Bartholomew has one of his songs high on the charts again when Dave Edmunds' version of I Hear You Knocking reaches #4. New Orleans' own Fats Domino and Smiley Lewis had done the tune before, and Gale Storm took it to #2 in 1955. |
| 45 | years ago | 1981 | The Dark Side of Moon becomes the longest-running rock album on the Billboard chart at 402 weeks. Only Johnny Mathis' Greatest Hits, which lasted for 490 weeks, and the My Fair Lady Original Cast Recording, which hung in there for 480 weeks, were on the charts longer. |
| 44 | years ago | 1982 | Lynyrd Skynyrd singer Ronnie Van Zant's gravestone disappears from an Orange Park, Florida cemetery. The 300-pound marker turns up two weeks later in a dry river bed. |
| 44 | years ago | 1982 | Harden My Heart by Quarterflash peaks at #3 on the pop chart. |
| 44 | years ago | 1982 | Loverboy's Working For The Weekend peaks at #29 on the chart. |
| 43 | years ago | 1983 | Marvin Gaye, accompanied by a drum machine, adds soul and funk to the National Anthem at the NBA All-Star Game in Los Angeles. The East beats the West. Julius Erving is the MVP. His daughter Nona Gaye would do the anthem again as a duet with her digitally-resurrected late father 20 All Star games later on the NBA All-Star Saturday Night, February 14, 2003. |
| 38 | years ago | 1988 | Buster Poindexter's (a.k.a. David Johansen) Hot Hot Hot peaks at #45 on the chart. |
| 38 | years ago | 1988 | Michael Jackson buys Neverland Ranch in Santa Ynez, California. |
| 22 | years ago | 2004 | Life-sized statues of the Blues Brothers are stolen from in front of the Ground Pat'I Jr. drive-through restaurant in Slidell, Louisiana. Two weeks later, they are found blindfolded and tied up in the woods north of Slidell, just across Lake Pontchartrain from New Orleans. |
| 21 | years ago | 2005 | The late Ray Charles’ Genius Loves Company album of duets, recorded in the final months of his life, wins Album of the Year and Best Pop Album at the Grammys. Record of the Year is Ray’s Here We Go Again, a duet with Norah Jones from the same album. Kentwood, Louisiana's Britney Spears wins her first Grammy for Toxic, Best Dance Recording. And Rod Stewart finally gets a Grammy for Traditional Pop Vocal Album, his Stardust…The Great American Songbook Volume III. Best Rock Album is Green Day's American Idiot. Alicia Keys, Usher, and U2 are also big winners. |