| 83 | years ago | 1943 | Keith Relf, harmonica player of the Yardbirds, is born. |
| 83 | years ago | 1943 | Singer and guitarist George Benson is born. |
| 78 | years ago | 1948 | Jesus Christ Superstar composer Andrew Lloyd Webber is born. |
| 71 | years ago | 1955 | Disc Jockey Alan Freed joins the staff of Coral records as an A & R man. His two-year deal calls for him to work with Coral's parent Company, Decca, as a producer. |
| 70 | years ago | 1956 | Carl Perkins is injured in a car accident near Wilmington, Delaware enroute to New York City for an appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show. Perkins has to spend several months in the hospital. By the time he recovers, Elvis Presley had covered his hit, Blue Suede Shoes, and Perkins' career never recovered. |
| 68 | years ago | 1958 | Hank Williams Jr. makes his stage debut in Swainsboro, Georgia. He is the eight-year-old son of the late country singer (who past away New Year's Day 1953) and his wife, Audrey Williams. |
| 63 | years ago | 1963 | EMI-Parlophone releases The Beatles' first album, Please Please Me in the U.K. In just three weeks, it's #1 on the British charts. |
| 57 | years ago | 1969 | Two days after they were married in a private ceremony in Gibraltar, John Lennon and Yoko Ono begin their first “bed-in for peace” in the presidential suite of the Amsterdam Hilton. |
| 54 | years ago | 1972 | Joe Tex earns a gold record for I Gotcha, his biggest single success (#2). It's his first hit in four years. |
| 50 | years ago | 1976 | Presidential candidate Jimmy Carter tells the audience at the National Association of Record Merchandisers' Scholarship Foundation Dinner that Bob Dylan, the Grateful Dead, Led Zeppelin, and other bands inspired him while working late nights when he was the Governor of Georgia. To prove he would never lie to them, he quotes lines from The Beatles' Yesterday and Dylan's Blowin' in the Wind. |
| 49 | years ago | 1977 | Stevie Wonder releases the single, Sir Duke. The tune is a tribute to Duke Ellington and would spend 3 weeks at #1. |
| 49 | years ago | 1977 | John Otto of Limp Bizkit is born. |
| 48 | years ago | 1978 | Win Anderson, who has been promoting a benefit concert for the environmentalist group, Friends of the Earth, holds a press conference in New York substantiating rumors of a Beatles reunion. |
| 47 | years ago | 1979 | A day before her own birthday, soul singer Chaka Khan gives birth to a son, Damien Milton Patrick Holland. |
| 44 | years ago | 1982 | Diana Ross' first solo album for RCA, Why Do Fools Fall in Love, goes platinum less than three months after its release. |
| 40 | years ago | 1986 | Singer Mark Dinning dies of a heart attack at the age of 52. He was best known for his 1959 hit, Teen Angel. |
| 37 | years ago | 1989 | Dick Clark announces he'll no longer host American Bandstand, ending a 33-year run. |
| 32 | years ago | 1994 | Singer/Songwriter and producer Dan Hartman dies of a brain tumor in Westport, Connecticut. He was 43. He was best known for his hit, I Can Dream About You. |
| 30 | years ago | 1996 | Former Turtles drummer Don Murray dies of complications from an undisclosed surgery in Santa Monica. He was 50. |
| 21 | years ago | 2005 | Rod Price, guitarist with Foghat, dies of a heart attack and fall in Wilton, New Hampshire at the age of 57. |
| 9 | years ago | 2017 | Former Boston drummer Sib Hashian collapses and dies while performing on stage at the Legends of Rock Cruise. He was 67 years old. Hashian joined Boston in 1975. He played on the band’s 1976 self-titled debut, which includes More Than a Feeling, perhaps their best known song. Rolling Stone named Boston the 41st best debut album of all time, praising Hashian’s “climactic drum fills in the final fade-out” on More Than a Feeling. He also played on the follow-up (1978’s Don’t Look Back) and began recording on their third LP—1986’s Third Stage—before leaving the band. |