| 93 | years ago | 1933 | Singer Lloyd Price is born. |
| 84 | years ago | 1942 | Mark Lindsay, vocalist with Paul Revere & the Raiders, is born. |
| 81 | years ago | 1945 | Robin Trower, guitarist with Procol Harum, is born. |
| 65 | years ago | 1961 | The Supremes release their first single, I Want A Guy. |
| 58 | years ago | 1968 | Eight rock and roll performers or band members are included in the 1968 edition of Who's Who in America, the first to be included since Elvis Presley and The Beatles. They are the Rolling Stones, the Grateful Dead, the Jefferson Airplane, The Mamas and The Papas, The Doors, The Monkees, and Donovan. |
| 58 | years ago | 1968 | Robert Sledge of the Ben Folds Five is born. |
| 57 | years ago | 1969 | The Smothers Brothers' Comedy Hour, which featured such rock bands as The Beatles, The Who, Jefferson Airplane, and the Doors, is canceled by CBS-TV. This is in the wake of the controversy over the on-air censorship of guest star Joan Baez. The brothers had refused to censor comments about her husband, who was going to jail for objecting to the draft. |
| 54 | years ago | 1972 | In what will become a trend, pop artists unite to perform for a presidential candidate: Carole King, James Taylor, and Barbara Streisand, among others, play a benefit show for Democratic presidential hopeful George McGovern at the Forum in Los Angeles. |
| 54 | years ago | 1972 | Allen Klein, already accused of ripping off money from UNICEF, which was to receive the royalties from Bangladesh's sales, turns over just one-tenth of the $1.2 million due the organization. |
| 52 | years ago | 1974 | Bad Company performs its first concert in England. The band is made up of members of Free, King Crimson, and Mott the Hoople. |
| 50 | years ago | 1976 | British heavy-metal/glitter rock band Queen's breakthrough album, A Night at the Opera, is certified gold. On the album is a surprise hit, the six-minute-long Bohemian Rhapsody. |
| 50 | years ago | 1976 | The start of the second leg of The Who's U.S. tour following their By Numbers album is delayed when Keith Moon collapses onstage at the Boston Garden ten minutes into the show. |
| 49 | years ago | 1977 | Fleetwood Mac's Rumours becomes their second album to go platinum since the addition of Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham. |
| 47 | years ago | 1979 | ABC-TV shows the rock documentary, Heroes of Rock & Roll, narrated by Jeff Bridges and featuring clips of Buddy Holly, Chuck Berry, Elvis Presley, The Beatles, Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Elvis Costello and others. |
| 39 | years ago | 1987 | U2 releases The Joshua Tree, an album which sat atop the chart for nine weeks and won the Grammy for Album of the year. It contained U2 classics like I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For, With Or Without You and Where The Streets Have No Name. |
| 29 | years ago | 1997 | The Notorius B.I.G. is shot to death while sitting in the passenger seat of a Suburban after a Soul Train Awards party. He was 24. |
| 21 | years ago | 2005 | Rod Stewart proposes to longtime girlfriend Penny Lancaster on one knee atop the Eiffel Tower in Paris. He is 60, and she is 33. She accepts. |
| 19 | years ago | 2007 | Brad Delp, the lead singer for the band Boston, is found dead in his home in southern New Hampshire. He was 55. Atkinson police responded to a call for help at 1:20 p.m. and found Delp dead. There is no indication of foul play. Police Chief Philip Consentino tells WMUR-TV, “There was nothing disrupted in the house. He was a fairly healthy person from what we're able to ascertain.” He says Delp apparently was alone at the time. For several days, Boston's Web site says simply, “We just lost the nicest guy in rock and roll.” |
| 19 | years ago | 2007 | Van Halen guitarist Eddie Van Halen enters a rehabilitation facility for undisclosed reasons, casting further doubt over the band's intended summer reunion tour with David Lee Roth, which derailed last month. "I have always and will always feel a responsibility to give you my best. At the moment I do not feel that I can give you my best," the guitarist writes on Van Halen's Web site. |