| 76 | years ago | 1950 | Chris Stein of Blondie is born. |
| 71 | years ago | 1955 | Lavern Baker's Tweedle Dee enters the R&B chart. It will later peak at #4 and become the first of Baker's 13 R&B Top Twenty hits. |
| 67 | years ago | 1959 | Coral Records releases what will be Buddy Holly's last record before his death, It Doesn't Matter Anymore backed by Raining in My Heart. The first tune was one of the few he recorded that he didn't write. It was penned by Paul Anka. It peaked at #13 two months after he passed away. |
| 63 | years ago | 1963 | The co-founder of Chess records, Leonard Chess, tells Billboard, “As it stands today, there's virtually no difference between rock & roll, pop and rhythm & blues. The music has completely overlapped.” |
| 58 | years ago | 1968 | Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits goes gold just nine months after its release. The album package includes an award-winning poster by graphic artist Milton Glaser. |
| 57 | years ago | 1969 | Marilyn Manson is born. |
| 52 | years ago | 1974 | The Carpenters' greatest-hits collection, The Singles 1969-1973, hits #1 The brother-and-sister duo had, by this year, charted eight Top Ten hits, including a pair of #1s. |
| 51 | years ago | 1975 | The Wiz, a souled-out resetting of The Wizard of Oz, opens at Broadway's Majestic Theater in New York City. |
| 47 | years ago | 1979 | The Blues Brothers--known better as Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi--ruffle some feathers with their tongue-in-cheek renderings of classic soul songs. However, their biggest supporters are the covered artists themselves. The Blues Brothers album, Briefcase of Blues goes to #1 and goes platinum on this date and give the Sam and Dave song, Soul Man, a new life. |
| 21 | years ago | 2005 | The former bassist for the New Orleans north shore area rock band 12 Stones pleads no contest to carnal knowledge of a juvenile and is placed on probabtion. He is alleged to have had sex with a 14-year-old girl the preceding February when he was 21. His band, which sold 300,000 copies of its 2002 debut album and toured as the opening act for Creed and 3 Doors Down, fired him shortly after the alleged incident. |
| 15 | years ago | 2011 | Eminem dominates the music category at The People's Choice Awards show hosted by Queen Latifah. His song with Rihanna, Love the Way You Lie wins Favorite Song. Katy Perry is Favorite Female Artist and Favorite Online Senstation. Usher and Taylor Swift win in the pop and country categories, respectively. |