| 97 | years ago | 1929 | Guitarist Link Wray of Link Wray and the Stingers is born. |
| 81 | years ago | 1945 | Bianca Jagger, one of Mick’s wives, is born. |
| 80 | years ago | 1946 | Party-girl Lesley Gore is born. |
| 76 | years ago | 1950 | Lou Gramm, the only American in Foreigner, is born in Rochester, New York. |
| 76 | years ago | 1950 | For the first time in Billboard history, five records appear in both the pop and R&B Top Ten. They are: Elvis Presley's Heartbreak Hotel (#1 pop, #6 R&B), Carl Perkin's Blue Suede Shoes (#4 pop, #3 R&B), Little Richard's Long Tall Sally (#9 pop, #1 R&B), the Platters' Magic Touch (#10 pop, #7 R&B) and Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers' Why Do Fools Fall in Love (#7 pop, #4 R&B). Presley's and Perkins' hits are also in the country and western Top Ten at #1 and #2 respectively. |
| 69 | years ago | 1957 | Elvis Presley records Jailhouse Rock. The Leiber and Stoller song inspire Presley to choreograph the steps that the convicts dance in MGM'S Jailhouse Rock. |
| 66 | years ago | 1960 | In the wake of the payola scandal, Billboard reports many radio stations are adopting a “better music” format and banning rock & roll. |
| 66 | years ago | 1960 | Drifters lead singer Ben E. King leaves the group and signs a deal with ATCO Records. |
| 62 | years ago | 1964 | The Beatles' Second Album reaches #1 on the U.S. LP charts in its second week of release -- the first album ever to make it to the top that quickly. |
| 59 | years ago | 1967 | Capitol Records announces one of the most cryptic periods in the Beach Boys career has come to a close as they've stopped the Smile album project. Brian Wilson took over a year to compose and produce the album and hoped to battle The Beatles for pop supremacy. However, after The Beatles released the Sgt. Pepper album, Wilson became convinced Smile would be seen as “second best.” |
| 58 | years ago | 1968 | The Box tops' Cry Like a Baby becomes the Memphis “blue-eyed soul” groups' second gold single. |
| 54 | years ago | 1972 | Stone the Crow lead guitar player Les Harvey is electrocuted on stage at a show in Swansea, Wales. The 25 year old was thrown into the air after touching a poorly connected microphone. He died in a hospital a few hours later. Also hospitalized is the band's singer, Maggie Bell, who collapsed after the accident, she had been Harvey's longtime girlfriend. |
| 49 | years ago | 1977 | More than three years after its release, Bruce Springsteen's The Wild, the Innocent and the E Street Shuffle goes gold. |
| 48 | years ago | 1978 | The Bee Gees receive their second platinum single awarded in less than two months for Night Fever. It was preceded by Stayin' Alive, both cuts are off the soundtrack Saturday Night Fever. |
| 47 | years ago | 1979 | The Who perform their first concert after the death of Keith Moon with new drummer Kenney Jones, formerly of the Faces. |
| 47 | years ago | 1979 | The Who's Quadrophenia, the movie, premieres in London. |
| 46 | years ago | 1980 | Pink Floyd's hit single Another Brick in the Wall (Part II), with its chorus of kids chanting “We don't need no education,” is banned by the South African government. Black children, upset about inferior education, adopt the song as their anthem. The government says the song is “prejudicial to the safety of the state.” |
| 44 | years ago | 1982 | Adam and the Ants disband when Adam opts for a solo stint rather than finding replacements for drummer Terry Lee Miall and bass player Gary Tibbs. As a loner, Adam will have more success in the U.S. than he ever had with the Ants. |
| 17 | years ago | 2009 | Amy Winehouse gets a court order banning paparazzi from pursuing her outside her London home. The 25-year-old’s drug problems have been front page news in Great Britain. |