| 98 | years ago | 1928 | Jazz pianist Vince Guaraldi, who'll become best known for his work on the soundtracks for various Peanuts comic strip TV specials, and for his Cast Your Fate to the Wind, is born. |
| 84 | years ago | 1942 | Gale Garnett is born in New Zealand. |
| 84 | years ago | 1942 | Spencer Davis is born. |
| 80 | years ago | 1946 | A thirteen-year-old Petula Clark makes her TV debut on the BBC's Cabaret Cartoons. |
| 79 | years ago | 1947 | Mick Tucker, drummer and backing vocalist for Sweet, is born. So is Wolfgang Flur of Kraftwerk. |
| 78 | years ago | 1948 | Ron Asheton of The Stooges is born. |
| 77 | years ago | 1949 | Terence "Geezer" Butler of Black Sabbath is born. So is Mike Vale of Tommy James and The Shondells. |
| 74 | years ago | 1952 | Singer Phoebe Snow is born, as are Nicolette Larson and Chet McCracken, one of the Doobie Brothers. |
| 72 | years ago | 1954 | The Newport Jazz Festival, the world's first such event, debuts on the tennis courts of the Newport Casino in Rhode Island. Its producer, George Wein, will later help start the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival. |
| 72 | years ago | 1954 | Guitarist Danny Cedrone dies. He had played lead on Rocket 88, the 1951 record widely acknowledged to be one of the first rock ’n’ roll recordings. He also appeared on 1954’s Rock Around the Clock and other records by Bill Haley and His Comets. |
| 71 | years ago | 1955 | Walt Disney opens his amusement park, Disneyland, in Anaheim, California. On the live ABC television special he introduces his new teen and pre-teen sensations, the Mousketeers, including future recording and movie star Annette Funicello. |
| 68 | years ago | 1958 | Elvis Presley's "Hard Headed Woman" hits #1. |
| 67 | years ago | 1959 | Jazz singer and songwriter Billie Holiday dies. |
| 65 | years ago | 1961 | The Supremes’ Buttered Popcorn is released. It's one of the few Supremes recordings on which Florence Ballard sings sole lead. |
| 64 | years ago | 1962 | Elvis Presley’s She's Not You is released. |
| 63 | years ago | 1963 | Regina Belle is born. She’ll become noted for her Grammy-award-winning duet with Peabo Bryson, A Whole New World, for the 1992 Disney animated feature film Aladdin. |
| 61 | years ago | 1965 | James Brown's Papa's Got a Brand New Bag enters the pop and R&B charts. It will hit #8 on the pop and #1 on the R&B charts. |
| 61 | years ago | 1965 | The Miracles’ Tracks of My Tears, and Them’s Here Comes The Night are released. |
| 61 | years ago | 1965 | The Byrds' LP Mr. Tambourine Man enters the charts. |
| 59 | years ago | 1967 | The Jimi Hendrix Experience opens for The Monkees at The Forest Hills Tennis Stadium in New York. |
| 59 | years ago | 1967 | Jazz saxophonist John Coltrane dies. |
| 59 | years ago | 1967 | The Beatles release All You Need Is Love b/w Baby, You're A Rich Man. |
| 58 | years ago | 1968 | The Beatles animated movie, Yellow Submarine debuts in London at the Pavilion Theatre. John, Paul, and George attend the screening. |
| 57 | years ago | 1969 | The Beatles record Oh! Darling and Octopus's Garden for their Abbey Road album. |
| 55 | years ago | 1971 | Blood, Sweat and Tears' B,S&T 4 enters the album charts. |
| 55 | years ago | 1971 | JC of PM Dawn is born. |
| 54 | years ago | 1972 | A bomb placed under a ramp at the Montreal Forum blows out the cones of 30 speakers stored inside one of the Rolling Stones' equipment trucks. Montreal radio stations receive at least 50 calls from would-be bombers. It's never determined who planted the dynamite and the show goes on as planned. |
| 52 | years ago | 1974 | The Moody Blues open up their own studio in London. It is the first studio designed for quadraphonic recording. |
| 52 | years ago | 1974 | John Lennon’s appeal for US citizenship is denied by the government and he is given sixty days to leave the country. |
| 51 | years ago | 1975 | Ringo Starr and Maureen Cox divorce. She dies in 1994. |
| 51 | years ago | 1975 | Bob Marley and the Wailers play a historic concert at London’s Lyceum Theater which would feature the acclaimed Legend version of No Woman No Cry. |
| 50 | years ago | 1976 | The Rolling Stones' Hot Stuff single peaks at #50. |
| 50 | years ago | 1976 | ELO's OLE ELO LP enters the charts. |
| 50 | years ago | 1976 | The Beach Boys 15 Big Ones makes it to the LP chart where it floats right to #8 and is certified gold in September. |
| 50 | years ago | 1976 | Heart's Magic Man is released. |
| 47 | years ago | 1979 | Gary Moore leaves Thin Lizzy and is replaced by Midge Ure. |
| 45 | years ago | 1981 | Universal Pictures releases the romantic drama Endless Love starring Brooke Shields. The film’s theme song Endless Love, featuring a duet by Lionel Richie and Diana Ross, spends nine weeks at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and earns Richie an Academy Award nomination for Best Song. |
| 44 | years ago | 1982 | Frank Zappa and his 14-year-old daughter Moon Unit have a novelty hit with Valley Girl. It debuts at #75. Val-speak makes its way to commercials and network television. (Remember the CBS sitcom, Square Pegs?). |
| 44 | years ago | 1982 | Going To A Go-Go by the Rolling Stones peaks at #25 on the singles chart. |
| 44 | years ago | 1982 | Chicago's Chicago 16 album enters the chart. The album featured the #1 hit Hard To Say I'm Sorry. |
| 40 | years ago | 1986 | About 50 people are injured outside a Run D.M.C. show in Long Beach, CA. |
| 39 | years ago | 1987 | Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards signs a solo deal with Virgin Records. |
| 35 | years ago | 1991 | A revamped Lynyrd Skynyrd opens its world tour in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. It's where the band was headed on October 20, 1977 when a plane crash took the lives of three band members, their assistant road manager, and two pilots. |
| 35 | years ago | 1991 | James Brown is honored by his home state of Georgia for his comeback following a two-year prison term. |
| 30 | years ago | 1996 | Chas Chandler, who was bassist for the Animals as well as Jimi Hendrix's manager, dies in a British hospital at age 57. He had been undergoing tests related to an aortic aneurysm. |
| 30 | years ago | 1996 | The Smashing Pumpkins, a group known for their anti-drug stance, fires drummer Jimmy Chamberlin. This comes less than a week after Chamberlin was arrested on a drug charge and the group's stage keyboardist Jonathan Melvion died of a heroin overdose. |
| 22 | years ago | 2004 | Before singing Desparado as an encore performance at the Aladdin Hotel-Casino in Las Vegas, Linda Ronstadt praises filmmaker Michael Moore as “a great patriot” and “someone who is spreading the truth.” Moore's movie in theatres at the time, Fahrenheit 9/11, is highly critical of President Bush. The Las Vegas audience of 4,500 takes exception to Ronstadt's opinion, boos her loudly, tosses cocktails in the air, and rips down concert posters. Alladin President Bill Timmins bars Linda from her luxury suite and has her escorted off the property. An Alladin spokesman says, “She was hired to entertain, not to preach.” |
| 17 | years ago | 2009 | Gordon Waller of Peter and Gordon dies. |
| 14 | years ago | 2012 | The soundtrack album to the film The Dark Knight Rises is released, destined to debut at #8 on the Billboard 200 album charts. The soundtrack album also scores #10 on the Canadian album charts. Composer Hans Zimmer becomes an overnight sensation, frequently compared with former golden soundtrack star John Williams. |
| 14 | years ago | 2012 | Soul Asylum releases its first new album in six years, Delayed Reaction. |
| 13 | years ago | 2013 | Led Zeppelin’s Robert Plant performs at the Mahalia Jackson Theater in New Orleans, with the Li'l Band of Gold opening for him. |