1961 : Elvis Presley started a three-week run at No.1 on the US album chart with ‘Something For Everybody’ his sixth US No.1 album.
1961 : Patsy Cline recorded the classic Willie Nelson song, ‘Crazy’. Cline was still on crutches after going through a car windshield in a head-on collision two months earlier and had difficulty reaching the high notes of the song at first due to her broken ribs. ‘Crazy’ spent 21 weeks on the chart and eventually became one of her signature tunes.
1965 : The Rolling Stones started a three week run at No.1 on the US album chart with ‘Out Of Our Heads’ the group’s first US No.1 album.
1966 : On their last ever US tour The Beatles performed in two cities due to a cancellation due to rain the previous day. First they performed at Crosley Field in Cincinnati, Ohio. Then they flew to St. Louis, Missouri, for a concert at Busch Stadium, where they performed under a tarpaulin due to heavy rain. It was this gig that convinced Paul McCartney that The Beatles should stop performing live.
1967 : The Doors started recording their second album at Sunset Sound Studios, Hollywood, California.
1968 : Tommy James and The Shondells returned to the UK No.1 position for the second time with the single ‘Mony Mony’. In a peculiar twist, in 1987 Billy Idol’s version of the song replaced another Tommy James hit at No.1 on the Billboard Hot 100 — ‘I Think We’re Alone Now’, covered by Tiffany.
1971 : Murderer George Jackson is shot dead in a bizarre escape attempt at San Quentin prison, prompting the Bob Dylan song “George Jackson.”
1971 : Arthur Brown’s Kingdom Come, Hawkwind, Duster Bennett, Brewers Droop, Indian Summer, Graphite, (and second from the bottom on the bill) Queen all appeared at the Tregye Festival Truro, Cornwall, England.
1972 : Jack Casady of Jefferson Airplane was arrested after a fight broke out on stage during a concert when the police had been called ‘pigs’. Grace Slick was ‘Mace’ and another group member injured at the show in Akron.
1976 : The Rolling Stones, 10CC, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Todd Rundgren’s Utopia and Hot Tuna all appeared at The Knebworth Festival, Hertfordshire, England, tickets £4.50.
1976 : Worldwide sales of Elvis Presley records pass the four hundred million mark.
1982 : U2 singer Bono married Alison Stewart, his girlfriend from 1975 at All Saints Church, Raheny in Ireland. U2 bassist Adam Clayton acted as Bono’s best man.
1983 : Ramones guitarist Johnny Ramone had a four-hour brain surgery operation, after being found unconscious in a New York Street where he had been involved in a fight.
1997 : Former Stone Roses drummer Alan Wren was jailed for seven days after being rude to a top Manchester Magistrate. He was before the court due to having no car insurance and lost his temper after being quizzed about his earnings.
1993 : Michael Jackson’s Neverland Ranch is raided by police after a child who stayed there comes forward with allegations. Jackson lets police strip search him, which he finds very humiliating. No charges are filed, but Jackson will later deal with more allegations.
1994 : After he crashes his Porsche into a tree near his home in Aspen, CO, John Denver is charged with driving under the influence. It is his second such offense in two years.(guess he really was “Rocky Mountain High”)
1997 : Oasis’ third album ‘Be Here Now’, became one of the fastest selling albums ever, shifting over 350,000 units on the first day of release. The cover image for Be Here Now was shot at Stocks House in Hertfordshire, the former home of Victor Lownes, the head of the Playboy Clubs in the UK.
2000 : Survivor filed a lawsuit against TVT Records after they released a soundtrack to the TV show ‘Survivor.’ Survivor guitarist Frankie Sullivan said, ‘It’s unfortunate that after 23 years of building, promoting, and protecting the name of our band, someone can suddenly come along and release a recording that uses our name and takes away everything we have worked for.’
2002 : Atomic Kitten were facing legal action after sacking Andy McCluskey, the songwriter who wrote the bands first No.1 ‘Whole Again.’ The band were about to be dropped by Innocent records when they recorded the song that became a huge hit. The girls then wanted a bigger share of royalties, which McCluskey had turned down. Under the original deal each girl got 4p from the sale of one single.
2005 : Robert Moog, inventor of the synthesizer died aged 71, four months after being diagnosed with brain cancer. Dr Moog built his first electronic instrument, a theremin – aged 14 and made the MiniMoog, “the first compact, easy-to-use synthesizer” in 1970. He won the Polar prize, Sweden’s “music Nobel prize”, in 2001. Wendy Carlos’ 1968 Grammy award-winning album, Switched-On Bach, brought Dr Moog to prominence.
2006 : A man surfing the Internet in America foiled three men who broke into a Liverpool shop in Liverpool, England. The man who had logged onto a site streaming live footage of Mathew Street and a forthcoming Beatles festival saw the men smashing a window of a shop and climb inside. He phoned Merseyside police who arrested the men.
2008 : Drummer Buddy Harman died of congestive heart failure, aged 79. Worked with Elvis Presley (‘Little Sister’), Patsy Cline (‘Crazy’), Roy Orbison (‘Pretty Woman’), Johnny Cash (‘Ring Of Fire’), Tammy Wynette (‘Stand By Your Man’). Harman was the first house drummer for The Grand Ole Opry and can be heard on over 18,000 recordings.