3 DECEMBER
In Music History
1966 Having been convicted of heroin and marijuana possession, Ray Charles is given a five-year suspended sentence and fined $10,000.
1966 The Monkees, who are stars thanks to their TV show, play their first concert. About 8,000 screaming fans show up for the performance in Honolulu, confirming their status as real-life superstars.
1960 The Lerner and Loewe play Camelot, featuring Richard Burton and Julie Andrews, opens at the Majestic Theatre in New York City.
1952 Duane Roland (Molly Hatchet guitarist) is born in Jeffersonville, Indiana.
1951 Mike Stock of the British songwriting/production team Stock, Aitken & Waterman is born.
1949 Mickey Thomas (Jefferson Starship singer) is born in Cairo, Georgia.
1949 Nicky Stevens (Brotherhood of Man vocalist) is born Helen Thomas in Carmarthen, Wales.
1948 Ozzy Osbourne is born John Michael Osbourne in Birmingham, England. He forms the genre-defining heavy metal band Black Sabbath in 1968 but goes solo in 1979 when he's booted from the band. Remarkably, his solo career is even more successful, with a run of hits that includes "Crazy Train" and "Mama, I'm Coming Home."
1947 John Wilson (drummer for Them) is born in Belfast, Northern Ireland.
1944 Pop singer Paul Nicholas is born Paul Oscar Beuselinck in Peterborough, England. As an actor, he's known for starring in the 1983 BBC TV sitcom Just Good Friends.
1931 Pop singer Jaye P. Morgan is born Mary Margaret Morgan in Mancos, Colorado. Her high school classmates nickname Mary, the class treasurer, "Jaye P." after the famous banker J. Pierpont Morgan.
1927 Andy Williams is born in Wall Lake, Iowa.
1927 Columbia Records talent scout Frank Buckley Walker records Blind Willie Johnson, Billiken Johnson, and Coley Jones in Dallas, Texas. The recordings turn Johnson into one of the most popular musical acts of his time and capture his immortal "Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground."
1925 George Gershwin premieres his "Concerto In F," the first jazz concerto for piano and orchestra, at New York City's Carnegie Hall. Gershwin is also the featured soloist on flugelhorn.
1925 Country singer Ferlin Husky is born in Cantwell, Missouri.
Adam Sandler Introduces "The Chanukah Song" On Saturday Night Live
1994Adam Sandler performs "The Chanukah Song" on the Weekend Update segment of Saturday Night Live, enlightening us to the fact that Harrison Ford, Paul Newman and David Lee Roth (among many others) are, in fact, Jewish. Released as a single the following year, the song reaches #10 US and becomes a seasonal favorite.
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Featured Events
2015 Scott Weiland dies at age 48 when he suffers cardiac arrest on his tour bus in Bloomington, Minnesota, where his band The Wildabouts are scheduled to perform.More
1990 Madonna appears on the news program Nightline, where she debuts her video for "Justify My Love," which MTV has refused to play. As the lascivious clip plays, Madonna provides commentary, answering questions from host Forrest Sawyer.More
1985 The day after taking a loss to the Miami Dolphins that keeps them from going undefeated, 10 members of the Chicago Bears record the "Super Bowl Shuffle," a rap tune where they each drop a verse about their talents. The video permeates MTV and the song spreads well beyond Chicago to become a hit single and Gold record.More
1979 Before The Who concert at Riverfront Coliseum in Cincinnati, 11 people are trampled to death and dozens are injured in a rush to enter the arena. Like many concerts of the day, there are no reserved seats, a practice known as "festival seating." The resulting controversy (and lawsuits) force promoters to rethink the practice.More
1968 A TV special simply called Elvis airs on NBC, drawing a huge audience and revitalizing the career of Elvis Presley. Footage from two June concerts makes up most of the special, which pays tribute to Bobby Kennedy with the closing number, "If I Can Dream."
1964 The animated TV special Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer debuts on CBS, with Burl Ives as the voice of Sam the Snowman. The special is based on the 1949 song, which has become a perennial favorite.More
1947 Patti Page records her first hit single, "Confess." Unable to find background singers due to a strike, Mercury Records sound engineer Bill Putnam overdubs Page's own vocals. It's the first-ever recording with overdubbed vocals.
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