6 JANUARY
In Music History
1986 Arctic Monkeys frontman Alex Turner is born in Sheffield, England.
1980 Georgeanna Tillman (of The Marvelettes) dies of lupus and sickle cell anemia a month shy of her 36th birthday.
1979 The Bee Gees' "Too Much Heaven" hits #1 for the first of two weeks.
1979 Barbra Streisand's Greatest Hits, Volume 2 album hits #1 in America.
1977 KISS' Rock And Roll Over album is certified Platinum.
1975 Pink Floyd begin recording their album Wish You Were Here after abandoning an earlier concept of an album recorded entirely with household objects.
1968 Gibson patents their "Flying V" electric guitar.
1964 The Rolling Stones begin their first headlining UK tour. Opening act: The Ronettes.
1964 Mark O'Toole (bass player for Frankie Goes To Hollywood) is born in Liverpool, England.
1959 Neil Simpson (bass player for Climax Blues Band) is born in Stoke-on-Trent, England. At age four, he receives a toy guitar featuring a picture of The Beatles.
1959 Kathy Sledge (of Sister Sledge) rounds out the R&B group when she's born the youngest of the five sisters in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
1958 Jerry Lee Lewis' "Great Balls of Fire" hits #2, where it stays for four weeks before dropping down. It is held out of the top spot all four weeks by "At The Hop" by Danny & the Juniors.
1958 Danny and the Juniors' "At The Hop" hits #1 for the first of seven weeks. "Hops" are high school dances in America; "sock hops" are those where kids have to take off their shoes so they don't mess up the floor.
1956 Lonnie Donegan's cover of "Rock Island Line" enters the UK charts, eventually selling over three million copies and kicking off the national skiffle craze.
1953 Malcolm Mitchell Young (guitarist for AC/DC) is born in Glasgow, Scotland.
American Bandstand Audience Teaches Village People YMCA Dance
1979The Village People appear on American Bandstand, where the crowd does the soon-to-be famous arm movements spelling out "Y.M.C.A." Host Dick Clark makes sure they learn those moves, and they do.
Read more6 JANUARY
Featured Events
1993 Jazz trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie dies of pancreatic cancer in Englewood, New Jersey, at age 75.
1993 Rolling Stones bass player Bill Wyman leaves the group after 30 years of service. "I left because I didn't see anything new happening in the future," he says. "I realized if we played for another 10 years I'd still be playing 'Jumpin' Jack Flash,' 'Honky Tonk Women,' 'Street Fighting Man' until we packed up."
1976 Peter Frampton's live double album, Frampton Comes Alive!, is released. Powered by his trusty talkbox sound, it becomes one of the best-selling live albums in history.More
1973 Carly Simon's "You're So Vain" hits #1 on the Hot 100. Listeners wonder just who the mystery man with the apricot jacket (high fashion!) is.
1957 Elvis Presley makes his third and final appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show, where he performs seven songs in three segments, including "Hound Dog," "Don't Be Cruel" and "Heartbreak Hotel." He is only seen from the waist up, leaving viewers to speculate as to what the screams in the audience are about.
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