5 JUNE
In Music History
1977 Alice Cooper's boa constrictor - a star of his stage show - dies after the rat he is served for breakfast bites him. Cooper holds open auditions for a new snake, eventually choosing one named Angel.
1976 Cat Stevens performs under that name for the last time, wrapping up his Majikat tour with a show in Thessaloniki, Greece. The next year, he embraces the Islamic faith and changes his name to Yusuf Islam.
1975 Syd Barrett, ex-Pink Floyd member and founder who was forced from the band after becoming an acid casualty, quietly appears in the Abbey Road studios during recording of the band's album Wish You Were Here, which was largely written about him. No one notices Barrett, and he soon leaves as quietly as he entered.
1974 At a time when just about every photogenic musician with a hit song is getting their own variety show, Bobbie Gentry of "Ode To Billie Joe" joins the fray with The Bobbie Gentry Happiness Hour on CBS.
1974 Sly Stone of Sly and the Family Stone marries Kathy Silva, the mother of his 11-month-old son, on stage before the band's sold-out show at Madison Square Garden. Bishop Stewart, Sly's uncle, officiates before the crowd of 19,000; Silva files for divorce five months later.
1974 Aaron "P-Nut" Wills (bassist for 311) is born in Indianapolis, Indiana.
1972 Maureen McGovern quits her full-time secretarial job in order to follow her dream of being a professional singer.
1971 James Taylor releases "You've Got a Friend."
1971 Carly Simon opens for Cat Stevens at Carnegie Hall in New York City, where she debuts "Anticipation," a song she wrote a few days earlier while waiting for Stevens to come over for a date.
1971 Mark "Marky Mark" Wahlberg is born in Dorchester, Massachusetts, where he's the youngest of nine children, including older brother Donnie (future member of New Kids on the Block).
1970 Bob Dylan records "If Dogs Run Free," "Went To See The Gypsy," "What It's All About," "Winterlude," "I Forgot To Remember," "The Man In Me," "Father Of Night," and "Lily Of The West (Flora)."
1970 Claus Norreen (guitarist for Aqua) is born in Charlottenlund, Denmark.
1969 The Doors concert documentary Feast Of Friends premieres at the Cinematheque in Los Angeles.
1969 Donovan and Joan Baez perform at a rally for nuclear disarmament in London.
1969 Brian McKnight is born in Buffalo, New York.
Tom Cruise Turns Rock Star In Rock Of Ages
2012Tom Cruise stars as rocker Stacee Jaxx in the film adaptation of the Broadway hit Rock of Ages, an homage to '80s rock and glam metal that features songs from Bon Jovi, Twisted Sister, Pat Benatar, and Journey.
Read more5 JUNE
Featured Events
2025 The Velvet Sundown release their debut album, Floating On Echoes. Their songs quickly populate algorithm-driven playlists and amass millions of streams, even though nobody has heard of the band or any of its members. They're later revealed to be an AI-generated act, the first to garner big streaming numbers.More
2004 Jennifer Lopez marries Marc Anthony. The union lasts 10 years and produces two children: twins Max and Emme.
1993 Mariah Carey marries Tommy Mottola, the music executive who signed her to Columbia Records. The marriage, her first, lasts four years.
1983 U2 play the Red Rocks amphitheater in Colorado. Despite rain, the concert is intimate and energetic; it is later released as a concert film called Under a Blood Red Sky.
1968 Senator Robert Kennedy is shot three times while exiting through a kitchen at a hotel where he delivered a speech after winning the Democratic nomination for president of the United States. This event prompts David Crosby to write "Long Time Gone" and The Rolling Stones to insert the lyrics, "Who killed the Kennedys?" to their new song "Sympathy For The Devil."
1959 Robert Zimmerman graduates from Hibbing High School in Minnesota. He moves on to the University of Minnesota, but soon leaves for New York City to become the full-time folk singer, Bob Dylan.
©2026 Songfacts®, LLC