1965 Petula Clark makes her American TV debut singing "Downtown" and "I Know a Place" on The Ed Sullivan Show.
1963 Mike Muir (lead vocalist for Suicidal Tendencies) is born in Venice, California, and raised in Santa Monica.
1963 Gerry Marsden of The Pacemakers sneaks a custom-made guitar purchased in Germany through British customs and is fined sixty pounds.
1963 Gerry & the Pacemakers release the single "How Do You Do It" in the UK.
1960 Sam Cooke begins an unprecedented tour of the West Indies with a concert in Jamaica's Montego Bay.
1955 Popular country star Jimmy Dean interviews Elvis Presley on Dean's Washington, DC television show Town and Country Time. A nervous Elvis answers every question with "yep" and "nope."
1951 Spanish entertainer Charo is born with a much longer moniker: María del Rosario Mercedes Pilar Martínez Molina Baeza.
1950 Rick Dees is born in Jacksonville, Florida.
1945 Country singer/songwriter Michael Martin Murphey is born in Dallas, Texas.
1945 Walter Parazaider (of Chicago) is born in Maywood, Illinois.
1943 Jim Pons (bassist for The Turtles, Mothers Of Invention) is born in Santa Monica, California.
1934 Jazz organist Shirley Scott is born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
1933 Quincy Jones is born in Chicago, Illinois. After studying music composition in France, he becomes an acclaimed arranger and conductor before moving into production, most famously for Michael Jackson, whose Jones-produced Thriller remains the best-selling album of all-time.
1926 Phil Phillips is born Philip Baptiste in Lake Charles, Louisiana.
1912 Les Brown, known for his Band of Renown during the big-band era, is born in Reinerton, Pennsylvania.
1989De La Soul release their debut album, 3 Feet High and Rising. The sample-heavy, paisley-powered LP becomes a hip-hop landmark, establishing a mellow, groovy new style.
Read more2011 Long-neglected Neil Diamond is finally inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame along with Alice Cooper, Tom Waits, Dr. John, Darlene Love and Leon Russell.
1998 Weeks after Johnny Cash's Unchained wins the Grammy for Best Country Album, his producer Rick Rubin takes out a full-page ad in Billboard with a photo of the singer giving the middle finger along with the text, "American Recordings and Johnny Cash would like to acknowledge the Nashville music establishment and country radio for your support."More
1987 "Jacob's Ladder," a song by Huey Lewis & the News that takes on religious evangelists, climbs to #1 in the US. It was written by Bruce Hornsby and his brother, John Hornsby.
1964 Billboard magazine reports that Beatles records make up 60% of all singles sold.
1958 The RIAA issues their first Gold Single for sales of a million copies, which goes to Perry Como's "Catch A Falling Star." Record labels have been awarding their own artists Gold records for years, starting with Glenn Miller's "Chattanooga Choo Choo" in 1942, but this is the first RIAA official certification.
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