8 MARCH
In Music History
1968 Promoter Bill Graham's East Coast version of the Fillmore, his legendary San Francisco rock ballroom, opens in the East Village section of New York City. Dubbed, appropriately enough, the Fillmore East, its first show features Big Brother & the Holding Company, Albert King, and Tim Buckley.
1968 Shawn Mullins is born in Atlanta, Georgia.
1968 Elvis Presley's 26th movie, Stay Away, Joe, premieres in New York City. The comedy features Elvis as a Native American rodeo champion.
1968 Rob Dukes (of Exodus) is born in Florida.
1966 Bob Dylan records "Pledging My Time" and "Just Like A Woman."
1965 David Bowie makes his first TV appearance when his band The Manish Boys appears on the British show Gadzooks! At the time, he's still known as David Jones.
1964 The Dave Clark Five appear for the first time on CBS-TV's Ed Sullivan Show, performing "Do You Love Me" and "Can't You See That She's Mine." It's the first of eighteen appearances for the group.
1964 Peter Gill (drummer for Frankie Goes to Hollywood) is born in Liverpool, England.
1963 "Please Please Me" by The Beatles shows up at #40 on the Chicago radio station WLS' weekly Silver Dollar Survey, marking the first time a Beatles song makes a radio station survey in America. WLS very likely became the first US radio station to play a Beatles song when they put "Please Please Me" on the air.
1958 Gary Numan is born in Hammersmith, London, England. He starts his music career as the lead singer of Tubeway Army.
1953 Gayla Peevey is born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. She becomes famous at 10 years old when she records the novelty tune "I Want A Hippopotamus For Christmas."
1949 Dave Lambert (guitarist of The Strawbs) is born in Hounslow, Middlesex, England.
1948 Mel Galley (of Whitesnake) is born in Cannock, Staffordshire, England.
1948 Little Peggy March is born Margaret Annemarie Battavio in Lansdale, Pennsylvania.
1947 Michael Allsup (guitarist for Three Dog Night) is born in Oakdale, California.
Superunknown And The Downward Spiral Released The Same Day
1994Two seminal albums from the '90s are released: Soundgarden's Superunknown and Nine Inch Nails' The Downward Spiral. They enter the albums chart at #1 and #2, respectively.
Read more8 MARCH
Featured Events
2003 50 Cent's first single, "In Da Club," tops the Hot 100 for the first of nine weeks. The bumpin' beat comes from 50's producer, Dr. Dre, who is also his label boss.
1973 Grateful Dead keyboard player Ron "Pigpen" McKernan, a founding member of the band, dies at age 27.More
1970 Diana Ross performs for the first time as a solo artist, starting an 11-night engagement at the Monticello in Framingham, Massachusetts, where she hones her act for her Las Vegas debut in May. She left The Supremes two months earlier.
1969 The Small Faces break up when lead singer Steve Marriott leaves the band. Marriott forms Humble Pie, and the remaining members rechristen themselves The Faces after adding new lead singer Rod Stewart and guitarist Ron Wood.
1969 "Happy Birthday" becomes the first song to be performed in outer space when the astronauts on Apollo IX sing it to celebrate the birthday of the director of NASA space operations, Christopher Kraft.
1963 The Four Tops get a $400 advance to sign with Motown. They spend the rest of the year singing backup for other acts, including The Supremes.
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