16 MAY
In Music History
1969 Jack Casady, bassist for Jefferson Airplane, is arrested in New Orleans for possession of marijuana and given a suspended sentence of two-and-a-half years.
1969 During The Who's set at the Fillmore East in New York, a plainclothes policeman rushes the stage to tell the audience that a fire has broken out, but guitarist Pete Townshend, figuring him for a rabid fan, kicks him off. Literally. The guitarist is arrested onstage and later charged $30.
1968 Ralph Tresvant (lead singer of New Edition) is born in Roxbury, Massachusetts.
1968 Tony Joe White records "Polk Salad Annie."
1966 Frank Sinatra records "Summer Wind."
1965 Krist Novoselic (bass guitarist for Nirvana) is born in Compton, California.
1964 Mary Wells' "My Guy" hits #1 for the first of two weeks.
1960 Billboard magazine reports that Detroit music mogul Berry Gordy is thinking of starting three new record labels, including one called Motown.
1959 Wayne Newton, 16 years old, makes his Las Vegas debut, performing with his brother, Jerry, at the Freemont Hotel downtown. A few years later, he becomes a Vegas Star and a regular on the Strip.
1955 New wave singer-songwriter Hazel O'Connor is born in Coventry, England.
1953 Jazz guitarist and composer Django Reinhardt dies of a brain hemorrhage at age 43.
1953 Richard Page (lead singer of Mr. Mister) is born in Keokuk, Iowa.
1953 Percy Faith's "Song From Moulin Rouge (Where Is Your Heart)" hits #1.
1951 Jonathan Richman (frontman for The Modern Lovers) is born in Natick, Massachusetts.
1949 Guitarist William "Sputnik" Spooner (of Grateful Dead, The Tubes) is born in Phoenix, Arizona.
Michael Jackson Introduces The Moonwalk
1983Michael Jackson does the Moonwalk for the first time on TV when he breaks out the move on the Motown 25th anniversary TV special.
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Featured Events
2000 Britney Spears' second album, Oops!… I Did It Again, is released. It sells 1.3 million copies in its first week, setting a new record for best-selling debut by a female artist.More
1998 Five years after it was first released (in Danish), "Torn" goes to #1 on the US Airplay chart with a version by the Australian actress Natalie Imbruglia.More
1987 U2 break big in America with their first #1 hit in that country, "With Or Without You," from the album The Joshua Tree. Their next single, "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For," follows to #1, cementing their superstar status.
1986 Host Johnny Carson and his bandleader Doc Severinsen wear fake beards in honor of ZZ Top, who perform "Sharp Dressed Man" and "Tush" on The Tonight Show.More
1975 Kiss play the Cobo Arena, Detroit, recording it for some of their live album Alive!, their first Gold album. In September, Bob Seger records two concerts at Cobo for Live Bullet, his first Gold album.
1966 Janet Jackson is born Janet Damita Jo Jackson in Gary, Indiana, the youngest of nine kids in the Jackson family. She releases her first album in 1982 when she's 16 and breaks through with Control in 1986. Her next album, Rhythm Nation 1814, makes her one of the biggest pop stars on the planet.
1966 The Beach Boys release their landmark album Pet Sounds, produced with great ingenuity by their bass player, Brian Wilson. Standout tracks include "Wouldn't It Be Nice" and "God Only Knows."
1956 Doris Day introduces her signature song, "Que Sera, Sera (Whatever Will Be, Will Be)," in the Alfred Hitchcock thriller The Man Who Knew Too Much.More
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