Births
1914 Hank Snow, Canadian Country singer, 'The Singing Ranger' who released over 100 albums. Died on 20th December 1999.
1937 Dave Prater, US soul singer, (Sam & Dave), 1967 US No.2 and UK No 24 & 1967 US No.2 single 'Soul Man'. Killed 9th April 1988 when his car left the road and hit a tree in Syracuse, Georgia.
1937 Sonny Curtis, The Crickets, (1957 US No.1 single 'That'll Be The Day', 1959 UK No.1 single 'It Doesn't Matter Anymore' plus over 15 other UK Top 40 singles).
1939 Nokie Edwards, guitar, The Ventures, (1960 UK No.4 single 'Perfidia', 1960 US No.2 single 'Walk Don't Run').
1941 Pete Birrell, Freddie & The Dreamers, (1963 UK No.3 single 'You Were Made For Me', 1965 US No.1 & UK No.2 single 'I'm Telling You Now).
1942 Mike Millward, The Fourmost, (1964 UK No.6 single 'A Little Loving'). He died on 7th April 1998.
1943 Tommy Roe, singer, (1969 UK & US No.1 single 'Dizzy' plus 10 other US Top 40 hits).
1944 Richie Furay, guitar, vocals, Buffalo Springfield, (1967 US No.17 single 'For What It's Worth'), Poco, (1979 US No. 17 single 'Crazy Love'), The Souther, Hillman, Furay Band, (1974 US No.27 single 'Fallin' In Love').
1944 Don Dannemann, Cyrkle, (1966 US No.2 single 'Red Rubber Ball'), signed by Brian Epstein and supported The Beatles on their 1966 US tour.
1945 Steve Katz, guitar, vocals, Blood Sweat & Tears, (1969 US No.12 & UK No.35 single 'You've Made Me So Very Happy').
1949 Billy Joel, singer songwriter, (1980 US No.1 single 'It's Still Rock And Roll To Me', 1983 UK No.1 single 'Uptown Girl', plus over 20 other US & UK Top 40 singles).
1950 Tom Petersson, bass, vocals, Cheap Trick, (1979 UK No.29 & US No.17 single 'I Want You To Want Me', 1988 US No.1 single 'The Flame').
1953 John Edwards, bass, Status Quo, (1977 UK No.3 single 'Rockin' All Over The World' plus 50 other UK Top 75 singles since 1968).
1960 Marc Duncan, The Vibrators, (1978 UK No.35 single 'Automatic Lover'), Doll By Doll.
1962 Dave Gahan, vocals, Depeche Mode, (1984 UK No.4 single 'People Are People', plus over 25 other UK Top 40 singles). Solo.
1962 Paul Heaton, vocals, Housemartins, (1986 UK No.1 single 'Caravan Of Love'), The Beautiful South, (1990 UK No.1 single 'A Little Time' plus over 15 other UK Top 40 singles).
1969 Peter Wilkinson, Cast, (1996 UK No.4 single 'Flying').
1971 Paul 'Guigsy' McGuigan, Oasis, (first single 'Supersonic', 1994 UK No.31, 1996 UK No.1 single 'Don't Look Back In Anger', 1994 UK No.1 album 'Definitely Maybe' fastest selling UK debut album ever. Quit in Aug 1999)
1975 Ryan 'Nik' Vikedal, drums, Nickelback, (2002 US No.1 & UK No. 4 single 'How To Remind You', 2001 US No.2 & 2002 UK No.2 album 'Silver Side Up'). Left the band in 2005.
Deaths
1998 Lester Butler died at the age of 39 of a drug overdose.
Events
1939 Ray Eberle recorded "Stairway to the Stars" with the Glenn Miller Orchestra.
1944 Jimmie Davis became the Governor of Louisiana. He wrote the song "You Are My Sunshine."
1958 Alan Freed was indicted for inciting unlawful destruction of property in Boston.
1959 UK music paper Melody Maker introduced a Juke Box Top 20 Chart compiled from 200 Juke Boxes around the UK.
1962 Brian Epstein met with EMI producer George Martin. Martin signed the Beatles to record demos on June 4, 1962. It was their first recording contract.
1963 During a concert at London's Albert Hall, Paul McCartney met future girlfriend 17 year-old Jane Asher for the first time.
1964 Appearing at The Rhodes Centre, Bishop's Gate, England, Gene Vincent and the Shouts. The poster advertised that the first 50 girls would be admitted free; tickets cost six shillings and six, ($0.94).
1964 Chuck Berry began his first ever UK tour at The Astoria Theatre, London, supported by The Animals, The Swinging Blue Jeans, Karl Denver and the Nashville Teens.
1964 Louis Armstrong went to No.1 on the US singles chart with 'Hello Dolly' making him the oldest artist to hit No.1 one at the age of 62.
1965 During a UK tour Bob Dylan played the first of two sold out nights at London's Royal Albert Hall.
1967 Sandie Shaw was at No.1 on the UK singles chart with 'Puppet On A String'. This week's two highest new entries were Jimi Hendrix with 'The Wind Cries Mary' and The Kinks 'Waterloo Sunset'.
1967 "Damito Jo Day" was celebrated in her hometown of Austin, TX.
1969 Beatles guitarist George Harrison’s experimental album Electronic Sounds was released on Zapple records.
1970 The Blues Images "Ride Captain Ride" was released.
1970 American Woman by Guess Who topped the US charts for 3 weeks.
1973 Mick Jagger added $150,000 of his own money to the $350,000 raised by the Rolling Stones' January benefit concert for victims of a Nicaraguan earthquake.
1974 Bruce Springsteen played at Boston's Harvard Square Theatre, which inspires Rolling Stone critic John Landau to write, 'I have seen rock & roll's future and his name is Bruce Springsteen'.
1978 Fee Waybill (Tubes) fell of a stage during a show in England, resulted in a broken leg.
1980 'I Don't Like Mondays' by The Boomtown Rats won the best pop song and outstanding British lyric categories at the 25th Ivor Novello Awards.
1980 Supertramp's 'The Logical Song' won Best Song Musically and Lyrically at the 25th Ivor Novello Awards held in London.
1981 Adam and the Ants were at No.1 on the UK singles chart with 'Stand And Deliver.' The song enjoyed a five-week run at No.1.
1987 Curiosity Killed The Cat started a two-week run at No.1 on the UK album chart with 'Keep Your Distance'.
1987 Starship started a four-week run at No.1 on the UK singles chart with 'Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now', as featured in the film 'Mannequin', also No.1 in the US.
1988 Prince's 10th album was released entitled "Lovesexy." Some stores refused to sell the album due to the nude portrait that was on the cover.
1990 Sinead O'Connor refused to perform on "Saturday Night Live" after Andrew Dice Clay was named as host.
1992 K.W.S. were at No.1 on the UK singles chart with 'Please Don't Go'.
1992 Bruce Springsteen made his North American network television debut on Saturday Night Live.
1998 Jimmy Page appeared on US TV's 'Saturday Night Live' with rapper Sean 'Puffy' Combs and performed 'Come With Me' from the 'Godzilla' movie soundtrack. The song sampled the guitar riff from Led Zeppelin's song 'Kashmir'.
1998 All Saints scored their second UK No.1 single with their version of 'Under The Bridge' a hit in 1992 for the Red Hot Chili Peppers and 'Lady Marmalade' a 1975 hit for Labelle.
1999 Suede scored their third UK No.1 album with 'Head Music'.
1999 The Backstreet Boys scored their first UK No.1 single with 'I Want It That Way' their 8th UK Top 10 hit.
2000 Former All Saints manager John Benson was given a 1 million pounds out-of court settlement after the band sacked him in February 1999.
2000 A U.S. federal appeals court upheld a $5.4 million jury decision that Michael Bolton had plagiarized parts of the song "Love is a Wonderful Thing." The original song, of the same name, was released in 1966 by the Isley Brothers.
2002 It was announced that Ozzy Osbourne and his family had signed deal that included two books.
2004 D-12 were at No.1 on the US album chart with’ D-12 World.’
2005 Country singer Kenny Chesney married Bridget Jones and Chicago actress Renee Zellweger in the Caribbean.
2005 Akon was at No.1 on the UK singles with ‘Lonely’, Gwen Stefani held the US No.1 spot with ‘Hollaback Girl’ and Snoop Dogg and Justin Timberlake were at No.1 on the Australian chart with ‘Signs.’
