 |
 |
Click on a date below to find out what happened on that day in music history... |
|
|
Eminem tops the album charts with Encore, which was rush-released the previous Friday to combat internet piracy. The top four is rounded out by new greatest hits compilations from Shania Twain, Toby Keith and Britney Spears.
Eminem
Shania Twain
Toby Keith
Britney Spears
A memorial service is held for Ol' Dirty Bastard at Harlem's St James Presbyterian Church. Roc-a-fella CEO Damon Dash eulogizes, "I'm very disappointed because I know what was about to happen for him. He wasn't getting his life together, his life was together."
Ol' Dirty Bastard
Michel Colombier, a French composer who co-wrote the score for Prince's Purple Rain movie, worked with Charles Aznavour and Serge Gainsbourg, and was responsible for the first "pop symphony," dies in Los Angeles aged 65.
Michel Colombier
Prince
Charles Aznavour
Serge Gainsbourg
Britney Spears becomes the youngest singer to ever get a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Britney Spears
Blues duo The Black Keys are forced to cancel their European tour after guitarist Dan Auerbach fractures a bone in his foot.
The Black Keys
Meat Loaf is rushed to the hospital after collapsing during a London concert. His record company say the 56-year-old singer "collapsed from exhaustion due to a prolonged viral infection."
Meat Loaf
Country singer/songwriter Don Gibson dies aged 75 in Nashville. His song "I Can't Stop Loving You" was recorded by over 700 artists, including Ray Charles.
Don Gibson
Ray Charles
Michelle Branch cancels 10 concerts after coming down with a throat condition.
Michelle Branch
Rumors leak to the press that record executive Clive Davis is about to be removed from Arista, the label he founded, after a power struggle with Arista's owner. However, Davis, who produced Santana's comeback record Supernatural, stays on to the end of his contract.
Clive Davis
Jewel releases her second album Spirit, featuring the hits "Hands" and "Down So Long." The album peaks on the Billboard charts at No. 3.
Jewel
Bob Dylan spends the first of two days taping an episode of MTV Unplugged at New York's Sony Studios. The show is broadcast in December.
Bob Dylan
David Crosby crashes his motorcycle in Los Angeles and breaks his shoulder, left leg, and ankle. Police say the speeding singer wasn't wearing a helmet, either. Shame!
David Crosby
In do-gooder news, the seventh annual Music Industry Tennis Party is held to benefit the T.J. Martell Foundation at the National Tennis Center in New York's Flushing Meadow. The musical honorary chairperson is Debbie Gibson.
Debbie Gibson
During a concert in Los Angeles, U2's Bono pulls a person from the audience to sing along to the band's version of "People Get Ready." In turn, the aspiring singer hands Bono a demo tape.
Bono
U2
Guitarist Isaac Hanson of the popular teen trio is born.
Hanson
Abba top the British albums chart with their collection Greatest Hits, Vol. 2. Shortly afterward, the Guinness Book of Records names Abba the biggest-selling group in recording history.
ABBA
Bass player John Glascock dies in London of a heart attack. The 26-year-old performed with Jethro Tull on albums like Songs From the Wood but was unable to tour with them due to his tricky ticker.
Jethro Tull
Led Zeppelin record two takes of their new song "All My Love." Signs of things to come at a Bob Dylan show at the San Diego Sports Arena. A fan throws a silver cross onstage, which Dylan picks up and slips into one of his pockets.
Bob Dylan
Led Zeppelin
Abba begin their first European tour in Copenhagen.
ABBA
Bob Dylan records at the Record Plant with professional beats Allen Ginsberg and Peter Orlovsky for an upcoming PBS special. Among the songs tackled are "Nurse's Song" and "A Dream," adapted from works by English poet William Blake.
Allen Ginsberg
Bob Dylan
The Faces release their third album, A Nod Is as Good as a Wink to a Blind Horse. Anybody who knows what that means can email us here at VH1.com.
Faces
Tune into New York's WPLJ-FM tonight and you can hear a live broadcast of an Elton John concert. The gig is later released as the 1971 live album 11-17-70.
Elton John
Monkee Davy Jones gets into the boutique business, opening the store Zilch I in New York's Greenwich Village.
Davy Jones
Amanda Brown, guitarist/violinist with Australia's Go-Betweens, is born.
The Go-Betweens
Mick Jagger and Keith Richards meet singer Gene Pitney at a taping of the British pop program Thank Your Lucky Stars. They give him their song "That Girl Belongs to Yesterday." Improbably, the song is a hit in both America and the U.K. But it's a year before Jagger and Richards begin writing songs for their own group.
Gene Pitney
Keith Richards
Mick Jagger
In Guildford, England, a headmaster says that students turning up to Clark's Grammar School with Beatles haircuts will be sent home. "This ridiculous style brings out the worst in boys physically," says John Weightman. "It makes them look like morons." No, just Ringo.
The Beatles
Ringo Starr
DJ Alan Freed learns today that his trial for inciting a riot has been postponed until January of next year. The riot occurred during a Boston rock show he was promoting in May 1958. Prosecutors explain that the delay is because they are investigating allegations that Freed broke Massachusetts' anti-anarchy laws. Phew! Rock 'n' roll!
Alan Freed
Elvis Presley tops the U.S. singles chart today with "Love Me Tender," the title song from his first movie.
Elvis Presley
Robert "Stewkey" Antoni, vocalist/keyboardist with the Nazz, is born.
The Nazz
Bob Gaudio, who wrote many of the Four Seasons' hits with producer Bob Crewe, is born in the Bronx, N.Y. He went on to produce several Neil Diamond albums.
The Four Seasons
Neil Diamond
Bob Crewe
Folk songwriter Gordon Lightfoot is born in Orillia, Ontario. His song "If You Could Read My Mind" was the soundtrack to sophisticated '70s relationships.
Gordon Lightfoot
 
|
|
|
|
