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Click on a date below to find out what happened on that day in music history... |
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Rapper Gucci Mane has murder charges against him dropped due to lack of innocence. The Atlanta MC was accused of shooting fellow rapper Henry Lee Clark III to death in May.
Gucci Mane
Rapper DMX is freed from Rikers Island after serving a month of a 70-day sentence for a parole violation. He received time off for good behavior and time served.
DMX
Tanzanian singer and world music giant Hukwe Zawose dies aged 65 in Bagamoyo. A one-time cattle herder, he became a national treasure thanks to his five-octave voice. Unsurprisingly, he also recorded with Peter Gabriel.
Hukwe Zawose
Peter Gabriel
Bandleader and clarinetist Artie Shaw dies aged 94 in Thousand Oaks, Calif. His band's recording of Cole Porter's "Begin the Beguine" topped the charts for six weeks in 1938.
Artie Shaw
The Nation of Islam denies reports that it is controlling Michael Jackson's business affairs.
Michael Jackson
Anita Mui, one of Asian pop's biggest stars, dies aged 40 in Hong Kong after suffering cervical cancer. She also co-starred in the Jackie Chan film Rumble in the Bronx.
Georgia police obtain a warrant for the arrest of Juvenile on child abandonment charges. The "Back That Azz Up" rapper is alleged to have reneged on child support payments for his six-month-old daughter.
Juvenile
Ex-Meat Puppet Cris Kirkwood is arrested for assault with a deadly weapon with intent to do bodily harm. The bassist had just been released from a Phoenix hospital, where he was recuperating after being shot in the stomach by a post office security guard. Kirkwood allegedly whacked the guard with his own baton during an argument over a parking spot.
Meat Puppets
The Drifters' tenor vocalist Johnny Moore dies in Los Angeles.
The Drifters
The Ohio Players' saxophonist/guitarist Clarence "Satch" Satchell dies in Dayton, Ohio.
Led Zeppelin performs at Gonzaga University in Spokane, Wash. The resulting Gonzaga '68 bootleg is the first ever made of the band.
Led Zeppelin
The English pop paper New Musical Express releases the results of its 12th annual year-end poll, with British acts mostly among the winners. The Beatles are the No. 1 group and also have Record of the Year with "She Loves You."
The Beatles
Shooting begins on the BBC TV play Madhouse on Castle Street, with an appearance by the as-yet-unknown songwriter Bob Dylan. In the play he performs his new songs "Blowin' in the Wind" and "Ballad of the Gliding Swan."
Bob Dylan
Singer Brenda Lee's Nashville home burns to the ground. The "I'm Sorry" singer is injured when she rushes into the flames to rescue her pet poodle Cee Cee. Brenda recovers, but the dog dies.
Brenda Lee
Comedienne Tracey Ullman, who in 1984 went to No. 8 with "They Don't Know," is born in Buckinghamshire, England.
Tracey Ullman
The No. 1 album in America is Elvis Presley's controversial Elvis' Christmas Album. Many DJs refused to play a rock 'n' roller singing Christmas carols. The record remains at the top spot for four weeks and sells over a million copies.
Elvis Presley
The Commodores' trumpeter William King is born in Alabama.
The Commodores
The Monkees' Davy Jones, who has also worked as a jockey, is born in Manchester, England.
The Monkees
Davy Jones
The Monkees' Michael Nesmith is born in Houston, Texas. In 1977, he pioneered the idea of music television with his program Popclips. The show was later bought by Warner Bros. and developed into MTV.
Michael Nesmith
Tom Green
The Monkees
Jimmy Buffett
Drummer Kenny Pentifallo of Southside Johnny & the Asbury Jukes is born.
Soul singer Kim Weston, a frequent duet partner with Marvin Gaye on songs like "It Takes Two," is born in Detroit.
Kim Weston
Marvin Gaye
John Hartford, the multi-instrumentalist who wrote "Gentle on my Mind," is born in New York.
John Hartford
"Runaway" singer Del Shannon is born Charles Westover in Coopersville, Mich.
Del Shannon
Country singer Skeeter Davis, who scored big hits in 1963 with "The End of the World" and "I Can't Stay Mad at You," is born in Dry Ridge, Ky.
Skeeter Davis
Guitarist Bo Diddley, best known for writing hundreds of songs with his name in the title, is born in McComb, Miss. His real name is Ellas Otha Bates McDaniels, which is a song in itself.
Bo Diddley
 
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