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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 Obie Trice is shot while driving along Detroit's Lodge Freeway. He is treated at hospital and later released.
Obie Trice
The Who's Roger Daltrey is made a Commander of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II for his services to music and charity work.
The Who
Roger Daltrey
Punk band The Vandals perform a New Year's Eve show to the 3rd Brigade of the Army's 1st Cavalry Division inside Baghdad's Green Zone.
The Vandals
They used to call him "God," but now you can call him "Eric Clapton CBE." The Cream guitarist and The Kinks' Ray Davies are both made Commanders of the British Empire in the Queen's New Year's Honors List.
Eric Clapton
Ray Davies
The Kinks
Cream
The coroner investigating the death of Elliott Smith says he is unable to ascertain whether the "Miss Misery" songwriter committed suicide. Smith was found dead earlier this year with two stab wounds in his chest.
Elliott Smith
"Torn" singer Natalie Imbruglia marries Silverchair's Daniel Johns in a secret ceremony at a resort on Australia's northeastern coast, according to reports.
Natalie Imbruglia
Silverchair
Aerosmith, Bon Jovi, Elton John and Kiss perform on Dick Clark's 32nd annual New Year's Rockin' Eve. Newlyweds Jessica Simpson and Nick Lachey join the ageless TV impresario to countdown the New Year in Times Square.
Kiss
Aerosmith
Jessica Simpson
Nick Lachey
The New York Times alleges Michael Jackson was paid $1 million by CBS for his 60 Minutes interview about child abuse charges, as well as an entertainment special to be broadcast on the channel.
Michael Jackson
Scottish punk/funkers Franz Ferdinand see in the New Year with a gig in a pal's Edinburgh apartment after their Hogmanay show with the Coral and Erasure is cancelled due to bad weather.
Franz Ferdinand
Erasure
The Coral
The Strokes and their crusty Southern pals Kings of Leon play a New Year's Eve show in Las Vegas' Cox Pavilion. The band manage to stumble through "Auld Lang Syne" at midnight.
The Strokes
Kings Of Leon
The White Stripes and the Flaming Lips play a New Year's Eve gig in Chicago. At midnight, both bands jam on the Stripes' "We're Going to Be Friends."
The White Stripes
The Flaming Lips
OutKast return to the top of the US album charts with Speakerboxxx/The Love Below. The highest new entry is Juvenile's Juve the Great, in at No. 32.
OutKast
Juvenile
Ozzy Osbourne's son from his first marriage, Louis Osbourne, marries Louise Lennon (no relation to John) in Ireland. Ozzy is unable to attend, as he's recuperating from a near-fatal ATV crash.
Ozzy Osbourne
Rush guitarist Alex Lifeson is arrested for allegedly assaulting a police officer, resisting arrest and drunken violent behavior at a New Year's Eve party at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Naples, Fla. Officers say a stun gun was needed to subdue the Canadian prog rock great.
Rush
Country guitarist Eddy Shaver dies in his sleep after a suspected heroin overdose in Waco, Texas.
John Fogerty sues his lawyer. He alleges that he was provided with incompetent legal advice during a 1985 copyright infringement lawsuit during which he was accused of plagiarizing himself.
John Fogerty
Paul McCartney is awarded a knighthood by Queen Elizabeth II.
Paul McCartney
Keith Richards and his X-Pensive Winos headline at New York's Academy, with Pearl Jam in support. The Rolling Stones themselves are currently negotiating a $30 million advance on their 1993 world tour.
The Rolling Stones
Keith Richards
Pearl Jam
Guns N' Roses play a New Year's Eve show at the Joe Robbie Stadium in Miami.
Guns N' Roses
The greatest story in rock never told begins as Echo & the Bunnymen drummer Pete DeFreitas decides to form the Sex Gods. He later went to New Orleans, took a lot of drugs and stayed awake for 18 days. DeFreitas was philosophical "I think I just went a bit mad in the head."
Echo & the Bunnymen
Teen idol and country artist Rick Nelson dies in a plane crash with his fiance. The pair were on their way to a New Year's Eve concert in Dallas. He was 45.
Rick Nelson
Max's Kansas City, a longtime hangout for the Andy Warhol crowd, closes its doors in New York. Devo and Bruce Springsteen performed some of their earliest concerts at the storied venue.
Bruce Springsteen
Devo
The E Street Band's guitarist Miami/Little Steven Van Zandt marries Maureen Santora in Asbury Park, N.J. His boss Bruce Springsteen is the best man. Little Richard, who conducted the ceremony, duets with Percy Sledge on "When a Man Loves a Woman" at the reception.
Little Richard
Bruce Springsteen
Percy Sledge
Jefferson Starship performs a New Year's show at San Francisco's X nightclub that is broadcast on radio worldwide. Those poor Afghans.
Jefferson Starship
Casablanca Records throws a single release party for Donna Summer's "Love to Love You Baby" on her 23rd birthday. Casablanca head Neil Bogart orders a Los Angeles bakery to bake a life-size replica of Summer. In cake. There's another hitch. The party's in New York. Bogart pays for two first-class air tickets to have the cake shipped to Manhattan's Penta Club, and even has a freezer ambulance waiting at the airport to ferry the treat to the party.
Donna Summer
A document signed by all the Beatles confirms the dissolution of their partnership.
The Beatles
Having only recorded three tracks, Pink Floyd abandon their idea to make an album using only household objects and settle for recording Wish You Were Here instead.
Pink Floyd
Salsa pioneer and Latin music composer Arsenio Rodriguez dies of pneumonia in Los Angeles. His fans knew him as "El Ciego Maravilloso" after a horse kick left him blind at age 7.
Arsenio Rodriguez
Bob Dylan makes a special appearance at the Band's New Year's Eve concert at the New York Academy of Music, performing "Down In The Flood," "When I Paint My Masterpiece," "Like A Rolling Stone" and "Don't Ya Tell Henry" with them.
The Band
Bob Dylan
Paul McCartney files suit against John Lennon, Ringo Starr and George Harrison as the Beatles Co., effectively ending the band. Lennon tells the press that McCartney wanted to dominate the group all along, and reveals that he's [i.e. Lennon] taken drugs since he was 17. Thanks. We needed to know that.
Ringo Starr
Paul McCartney
The Beatles
George Harrison
John Lennon
Jimi Hendrix unveils his new group Band of Gypsys at New York's Fillmore East. The concert, featuring the rhythm section of Billy Cox and Buddy Miles backing Hendrix, later appears on the album Band of Gypsys.
Jimi Hendrix
Buddy Miles
Billy Cox
BBC television broadcast the program Man of the Decade, who is ... John Lennon! Rolling Stone names Lennon its man of the year, while Lennon himself admits to the New Musical Express that he's considering leaving the Beatles.
The Beatles
John Lennon
The Beatles see in the New Year at a party held by singer Cilla Black in London. Following a bizarre custom from the North of England, Ringo Starr is sent outside to spend midnight in the street.
The Beatles
Ringo Starr
Cilla Black
Brill Building songwriter Bert Berns, who penned "Twist and Shout" and "Everybody Needs Somebody to Love," dies of a heart attack. As the head of the Bang! label, Berns was also instrumental in convincing Them's lead singer Van Morrison to pursue a solo career.
Them
Van Morrison
George Harrison's New Year's plans are foiled when London nightclub Annabel's bars him from admission because he's not wearing a tie.
George Harrison
John Lennon's father Alfred releases a U.K. single today, titled "That's My Life (My Love And My Home)."
John Lennon
Janis Joplin has her first singing engagement at Beaumont, Texas' Halfway House.
Janis Joplin
The Pendletons perform their first gig under their new name, the Beach Boys. The vocal group appears at the Ritchie Valens Memorial Concert in Long Beach, Calif.
Ritchie Valens
The Beach Boys
No. 1 in the country singles chart today, Elvis Presley's "I Forgot to Remember to Forget." Billboard also publishes its annual Honor Roll of Hits. "Unchained Melody" tops the chart, which takes into account record sales, DJ picks and jukebox play over the course of the year. The song, which originally appeared in the film Unchained, was released in no less than four different versions in 1955.
Elvis Presley
Aerosmith bassist Tom Hamilton is born in Colorado Springs, Colo.
Aerosmith
Donna Summer is born in Boston as Donna Gaines.
Donna Summer
Celtic folk singer June Tabor is born in Warwick, England.
June Tabor
John Denver is born in Roswell, N.M. as John Henry Deutchendorf.
John Denver
Kinks bassist Peter Quaife is born in Tavistock, England.
The Kinks
Big-voiced folk singer Odetta is born in Birmingham, Ala.
Odetta
Young Louis Armstrong fires off a pistol during a New Year's Eve celebration in New Orleans and is sent to reform school. There he studies music and plays cornet and bugle with the school band. Armstrong later went on to change jazz forever.
Louis Armstrong
 
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