Category: Flashback Pop Music

From the MCRFB music calendar:

Events on this date: MAY 4

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1956: England’s New Musical Express erroneously reports that ‘Elvin’ Presley will be performing in an upcoming gig at the Palladium in London. Elvis Presley never did Europe.

1957: ABC-TV premiers Alan Freed’s Rock and Roll Revue show, an attempt to replicate the success of their own American Bandstand. The first show features performances by the Clovers, The Del-Vikings, Screamin’ Jay Hawkins, Sal Mineo and Guy Mitchell.

1959: The very first Grammy Awards are held in Los Angeles, with Record Of The Year honors going out to Domenico Modugno’s “Volare (Nel Blu Depinto De Blu)” and Henry Mancini’s The Music Of Peter Gunn soundtrack winning Record Album Of The Year. The Champs’ “Tequila,” for some reason, takes home Best Rhythm and Blues Performance honors.

1964: British musicians Ray Thomas and Mike Pinder form an R&B group, naming themselves the Moody Blues. The group’s name comes as a derivative from Dukes Ellington’s “Mood Indigo.”

1967: The Turtles’ hit “Happy Together” is certified gold by RIAA.

1968: Twiggy, one of England’s first supermodels, catches an 18 year-old singer named Mark Hopkins on the BBC-TV talent show Opportunity Knocks and calls friend Paul McCartney, who eventually signs her to Apple Records and gives her one of his songs, “Those Were The Days,” to record.

1968: Steppenwolf makes its U.S. television debut, performing “Born To Be Wild” on ABC-TV Dick Clark’s American Bandstand.

 

1970: The US National Guard opens fire on Vietnam war protesters at Kent State University in Ohio, killing four unarmed students and wounding eleven more. After seeing photos of the shooting later in the week in LIFE magazine, Neil Young immediately writes the song, “Ohio,” which Crosby, Stills and Nash will record the next day. Twenty-five years later to the day, Peter Paul and Mary play a commemorative concert at the university, performing Dylan’s “Blowin’ In The Wind.”

1977: The Beatles long-anticipated and only live LP, The Beatles At The Hollywood Bowl is released.

1985: The legendary Apollo Theater re-opens in Harlem after a massive  $10,000,000 dollar makeover.

1990: In an interview, David Bowie’s ex-wife, Angie (she was of whom the Stones penned and sang of in their hit), claims for the first time in how she walked in on her ex, and Mick Jagger — caught — having sex with each other.

1992: Baltimore mayor Kurt Schmoke declares today “KISS Day” and presents the band with an honorary key to the city.

2008: Martha Reeves’ home in Detroit is burglarized and $1,000,000 worth of recording equipment is stolen. In just a few hours, the perpetrator is captured while attempting to hock the stolen-merchandise for a bargained steal — $400.00.

 

 

 

 

 

And that’s just a few of the events which took place in pop music history, on this day….

From the MCRFB music calendar:

Events on this date: MAY 3

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1958: One of the first major rock and roll riots breaks out during Alan Freed’s “Big Beat Spring 1958” show at the Boston Arena, with Boston police threatening to shut the show down because of the overly-crowd dancing and Alan Freed telling the crowd from the stage, “The police doesn’t want you to have fun.” He is arrested for inciting a riot.

1964: Gerry and the Pacemakers make their first US television debut, singing “Don’t Let The Sun Catch You Crying” on CBS’ Ed Sullivan Show.” 

1965: Motown’s Supremes release their new hit, “Back In My Arms Again.”

1967: The Walker Brothers announce their split. Scott Walker would go on to be a highly influential solo artist in the late Sixties.

1968: Having just returned from studying the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in India, the Beach Boys make him the opening lecture act on their new tour. About half the dates are eventually cancelled.

1971: Grand Funk Railroad holds their sparsely-attended first press conference at the Gotham Hotel in New York City.

1971: Led Zeppelin play their song “Four Sticks” for the first and only time in a concert during a show in Denmark.

1976: Paul Simon, Phoebe Snow, Jimmy Cliff and others perform a benefit concert to raise funds for the financially-strapped New York Public Library.

1976: Paul McCartney opens hid first tour with his new band as the massively successful Wings Over America tour begins in Ft. Worth, Texas.

1978: The movie FM, a flop comedy about a radio station, opens in Los Angeles. However, the title track and the name of their LP, performed by Steely Dan, becomes a huge hit for the band.

1991: Texas Governor Ann Richards officially declares today ZZ Top Day in the Lone Star State.

1991: Andy Williams marries his second wife, Debbie Haas, in New York City.

2006: Bob Dylan’s first hosted radio show airs on XM Satellite Radio, with the folk-rock legend playing his favorite hits by Prince, Wilco, Blur, LL Cool J, and Billy Braggs, among others.

 

 

 

 

And that’s just a few of the events which took place in pop music history, on this day….

From the MCRFB music calendar:

Events on this date: MAY 2

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1956: In a definite sign of the times, five records — Elvis Presley’s  “Heartbreak Hotel,” Little Richard’s “Long Talll Sally,” Carl Perkin’s “Blue Sued Shoes,” The Platters’s “(You’ve Got) The Magic Touch,” and Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers’ “Why Do Fools Fall In Love” — occupy Billboard’s R&B and Pop Top 10, the first time so many records had “crossed-over” at the same time.

1958: Chuck Berry hits the Chess Records studio to record “Carol.”

1960: Ben E. King, the Drifters second lead-singer, also leaves the group to pursue a solo career with Atco Records.

1960: Ray Peterson records “Tell Laura I Love Her.”

1960: Elvis Presley begins filming on his fifth movie, G.I. Blues.

1964: After 51 weeks at the top, the Beatles finally relinquish the No. 1 album position in the UK — to the Rolling Stones’ self-titled debut LP.

1964: The Rolling Stones enters the charts with their single, “Not Fade Away.”

1964: The Beatles Second Album hits No.1 on the Billboard album charts.

1965: Ed Sullivan breaks a vow he made the year before and books the Rolling Stones back on his long-running CBS-TV variety show — but not before keeping the band in the studio all day, in order to keep from inciting the fans. The Stones perform four songs on the show: “The Last Time,” “Little Red Rooster,” “Everybody Needs Somebody To Love” and the Stones album instrumental “2120 South Michigan Avenue.”

1967: The Beach Boys announce they are scrapping their anticipated Pet Sounds followup album, Smile. After decades of imagined Smile albums, assembled from bootlegs and released recordings, founder and resident genius Brian Wilson finally releases a finished version of the project in 2005.

1968: The Box Tops’ “Cry Like A Baby” is certified gold by RIAA.

1969: The Who debut their much-discussed rock opera Tommy by playing the  finished album for the press at London’s Ronnie’s Jazz Club. Ten years later to the day, they would premiere their new film, Quadrophenia, in New York City.

1969: Elvis Presley finishes filming on his 31st and final motion picture, Change Of Habit.

1972: In New York City, Bruce Springsteen auditions for Columbia Records A&R head John Hammond, who is so impressed he immediately arranges a set that night at the Gaslight Club for his fellow execs.

1975: Apple Records officially ends its life as a record label, though it will be revived as a Beatles-only label in 2004.

2009: Motown’s rarest 45, Frank Wilson’s “Do I Love You (Indeed I Do),” set a world’s record by selling for nearly $40,000 at a London auction house. The unreleased single is one of only two copies known to exist.

2009: Bob Dylan takes a day off from his UK-European tour and, along with 13 other tourists, takes a bus trip to visit John Lennon’s childhood home in Liverpool, newly opened for the public. His presence was not recognized during the entire bus entourage and visit.

Deaths: Benny Benjamin (famed-Motown drummer), 1969; Les Harvey (Stone The Crows); 1972.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And that’s just a few of the events which took place in pop music history, on this day…. MAY 2.

From the MCRFB music calendar:

Events on this date: APRIL 30

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1953: Frank Sinatra begins working with his new arranger, Nelson Riddle.

1955: Perez Prado’s “Cherry Pink And Apple Blossom White” hits No. 1 on the charts.

1962: The Orlons records “Wah-Watusi” in the Parkway Records studio.

1965: Bob Dylan begins the tour immortalized in the documentary Don’t Look Back, performing at the City Hall in Sheffield, England.

1965: Herman’s Hermits make their U.S. stage debut, with the Zombies as the opening act.

1966: The Young Rascals hits No. 1 on the national charts with their single, “Good Lovin’.”

1968:  Organist Al Kooper announces that he’s leaving Blood, Sweat and Tears.

1968: The Cilla Black Show, featuring the theme song “Step Inside Love” written by Paul McCartney, debuts on the BBC, making Cilla the first English woman with her own TV show.

1969: “Aquarius/Let The Sunshine In” by the Fifth Dimension is certified gold.

1970: Allman Brothers tour manager Twiggs Lyndon is arrested for stabbing a club manager over a contract dispute. Incredibly, in a strange turn of justice, Lyndon gets off by pleading temporary insanity caused by being the tour manager for the Allman Brothers. At one point Lyndon’s lawyers declared that touring with the Allman Brothers alone would have been enough to drive anyone insane. (Twiggs died nine years later in a freak sky-diving accident).

1976: Bruce Springsteen, fresh from a Memphis concert, attempts to vault a fence at Graceland to see his idol, Elvis Presley, but was unsuccessful and was escorted away by security.

1976: The Who’s Keith Moon pays $100.00 to nine different New York City cab drivers to completely block off a city street end-to-end, allowing the drummer to throw all his furniture through the hotel room high-rise window while watching them literally smash below onto the street.

1977: Led Zeppelin break the single-act attendance record for a concert when 76,229 fans pay to see them perform at the Silverdome in Pontiac, Michigan, breaking the previous record set by the Who, who also had performed at the Silverdome as well.

1983: To celebrate the 25th anniversary of London’s legendary Marquee Club, Manfred Mann reforms in their original sixties incarnation to play the venue they (they and so many others) started in.

1988: For the first time since since its release 11 years earlier, Pink Floyd’s landmark LP Dark Side Of The Moon leaves the Billboard Charts, only to return a few months later.

2003: Sixties blues man and soul-icon Earl King is buried in his hometown of New Orleans with an authentic jazz funeral. Paul McCartney and Eric Clapton send their condolence.

2004: Michael Jackson is arraigned on his child molestation charges, pleading not guilty to ten different counts, also including extortion and false imprisonment.

2004: Ray Charles appears at his Los Angeles recording studio to attend a ceremony marking it as an historic landmark.It will be the last public appearance he will ever make.

 

 

 

 

 

And that’s just a few of the events which took place in pop music history, on this day….

 

 

From the MCRFB music calendar:

Events on this date: APRIL 27

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1956: Capitol Records signs Gene Vincent, intending to market him as the next Elvis.

1957: Elvis makes his second and last appearance outside the United States, wearing his classic gold lame suit for the last time as he plays Toronto’s Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto.

1963: Little Peggy March’s “I Will Follow Him” hits No. 1 on the charts.

1963: Martha Reeves and The Vandellas’ “Come And Get These Memories” enters the charts.

1964: John Lennon’s first book of prose and poetry, In His Own Write, is published in the United States.

1969: Joe Cocker makes his television debut, singing “Feelin’ Alright” on tonight’s CBS-TV’s the Ed Sullivan Show.

1969: Jose Feliciano’s TV special, Very Special, guest starring Glen Campbell and Dionne Warwick, airs on NBC-TV.

1970: John Lennon’s explicit “Bag One” are returned to the London Arts Gallery exhibition after a high courts judge ruled them “Unlikely to deprave or corrupt.”

1975: 511 audience members are in custody in Los Angeles for smoking marijuana during Pink Floyd’s recent five nights at the arena.

1979: At a Duke Ellington concert held at UCLA, Stevie Wonder makes a surprise appearance to sing his hit tribute, “Sir Duke” and also Ellington’s own “C-Jam Blues.”

1980: The legendary New York disco of discos, Studio 54, closes it’s doors after exactly three years and a day due to violations of city liquor licenses.

1981: Ringo Starr marries his second wife, actress Barbara Bach, a former “Bond girl” and model he met when filming the flop comedy Caveman. The two are married at the Marylbone Registrar’s Office in London with the other two surviving Beatles attending.

1990: David Bowie plays his 1970s’ hits for the last time as he begins his latest American tour, “Sound Plus Vision.”

2003: Iggy Pop reunites with the Stooges for the first time in three decades at the close of this year’s Coachellas Festival.

2004: Elton John publicly responds to American Idol’s snub of Jennifer Hudson by declaring the call-in voters “incredibly racists.”

2006: 63 year-old Keith Richards falls from a palm tree while vacationing in Fiji, landing on his head and causing a hemorrhage that required doctors to drain his skull. He makes a full recovery.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And that’s just a few of the events which took place in pop music history, on this day….

From the MCRFB music calendar:

Events on this date: APRIL 25

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1955: The United Nation’s Commission on Narcotics releases a report stating there is a “definite connection between increased marijuana smoking and that form of entertainment known as be-bop and re-bop.”

 

 

1960: Eddie Cochran is laid to rest at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Cypress, California.

1970: At today’s concert at Raleigh, North Carolina, the interracial band Pacific Gas and Electric Company is subject to verbal abuse while on stage. Later, as they leave, four bullets are fired in the van. No one is injured. no one is arrested.

1974: According to the new issue in Rolling Stone, “streaking” has become so popular that Yes and Greg Allman concerts have been interrupted by the fad. At a recent Beach Boys concert, the magazine says, the band was streaked by it’s own crew.

1977: Elvis Presley performs at the Civic Center in Saginaw, Michigan, with a mobile unit capturing what would be his very last recording, released on the RCA album Moody Blue.

1977: The musical variety television special Paul Anka — Music My Way, featuring Natalie Cole, The Savannah Band, and a host of cameos, airs on ABC-TV.

1981: Denny Laine leaves Paul McCartney and Wings, essentially leaving McCartney as a solo act once again.

1990: A London auction house sells the Fender Stratocastor on which Jimi Hendrix played the U.S. national anthem at Woodstock for $295,000.

1993: Legendary album artist Stanley “Mouse” Miller, designer of the Grateful Dead “skull and roses” logo, has his upcoming liver transplant financed by the band.

1994: After an absence which lasted fourteen years, the Eagles perform at the Warner Burbank Studios for what will be the first of two reunion concerts chronicled on the live studio album Hell Freezes Over.

1994: A judge finds Michael Bolton’s 1991 hit “Love Is A Wonderful Thing” plagiarizes the Isley Brothers 1966 song of the same name, despite Bolton’s protest he’s never heard of the song.

2003: The parents of the late Doors lead singer Jim Morrison sue the remaining members of the band for touring with a new singer as “The Doors 21 Century” using the band’s image and logo.

2003: Nina Simone is laid to rest in Cary-Le-Rouet, France, with attendees including Miriam Makeba and gifts sent by luminaries like Elton John.

2004: For the third time in two years, Billy Joel is involved in a traffic accident, driving his car into a home in Bayille, Long Island, New York. No one is injured.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And that’s just a few of the events which took place in pop music history, on this day….

 

From the MCRFB music calendar:

Events on this date: APRIL 24

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1954: Billboard, taking notice in changes in music trends, publishes an article entitled, “Teenagers Demand Music With A Beat — Spur Rhythm And Blues.”

1959: After running on Saturday nights on radio for twenty-four years and TV for the last nine, the final installment of the musical countdown show Your Hit Parade airs on NBC-TV. The final Top Five: Elvis Presley, “I Need Your Love Tonight” (#5); Brook Benton, “It’s Just A Matter Of Time” (#4); Ricky Nelson, “Never Be Anyone Else But You” (#3); Dodie Stevens, “Pink Shoe Laces” (#2); and the Fleetwoods at No. 1 with: “Come Softly To Me.”

1961: Bob Dylan makes his first recording — playing harmonica on Harry Belafonte’s song “Calypso King.” He’s paid $50.00 — cash — for his efforts.

1961: Del Shannon’s “Runaway” hits No. 1 on the national charts.

1963: An 18 year-old Brenda Lee marries Ronnie Shacklett, one year her senior, in Nashville a mere six months after meeting him at a Jackie Wilson concert. Forty-six years later, the two are still a pair.

1965: Wayne Fontana and the Mindbenders’s “Game Of Love” hits No. 1 on the charts.

1968: The newly-formed Apple Records decides not to sign a young audition who goes by the name David Bowie.

1970: Having been invited to a White House dinner by Tricia Nixon, daughter of President Richard Nixon, the Jefferson Airplane’s Grace Slick brings the radical Abbie Hoffman with her, in an attempt to dose Tricia with LSD during the dinner. Hoffman is turned away at the door by the Secret Service and Slick decides to leave with him instead.

1972: Detroit Top 40 radio legend WKNR-AM conducts what will be it’s last 24-hour broadcast day. Unbeknownst to listeners of any immediate changes at the station, WKNR signed off before 8:00 a.m. the following morning and signed on playing an all-instrumental “beautiful music” format as the new WNIC-AM.

1976: In a parody of recent offers, Saturday Night Live producer Lorne Michaels goes on the air and offers the Beatles the whopping sum of $3,000 if they agree to to reunite on the SNL show. And it almost happens: Paul, visiting John at his New York apartment for what would turn out to be his last time, is watching the skit with John, and both consider going across town to the studio live. However, the duo by that time decide they’re too tired.

1984: With questions still lingering about the death of his fifth wife, Shawn Stephens, Jerry Lee Lewis marries his sixth, Kerrie McCarver, the 22 year-old president of his fan club.

1992: The Cleveland Orchestra sues Michael Jackson for $7,000,000 upon discovering the singer used part of their recording of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony on his album Dangerous.

1992: In his hometown of Inglewood, New Jersey, Wilson Pickett drives his car through the mayor’s front yard, yelling death threats at the house and accidentally running over an 86 year-old man. He is arrested and found with open containers of brew strewn about inside his car.

2007:  President George W. Bush is denied a luxury suite at the Imperial Hotel in Vienna when Mick Jagger, in town with the Stones on a tour, gets the ‘presidential’ treatment instead by booking it first.

 

 

 

And that’s just a few of the events which took place in pop music history, on this day….

 

 

 

 

 

From the MCRFB music calendar:

Events on this date: APRIL 22

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1959: The Alan Freed “Rock and Roll” movie, Go, Johnny, Go! premier in New York City. The movie features Chuck Berry, Jackie Wilson, Ritchie Valens, Eddie Cochran, The Cadillacs, and The Flamingos.

1962: Jerry Lee Lewis loses his first son, Steve Allen (named after the TV host and good friend), in a tragic drowning accident at the age of three.

1964: The President of England’s National Federation of Hairdressers makes headlines when he offers a free haircut to the next rock group who reach Number One.

1966: A young Bruce Springsteen gets a boost when his band The Castiles wins a battle of the bands at a roller rink in Matawan, New Jersey. The first prize? Opening for the Crystals and the Ad Libs at next week’s show.

1966: The Troggs “Wild Thing” was released today.

1967: Elvis Presley’s 23rd motion picture Easy Come, Easy Go premiers in Hollywood.

1968: Herb Alpert sings a Burt Bacharach composition, “This Guy’s In Love With You,” to his wife on the Tijuana Brass television special, Beat Of The Brass. It would spark a national demand for the song, which results in the song being released a few weeks later. It will become a million-seller later in the year.

1969: Herb Alpert’s A&M Records signs The Carpenters.

1969: On the roof of Apple headquarters at 3 Sevile Road in London, John Winston Lennon changes his name to John Ono Lennon.

1969: Today is Tommy Day. The Who performed their new rock opera Tommy for the first time on stage in its entirety at a concert in Dolton, England; five years later to the day, the group begins filming the movie version, and, on the same date in 1993, the Broadway play based on the album opens in New York.

1974: Rebone’s “Come And Get Your Love” is certified gold.

1976: Johnnie Taylor goes platinum with his No. 1 disco-hit, “Disco Lady.”

1978: On tonight’s Saturday Night Live, John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd team up to debut two new characters called “The Blues Brothers,” who performs a cover version of Sam and Dave’s “Soul Man.”

1979: The Rolling Stones play two concerts in Oshawa, Ontario, for the Canadian Institute for the Blind, as a result of a court-ordered community service for guitarist Keith Richards, who was busted two years earlier for heroin possession.

1981: Eric Clapton is involved in a car crash near Seattle, Washington, and is hospitalized with bruised ribs and lacerations, just two days after he was released from a Minneapolis, Minnesota hospital after treatment was administered for an ulcer disorder.

 

 

 

 

And that’s just a few of the events which took place in pop music history, on this day….

 

From the MCRFB music calendar:

Events on this date: APRIL 13

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1959: The Fleetwoods “Come Softly To Me” hits No. 1 on the charts.

1962: The Beatles begin their legendary stint at the new Star Club

in Hamburg, Germany. Performing three to four hours a night for 48 days with just one day off, the group logs a total of 172 hours of performance. When the band returns to England, they are already stars with a record contract.

1965: At tonight’s Grammy Awards ceremonies in Los Angeles, Roger Miller is the big winner, taking home five awards (a first for a country artist at the Grammys). Stan Getz and Joao Gilberto wins the

Record Of The Year Award for “The Girl From Ipanema” and Album Of The Year for Getz/Gilberto. The Beatles win the Best New Artist Award and Best Performance By A Vocal Group for “A Hard Day’s Night.”

1967: The Rolling Stones play their first-ever gig behind the “Iron Curtain” of Soviet countries with a performance in Warsaw. When the club is overrun by fans without tickets, the local police react by dispersing the crowd with tear gas.

1968: Bobby Goldsboro’s “Honey” hits No. 1 on the national chart.

1969: Diana Ross makes her first television appearance as a solo-act, performing on Dinah Shore’s NBC-TV special, Like Hep.

1974: Paul McCartney and Wings LP album “Band On The Run” hits No. 1 on the national LP chart.

 

1982: Still awaiting trial on a concealed weapon and illegal drug charges three weeks earlier, David Crosby, formerly of the Byrds and with Crosby, Stills and Nash, is again arrested in Dallas after local police found him preparing a “speedball” of cocaine backstage before he was to perform.

1989: Jack Jones is honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame at 6104 Hollywood Blvd. in L.A.

1999: After nine years of a very public marriage, Billy Joel and Christie Brinkley announce they are separated. They will divorce later on in the year.

2008: Cult ’60s Detroit soul man Nathaniel Mayer collapses from a brain hemorrhage that will, within the year, will take his life.

 

 

 

 

And that’s a few of the events which took place in pop music history, on this day….

From the MCRFB music calendar:

Events on this date: APRIL 11

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1956: Elvis Presley’s tour plane developed engine trouble while flying the singer from Amarillo, Texas to Nashville, forcing an emergency landing in Arkansas. When he calls his mother Gladys to tell her, she begs him to never fly again, instilling a fear in Elvis which will take him years to overcome.

 

1961: New York City gets its first introduction to a young folk singer named Bob Dylan when he makes his live debut at Gerde’s Folk City, opening for John Lee Hooker and performing a new song entitled, “Blowin’ In The Wind.”

1964: Having already set a record the week before by holding the entire Top Five positions of the Billboard singles charts, the Beatles set another record when 14 of their singles  are listed at the same time in the “Hot 100.” “Can’t Buy Me Love” is at No. 1, while “Love Me Do” holds down the bottom at No. 81.

1965: The British music trade paper New Musical Express holds its Third Annual NME Poll Winners Concert in London’s Wembly Empire Pool. The concert features the Beatles, Rolling Stones, Kinks, Animals, Moody Blues, Tom Jones, Them, Donovan, Seekers, Freddie and the Dreamers, Herman’s Hermits, and Cilla Black.

1966: NBC-TV’s musical variety show Hulabaloo airs it’s last episode after sixteen months on the air, featuring Lesley Gore, Peter and Gordon, Paul Anka, and the Cyrkle.

1967: Flying back to England after participating in the Beach Boys’ aborted “Smile” sessions, Paul McCartney comes up with the idea for the Beatles film and album Magical Mystery Tour.

1968: Janis Joplin makes her television debut when Big Brother and Holding Company perform on ABC-TV’s Hollywood Palace.

1970: In Germany, Fleetwood Mac founding member and lead-guitarist  Peter Green, having just come down from a long acid trip, announces his intent to leave the band to follow an obscure religion. After pleads of coercion from other members of the group that he remain, he agrees to stay on the current tour to satisfy the band’s contract.

1976: Relaxing in his hotel after his record-breaking Sydney concert, Alice Cooper is placed under arrest for alleged breach of contract after refusing to pay another promoter $59,000 for an Australian tour the year before. When it is discovered that the promoter’s fallen short on his end of the deal as well, Cooper is released to fly back to the States.

1988: Cher wins Best Actress for the romantic comedy Moonstruck at tonight’s Oscar Awards in New York.

1990: Elton John performs at the Indianapolis, IN funeral of Ryan White, the hemophiliac 18 year-old who contracted AIDS through a blood transfusion and has been shunned for it. Michael Jackson also attends the service.

2002: Aretha Franklin and seven other Motown stars are honored with street names in Detroit’s new low-income housing district off the John C. Lodge expressway, near the the site of the old Brewster projects.

 

 

 

 

And that’s just a few of the events which took place in pop music history, on this day….