June 8

Births

1940: Nancy Sinatra (Singer)

1940: Sherman Garnes (Frankie Lymon And The Teenagers)

1941: Clarence “Fuzzy” Haskins (Guitar for Funkadelic)

1942: Chuck Negron (Vocals for Three Dog Night)

1944: Boz Scaggs (Singer)

1947: Mick Box (Guitar for Uriah Heep)

1953: Bonnie Tyler (Singer)

1953: Jeff Rich (Drums for Status Quo)

1960: Mick Hucknall (Singer & Songwriter for Simply Red)

1962: Nick Rhodes (Keyboards for Duran Duran)

1965: Rob Pilatus (Vocals ? for Milli Vanilli)

1967: Neil Mitchell (Keyboards for Wet Wet Wet)

1970: Nicci Gilbert (Singer for Brownstone)

1977: Kayne West  (Rapper)

Events

1954: US record labels started to supply radio stations with 45rpm discs for the first time, replacing the 78 records.

1963: The Crystals' "Da Doo Ron Ron" peaked at No.3 on the US singles chart. Produced by Phil Spector, who used a multi-track recording system to build the song layer upon layer to achieve a result that become known as a "wall of sound". Backing musicians include Glen Campbell on guitar, Leon Russell on piano, Hal Blain on drums and Nino Tempo on sax.

1967: Procol Harum were at No.1 on the UK singles chart with 'A Whiter Shade Of Pale', the group's only UK No.1. In 2004 the song was named the most played record of the past 70 years. More than 900 recorded versions by other artists are known.

1967,:The Beatles 'Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band' went to No.1 in the UK. Costing  $42,500 to produce the album was recorded over 700 hours of studio time. It was also the first album to print the lyrics on the sleeve. The album spent 27 weeks at No.1 on the UK chart.

1968: The Rolling Stones released "Jumpin' Jack Flash."

1969: Founder member of The Rolling Stones Brian Jones announced that he was leaving the group, saying that he no longer saw 'eye to eye' with the rest of the band.

1970: Deep Purple had their van and equipment impounded by East German police while on an European tour, after mistakenly driving too close to the border.

1974: Bill Wyman became the first Rolling Stone to release a solo album with 'Monkey Grip', (it peaked at No.99 in the US).

1974: Dolly Parton was at No.1 on the US country chart with 'I Will Always Love You'. The Parton penned song later became a worldwide hit for Whitney Houston in 1992.

1974: Keyboard player Rick Wakeman announced that he was leaving Yes.

1979: Marianne Faithfull married Ben Brieley of punk rock band The Vibrators.

1985: Tears For Fears started a two-week run at No.1 on the US singles chart with 'Everybody Wants To Rule The World', the group's first US No.1.

1985: The Style Council scored their only UK No.1 album with 'Our Favourite Shop'.

1987: Yogi Horton a session drummer with Luther Vandross, jumped to his death from a 17th floor hotel window, having told his wife he was tired of Living in the shadow of Vandross.  He also worked with The B-52's, Diana Ross and Debbie Harry.

1989: At a Greenpeace Rainbow Warrior's press conference, vegetarian Chrissie Hynde claimed that she once firebombed a McDonalds restaurant. The following day a McDonalds in Milton Keynes, England was firebombed and Hynde was threatened with legal action.

1990: Mariah Carey released her self-titled debut album.

1991: Bruce Springsteen married Patti Scialfa, at their Beverley Hills home in California.

1991: Color Me Bad had their only UK No.1 single with 'I Wanna Sex You Up'. The song was a No.2 hit in the US where some radio stations edited out the word "sex" with disc jockeys announcing the song 'I Wanna Love You Up'.

1991: Extreme went to No.1 on the US singles chart with 'More Than Words', a No.2 hit in the UK.

1996: The Fugees scored their first UK No.1 single with their version of the Roberta Flack 1973 hit 'Killing Me Softly'. The song composed by Charles Fox and Norman Gimbel in 1971 was inspired by Lori Lieberman's poem 'Killing Me Softly with His Blues', written having seen a performance by US singer, songwriter Don McLean.

1998: Oasis guitarist Noel Gallagher, Paul Weller and Martin Carr from The Boo Radleys were all involved in a fight at Dingwalls, Camden in London. 

2000: Sinead O'Connor revealed that she was a lesbian in an article that would later be published by "Curve" in their July-August 2000 issue.

2002: Jennifer Lopez separated from her second husband, dancer Cris Judd, after just nine months of marriage.

2002: months of secrecy surrounding Sir Paul McCartney's wedding plans were blown when John Leslie the owner of the 17th century Castle Leslie in Co Monaghan, let slip to reporters that Sir Paul had booked the Castle for the wedding.

2003: Evanescence started a four-week run at No.1 on the UK singles chart with 'Bring Me To Life.' The song won a Grammy Award in 2004 for the Best Hard Rock performance.

2007: George Michael was sentenced to 100 hours of community service and banned from driving for two years at Brent Magistrates court, north London. The 43-year-old who was arrested last October after being found slumped at the steering wheel of his car pleaded guilty to driving while unfit, blaming "tiredness and prescribed drugs" for the offence.

2008: Rolling Stone magazine published a list of the Top 50 guitar songs of all time. No.5 was ‘Brown Sugar’ by The Rolling Stones, No.4 , ‘You Really Got Me’ By The Kinks, No.3, ‘Crossroads’, by Cream, No.2 ‘Purple Haze’, by Jimi Hendrix and No.1 ‘Johnny B Goode’, Chuck Berry.