Births
1948: Glenn Frey (Guitar & Vocals in The Eagles)
1961: Craig Goldy (Guitarist in Dio)
1963: Paul Brindley (Guitar in The Sundays)
1964: Corey Glover (Guitar in Living Colour)
1966: Paul Gilbert (Guitarist for Racer X & Mr. Big)
Events
1954: Elvis Presley signs a year-long contract with the Shreveport concert radio show Louisiana Hayride and, on the same day, records his one and only commercial, a radio spot for the city's "Southern Maid Doughnuts" outlet in which he sang the company jingle: "You can get them piping hot after 4 pm, you can get them piping hot. Southern Maid Donuts hit the spot, you can get them piping hot after 4 pm."
1964: On tonight's episode of ITV's musical variety show Ready Steady Go!, the Beach Boys make their first British TV appearance, performing "I Get Around," "When I Grow Up (To Be a Man)," and "Dance, Dance, Dance."
1965: Guests on tonight's episode of ABC's musical variety show Shindig! include the Rolling Stones, Fontella Bass, and the Strangeloves.
1965: New York City is hit with its infamous total electrical blackout, causing Bob Dylan, the Rolling Stones' Brian Jones, and the Band's Robbie Robertson to huddle in their room at the Hilton, lighting candles.
1965: Promoter Bill Graham puts on his first show, a Jefferson Airplane concert (for the benefit of the radical San Francisco Mime Troupe) at the Calliope Ballroom in San Francisco. One year later to the day, he opens his own ballroom, the Fillmore (later known as the Fillmore West).
1967: During a three hour session Bob Dylan recorded ‘All Along The Watchtower’ and ‘John Wesley Harding’ at Columbia Recording Studios in Nashville, Tennessee.
1968: The Monkees' first and only feature film, Head, premieres in New York. A random, angry film that attempts to make the band look hip while systematically destroying their hated teenybopper image, the $750,000 film is a complete flop at the box office, no doubt also due to the strange TV marketing campaign, which focused merely on a friend of the band saying the word "Head" into the camera. Today, however, the film has gained a cult reputation as a surreal masterpiece.
1970: Aerosmith performed their first ever gig when they played at Nipmuc Regional High School in Mendon, Massachusetts.
1972: Billy Murcia (Drummer for The New York Dolls) passed out from an accidental overdose. He was put in a bathtub and force-fed coffee, in an attempt to revive him, which resulted in asphyxiation and death.
1973: Phil Kaufman, manager of the recently-deceased country-rock singer Gram Parsons, is fined $300 for stealing the singer's body from the Los Angeles International Airport (where it was to be shipped to a Louisiana funeral home on the wishes of his estranged stepfather), then driving out to the desert instead with Gram's close friend Michael Martin, cremating Parsons, and scattering his ashes near the Joshua Tree National Monument in Twentynine Palms, CA, a favorite spot of the singer. Both men claim the cremation was Parsons' last wish.
1975: The Sex Pistols made their live debut at St Martin’s School Of Art in central London, supporting a band called Bazooka Joe, which included Stuart Goddard (the future Adam Ant). The Pistols’ performance lasts 10 minutes.
1980: After the death of drummer John Bonham, the remaining members of Led Zeppelin meet on the island of Jersey in the Channel Islands, along with manager Peter Grant, to decide what to do next. All four men agree the band would simply not be the same without Bonham, and decide to split up.
