October 4

Births

1947: Jim Fielder (Bass for Buffalo Springfield, Mothers of Invention & Blood, Sweat and Tears)

1952: Jody Stephens (Drummer for Big Star)

1957: Russell Simmons (Co-Founder of Def Jam)

1959: Chris Lowe (Keyboards for The Pet Shop Boys)

1962: Jon Secada (Singer)

1989: Lil Mama (Niatia Jessica Kirkland) (Rapper)

Events

1961: Bob Dylan debuts at Carnegie Hall, playing for a grand total of 53 fans.

1961: Popular "recording" group Alvin and the Chipmunks get their own TV show when The Alvin Show debuts on CBS.

1963: A 17-year-old Eric Clapton joins the Yardbirds for tonight's gig at the Crawdaddy Club in Richmond, England, replacing original guitarist Anthony "Top" Topham.

1964: Dusty Springfield interviews the Beatles on this, their first appearance on England's ITV television program Ready Steady Go!

1968: Cream begins their announced farewell tour with a performance at Alameda County Coliseum in Oakland, CA.

1969: Creedence Clearwater Revival started a four week run at No.1 on the US album chart with 'Green River', the group's first US chart topper.

1970: Singer Janis Joplin was found dead at the Landmark Hotel Hollywood after an accidental heroin overdose at age 27.

1974: Thin Lizzy debut their new twin-guitar attack with new additions Scott Gorham and Brian Robertson at tonight's concert in Wales.

1975: Willie Nelson picks up his first #1 single as an artist with "Blue Eyes Crying In The Rain".

1978: Country singer Tammy Wynette is allegedly kidnapped at a Nashville shopping center by an unknown man in a ski mask, beaten, and forced at gunpoint to drive roughly 90 miles. Doubt still exists as to whether this incident took place, due to a puzzling lack of physical evidence.

1980: For their work on the recent Fleetwood Mac single "Tusk," the University of Southern California Country marching band is presented with a platinum version of the album of the same name by three members of the rock band.

1980: On stage during a concert in Pittburgh, PA, Carly Simon collapses from "nervous exhaustion."

1982: The Smiths made their live debut at the Ritz in Manchester England, supporting Blue Rondo A La Turk.

1982: The group Squeeze broke up.

1988: Determined to finally clean his system of the alcohol and drugs he's been abusing for years, Ringo Starr, along with wife Barbara Bach, flies to Tucson, AZ to enter the Sierra Tucson Rehabilitation Clinic. He will stay six weeks.

1994: Singer Glenn Frey's stomach surgery causes the Eagles to postpone their much-anticipated reunion tour, puckishly titled Hell Freezes Over.

1994: Guitarist Danny Gatton locked himself in his garage in Newburg, Maryland and shot himself.

1996: Van Halen announced that Gary Cherone, formerly of Extreme, would be the singer that would replace Sammy Hagar.

1999: Jimi Hendrix's half-sister Janie announces her plans to exhume the body of her famous brother and move it to a mausoleum where curious onlookers can view it for a price. The public outcry forces her to shelve the idea.

2006: Former R. Kelly employee (who claimed to have been a “mentor and guide” to Kelly since he was a teenager) Henry Vaughn filed a lawsuit against the singer accusing him of assault, false imprisonment, and a breach of contract that defrauded him of songwriting royalties. Vaughn also claimed that Kelly and his associates dragged him to the basement at Kelly’s Olympia Fields home and “repeatedly struck him about the face and body with his fists”.

2008: Dierks and Cassidy Bentley have a daughter, Evalyn Day Bentley, at Vanderbilt Medical Center in Nashville.