October 8

Births

1940: Fred Cash (Singer in The Impressions)

1948: Johnny Ramone (John Cummings) (Guitar for The Ramones)

1950: Robert "Kool" Bell (Vocals & Bass for Kool and the Gang)

1965: C-Jay Ramone (Chris Ward) (Bass for The Ramones)

1967: Teddy Riley (Producer & Singer for Guy, Blackstreet & Solo)

1968: C.L. Smooth (Corey Brent Penn, Sr) (Rapper)

1980: Nick Cannon (Singer)

1973: Terry Balsamo (Guitarist for Cold, Limp Bizkit & Evanescence)

1985: Bruno Mars (Peter Gene Hernandez) (Pop Singer)

Events

1935: Bandleader Ozzie Nelson marries his lead vocalist, Harriet Hilliard.

1956: The show "Lawrence Welk’s Top Tunes and New Talent" debuted.

1957: Jerry Lee Lewis recorded the song "Great Balls Of Fire."

1966: Cream drummer Ginger Baker collapses while on stage at a Sussex University gig in England, just after completing his epic 20-minute solo on "Toad."

1968: "Mama" Cass Elliot's initial solo engagement at Caesars' Palace is a disaster, with Elliot collapsing from exhaustion and her backup band ill-rehearsed. While hospitalized, she contracts tonsillitis, forcing the cancellation of the entire two-week engagement.

1971: "Imagine" was recorded by John Lennon.

1977: NBC airs The Paul Simon Special, which again reunites the singer with old friend Art Garfunkel.

1980: Bob Marley collapsed onstage during a show in Pittsburgh, PA. It was the last show he would ever perform. He died seven months later of cancer.

1985: Little Richard passes out behind the wheel while driving his sports car in West Hollywood and runs into a telephone pole, seriously injuring him and forcing him to miss his induction in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. After he recovers, he returns to spiritual music.

1987: The acclaimed Chuck Berry documentary Hail! Hail! Rock 'n' Roll premieres in US theaters on the same day that Berry himself is awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame at 1777 N. Vine.

1987: Promoting their space-themed Afterburner record, ZZ Top book passage on what is announced as the first passenger flight to the moon.

1988: The Rolling Stones' Keith Richards performs his first solo single, "Take It So Hard," on tonight's episode of Saturday Night Live.

1988: Pink Floyd's ‘Dark Side Of The Moon’ finally left Billboard's Hot 200 Album Chart after a record breaking 741 weeks.

1989: After Rolling Stone Ron Wood suggested the Who were reforming for the money alone, Who guitarist Pete Townshend publicly answered: "Mick needs a lot more than I do. His last album was a flop," referring to the Stones' legendary miscue Dirty Work.

1992: The US Postal Service issues a booklet of commemorative rock and roll stamps featuring Elvis Presley, Buddy Holly, Otis Redding, Bill Haley, Ritchie Valens, Clyde McPhatter, and Dinah Washington.

1996: Jimmy Chamberlin, formerly of the Smashing Pumpkins, pled guilty to disorderly conduct in connection with the heroin related death of Jonathan Melvin.

2002: Trace Adkins suffers a hairline sternum fracture and bruises when he's pinned under a tractor in a freak accident, while building a gravel road on his property in Rutherford County, Tennessee. He's immediately hospitalized, and cancels two Texas concerts.

2003: Coldplay singer Chris Martin asked Australian police to drop a charge of malicious damage after allegedly attacking a photographer's car. Martin was charged in July after breaking a windscreen with a rock after being photographed surfing. Martin did not appear in court at Byron Bay, New South Wales, when his lawyer, Megan Cusack, asked for the charge to be dropped.

2004: Rapper Beanie Sigel was sentenced to a year in federal prison on a gun-possession charge that stemmed from a traffic stop in 2002.

2011: One-time bassist for Weezer Mikey Welsh was found dead in a Chicago hotel room. Forty-year-old Welsh played in the group between 1998 and 2001, leaving after suffering a nervous breakdown. Police said prescription drugs were found in the room, along with a plastic baggie containing white powder believed to be heroin.