Births
1916: Ray
Conniff (Bandleader)
1941: Guy Clark (Country artist)
1948: Glenn
Frey (Guitar & Vocals in The Eagles & Solo)
1961: Craig Goldy (Guitarist in Dio)
1963: Paul Brindley (Guitar in The Sundays)
1963: Rozz Williams (Lead Vocals for Christian
Death)
1964: Corey Glover (Vocals & Guitar for
Living Colour)
1964: Greg Graffin (Lead Vocals for Bad Religion)
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 & Grateful Dead
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.
