June 6

Births

1936: Levi Stubbs (Lead Singer for The Four Tops)

1939: Gary U.S. Bonds (R&B Singer)

1944: Peter Albin (Bass for Big Brother and the Holding Company)

1944: Edgar Froese (Keyboards for Tangerine Dream)

1960: Steve Vai (Guitarist for Frank Zappa, David Lee Roth, Whitesnake)

1961: Tom Araya (Vocals & Bass for Slayer)

1966: Sean Yseult (Bass for White Zombie)

1970:  James “Munky” Shaffer (Guitar for Korn)

1974: Uncle Kracker (Matthew Shafer) (DJ for Kid Rock & Solo Singer)

1978: Carl Barat (Singer for The Libertines)

Events

1960: The RIAA presents Bing Crosby with a special platinum record honoring the sale of his 200 millionth record, a total which includes not only 125 albums but 2,600 singles!

1960: Singer Tony Williams leaves the Platters to embark upon a solo career.

1962: The Beatles audition for EMI, recording four demos, the first material the band ever recorded at Abbey Road: three original compositions called "Love Me Do," "Ask Me Why," and "P.S. I Love You," and a cover of the standard "Besame Mucho." Producer George Martin is not at the session, but is called in by engineer Norman "Hurricane" Smith when he hears something he likes in "Love Me Do." Martin is not impressed with the group's songwriting, scruffy outfits, and even scruffier equipment (one of the band's amps blows during the audition), and he tells them so, finishing, "Look, I've laid into you for quite a time, you haven't responded. Is there anything you don't like?" To which George quips, "I don't like your tie!" The tension is broken, and Martin, charmed by the group's personality, agrees to work with them. (Though he later says, "They were pretty awful. I understand why other record companies turned them down.") The band members are paid $12 each for the session; drummer Pete Best, whose skills Martin remains unimpressed with, would soon be fired from the group.

1964: An anonymous ad taken out in six American music trade papers declares: "In the public interest, watch the Rolling Stones crush the Beatles!"

1966: Roy Orbison loses his first wife, Claudette, then 25, after the motorcycle they're both riding collides with a truck in Gallatin, TX. The tragedy would haunt Orbison for years.

1969: Rod Stewart signs to the Mercury label.

1970: Syd Barrett played his first gig since leaving Pink Floyd at the Extraveganza '70, at London's Olympia. He was joined on stage by Floyd guitarist David Gilmour.

1971: John Lennon and Yoko Ono join Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention onstage at the Fillmore East in New York for a set of lengthy, chaotic, screeching jams later release as a bonus disc with the Lennon/Ono album Some Time In New York City.

1972: David Bowie releases the Album ‘The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust’.

1977: Stevie Wonder appears, sponsored by Billboard, as a guest music lecturer at a UCLA symposium, talking about his early Motown days and illustrating his points with performances.

1979: Def Leppard played at Crookes Workingman's Club in Sheffield. The gig was reviewed in UK music paper 'Sounds' and led to a recording contract with Phonogram Records.

1987: Under increasing pressure from the group to tone down his behavior, Michael Jackson officially severs ties with the Jehovah's Witnesses.

1990: A Federal judge in Florida declared that 2 Live Crew's "As Nasty As They Wanna Be" LP was obscene.

1991: Sax player Stan Getz died from liver cancer.

1992: David Bowie and his new wife, model Iman, renew their vows in Florence, Italy after some doubt arises as to the legality of their first ceremony in Switzerland.

1993: The Velvet Underground reform for the first time in 24 years for a show at London's Wembley Arena.

1993: The Who's Tommy, now a Broadway play, takes home five Tony Awards at the annual ceremony in New York.

2001: Saying he "doesn't have time to drive them anymore," Elton John auctions off 20 of his automobiles for a cool $2.75 million.

2003: Dave Rowberry (The Animals) died in London of an ulcer hemorrhage at the age of 62.

2005: A Los Angeles jury begins deliberation in the Michael Jackson child molestation trial.

2006: Billy Preston died in Scottsdale, Arizona, of complications of malignant hypertension that resulted in kidney failure and other complication.

2010: Marvin Isley, the youngest member of the American R&B band, the Isley Brothers, died, aged 56. Marvin Isley, who was the group's bass player, stopped performing in 1996 because of complications from diabetes, including the loss of his legs.