December 5

Births

1901: Walt Disney

1931: Ike Turner (R&B Singer & Guitarist)

1932: Little Richard (Richard Penniman) (Pianist & Singer)

1938: JJ Cale (Singer / Songwriter)

1941: Art Garfunkel (Singer / Songwriter in Simon & Garfunkel & Solo)

1946: Gram Parsons (Guitar & Vocals for Byrds, The Flying Burrito Brothers & Solo)

1947: Peter Noone (Singer & Guitar for Herman's Hermits)

1947: Jim Messina (Singer / Songwriter for Poco, Buffalo Springfield, Loggins & Messina & Solo)

1947: Donnie McDougall (Guitar for The Guess Who)

1952: Bobby Barth (Guitar for Axe & Blackfoot)

1960: Jack Russell (Lead Singer for Great White)

1965: Johnny Rzeznik (Guitar & Vocals for The Goo Goo Dolls)

1967: Gary Allan (Country Artist)

Events

1960: Paul McCartney and Pete Best were arrested for pinning a condom to a brick wall and then igniting it. The two were told to leave Germany and The Beatles returned home, discouraged.

1961: Ray Charles was arrested in an Indianapolis hotel and charged with possession of drugs.

1967: Kenny Rogers and his group The First Edition make their television debut on CBS' Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour.

1967: A passenger train derails at Hither Green near London, killing 49 people and injuring 78. Among the passengers who escaped with no injuries: the Bee Gees' Robin Gibb, who helps injured passengers from the car for three hours and is nevertheless taken to a nearby hospital in a state of shock.

1968: Peter Noone, lead singer of Herman's Hermits, marries Mireille Strasser at the Church of the Immaculate Conception in Mayfair, London; the couple are still married.

1968: Graham Nash quit the Hollies. He announced the formation of Crosby, Stills and Nash three days later.

1970: Long since retired from touring with his group, Brian Wilson joins the Beach Boys on stage at the Whisky A Go-Go in Los Angeles only to suffer inner ear damage in his good ear from an excessively loud sound system. After losing his balance a few times, he is helped backstage.

1971: Two firsts at tonight's Elvis Presley show at the Metropolitan Sports Center in Minneapolis, MI: comic Jackie Kahane begins his lifelong stint as opening act, and Elvis ends the show with cape outstretched in a bizarrely Christlike pose -- another gimmick that will become a staple of Elvis' live act.

1972: The Jackson 5 Show, the group's second television special, airs on CBS.

1973: Who guitarist Pete Townshend storms off the stage at tonight's gig in Newcastle, England, after discovering that the backing track the band plays along to is running 15 seconds behind.

1978: The Charlie Daniels Band records "The Devil Went Down To Georgia" at Nashville's Woodland Sound Studios.

1979: Mick Jagger of the Rolling Stones has his divorce from first wife Bianca Jagger finalized.

1982: Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys part ways on the orders of Wilson's new psychiatrist and caretaker, Dr. Eugene Landy.

1987: The Jesus And Mary Chain were banned from appearing on a US music TV show after complaints of blasphemy when the group's name was flashed across the screen. The CBS show asked the band to be called JANC but the group didn't agree.

1988: The Beach Boys set two records with their latest #1 hit, "Kokomo," which marks the group as having the longest gap between chart-toppers (21 years and ten months from 1966's "Good Vibrations") and the longest stretch of career #1s (dating back to their first, "I Get Around," 24 years and four months earlier).

1988: Kylie Minogue's version of "The Loco-Motion" hits #1 in the US, making it the first song to ever take the top spot three separate times in three different versions (the 1962 Little Eva original and the 1974 Grand Funk Railroad cover).

1992: Tom Jones guest stars on tonight's "Marge Gets a Job" episode of FOX-TV's The Simpsons, a move that revived his dormant career.

1993: Co-founder of Gin Blossoms Doug Hopkins died of self-inflicted gunshot wounds age 32. The guitarist and songwriter was in a detox unit of Phoenix's St. Luke's Hospital, Phoenix, Arizona when he snuck out and bought a .38 caliber pistol. The next day Hopkins committed suicide.

1995: A charity performance of The Wizard Of Oz is staged at New York's Lincoln Center, featuring Jewel (Dorothy), Jackson Browne (The Scarecrow), Roger Daltrey (The Tin Man), and Nathan Lane (The Cowardly Lion).

2000: The Who guest star on tonight's "A Tale of Two Springfields" episode of FOX-TV's The Simpsons.

2005: Beach Boys singer Mike Love sues former leader Brian Wilson for using his likeness and the band trademark in his promotion of the SMiLE project, a reconstructed release of the band's legendary "lost" 1967 album.

2005: Guitarist Link Wray died of heart failure at 76.

December 2

Births

1960: Rick Savage (Bass for Def Leppard)

1968: Nate Mendel (Bass for Foo Fighters)

1978: Nelly Furtado (Singer)

1978: Brian Chase (Drums for Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs)

1981: Britney Spears (Singer)

Events

1959: Bobby Darin is the subject of this week's episode of NBC'S This Is Your Life.

1964: Ringo Starr checks into the University College Hospital in London to have his tonsils removed.

1967: Jimmie Rodgers is found with a fractured skull in his car on the San Diego Freeway, the result of a "mysterious assualt." He recovers fully, but his career never does.

1969: In Bristol, England, George Harrison joins the Delaney and Bonnie and Friends tour as a guitarist, making this the first tour of a Beatle since 1966.

1969: Cindy Birdsong of the Supremes is kidnapped by a maintenance worker in her Hollywood apartment, who, while holding a knife to her throat, forces her to tie up her two visiting friends. He then forces her into a car and drives toward Long Beach, but the singer jumps from the car and escapes. The kidnapper was arrested in Las Vegas four days later.

1971: Taj Mahal performs for the men on death row at Wilmington State Penitentiary.

1973: The Who and their companions are jailed overnight in Montreal following $6000 worth of hotel destruction inflicted after their show at the Forum.

1979: Singers Kris Kristofferson and Rita Coolidge are granted a divorce.

1979: Neil Diamond and Barbra Streisand's ‘You Don't Bring Me Flowers’ was at No.1 on the US singles chart. A radio station engineer had spliced together Neil's version with Barbra's version and got such good response, the station added it to their play list. When Neil Diamond was told about it, he decided to re-record the song with Streisand herself.

1983: MTV aired the full 14-minute version of Michael Jackson's 'Thriller' video for the first time.

1986: Jerry Lee Lewis checks into the Betty Ford Clinic for addiction to painkillers.

1988: Paul Stanley, Gene Simmons, and Willie Nelson appeared on "Geraldo" to discuss "Sex on the Road."

1991: The US Supreme Court rules that the Shirelles, Gene Pitney and B.J. Thomas are owed $1.2 million in unpaid royalties.

1996: Adam Duritz (Singer for Counting Crows) severed a ligament and tore cartilage in his knee after he fell during a concert at the Beacon Theatre in New York. Duritz underwent orthoscopic surgery during the band's Christmas break.

2000: Thieves broke into the London home Madonna shares with Guy Ritchie. The raiders forced their way in through a basement door then took a set of car keys before loading up Guy Ritchie's car with some of the couple's possessions and driving off.

2002: Oasis singer Liam Gallagher was arrested and charged with assault after he Kung-Fu kicked a police officer. The incident happened at the Bayerischer hotel in Munich, the singer lost his two front teeth in the brawl and an Oasis minder was knocked out cold. 

December 1

Births

1934: Billy Paul (R&B Singer)

1933: Lou Rawls (R&B Singer)

1944: Eric Bloom (Vocals for Blue Oyster Cult)

1944: John Densmore (Drums for The Doors)

1945: Bette Midler (Singer)

1946: Gilbert O'Sullivan (Pop Singer)

1951: Jaco Pastorius (Jazz bassist)

1971: Greg Upchurch (Drummer for 3 Doors Down)

1977: Brad Delson (Lead Guitar for Linkin Park)

Events

1957: Three acts make their national TV debut on one episode of CBS' Ed Sullivan Show: Buddy Holly and the Crickets (performing "That'll Be The Day"), Sam Cooke (performing "You Send Me"), and the Rays (performing "Silhouettes").

1960: Bobby Darin marries Sandra Dee at Don Kirshner's apartment in New Jersey.

1968: Janis Joplin makes her final appearance with her band, Big Brother and the Holding Company.

1972: Martha and the Vandellas give their farewell performance in Detroit, MI.

1975: On her thirtieth birthday, Bette Midler undergoes emergency surgery to remove her appendix.

1982: Michael Jackson's 'Thriller' album was released. It spent 190 weeks on the album chart became the biggest selling pop album of all time, with sales over 50 million copies.

1983: Neil Young was sued by Geffen Records because his new music for the label was “not commercial in nature and musically uncharacteristic of his previous albums.”

1989: Sly Stone is sentenced to 55 days in jail for driving while under the influence of cocaine.

1990: C.C. Deville guitar player with Poison spent six hours in jail in Louisville, after being arrested for public drunkenness and criminal mischief after a concert in the town that night.

1994: Tupac Shakur was convicted on charges of sexually abusing a woman in a hotel room. He was recovering from gunshot wounds he had suffered the day before.

1995: An auction of Frank Sinatra memorabilia nets the singer over two million dollars.

1997: Kenny G set a new world record when he held a note on his saxophone for 45 minutes and 47 seconds. (The record has since been broken by Geovanny Escalante, who held a note for 1 hour, 30 minutes and 45 seconds, using a technique that allows him to blow and breathe at the same time).

1999: Jay-Z stabbed Lance Rivera at a party at Manhattan's Kit Kat Klub. Jay-Z pled guilty to misdemeanor assault and was sentenced to three years probation on September 17, 2001.

November 30

Births

1915: Brownie McGhee (Blues Singer)

1929: Dick Clark (DJ)

1944: Rob Grill (Lead Singer for The Grass Roots)

1945: Roger Glover (Bass for Deep Purple)

1953: Shuggie Otis (Singer / Songwriter)

1955: Billy Idol (William Broad) (Singer in Generation X & Solo)

1957: John Ashton (Guitar for The Psychedelic Furs)

1973: John Moyer (Bass for Disturbed)

1975: Mindy McCready (Country Singer)

1978: Clay Aiken (Singer)

Events

1940: Desi Arnaz marries Lucille Ball.

1954: Nat "King" Cole begins a six-night run at Harlem's Apollo theater.

1959: In a Billboard article, DJ Alan Freed claims that his career has gone "down the drain" due to the recent "payola" scandal.

1963: The Beatles second album 'With The Beatles' became the first million selling album by a group in the UK.

1969: NBC airs Simon and Garfunkel's Songs Of America special, even after sponsor AT&T backs out over the show's plan to show footage of the Bobby Kennedy funeral and the Vietnam war.

1977: David Bowie appears on Bing Crosby's 42nd (and last) Christmas special on CBS. The two sing a medley of "Little Drummer Boy" and "Peace On Earth."

1988: LL Cool J performed the first rap concert held in Africa.

1991: Milli Vanilli singer Rob Pilatus attempted suicide while staying at The Mondrain Hotel, Los Angeles by taking an overdose of sleeping pills and slashing his wrists.

1994: Tupac Shakur was shot five times during a robbery outside a New York City recording studio.

1996: While playing at a Gala Benefit at The Woman's Club of Minneapolis, Tiny Tim had a heart attack and died.

1997: Chumbawamba's Danbert Nobacon was arrested by Italian police for wearing a skirt and was detained in police cells overnight.

2003: A block of East 2nd Street in New York City was officially renamed Joey Ramone Place. It is the block where Joey once lived with band mate Dee Dee Ramone, and is near the music club CBGB, where the Ramones played their first gigs.

2005: Police were investigating claims that Michael Jackson was trafficking drugs to feed his 40 pills-a-day habit. The singer was suspected of flying antidepressants and painkillers from the US to his current home in Bahrain.

November 29

Births

1917: Merle Travis (Country Singer)

1933: John Mayall (Blues Artist)

1940: Chuck Mangione (Jazz Musician)

1940: Denny Doherty (Singer / Songwriter in The Mamas and The Papas)

1942: Felix Cavaliere (Vocals & Keyboards in The Rascals)

1947: Ronnie Montrose (Guitarist)

1951: Barry Goudreau (Guitar for Boston)

1968: Jonathan Knight (New Kids On The Block)

1974: Apl.De.Ap (Allen Pineda Lindo, Jr) (Black Eyed Peas)

1979: The Game (Jayceon Terrell Taylor) (Rapper)

Events

1959: Bobby Darin wins the 1959 Grammy Award for Record of the Year for his song "Mack the Knife," along with the Best New Artist award.

1965: Denver, CO, declares today "Rolling Stones Day."

1966: Elvis hears Tom Jones' version of "Green Green Grass Of Home" on the radio just outside Little Rock, and calls the radio station to hear it several times. Elvis would eventually cover the song.

1968: For his cannabis possession charge, John Lennon is fined $360 in a London court. The judge believes John's explanation that he no longer uses marijuana and had merely forgotten about the stash. Wife Yoko Ono is entirely cleared of charges. Lennon is the first Beatle to be charged with such a crime.

1976: Jerry Lee Lewis shot his bass player, Norman "Butch" Owens, twice in the chest while trying to hit a soda bottle. Lewis was charged with shooting a firearm within the city limits.

1979: The original four members of KISS play for the last time together before their first "breakup” until 1996 when they reunited for a makeup tour.

1979: Keith Richards' common-law wife, Anita Pallenburg, is cleared of murder in the shooting death of a male companion found dead in her home in New York state.

1995: Van Halen singer Sammy Hagar married model Kari Karte in San Francisco.

1997: Whitney Houston pulled out of a concert sponsored by the Moonies two hours before she was due on stage after finding out the event was a mass wedding for over 1,000 Moonie couple's. The religious group said they had no intention of suing providing the singer returned the $1m fee she had received.

2000: Chuck Berry's longtime piano player, Johnnie Johnson, sues Chuck, alledging that he wrote the music for 52 of Berry's classics. The suit was thrown out by a judge who ruled that the statute of limitations had run out on any claims.

2000: U2's Larry Mullen came to the rescue of motorcyclist who had been involved in an accident. Larry was driving home when he saw the motorcyclist who had crashed and stopped to call for help on his phone and then waited for the ambulance to arrive.

2001: George Harrison passes away at age 58 after a long battle with lung cancer while resting at the home of a friend home in Los Angeles. His family's official statement read, in part: "He left this world as he lived in it, conscious of God, fearless of death, and at peace, surrounded by family and friends. He often said, 'Everything else can wait but the search for God cannot wait, and love one another.'"

2007: Former Lynyrd Skynyrd drummer Artimus Pyle, a convicted sex offender, was arrested for failing to properly register a new permanent address. The 59-year-old had pleaded guilty in 1993 to charges of attempted capital sexual battery by an adult on a victim younger than 12 and being principal to lewd and lascivious behavior on a child younger than 16. He was sentenced to eight years of probation.

2009: Susan Boyle's album became the best-selling debut in UK chart history when it went to No.1 on the UK chart. The 48 year-old runner-up in ITV's Britain's Got Talent, sold 410,000 copies of ‘I Dreamed a Dream’. Boyle also topped the US charts, setting a first-week sales record for a female debut album with 701,000 copies sold in its first week.

November 28

Births

1929: Berry Gordy, Jr. (Founder of Motown Records)

1943: Randy Newman (Singer / Songwriter)

1949: Paul Shaffer (Dave Letterman Band Leader)

1962: Matt Cameron (Drums for Soundgarden)

1968: Dawn Robinson (Singer for En Vogue)

1979: Chamillionaire (Hakeem Seriki) (Rapper)

1984: Trey Songz (R&B / Hip-Hop Artist)

Events

1964: Willie Nelson makes his Grand Ole Opry debut.

1968: John Lennon and Yoko Ono appear at the Marylebone Magistrates' Court, London, to answer charges of cannabis resin possession. John pleads guilty and is fined $300.

1974: John Lennon appears onstage with Elton John at Madison Square Garden, honoring a promise he made that he'd appear if their duet, "Whatever Gets You Thru The Night," hit #1. The duo sing their hit as well as the Beatles' "I Saw Her Standing There." Backstage, wife Yoko Ono meets John, ending John's 18-month separation from her, known as the "Lost Weekend." This was to be John's last appearance on stage, anywhere.

1979: Ringo Starr's home in Los Angeles home burns down.

1987: REM had their first entry in the Top 10 on the US singles chart with ‘The One I Love.’

1990: In Los Angeles, law enforcement officials announced that there was not enough evidence to prosecute Axl Rose for assault on his neighbor. The charge was the Rose had hit her over the head with a wine bottle.

1991: Nirvana recorded a performance for BBC TV music show Top Of The Pops in London. When asked to lip-sync ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ to a pre-recorded tape Kurt Cobain protests by singing in a low-pitched funny voice with the rest of the band not even trying to mime in-time to the track.

1992: HBO airs Neil Diamond's Christmas Special.

1992: Whitney Houston started a record-breaking fourteen-week run at No.1 on the US singles chart with 'I Will Always Love You', taken from the 'Bodyguard' soundtrack. The song was written by Dolly Parton.

1993: Steppenwolf drummer Jerry Edmonton was killed in a car crash not far from his Santa Barbara, California home, he was 47.

2001: Aretha Franklin sues a tabloid for $50 million after it claimed the singer had a drinking problem.

2006: US actress Pamela Anderson filed for divorce from rapper Kid Rock after just four months of marriage. In a statement on her website the 39-year-old confirmed she had split from Rock.

2007: Kanye West and stuntman Evel Knievel settled a copyright dispute over West's use of the name "Evel Kanyevel" in a music video. The 69-year-old daredevil had claimed his image was tarnished by the video’s "vulgar, sexual nature." The clip for Touch The Sky, showed the rap star cavorting with Pamela Anderson and trying to jump a rocket-powered motorcycle over a canyon.

November 25

Births

1941: Percy Sledge (R&B Singer)

1960: Amy Grant (Pop and Christian Singer)

1967: Rodney Sheppard (Guitar for Sugar Ray)

1971: Christina Applegate (Just because)

Events

1957: Gene Vincent and the Blue Caps make their US television debut, performing "Lotta Loving" and "Dance to the Bop" on CBS' Ed Sullivan Show.

1961: The Everly Brothers join the 8th Battalion of the US Marine Corps Reserve, arriving at California's Camp Pendleton.

1965: London's famed department store, Harrods, opens for the Beatles for two hours after closing time in order to allow the members of the group to do their Christmas shopping.

1966: The Jimi Hendrix Experience makes its stage debut in front of a celebrity-filled audience at London's Bag O'Nails club.

1968: CBS-TV airs the Frank Sinatra special Francis Albert Sinatra Does His Thing, featuring Diahann Carroll and The 5th Dimension.

1968: Cream play their last concert at London's Royal Albert Hall to a fanatic crowd of over 10,000 who chant "God save the Cream" as the group leaves the stage.

1969: As a protest against Britain's military involvement in foreign conflicts, John Lennon returns his MBE (Member of the British Empire) medal, with an attached letter that reads, puckishly, "Your Majesty, I am returning this MBE in protest against Britain's involvement in the Nigeria-Biafra thing, against our support of America in Vietnam, and against 'Cold Turkey' slipping down the charts. With love, John Lennon of Bag."

1971: Rolling Stone quotes the surviving members of the Doors as saying they intend to continue on as a trio despite the loss of lead singer Jim Morrison.

1972: Hollies lead singer Allan Clarke announces that he's leaving the group. (It doesn't take.)

1974: Singer Nick Drake died from an overdose of amitriptyline, a type of antidepressant at age 26.

1975: Deep in debt, Elvis Presley takes out a $350,000 loan from the National Bank of Commerce in Memphis, TN. His Graceland estate is put up as collateral.

1976: The Band and what seems like several dozen of the music industry's biggest stars perform at San Francisco's Winterland Ballroom for what is announced as the group's last performance. The show is filmed and will go on to be released as Martin Scorsese's acclaimed biopic The Last Waltz.

1984: The cream of the British pop world gathered at S.A.R.M. Studios, London to record the historic ‘Do They Know It’s Christmas?’ The single, which was written by Bob Geldof and Midge Ure, featured Paul Young, Bono, Boy George, Sting and George Michael. It went on to sell over three million copies in the UK, becoming the bestselling record ever, and raised over £8 million ($13.6 million) worldwide.

1985: Bobby Brown announced that he was leaving New Edition for a solo career.

1988: Having successfully completed their stint in an Arizona rehab clinic, Ringo Starr returns to England with his second wife, actress Barbara Bach.

1995: Radiohead singer Thom Yorke blacked out halfway through a show in Munich, Germany, suffering from exhaustion.

1997: The original Zombies lineup -- Rod Argent on organ, Colin Blunstone on vocals, Paul Atkinson on guitar, Chris White on bass, and Hugh Grundy on drums -- reunites onstage for the first time in 30 years at London's Jazz Cafe, performing two songs only: "She's Not There" and "Time Of The Season" to promote their new box set Zombie Heaven.

2000: An unidentified thief burgles Alice Cooper's home in Paradise Valley, CA, stealing $6,000 of his daughter's clothes and electronics as well as four of Alice's gold records.

2003: Glen Campbell was arrested in Phoenix Arizona with a blood alcohol level of .20 after his BMW struck a Toyota Camry. He was charged with 'extreme' drunk driving, hit and run, and assaulting a police officer. A police officer reported that while in custody, Campbell hummed his hit 'Rhinestone Cowboy' repeatedly.

2003: Meat Loaf underwent heart surgery in a London hospital after being diagnosed with a condition that causes an irregular heartbeat. The 52-year-old singer had collapsed on November 17th as he performed at London's Wembley Arena.

2007: Kevin Dubrow, the frontman with metal band Quiet Riot, was found dead in his Las Vegas home at the age of 52 of a cocaine overdose.  It was reported that he had died 6 days before being found.

2008: Country singer Zac Brown has Lasik eye surgery in Atlanta.