June 18

Births

1913: Sammy Cahn (Songwriter)

1942: Paul McCartney (Singer & Bass for The Beatles & Wings)

1942: Carl Radle (Bass for Derek and the Dominoes)

1961: Alison Moyet (Singer for Yaz and Solo)

1963: Dizzy Reed (Keyboards for Guns N' Roses)

1969: Sice Rowbottom (Guitarist & Vocals for The Boo Radleys)

1971: Nathan Morris (Boyz II Men)

1975: Silkk The Shocker (Vyshonn King Miller) (Rapper)

1976: Blake Shelton (Country Singer)

Events

1915: A.P. Carter marries Sara Dougherty in Maces Spring, VA, forming two-thirds of what would eventually, with the addition of Sara's sister, Maybelle, become country music's legendary Carter Family.

1948: The Columbia label becomes the first to mass-manufacture the new "long-playing" or "LP" record format, to be played at 33 1/3 rpm rather than the standard 78. Unlike 78 rpm discs, which only held three minutes of music, the LP could hold a full 23 minutes per side.

1967: The Beatles Apple record label is formed.

1967: After wresting the coveted closing spot from the Who, Jimi Hendrix goes to wow concertgoers at the Monterey Pop music festival by setting his guitar on fire during his set.

1974: Rare Earth drummer Peter Hoorelbeke is arrested for throwing his drumsticks into the crowd at the end of the band's concert.

1975: Elvis Presley enters Memphis' Mid-South Hospital, ostensibly to have "an extensive eye examination"; reports persist, however, that the King is actually having his crows' feet removed from his aging face.

1976: After eleven years with the group, guitarist Phil May leaves the Pretty Things.

1977: The night before their royal wedding, Sweden's King Carl XVI Gustaf and Silvia Sommerlath are serenaded in a Stockholm performance by the nation's biggest export, ABBA.

1977: Fleetwood Mac went to No.1 on the US singles chart with 'Dreams', the group's first and only US No.1.

1977: Johnny Rotten and Paul Cook of The Sex Pistols were stabbed and beaten when they were attacked in a car park outside a London pub.

1984: Dolly Parton releases the unfortunate career misstep Rhinestone in US movie theaters, featuring Parton as a country crooner who teaches Sylvester Stallone how to sing in the style.

1993: Having sold their label to Polygram three years earlier for half a billion dollars, A&M label founders Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss announce their intention to leave the company entirely. Begun in 1962, A&M was one of the first artist-owned labels, and the first successful independent label.

1995: Notorious B.I.G. (Christopher Wallace) was arrested in Camden, NJ, on robbery and aggravated assault charges.

2000: It was reported that sales of pirate music CDs had now exceeded more than 500 million a year and accounted for one in every five sold. The Phonographic Industry estimated it was costing the music industry $5.1 billion in lost sales.

2000: Rapper Nate Dogg was arrested for allegedly kidnapping his girlfriend from her mother's house, holding her against her will, assaulting her and setting a car on fire. All charges were later dismissed.

2002: Billy Joel is admitted to Connecticut's Silver Hill Hospital for ten days in order to get his drinking under control.

2004: Ray Charles' funeral is held in Los Angeles at the First AME Church, featuring performances by Stevie Wonder, Glen Campbell, B.B. King, Wynton Marsalis, and Willie Nelson. Non-performing attendees include Little Richard, Clint Eastwood, and Berry Gordy, Jr.

2007: Singer Hank Medress (The Tokens) Died of lung cancer at age 68.

2008: A Los Angeles hotel filed a lawsuit against Phil Spector for failing to pay more than $100,000 in outstanding bills for lawyers and expert witnesses in his murder trial. The Westin Bonaventure Hotel claimed that by the time Spector's trial ended with a hung jury, the defendants owed the hotel more than $104,000.

2011: Clarence Clemons, legendary saxophonist in the E Street Band who played alongside Bruce Springsteen for 40 years, died of complications from a stroke. He was 69.

2011:  Black Veil Brides singer Andy "Andy Six" Biersack fractured three ribs after falling from a balcony at the hard rock group's show in Hollywood.

2011: Tim McGraw stops his show at the Gorge Amphitheatre near George, Washington, to boot a male audience member for mistreating a woman.

June 17

Births

1882: Igor Stavinsky (Composer)

1943: Barry Manilow (born Barry Alan Pincus) (Singer & Piano Player)

1947: Greg Rolie (Keyboards for Santana & Journey)

1957: Philip Chevron (Guitar for The Pogues)

1958: Jello Biafra (Eric Reed Boucher) (Singer for The Dead Kennedys)

1962: Michael Monroe (Vocals for Hanoi Rocks)

1969: Kevin Thornton (Singer in Color Me Badd)

Events

1943: After planning to return to his hometown and resume his career as a barber, Perry Como is signed to RCA Records.

1954: Guitarist Danny Cedrone died following a freak accident; 10 days after he had recorded the lead guitar break on ‘Rock Around The Clock’ with Bill Haley and His Comets. Session player Cedrone was paid $21 for his work on the session, as at that time Haley chose not to hire a full-time guitarist for his group. He died of a broken neck after falling down a staircase.

1955: Eddie Fisher marries Debbie Reynolds in Hollywood. The couple would divorce in 1959 after Fisher was discovered to be carrying on an affair with Liz Taylor.

1965: The Moody Blues and the Kinks each made their US stage debut, with one opening for the other at New York's Academy of Music.

1966: Guitarist Peter Green of Fleetwood Mac joins John Mayall's Bluesbreakers.

1966: Paul McCartney buys the farm in Kintyre, Scotland, that would later inspire his 1977 megahit ballad "Mull Of Kintyre."

1966: The Beatles recorded "Here, There And Everywhere," "Got To Get You Into My Life".

1967: Barbra Streisand sings for 135,000 fans at her concert in New York's Central Park, later released as the CBS-TV special and soundtrack album A Happening In Central Park.

1972: Ron McKernan, the keyboardist known to Grateful Dead fans simply as Pigpen, plays what is to be his last gig with the group, performing at the Hollywood Bowl before drinking himself to death less than a year later.

1977: Steve Winwood released his first solo Album Steve Winwood.

1978: Grace Slick is deemed too drunk to go onstage with Jefferson Starship tonight at their concert in St. Goarhausen in West Germany, but does so anyway, singing horribly and verbally abusing the audience with Nazi taunts. The crowd riots, causing over a million dollars in damage and leading Slick to quit the band, not returning until 1983.

1978: Andy Gibb became the first solo artist in the history of the US charts to have his first three releases reach No.1, when ‘Shadow Dancing’ hit the top of the chart. Spending seven weeks at No.1 it became the best selling single in the US in 1978.

1980: Led Zeppelin begin what would be their last tour with a concert in Dortmund, Germany.

1985: The famously reclusive Bob Dylan opens up on the syndicated radio show Rockline, taking calls from fans.

1986: Singer Kate Smith died from diabetes in Raleigh, NC at age 86.

1987: Rod Stewart becomes the proud parent of his fourth child, daughter Ruby, from his girlfriend, model Kelly Emberg.

1987: Florida real estate agent Vittoria Holman sued Motley Crue and their concert promoter for hearing loss allegedly incurred at a concert in December 1985. Holman and her daughter had front row seats less than 10 feet from the speakers. The case was settled out of court with the band's insurance company paying Holman over $30,000.

1988: Bruce Springsteen separates from Juliette Phillips.

1988: Garth Brooks signs with Capitol Records.

1989: Ringo Starr announces the second annual line-up of his All-Starr Band, featuring Billy Preston, Joe Walsh, Dr. John, Nils Lofgren and Clarence Clemons of the E Street Band, and The Band's Levon Helm and Rick Danko.

1989: New Kids On The Block went to No.1 on the US singles chart with 'I'll Be Loving You Forever', the group's first US No.1.

1999: A teenage girl was crushed to death during a gig by Hole at the Hultsfred Festival, Sweden.

2005: Pete Doherty was thrown of a yacht after being found smoking crack cocaine. The Babyshambles singer had been invited onto the yacht with his girlfriend Kate Moss by Davinia Taylor, they were asked to leave the party and were dropped off in Porto Cervo.

2006: Ron Wood of the Rolling Stones enters rehab to kick his drinking habit, but will recover in time to join the band on its latest world tour in a month.

June 16

Births

1939: Billy "Crash" Craddock (Rockabilly Singer)

1941: Lamont Dozier (R&B Singer, Songwriter & Producer)

1942: Eddie Levert (Vocals for The O'Jays)

1946: Iain Matthews (Singer for Fairport Convention)

1952: Gino Vannelli (Singer)

1953: Ian Mosley (Drums for Marillion)

1958: Patrick Waite (Bass & Vocals for Musical Youth)

1962: Femi Kuti (Afrobeat Musician)

1969: MC Ren (Lorenzo Jerald Patterson ) (Rapper for NWA)

1971: 2Pac (Tupac Amaru Shakur) (born Lesane Parish Crooks) (Rapper)

1981: Ben Kweller (Singer / Songwriter)

1982: Matt Costa (Singer / Songwriter)

Events

1962: A young David Bowie makes his stage debut when his band, the Konrads, performs at Bromley Technical in Kent, England.

1965: Bob Dylan recorded ‘Like A Rolling Stone’ at Columbia Recording Studios in New York City.

1966: The Beatles made a surprise live appearance on the UK television program Top of the Pops, performing ‘Paperback Writer’ and ‘Rain’. It became The Beatles' last live musical television appearance, with the sole exception of the June 1967 worldwide transmission of ‘All You Need Is Love’.

1967: The first of the major rock festivals, Monterey Pop, is held in California, featuring established acts such as The Mamas and The Papas, Eric Burdon and the Animals, The Association, Booker T. and the MGs, The Who, and the Byrds, and also making superstars of several relatively new acts such as Otis Redding, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Simon and Garfunkel, Canned Heat, The Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, and The Steve Miller Band. 50,000 attendees paid between $3.50 and $6.50 to see more than two dozen acts, all of whom agreed to play for free so all proceeds could go to charity. The event kicked off the famous "Summer of Love," in which thousands of college-age rock fans visited San Francisco, and also inspired John Phillips of the Mamas and the Papas to write "San Francisco (Be Sure To Wear Flowers In Your Hair)," later a hit for Scott McKenzie. Filmmaker D.A. Pennebaker's acclaimed 1969 documentary Monterey Pop was filmed during the festival.

1970: The organizers of the Woodstock music festival report that they have lost over $1.2 million on the event (money which they will later make up through movie and soundtrack rights).

1975: John Lennon sues US Attorneys General John Mitchell and Richard Kleindienst for alleged harassment during his recent deportation investigation.

1976: No longer just five, The Jacksons -- all six sons and three daughters -- get their own summer replacement variety show on CBS-TV.

1979: The Electric Light Orchestra started a five-week run at No.1 on the album chart with 'Discovery' their first No.1 LP, featuring the tracks 'Shine A Little Love', 'Don't Bring Me Down' and 'The Diary Of Horace Wimp'.

1980: The movie The Blues Brothers, adapted from John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd's classic SNL skit, premieres in Chicago. A love letter of sorts to Sixties R&B and soul, it will help re-establish the careers of its musical co-stars, including James Brown, Ray Charles, and Aretha Franklin.

1982: Pretenders guitarist James Honeyman-Scott died following sustained cocaine and heroin addiction.

1982: Donny Van Zant of 38 Special was arrested on stage in Tulsa, Oklahoma, (a dry town) for drinking alcohol in a public place.

1987: Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead officially gives permission for Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream to name a new flavor after him.

1988: Vince Neil of Motley Crue married mud wrestler Sharisse Rudell.

1989: Smokey Robinson launches his own perfume for women, entitled simply "Smoke."

1990: The Rolling Stones' "Paint, It Black," re-released in the Netherlands as a single, climbs to the top of the charts 24 years after its initial release.

1994: Kristen Pfaff (Bass for Hole) died of a heroin overdose at the age of 26.

1997: The Radiohead album "OK Computer" was released.

1999: Phil Collins received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

2000: On the first night of his 'Up in Smoke' tour in Chula Vista, Snoop Dogg's tour bus was stopped at the Temecula border checkpoint in San Diego after the border patrol smelled marijuana wafting from the tour bus. One member of the crew was arrested.

2001: Four-year-old Daniel Karven-Veres drowned in Tommy Lee's swimming pool while attending a birthday party for Lee's 5-year-old son, Brandon. His parents, James Veres and Ursula Karven, sued Lee for negligence, claiming they should have been told that a swimming pool was involved, (their son could not swim). Lee was cleared by a jury in April 2003.

2002: A remixed version of Elvis Presley's 1967 single "A Little Less Conversation" hits #1 in the UK, released as part of a plan by his estate to regain the UK record for Number Ones from the Beatles.

2004: The original members of the New York Dolls reunite on stage after nearly 30 years, in a concert arranged by their #1 fan, Morrissey of the Smiths.

2007: 61-year-old Rod Stewart marries his third wife, 35-year-old model Penny Lancaster, on board the yacht Lady Ann Magee in Portofino, Italy.