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.

October 5

Births

1902: Larry (Louis Feinberg) (3 Stooges)

1907: Mrs. Miller (Singer)

1942: Richard Street (Singer in The Temptations)

1943: Steve Miller (Guitar & Vocals)

1947: Brian Johnson (Singer for AC/DC)

1948: Lucius Ross (Rhythm Guitar for Funkadelic)

1949: Brian Connolly (Lead Singer for Sweet)

1950: Eddie Clarke (Guitar for Motorhead & Fastway)

1951: Bob Geldof (Singer for The Boomtown Rats)

1952: Harold Faltermeyer (Keyboardist)

1953: Sandra "Puma" Jones (Singer for Black Uhuru)

1957: Lee Thompson (Sax for Madness)

1959: Troy Luccketta (Drummer for Tesla)

1961: David Bryson (Guitar for Counting Crows)

1964: Dave Dederer (Vocals & Guitar for Presidents Of The United States)

1974: Colin Meloy (Guitar & Lead Vocals for The Decemberists)

1978: James Valentine (Guitarist for Maroon 5)

1980: Paul Thomas (Bass for Good Charlotte)

Events

1962: The Beatles release their first single, "Love Me Do" b/w "P.S. I Love You," in the UK. That night, it is played on Radio Luxembourg, owned by EMI, representing the first time a Beatles song is ever heard on the airwaves.  It spent 26 weeks on the charts and peaked at #4 in UK.

1965: Johnny Cash was arrested crossing the Mexican border into El Paso, Texas after customs officials found 100’s of pills in his guitar case. He received a suspended jail sentence and a $1,000 fine.

1966: In London, Jimi Hendrix, Mitch Mitchell and Noel Redding played together for the first time, The Jimi Hendrix Experience were formed.

1968: The single "Magic Carpet Ride" was released by Steppenwolf. It is considered as the first modern rock video.

1970: George Jones & Tammy Wynette's only child, Tamala Georgette, born in Lakeland, Florida.

1975: The three original Wailers -- Bob Marley, Peter Tosh, and Bunny Wailer -- perform together for the last time at Stevie Wonder's benefit concert, the Wonder Dream Concert, in Kingston, Jamaica.

1987: Ex Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr began rehearsals with The Pretenders in preparation for the band supporting U2 on their North America tour.

1992: Eddie Kendricks (Lead Singer for The Temptations) died of lung cancer at age 52.

1999: After breaking up "permanently" in 1983, the Who reform with an announcement by singer Roger Daltrey that the trio will re-form for a Las Vegas concert.

1999: Trisha Yearwood files for divorce from Mavericks bass player Robert Reynolds, citing the standard irreconcilable differences.

2000: The book The Beatles Anthology, some twenty years in the making, is published in the US. Price: $60.

2006: Jeffrey Borer, owner of the company that sold Michael Jackson his private Gulfstream jet, is sentenced to six months in prison for ordering employee Arvel Jett Reeves to install two video cameras in it in order to catch Jackson saying something for which he could be blackmailed.

2007: A federal jury finds a Minnesota woman guilty of online music file sharing through the public service KaZaa, fining her $220,000.

October 4

Births

1947: Jim Fielder (Bass for Buffalo Springfield, Mothers of Invention & Blood, Sweat and Tears)

1952: Jody Stephens (Drummer for Big Star)

1957: Russell Simmons (Co-Founder of Def Jam)

1959: Chris Lowe (Keyboards for The Pet Shop Boys)

1962: Jon Secada (Singer)

1989: Lil Mama (Niatia Jessica Kirkland) (Rapper)

Events

1961: Bob Dylan debuts at Carnegie Hall, playing for a grand total of 53 fans.

1961: Popular "recording" group Alvin and the Chipmunks get their own TV show when The Alvin Show debuts on CBS.

1963: A 17-year-old Eric Clapton joins the Yardbirds for tonight's gig at the Crawdaddy Club in Richmond, England, replacing original guitarist Anthony "Top" Topham.

1964: Dusty Springfield interviews the Beatles on this, their first appearance on England's ITV television program Ready Steady Go!

1968: Cream begins their announced farewell tour with a performance at Alameda County Coliseum in Oakland, CA.

1969: Creedence Clearwater Revival started a four week run at No.1 on the US album chart with 'Green River', the group's first US chart topper.

1970: Singer Janis Joplin was found dead at the Landmark Hotel Hollywood after an accidental heroin overdose at age 27.

1974: Thin Lizzy debut their new twin-guitar attack with new additions Scott Gorham and Brian Robertson at tonight's concert in Wales.

1975: Willie Nelson picks up his first #1 single as an artist with "Blue Eyes Crying In The Rain".

1978: Country singer Tammy Wynette is allegedly kidnapped at a Nashville shopping center by an unknown man in a ski mask, beaten, and forced at gunpoint to drive roughly 90 miles. Doubt still exists as to whether this incident took place, due to a puzzling lack of physical evidence.

1980: For their work on the recent Fleetwood Mac single "Tusk," the University of Southern California Country marching band is presented with a platinum version of the album of the same name by three members of the rock band.

1980: On stage during a concert in Pittburgh, PA, Carly Simon collapses from "nervous exhaustion."

1982: The Smiths made their live debut at the Ritz in Manchester England, supporting Blue Rondo A La Turk.

1982: The group Squeeze broke up.

1988: Determined to finally clean his system of the alcohol and drugs he's been abusing for years, Ringo Starr, along with wife Barbara Bach, flies to Tucson, AZ to enter the Sierra Tucson Rehabilitation Clinic. He will stay six weeks.

1994: Singer Glenn Frey's stomach surgery causes the Eagles to postpone their much-anticipated reunion tour, puckishly titled Hell Freezes Over.

1994: Guitarist Danny Gatton locked himself in his garage in Newburg, Maryland and shot himself.

1996: Van Halen announced that Gary Cherone, formerly of Extreme, would be the singer that would replace Sammy Hagar.

1999: Jimi Hendrix's half-sister Janie announces her plans to exhume the body of her famous brother and move it to a mausoleum where curious onlookers can view it for a price. The public outcry forces her to shelve the idea.

2006: Former R. Kelly employee (who claimed to have been a “mentor and guide” to Kelly since he was a teenager) Henry Vaughn filed a lawsuit against the singer accusing him of assault, false imprisonment, and a breach of contract that defrauded him of songwriting royalties. Vaughn also claimed that Kelly and his associates dragged him to the basement at Kelly’s Olympia Fields home and “repeatedly struck him about the face and body with his fists”.

2008: Dierks and Cassidy Bentley have a daughter, Evalyn Day Bentley, at Vanderbilt Medical Center in Nashville.