| 1949, Fats Domino recorded his first tracks for Imperial Records. One of those songs was called ‘The Fat Man’, which later became his nickname. |
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| 1959, The four male members of The Platters were acquitted of charges of aiding and abetting prostitution, lewdness and assignation after an incident on August 10th in Cincinnati. Despite the outcome of the trial, the scandal would severely damage the group's career. |
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| 1961, James Brown, The Famous Flames, Sugar Pie DeSanto and The Brownies all appeared at The Evergreen Ballroom, Lacey, Washington. |
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| 1961, The Beatles appeared at Hambleton Hall, Huyton in Liverpool after returning to Liverpool from their first live performances in south England and London. The Beatles arrived so late for their appearance in Huyton that they only had time to play for 15 minutes. The promoters, having to pay The Beatles their full £15 were very unhappy. |
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1966, The Beach Boys went to No.1 on the US singles chart with 'Good Vibrations', the group's third US No.1. As a child, his mother told him that dogs could pick up "vibrations" from people, so that the dog would bark at "bad vibrations" Wilson turned this into the general idea for the song.
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| 1967, American soul singer, songwriter Otis Redding was killed in a plane crash, aged 26. Redding and his band had made an appearance in Cleveland, Ohio on the local ‘Upbeat’ television show the previous day. The plane carrying Otis Redding and his band crashed at 3.28.pm into icy waters of Lake Monoma near Madison. Redding was killed in the crash along with members from the The Bar-Kays, Jimmy King, Ron Caldwell, Phalin Jones and Carl Cunningham. Trumpet player Ben Cauley was the only person to survive the crash. |
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| 1967, The Byrds played the first of an eight night run at the Whisky-a-go-go, Hollywood, California. |
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1968, Led Zeppelin appeared at the Marquee Club, London, tickets cost 7 & 6 in advance. Other acts appearing at the club this month included Joe Cocker, The Who and Free.
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| 1971, Playing the first of two nights at London's Rainbow Theatre, in England, Frank Zappa was pushed off stage by jealous boyfriend Trevor Howell. Zappa fell onto the concrete-floored orchestra pit - the band thought Zappa had been killed. He suffered serious fractures, head trauma and injuries to his back, leg, and neck, as well as a crushed larynx, which ultimately caused his voice to drop a third after healing. This accident resulted in him using a wheelchair for an extended period, forcing him off the road for over half a year. |
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1973, The CBGB Club (Country, BlueGrass, and Blues), opened in the lower eastside of New York City. Founded by Hilly Kristal, it was originally intended to feature its namesake musical styles, but became a forum for American punk and New Wave bands such as Blondie, Television, Patti Smith and The Ramones.
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1983, Paul McCartney and Michael Jackson started a six week run at No.1 on the US singles chart with 'Say Say Say'. It was Jackson's 10th No.1 (solo & The Jackson's) and McCartney's 29th, (solo and The Beatles).
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| 1988, Chicago started a two week run at No.1 on the US singles chart with 'Look Away', the group's third US No.1, not a hit in the UK. |
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| 1988, Cliff Richard had his 12th UK No.1 single with 'Mistletoe And Wine.' His first solo No.1 for 9 years and the best selling single of 1988. |
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| 1988, During their 222-date Damaged Justice world tour, Metallica played the first of two nights at Cow Place in San Francisco, California. |
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| 1994, East 17 started a five-week run at No.1 on the UK singles chart with 'Stay Another Day'. It also gave them the UK Christmas No.1 of 1994. |
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1998, Bruce Springsteen won a £2 million court battle to ban an album of his early songs. The case revolved around a dispute over copyright ownership between Bruce and a former manager.
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1998, A recording of a 1963 Beatles concert was sold at auction at Christies in London for £25,300, ($41,500). The tape of The Beatles' 10-song concert was recorded by the chief technician at the Gaumont Theatre in Bournemouth during one of six consecutive nights which The Beatles had played. Also sold for £5,195 ($8,500), was a set of autographs of five Beatles, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Pete Best, and Stuart Sutcliffe. The autographs had been obtained by a fan in Liverpool in 1961.
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1999, Rick Danko died in his sleep at his home near Woodstock, New York. The Canadian guitarist and singer joined The Hawks in 1963 who went on to work as Bob Dylan’s backing band, (with Robbie Robertson, Richard Manuel and Garth Hudson). Renamed The Band who released their 1968 debut Music from Big Pink (featuring the single ‘The Weight’). The Band released the 1978 concert film-documentary triple-LP soundtrack ‘The Last Waltz.’
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| 1999, A war of words broke out between Cliff Richard and George Michael after George branded Cliff Richards hit 'Millennium Prayer' as 'vile'. Cliff hit back by saying that his single was a Christian celebration. |
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2000, Eminem went to No.1 on the UK singles chart with 'Stan'. The rappers second No.1, the female singing on the track was by Dido.
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2000, Westlife scooped the Record of the Year award at the Smash Hits awards for 'My Love'. Other winners included Atomic Kitten, for best new band, best new male went to Craig David, best British band, 5ive and Best Female Britney Spears.
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| 2003, Coldplay singer Chris Martin married actress Gwyneth Paltrow in Santa Barbara, California. The couple also announced that Paltrow was pregnant and the baby was due next summer. |
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2004, One of three RCA microphones used by radio station KWKH for the historic Elvis Presley appearance at the Louisiana Hayride was sold for $37,500. The microphone was one of three used during 50 performances by Elvis Presley when he performed for the radio show in Shreveport from 1954 to 1956.
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2005, Queen overtook The Beatles to become the third most successful act of all time. Sales in 2005 showed that Queen had now overtaken The Beatles to make it into third place, spending 1,755 weeks on the British singles and album charts. The Beatles slipped to fourth place, with 1,749 weeks. Elvis had spent 2,574 weeks on the singles and album charts, making him number one in the Top 100 most successful acts of all time. Sir Cliff Richard remained in second place, clinching 1,982 weeks.
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| 2007, Led Zeppelin played their first concert in 19 years, at London's 02 Arena as part of the Ahmet Ertegun Tribute Concert. Original band members Jimmy Page, Robert Plant and John Paul Jones were joined on stage by Jason Bonham, the son of their late drummer John Bonham. More than one million people had taken part in a ballot for the 20,000 tickets available for the show with all proceeds going to Ahmet's own charity. Zeppelin performed 16 songs including two encores. A number of celebrities attended the gig including Dave Grohl, Paul McCartney, Jeff Beck, Brian May, David Gilmour, The Edge, Peter Gabriel, Mick Jagger, Kate Moss, Naomi Campbell, Jerry Hall, Priscilla Presley and Paris Hilton. |
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| 2008, DMX was back behind bars in Miami after he was arrested for allegedly missing a court appearance in Phoenix, Arizona. The rapper was arrested on a warrant issued by a judge after he failed to show in where he faced charges of drug possession, identity theft and animal cruelty. |
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| 2008, The Associated Press reported that the US military used loud music to "create fear, disorient and prolong capture shock" for prisoners at military detention centers at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Among the songs blasted 24 hours a day were 'Born In The USA' by Bruce Springsteen, 'Hell's Bells' by AC/DC, 'White America' by Eminem, 'The Theme From Sesame Street' and 'I Love You' from the Barney and Friends children's TV show. |
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| 2009, In an interview with Q magazine, Paul McCartney was asked if his marriage to Heather Mills was the worst mistake of his life. He replied "OK, yeah. I suppose that has to be the prime contender." The divorce settlement had cost McCartney £24m ($38.9m), plus annual payments for his daughter, Beatrice. |
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| 2010, The original hand-written lyrics to Bob Dylan's 'The Times They Are A-Changin' sold at a New York auction for $422,500 (£267,400). Adam Sender, a hedge fund manager and art collector, outbid five others, placing telephone bids. The song, one of Dylan's most politically charged, was the title track of his 1964 album. |
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| 2011, A copy of The Beatles ‘Love Me Do’ 1962 Demonstration Record sold for $17,339.31 during a 10-day eBay auction. According to the seller, this original demo was the ‘Holy Grail’ of Beatles items. Read the full story |
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| December 10th: Born on this day |
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1910, Born on this day, John Hammond, producer, A&R scout. Worked with Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Leonard Cohen, George Benson and Janis Joplin. Hammond died on 10th July 1987.
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| 1926, Born on this day Eddie "Guitar Slim" Jones, New Orleans blues guitar player from the 1940s and 1950s best known for the million-selling song ‘The Things That I Used to Do’, a song that is listed in The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll. |
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| 1941, Born on this day, Ralph Tavares, Tavares, (1976 UK No.4 and US No.15 single 'Heaven Must Be Missing An Angel'). |
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| 1946, Born on this day, Ace Kefford, The Move, (1969 UK No.1 single 'Blackberry Way'). |
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| 1948, Born on this day, Jessica Cleaves, The Friends Of Distinction, (1969 US No.3 single 'Grazing In The Grass'). |
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| 1954, Born on this day, Geoff Deane, Modern Romance, (1982 UK No.4 single 'Best Years Of Our Lives'). |
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| 1957, Born on this day, Paul Hardcastle, producer, (1985 UK No.1 single 'Nineteen'). |
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| 1965, Born on this day, Joseph Mascis, guitar, vocals, Dinosaur Jr, (1993 UK No.20 single 'Start Choppin'). |
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| 1972, Born on this day, Brian Molko, guitar, vocals, Placebo, (1997 UK No. 6 single ‘Nancy Boy’). |
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1974, Born on this day, Meg White, drums, The White Stripes, (2003 UK No.1 album 'Elephant' spent 46 weeks on the UK chart).
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