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| 1953, Country singer Hank Williams died of a heart attack brought on by a lethal cocktail of pills and alcohol aged 29. Made his first record in 1946, scored 36 Top 10 US country hits, his best Known being 'Your Cheatin Heart.' Over 20,000 mourners attended his funeral. | |
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| 1955, English singer Dickie Valentine was at No.1 on the UK singles chart with 'The Finger Of Suspicion'. Valentine hosted The Dickie Valentine TV Show in 1956. | |
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| 1955, Elvis Presley appeared at The Eagles Hall in Houston Texas. Presley went on to play over 250 shows in 1955. | |
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| 1956, Bill Haley's 'Rock Around The Clock' went to No.1 on the UK singles chart for the second time. | |
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| 1957, BBC Television aired its new rock & roll show 'Cool For Cats' for the first time. With a miniscule budget, the program was forced to rely on artists miming and the talents of a resident dance group (led by Douglas Squires). Ker Robertson, the first host, was succeeded after a few weeks by Kent Walton, later better known for his ITV wrestling commentaries | |
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| 1960, Johnny Cash played a free concert for the inmates of San Quentin Prison, California. | |
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| 1962, The Beatles auditioned for Decca Records in West Hampstead, London. A&R boss at Decca Dick Rowe turned them down. | |
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1964, The first edition of the BBC TV show Top Of The Pops was transmitted from an old church hall in Manchester, England. Introduced by DJ Jimmy Savile, acts miming to their latest releases included The Rolling Stones, (I Wanna Be Your Man), The Dave Clark Five, (Glad All Over), The Hollies, (Stay), and The Swinging Blue Jeans, (Hippy Hippy Shake). The first song played was Dusty Springfield's 'I Only Want To Be With You'. Also featured on disc and film, The Beatles, (I Want to Hold Your Hand), Freddie & the Dreamers, Cliff Richard and the Shadows and Gene Pitney. | |
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| 1965, The Yardbirds (with Eric Clapton), played two shows at The Odeon Cinema, Hammersmith in London. One at 6.15 and 8.45pm. | |
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| 1966, Simon and Garfunkel started a two week run at No.1 on the US singles chart with 'The Sounds Of Silence', a No.13 hit in the UK. | |
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| 1967, The Doors made their first live television appearance lip-synching their first single 'Break on Through' on Shebang, KTLA-TV Channel 5 in Los Angeles. The single peaked No. 126 on the US chart mainly due to lack of airplay after censors objected to the drug use implied by the line "she gets high", which is repeated in the middle section of the song. | |
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| 1968, Billboard magazine reported that for the first time albums had outsold singles in the US with album sales reaching over 192 million units. | |
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| 1969, Marmalade were at No.1 on the UK singles chart with their version of The Beatles song 'Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da'. | |
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| 1970, Rolf Harris was at No.1 on the UK singles chart with 'Two Little Boys'. The song was written by American composer Theodore Morse and lyricist Edward Madden in 1902. | |
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| 1971, Radio Luxembourg aired over seven hours of continuous Beatles music to celebrate the group's tenth year in the music business. Every track played was a single or LP track by The Beatles plus tracks from solo albums. | |
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| 1972, Carole King started a three week run at No.1 on the US album chart with 'Music', her second US chart topper. | |
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| 1972, Marc Bolan signed a deal with EMI to release records in the UK on his own T Rex Wax co. label. | |
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| 1976, Procol Harum, John Miles, Barclay James Harvest, Baker Gurvitz Army and Snafu all appeared at the Great British Music Festival, London, tickets £3.30. | |
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| 1977, Genesis played the first of three nights at the new-look Rainbow Theatre, London, tickets cost £2.50 ($4.25). The theatre had been completely renovated at a cost of £80,000 ($136,000). | |
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| 1977, The Clash played the opening night at punk's first real venue, The Roxy Club in London. | |
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| 1977, Wings were at No.1 on the UK singles chart with 'Mull Of Kintyre.' Spending nine weeks at No.1 in became the first single to sell over 2 million copies in the UK. | |
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| 1979, The Invaders played their last gig at the Filmmakers Co-Op in London and then went on to form Madness. | |
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| 1980, Cliff Richard was included in the Queen's New Year list, being awarded an OBE. | |
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| 1982, Abba made their final live appearance as a group when they played in Stockholm, Sweden. | |
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| 1984, Alexis Korner died of lung cancer aged 55. Know as "the Founding Father of British Blues", he was a major force behind the UK early 60's R&B scene. Formed Blues Incorporated; members at various times included Jack Bruce, Ginger Baker, Long John Baldry, Graham Bond and Charlie Watts. Had hits with CCS, including a version of Led Zeppelin's 'Whole Lotta Love' which was used as the theme for BBC's Top Of The Pops for several years. Became a radio presenter in the 70's. | |
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| 1988, Breakdancers Rob Pilatus and Fabrice Morvan signed a contract with Boney M producer Frank Farian. Milli Vanilli were born. | |
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| 1988, Prince played an after midnight New Years Eve charity gig in aid of the homeless in Minnesota. Miles Davis joined him on stage. | |
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| 1989, Nirvana signed a one-year recording contract with Sub Pop records. The Seattle based label began not as a record label but as a fanzine (called Subterranean Pop), in the early 80's, also signed Soundgarden and Mudhoney. | |
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| 1990, New American radio station WKRL in Florida played the Led Zeppelin track 'Stairway To Heaven' for 24 hours, as a prelude to an all Zeppelin format. | |
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| 1992, Diana Ross opened the annual Harrods January sale in London. | |
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| 1994, Music weekly Melody Makers Top singles of 1993; No.3 Pulp, 'Razzamtazz', No.2, Radiohead 'Creep' and No.1 The Breeders, 'Cannonball'. Top 3 albums, 'Star' by Belly No.3, Afghan Whigs 'Gentleman' No.2 and No.1 Tindersticks self-titled debut album. | |
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| 1995, Garth Brooks started a six week run at No.1 on the US album charts with 'The Hits.' | |
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| 1998, A mystery buyer paid £31,000 ($52,700) for the car number plate 'OAS 15'at auction in Cheltenham. It was rumoured that a member from Oasis had bought the plate. | |
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| 2002, Eric Clapton married 25-year old Melia McEnery the mother of his baby daughter at a secret ceremony at the 15th Century St Mary Magdalen Church in Ripley, Surrey, England. | |
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| 2002, Welsh singer Shakin' Stevens spent several hours in police custody after being arrested for drink driving. The 80's singer was charged and released to appear before magistrates on January 16th. | |
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| 2002, The Top five selling UK albums of 2001, No. 5, Shaggy, 'Hot Shot', No.4, Travis, 'The Invisible Band', No.3 Eva Cassidy, 'Songbird', No.2, David Gray, 'White Ladder' and No.1, Dido, 'No Angel'. | |
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| 2005, In most of Europe, copyright expired on a number of classic pop and rock-and-roll songs recorded in 1954 and earlier, including Bill Haley's 'Rock Around the Clock' and 'Only You' by The Platters. | |
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| 2007, Queen beat The Beatles to be crowned greatest British band of all time by BBC Radio 2 listeners in the UK. They pipped the Fab Four in a live contest, trouncing other finalists The Rolling Stones, Oasis and Take That. The bands were judged on song-writing, lyrics, live performances, originality and showmanship. More than 20,000 listeners voted by email, text and phone. | |
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| 2008, The British Phonographic Industry (BPI) reported that the number of music downloads sold in the UK in the final week of 2007 was double the total of 12 months earlier. In total there were 2.95 million downloads in seven days, the highest ever recorded for any weekly period. And when the whole of the year was taken into account, 77.5 million downloads were sold in the UK in 2007. | |
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| 2009, According to official UK sales figures Duffy's debut album Rockferry came top of the year-end chart, with 1.685 million copies sold. Take That had the second biggest seller with The Circus, Kings of Leon, Only By The Night was third, Spirit by Leona Lewis was fourth and Coldplay had the fifth biggest seller with Viva La Vida. X Factor winner Alexandra Burke had the UK's top-selling single after her version of Hallelujah sold 888,000 copies in the last two weeks of the year. | |
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| 2011, Chuck Berry cut short a concert at Congress Theater, Chicago, Illinois after collapsing on stage an hour into the show. Berry slumped over a keyboard and did not move for a couple of minutes before being helped off stage, he returned 15 minutes later only to be forced off again almost immediately. The 84 year-old later re-emerged on stage but told fans he had no strength to continue performing. | |
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| January 1st: Born on this day | |
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| 1942, Born on this day, Joe McDonald, vocals, Country Joe and the Fish, 1968 US hit 'I Feel Like I'm Fixin' To Die.' | |
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| 1945, Born on this day, Jim Gordon, American drummer, one of the most requested session drummers in the late 1960s and 1970s. Gordon co-wrote Layla with Eric Clapton, worked with The Everly Brothers, The Monkees, The Beach Boys, (Pet Sounds) The Byrds, George Harrison, (All Things Must Pass), John Lennon, (Imagine), The Carpenters, Traffic, Glen Campbell, (Wichita Lineman), Steely Dan, Jackson Browne, Frank Zappa and many others. A diagnosed schizophrenic, Gordon murdered his mother on June 3, 1983, by pounding her head with a hammer. He was sentenced to sixteen years-to-life in prison in 1984. | |
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| 1950, Born on this day, Morgan Fisher, keyboards, Mott The Hopple, 1972 UK No.3 & US No.37 single 'All The Young Dudes', a song David Bowie offered the band on hearing they were about to split up. | |
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| 1956, Born on this day, Diane Warren, US songwriter. Warren has written over 80 US Top 20 hits including; Aerosmith, 'I Don't Want To Miss A Thing', LeAnn Rimes, 'How Do I Live', Toni Braxton, 'Un- Break My Heart', plus hits for Cher, Celine Dion, Michael Bolton, Rod Stewart and Ace Of Base. | |
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| 1958, Born on this day, Joseph Saddler, (Grandmaster Flash), 1982 UK No.8 single 'The Message.' Major force in early Rap music, was given his nickname after his rapid hand movements on the record decks. | |
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| 1968, Born on this day, Rick J. Jordan (born Hendrik Stedler), German techno group Scooter who have sold over 14 million records and are considered the most successful single-record German act with 20 top ten hits. 2008 UK No.1 album 'Jumping All Over The World.' | |
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| 1972, Born on this day, Tom Barman, guitar, vocals, dEUS, (Belgium band, 1996 UK Top 50 album 'Little Arithmetics'). | |
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| 1975, Born on this day, Thomas Bangaltier, Daft Punk, 1997 UK No.5 single 'Around The World', remixed Gabrielle, Chemical Brothers. |
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