Pick a Day

1 AUGUST

In Music History

1983 Neil Young puts together a one-time backing band called the Shocking Pinks for a rockabilly album titled Everybody's Rocking'. It's his 13th studio album.

1981 "Jessie's Girl" by Rick Springfield goes to #1 in America the same day MTV goes on the air. Springfield, a former soap opera star, is a great fit for the music video medium and gets a big boost from the network.

1981 Ashley Angel (of O-Town) is born in Redding, California.

1980 Def Leppard perform their first US live gig, opening for AC/DC in New York City.

1980 George Harrison forms a movie production company called Handmade Films, which produces the films Monty Python's Life of Brian, The Long Good Friday, Time Bandits, and Shanghai Surprise.

1978 Dhani Harrison is born to George Harrison and his soon-to-be-wife Olivia. Dhani, who like his dad becomes a musician, is the couple's only child.

1976 Gladys Knight gives birth to her third child, Shanga-Ali.

1972 Elvis Presley releases "Burning Love."

1972 The Eagles release "Witchy Woman."

1970 Music video director Harold "Hype" Williams is born in Queens, New York. He breaks into directing rap videos in the early '90s with clips from Puff Daddy, The Notorious B.I.G., and Nas before adding work with Kanye West and Jay-Z to his resume in the ensuing decades.More

1970 After two years of sitting on the shelf (namely due to shocking sex and violence scenes), the gangster movie Performance premieres in London. It features what would have been the acting debut of the Rolling Stones' Mick Jagger (Ned Kelly was released first).

1969 Carl Wilson of The Beach Boys is indicted in Los Angeles for failing to perform his required community service hours, which were imposed upon him after he refused to be drafted as a conscientious objector; rather than the janitorial duty he was sentenced to at LA County Hospital, Wilson taught music classes there instead.

1966 The Chambers Brothers record "Time Has Come Today" at Columbia Records' Los Angeles studios. Overdubbed with harpsichord, the single is released with a 2:37 running time and flops. A year later, an 11-minute version appears on their album The Time Has Come which becomes an FM radio favorite. In 1968, the song is once again released as a single, this time at 4:45. This version climbs to #11 in the US.

1965 Marianne Faithfull collapses during a performance in Lancashire, England, and is taken to a hospital, canceling the remainder of her tour.

1964 It's the heyday of the harmonica, as the industry publication Billboard points out that The Beatles, Bob Dylan, The Rolling Stones and Stevie Wonder have all had hits with the instrument.