8 NOVEMBER
In Music History
1971 Paul McCartney throws a party at London's Empire Ballroom to officially launch his new group, Wings.
1970 Jim Morrison of The Doors makes the spoken-word recordings which would later become the basis of the group's album An American Prayer.
1970 Reggae singer Diana King is born in Spanish Town, St. Catherine, Jamaica. She cameos on The Notorious B.I.G.'s 1994 song "Respect" before landing a recording contract with Sony Music.
1969 "Wedding Bell Blues" by The 5th Dimension hits #1 in America. The song was written and originally recorded by Laura Nyro.
1968 John Lennon's wife, Cynthia, is granted a divorce on grounds of his adultery with Yoko Ono, who is carrying his child. Yoko suffers a miscarriage a few weeks later.
1967 Nilsson records "Everybody's Talkin'."
1965 The Dave Clark Five perform for Queen Elizabeth II at London's annual Royal Variety Performance.
1964 Judy Garland and daughter Liza Minnelli perform together at the London Palladium, a performance recorded for American television and the LP Live At The London Palladium.
1963 Dick Clark begins his latest "Caravan of Stars" tour in Teaneck, New Jersey, featuring The Ronettes, Little Eva, Bobby Vee, Brian Hyland, and the Dovells.
1962 A bullet is fired at Motown's tour bus while traveling through Savannah, Georgia, but fortunately none of the (all African-American) stars are hurt.
1961 The Beach Boys release their first single, "Surfin'."
1961 Leif Garrett is born Leif Per Nervik in Hollywood, California.
1957 Elvis Presley's third movie, Jailhouse Rock, opens nationally. It had a premiere a few weeks earlier at the Memphis theater where Elvis was once an usher.
1954 Rickie Lee Jones is born in Chicago, Illinois.
1949 Bonnie Raitt is born in Burbank, California. She becomes a headline act in the '70s but ebbs in the '80s until a remarkable resurgence with her 1989 album Nick Of Time, which wins four Grammy Awards and goes to #1 in America.
Eminem Stars In 8 Mile
20028 Mile, a semi-biographical look at Eminem's early days as a struggling rapper in Detroit, opens in theaters. The film is a critical and commercial success, and Eminem's "Lose Yourself" becomes the first rap song to win the Oscar for Best Original Song.
Read more8 NOVEMBER
Featured Events
2016 Despite strident support from a passel of stars, including Katy Perry, Barbra Streisand and Bruce Springsteen, Hillary Clinton loses the US presidential election to Donald Trump, whose supporters include Ted Nugent, Loretta Lynn and Wayne Newton. Miley Cyrus, who said she would move if Trump was elected, decides to stay in the country.
2014 As artists realize they can get paid to go on cruises, many take advantage of the opportunity, including the country duo Florida Georgia Line, who conveniently have a hit song called "Cruise."More
1994 Sonny Bono, half of Sonny and Cher and former mayor of Palm Springs, Calfornia, is elected to the US House of Representatives, representing the 44th district in California.
1986 It doesn't have a music video, but "Amanda" by Boston still gets to #1 in America, giving the band their only chart-topper.
1985 Miles Davis guest stars on Miami Vice, playing a pimp named Ivory Jones.More
1974 Connie Francis, who was one of the biggest stars of the '60s, is attacked in her Howard Johnson's hotel room and raped at knifepoint. Devastated by the attack, she doesn't perform for another seven years. Two years later, she is awarded more than $2 million in her lawsuit against the hotel chain.
1971 Led Zeppelin IV - the one with "Stairway To Heaven" - is released.More
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