10 APRIL
Featured Events
1998 Three days after being arrested in a Los Angeles park for lewd conduct, George Michael comes out as gay in an interview with CNN. "I have no problem with people knowing that I'm in a relationship with a man right now," he says.
1993 Depeche Mode's eighth album, Songs of Faith and Devotion, reaches #1 in America, knocking Whitney Houston's soundtrack from The Bodyguard off the top spot, and holding off challengers Eric Clapton, Kenny G and Sting. Inspired by the grunge scene, the band adds distorted guitars and live drums to their signature synth sound.More
1985 Madonna begins her first tour, the Virgin Tour, in Seattle. Her opening act is a petulant, little-known white rap trio called the Beastie Boys, which gets booed throughout their set.
1976 Peter Frampton's album Frampton Comes Alive! hits #1 in the US, where it stays for 10 non-consecutive weeks, more than any other album in 1976.
1970 At one of the band's last concerts, in Boston, Doors frontman Jim Morrison asks the audience if they'd like to see something of his "that rhymes with 'sock,'" and then, more bluntly, screams "Would you like to see my genitals?" The power in the stadium is switched off, and keyboardist Ray Manzarek pulls the singer, already facing similar charges from a Miami gig, off the stage.
1969 Serge Gainsbourg and Jane Birkin's steamy duet "Je T'aime... Moi Non Plus" hits #1 in the UK, where it's banned by the BBC.More
1962 Stu Sutcliffe, original bass guitarist for The Beatles, dies at age 21 of a brain aneurysm.
1956 Performing to an all-white audience at a segregated show in Birmingham, Alabama, Nat King Cole is attacked by four members of the Ku Klux Klan who rush the stage to assault him. Cole suffers a back injury and is treated at the hospital, but returns that night to play his second show, this time to an all-black audience. The attackers receive the maximum sentence of 180 days in jail.
10 APRIL
In Music History
2026 On the final day of their mission to the moon, the Artemis II crew wake up to "Free" by the Zac Brown Band. Brown relays a message to the astronauts, saying he hopes the song "helps start your day with the right kind of lift."
2012 Robin Gibb's orchestral production Titanic Requiem (released to mark the 100th anniversary of the sinking of The Titanic) premieres in London.
2009 Hannah Montana: The Movie, based on the Disney Channel TV series that made Miley Cyrus a star, premieres in US theaters. Her character Miley Stewart becomes too preoccupied with her famous alter-ego, Hannah Montana, and is forced to rediscover her roots in her Tennessee hometown. Taylor Swift, who performs the country ballad "Crazier" in the movie, wrote the song "You'll Always Find Your Way Back Home" for the soundtrack.
2009 Blues musician Rocky Hill dies at age 62 of undisclosed medical complications.
2007 Fantasia Barrino becomes the first American Idol winner to star in a Broadway musical when she takes on the role of Celie in The Color Purple. In 2023, she plays the same role in the film adaptation.
2007 The Hendersonville, Tennessee house once owned by Johnny Cash burns to the ground. It had been purchased after Cash's death by Barry Gibb of The Bee Gees, who planned to renovate it.
2007 Jazz singer Dakota Staton, known for the 1957 hit "The Late, Late Show," dies at age 76.
2004 Two months after her "wardrobe malfunction" at the Super Bowl, Janet Jackson hosts Saturday Night Live and is also the musical guest.
2003 Pop singer Little Eva dies at age 59, 18 months after being diagnosed with cervical cancer.
2003 Country singer Noel Fox (of The Oak Ridge Boys) dies at age 63, days after suffering a massive stroke.
2002 South Carolina Governor James Hodges declares James Brown the state's "Godfather Of Soul."
1999 The all-star tribute concert Here There and Everywhere: A Concert For Linda is held at London's Royal Albert Hall, where Paul McCartney, George Michael, Chrissie Hynde (of The Pretenders), Elvis Costello and Sinead O'Connor raise money for animal charities while remembering Paul's wife Linda, who has recently succumbed to breast cancer.
1998 Cleveland radio disc jockey Eddie O'Jay, a pioneer of R&B radio who inspired The O'Jays' moniker and became their manager, dies at age 73.
1998 The romantic drama City of Angels premieres in theaters, starring Nicolas Cage as an angel who gives up eternal life to be with a mortal woman (Meg Ryan). The soundtrack features Alanis Morissette's "Uninvited" and the Goo Goo Dolls' "Iris." Both songs were written specifically for the film.
1995 Lee Greenwood and wife, Kim, welcome a baby boy, Dalton Lee, in Nashville.
Paul McCartney Quits The Beatles - Sort Of
1970In publicity materials released to promote his first solo album, McCartney, Paul McCartney indicates that he's done with The Beatles. Paul's comments in the press release are considered official confirmation that the band has broken up.
To promote the album McCartney, which was released a week later, Paul doesn't do any press, but instead releases a Q&A where he answers many questions about the album, but more importantly, discusses the future of The Beatles. The key passages: Q: "Is this album a rest away from the Beatles or the start of a solo career?" McCartney: "Time will tell. Being a solo album means it's 'the start of a solo career... and not being done with the Beatles means it's just a rest. So it's both." Q: "Is your break with the Beatles temporary or permanent, due to personal differences or musical ones?" McCartney: "Personal differences, business differences, musical differences, but most of all because I have a better time with my family. Temporary or permanent? I don't really know." Q: "Do you foresee a time when Lennon-McCartney becomes an active songwriting partnership again?" McCartney: "No." The Beatles haven't been active in months, with all four members of the group working on solo projects. Still, there has been no official announcement of their demise, so when McCartney makes these statements, it's seen as the first admission that the end has come. The press distills the statements into headlines like "Paul quits the Beatles," and word spreads fast, driving the wedge between McCartney and the other Beatles even deeper. The Beatles never regroup, and later in the year their business partnership is legally dissolved.
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