2008 Jay-Z joins Madonna and U2 in signing a huge contract with Live Nation; he scores a 360 deal that includes his own label.More
1998 With the big "alternative" acts now squarely in the mainstream, the Lollapalooza festival is officially cancelled, with Green Day, Radiohead and Foo Fighters among the bands turning down offers to headline. The festival launcheded in 1991 with Jane's Addiction, Nine Inch Nails and Siouxsie and the Banshees at the top of the bill.
1995 The RealAudio Player is introduced, allowing users to stream audio over the internet for the first time. Over the next few years, many artists use it to post songs (or samples of them) on their websites.
1989 In Pittsburgh, it's a shakedown outside a Grateful Dead concert as police make about two dozen arrests after some fans try to get in without tickets. "I don't want those deadenders ever back again," Mayor Sophie Masloff says.
1980 In Memphis on their first US tour, Chrissie Hynde of The Pretenders gets in an altercation at a bar and is arrested. She kicks out the window of the police cruiser sent to take her away and spends the night in jail. Her group performs the next night at Poet's Music Hall.
1976 Johnnie Taylor's "Disco Lady" hits #1 on the Hot 100, becoming the first chart-topper with the word "disco" in the title.
1967 Peaking at #93, The Who make the US singles chart for the first time, with "I Can't Explain."
1959 Because of its references to bad behavior in school (writing on the wall, throwing spitballs), The British Broadcasting Corporation bans The Coasters song "Charlie Brown." The ban is lifted two weeks later.
2022 73-year-old Bonnie Raitt wins the Grammy for Song Of The Year, beating out songs by Taylor Swift, Beyoncé and Harry Styles with the title track to her album Just Like That. Her first Grammy wins came in 1990, when she was 40, after releasing her album Nick Of Time.
2014 Arthur Smith, one of postwar country music's finest guitar pickers, dies at age 93 of natural causes. His 1949 instrumental "Guitar Boogie" was one of the first to showcase the electric guitar and as such had a major influence on the development of rockabilly and rock in general.
2007 During a Season 6 episode of American Idol, Ryan Seacrest announces the American Idol Songwriter Competition. The entry fee is $10, and the winning song gets to be the winner's first single. After judges cull the 25,000 entries to 20 finalists, it's put to an online vote and the winner is "This is My Now."More
1999 British composer Lionel Bart, known for the Broadway smash Oliver!, dies at age 68 of cancer.
1994 About 300 radio stations accept Pearl Jam's offer to broadcast their concert at the Fox Theatre in Atlanta for free. It goes over so well, the band does a series of similar broadcasts over the next few years, bringing a steady stream of live music to their fans.
1990 Jazz singer Sarah Vaughan dies at age 66 of lung cancer.
1985 Pop/R&B singer Leona Lewis is born in Islington, London, England.
1983 Danny Rapp (of Danny & the Juniors) dies at age 41 from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. He's discovered in a hotel room in Quartzsite, Arizona.
1982 Burt Bacharach and Carole Bayer Sager marry. Five days earlier, the songwriters took home Oscars for Best Original Song for their work on "Arthur's Theme (The Best That You Can Do)" from the movie Arthur.
1981 The Elvis Presley documentary movie This Is Elvis (with Ral Donner narrating) premieres in Memphis.
1974 Drew Shirley (guitarist for Switchfoot) is born in Key West, Florida.
1971 The Temptations' "Just My Imagination (Running Away With Me)" hits #1 for the first of two weeks.
1968 Skid Row lead singer Sebastian Bach is born Sebastian Philip Bierk is born in Freeport, Bahamas, raised in Canada.
1963 Elvis Presley's It Happened At The World's Fair movie opens in Los Angeles (it opens nationally a week later).
1961 The Marcels' "Blue Moon" hits #1 in America.
Actress and singer Doris Day is born Doris Mary Ann Kappelhoff in Cincinnati, Ohio. She turns to singing when a car accident wrecks her dreams of becoming a professional dancer.
Day gets her big break in 1939 as a singer with Les Brown and His Band of Renown and attracts fans with songs like "My Dreams Are Getting Better All The Time" and – her first #1 hit – "Sentimental Journey." By the close of the 1940s, Day is doing double duty as a singer and actress, her girl-next-door good looks and golden voice making her an ideal candidate for Hollywood musicals, such as My Dream is Yours (1949), Calamity Jane (1953), and – opposite Frank Sinatra - Young at Heart (1954). She follows up her musical-comedy success with a dramatic turn, starring as Ruth Etting in the 1955 biopic Love Me or Leave Me, which spawns rave reviews for her acting and a #1 soundtrack. She debuts her iconic hit "Que Sera, Sera (Whatever Will Be, Will Be)," which wins the Academy Award for Best Original Song, in the Alfred Hitchcock thriller The Man Who Knew Too Much the following year. The latter half of the '50s and '60s find her returning to hit romantic comedies alongside Clark Gable (Teacher's Pet), Rock Hudson (Pillow Talk, Send Me No Flowers), David Niven (Please Don't Eat the Daisies) and James Garner (Move Over, Darling). Day's popularity takes a dip in the ensuing decades, her virginal persona going stale in the midst of the sexual revolution. Her finances also take a hit when she discovers her late husband Martin Melcher and her attorney had stolen the bulk of her money, which ensnares her in legal matters for years. Day, however, never gives up on her music. In 2011, at age 89, she releases My Heart, produced by her late son Terry Melcher (known for his work with The Byrds, Paul Revere and the Raiders, and The Beach Boys), and becomes the oldest artist to release a UK Top 10 album.
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