30 APRIL
Featured Events
2018 The #MuteRKelly campaign picks up steam when Ava DuVernay tweets her support. The campaign is designed to marginalize R. Kelly, who has been accused of sexual misconduct.More
2008 At the Coachella festival, Roger Waters' giant inflatable pig escapes, roams the countryside and ultimately deflates.
2005 Cher wraps up her Living Proof: The Farewell Tour with a show at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles. Running nearly three years, the tour brings in over $200 million, making it the highest earning tour in history for a female artist, a record that stands until Madonna's 2008-2009 Sticky & Sweet Tour. Retirement doesn't suit Cher: She tours again in 2014 and in 2018.
2004 Ray Charles appears at his Los Angeles recording studio to attend a ceremony marking it as a national historic landmark. It is his last public appearance; he dies on June 10.
1988 After hanging on at #198 the week before, Pink Floyd's album Dark Side Of The Moon drops out of the Billboard Albums chart for the first time in 11 years. The band is still on the chart though, with A Momentary Lapse Of Reason at #62.
1978 The Clash are among the acts at a "Rock Against Racism" concert, playing to over 50,000 in London's Victoria Park to combat the National Front, a neo-Nazi group in the UK whose slogan is "Keep Britain White."More
1977 Led Zeppelin play to 76,229 fans at the Pontiac Silverdome, breaking their own record (56,800 at a 1973 show in Tampa) for largest attendance for a single-act concert.
30 APRIL
In Music History
2022 Country music star Naomi Judd dies by suicide at 76, one day before she's inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame with The Judds, the duo she formed with her daughter Wynonna.
2020 On his 100th birthday, Captain Tom Moore lands the UK #1 hit with a new version of "You'll Never Walk Alone." Moore, a decorated veteran of World War II, raised money for coronavirus relief by walking in his garden. The song was assembled by Michael Ball using Moore's vocals.
2019 Dipak Rao, director of Deep Purple's royalty management firms, is sentenced to six years in jail for stealing £2.2million from the group's accounts, which he put toward money-losing schemes.
2015 Ben E. King, songwriter and singer of "Stand By Me," dies at age 76.
2014 Larry Ramos (guitarist, banjo player for The New Christy Minstrels, The Association) dies at age 72 from malignant melanoma.
2013 Actress and singer Deanna Durbin dies in Neauphle-le-Château, France, at age 91.
2011 Mariah Carey and her husband Nick Cannon welcome twins: daughter Monroe and son Moroccan.
2008 Mariah Carey marries rapper and TV personality Nick Cannon at a secret ceremony in the Bahamas. They separate in 2014 and divorce in 2016.
2007 Zola Taylor (of The Platters) dies after suffering numerous strokes and contracting pneumonia at age 69 in Riverside, California.
2006 Madonna plays a festival for the first time when she appears at Coachella.
2005 Bauhaus reunite to play the Coachella Festival, opening their set with "Bela Lugosi's Dead," which lead singer Peter Murphy performs hanging upside down.
2004 Michael Jackson is arraigned on his child molestation charges, pleading not guilty to ten different criminal counts, also including extortion and false imprisonment.
2003 1960s soul icon Earl King is buried in his hometown of New Orleans with an authentic jazz funeral. Paul McCartney and Eric Clapton send their condolences.
2002 Roger Daltrey of The Who plays a music teacher on the "That '70s Musical" episode of That '70s Show.
1999 Darrell Sweet (drummer for Nazareth) dies of a heart attack at age 51 while on tour promoting the band's Boogaloo album.
"Beat It" Tops The Hot 100 As Thriller Takes Off
1983Michael Jackson's fight is funky and strong, as "Beat It" hits #1 in America for the first of three weeks.
With Thriller's "The Girl Is Mine" pairing him with Paul McCartney and "Billie Jean" topping charts around the world, Jackson is on the verge of superstardom. Quincy Jones, who produced the record along with Jackson, wanted a rock-and-roll number to round out the album and boost the singer's crossover appeal. Jackson explained: "I wanted to write a song, the type of song that I would buy if I were to buy a rock song... That is how I approached it and I wanted the children to really enjoy it - the school children as well as the college students." Enter "Beat It," a rock-driven single inspired by the perils of gang life, complete with an overdriven guitar solo by Eddie Van Halen. Jackson is one of the first artists to use music videos to promote an album, and he goes all-out with this one, showing off his dance moves in the midst of a street battle. Along with "Billie Jean" and the forthcoming "Thriller" clip, the popular video makes Jackson one of the first black artists to gain regular airplay on MTV, while the success of the song itself is a testament to his appeal to both black and white audiences. Along with accolades for the album, "Beat It" takes home two Grammy Awards for Record of the Year and Best Rock Vocal Performance, Male.
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