Pick a Day

12 AUGUST

In Music History

1989 Richard Marx lands his third consecutive US #1 as "Right Here Waiting" hits the top spot. The song is a love letter to his wife, the actress Cynthia Rhodes, who was away shooting a film when he wrote it.

1986 Allison Moorer and Shelby Lynne's father, Vernon Franklin Moorer, murders their mother (his wife) Lynn, then commits suicide.

1985 Singer/actor Kyu Sakamoto dies in the Japan Airlines Flight 123 crash at age 43.

1985 Neil Young releases Old Ways, his 14th studio album and one of the lowest-selling and least appreciated albums of his career.

1977 Three of Elvis Presley's former bodyguards (members of the "Memphis Mafia") release the book Elvis: What Happened?, which details his drug use for the first time. Four days later, Presley dies.

1974 Bad Company releases "Can't Get Enough."

1972 Alice Cooper is beloved in Britain, with "School's Out" hitting #1 in the UK for the first of three weeks.

1969 Singer-songwriter Tanita Tikaram is born in Munster, West Germany.

1968 The New Yardbirds, later to be known as Led Zeppelin, begin their first rehearsal beneath a record store at 22 Gerrard Street in Westminster, London, performing a cover of the old Johnny Burnette & the Rock and Roll Trio number "Train Kept A-Rollin'."

1967 Fleetwood Mac make their stage debut at the National Jazz and Blues Festival in Windsor, England, alongside such acts as Donovan, Cream, The Small Faces, and Chicken Shack, featuring a young Christine Perfect (later known as Christine McVie).

1966 At a Beatles press conference in Chicago to promote their American tour, the big topic is John Lennon's quote, "We're more popular than Jesus now; I don't know which will go first, rock 'n' roll or Christianity." Lennon, clearly shaken by the controversy, explains: "I was pointing out that fact in reference to England - that we meant more to kids than Jesus did, or religion, at that time. I wasn't knocking it or putting it down, I was just saying it as a fact."

1966 The Beatles begin the US leg of their last tour, playing a date at the International Amphitheater in Chicago, Illinois.

1963 Sir Mix-a-Lot, who likes big butts and cannot lie, is born Anthony Ray in Seattle, Washington.

1961 Roy Hay (guitarist/keyboardist for Culture Club) is born in Southend, Essex, England.

1958 On "compassionate leave" from the Army, Elvis Presley travels to Memphis' Baptist Memorial hospital to be by the side of his mother, Gladys, who is quickly deteriorating from acute hepatitis.