31 AUGUST
In Music History
1970 Singer/songwriter Debbie Gibson is born in Brooklyn, New York.
1969 Acoustic rocker Jeff Russo (of Tonic) is born. Composer for the FX series Fargo.
1968 Jefferson Airplane headline the first Isle of Wight Festival, a one-day event that grows to two days the following year and five in 1970.
1963 Keyboardist/pianist Larry Waddell (of Mint Condition) is born in St. Paul, Minnesota. Wrote the group's gold-certified single "What Kind of Man Would I Be" (1996).
1960 Tony DeFranco (of The DeFranco Family) is born in Port Colborne, Ontario, Canada.
1957 Gina Schock (drummer for The Go-Go's) is born Regina Ann Schock in Baltimore, Maryland.
1957 Glenn Tilbrook (guitarist/lead singer for Squeeze) is born in Woolwich, London, England.
1955 Folk rocker Anthony Thistlethwaite (of The Waterboys) is born in Lutterworth, England.
1948 Guitarist Rudolf Schenker (founder of Scorpions) is born in Hildesheim, Lower Saxony, Germany.
1945 Bob Welch (guitarist for Fleetwood Mac) is born in Los Angeles, California.
1945 Van Morrison is born George Ivan Morrison in Bloomfield, Belfast, Northern Ireland.
1945 Violinist Itzhak Perlman is born in Tel Aviv, Israel (then British Mandate of Palestine).
1939 Frank Sinatra records "All Or Nothing At All," one of his first big hits.
1939 Jerry Allison (drummer for The Crickets) is born in Hillsboro, Texas. Co-wrote the Buddy Holly hits "That'll Be the Day" and "Peggy Sue."
George Harrison Guilty Of "Subconscious Plagiarism"
1976George Harrison is found guilty of "subconscious plagiarism" in a bizarre lawsuit that leaves songwriters baffled.
Read more31 AUGUST
Featured Events
2015 On his 70th birthday, Van Morrison plays two shows on Cyprus Avenue in Belfast, inspiration for his song "Cyprus Avenue."More
2004 Green Day release the title track of their new album American Idiot as a single three weeks before the album is issued. Both the song and the album are wildly successful and highly acclaimed, with each nominated for multiple Grammy Awards (winning for Best Rock Album). American Idiot later becomes a successful stage musical.
1999 Led by the hit single "Ready To Run," the Dixie Chicks release their second major-label album, Fly. More
1994 R. Kelly, 27, marries 15-year-old Aaliyah at the Sheraton hotel in Rosemont, Illinois (her age on the marriage certificate is listed as 18). The marriage is annulled when Aaliyah's family finds out, and few details emerge as neither party will talk about it publicly. Kelly, who produced Aaliyah's debut album Age Ain't Nothing but a Number, which was released before their wedding, tells GQ in 2016: "I can tell you I loved her, I can tell you she loved me, we was very close."
1987 MTV debuts Club MTV, their contemporary and far more lascivious version of American Bandstand.More
1971 John Lennon leaves England to start a new life with his wife, Yoko, in New York City. He never returns to England.
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