8 August

Pick a Day

8 AUGUST

In Music History

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2023 Sixto Rodriguez, a mercurial singer-songwriter whose story is told in the documentary Searching For Sugar Man, dies at 81.

2022 Olivia Newton-John dies at 73 after a long battle with breast cancer.

2020 Taylor Swift becomes the first artist to debut at #1 on both the Hot 100 and US albums chart when Folklore and its lead single, "Cardigan," both go to the top. Folklore is her seventh consecutive #1 album.

2017 Glen Campbell dies at 81 after a long battle with Alzheimer's disease.

2013 "Cowboy" Jack Clement (writer and producer for Johnny Cash) dies of liver cancer at age 82 in Nashville, Tennessee.

2011 While on tour with Maroon 5 and Train, Gavin DeGraw is attacked by a group of men on a New York City street. He suffers a broken nose and is taken to Bellevue Hospital for treatment.

2007 Amy Winehouse overdoses on a mixture of alcohol, heroin, cocaine, ecstasy and ketamine after a London pub crawl. Her hospitalization causes the cancellation of her first US tour. The singer refused her record company's request to enter rehab for alcohol abuse, inspiring her hit record "Rehab." She does eventually end up in a clinic, but never gets sober for good.

2004 There is a big stink when The Dave Matthews Band tour bus dumps its sewage into an Illinois river from the Kinzie Street bridge. An unfortunate group of tourists are doused with the waste, which hits their tour boat. The band was not on the bus, and their driver denied it until he was confronted with surveillance video.

2000 A class action lawsuit is filed against the major record labels, claiming that they kept CD prices high by punishing retailers who sold the discs for less than their "minimum advertised price." The case was eventually settled for $143 million, with 3.48 million claimants who bought CDs between January 1, 1995 and December 22, 2000 receiving checks for $13.86.

1999 It's a nu-metal moment at the Family Values Tour in Kansas City when Puddle Of Mudd frontman Wes Scantlin sneaks backstage and slips a demo tape to Fred Durst's security guard. The Limp Bizkit leader gives it a listen and signs the band to his label, Flawless Records.

1994 The Notorious B.I.G. releases his debut solo single, "Juicy," built on a sample of the 1983 funk track "Juicy Fruit" by Mtume.

1992 Madness reunite for the first of two "Madstock" shows at Finsbury Park in London. 75,000 fans come out of the woodwork for the two shows; the reunion sticks and the band resumes touring. Madstock returns in 1994, 1996 and 1998.

1987 U2 land their second American #1 as "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For," from The Joshua Tree, goes to the top.

1986 After serving eight months of a five-year sentence in the Huntsville unit of the Texas State Prison, David Crosby gets out on parole. Crosby entered the facility after a series of arrests and failed attempts at drug rehab. He later says that going to prison saved his life, as it forced him to get sober.

1983 Harold Melvin and three members of Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes are arrested for cocaine, marijuana, and meth possession at Caesars Boardwalk Regency Hotel Casino in Atlantic City.

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Beatles Cross Abbey Road, Creating World's Most Famous Crosswalk

1969

The Beatles shoot the photo for their Abbey Road album cover at the crosswalk outside Abbey Road studios, where they are recording. Fans find many nested clues in the shot of the four band members walking in stride across the street, fuelling rumors that Paul McCartney is dead.


There is no text on the cover, just the photo. John Lennon leads the way, followed by Ringo Starr, Paul McCartney, and George Harrison. The "Paul is dead" rumors have been floating around since the group stopped touring in 1966 - it was whispered that he had been replaced by a lookalike. On the cover, McCartney is smoking a cigarette and is barefoot. In the conspiracy theory, he represents a corpse in a funeral procession, with Lennon (in a white suit) the priest, Ringo (in black) the pallbearer, and Harrison (in casual clothes) the gravedigger. Then there's the Volkswagen Beetle parked askew on the side of the street. The license plate reads "28IF," as in McCartney would be 28 years old if he were still alive. Sounds nutty, right? Well, Life magazine takes them seriously enough to go with the headline "Paul Is Still With Us" on their November 7, 1969 issue after they track down McCartney, who has decamped to Scotland with his family. It was McCartney who came up with the concept for the cover. The Beatles were still working on the album and things were a little tense, so the shoot had to be quick and easy. It takes place at 11:35 a.m. and lasts about 10 minutes, with photographer Iain MacMillan taking six photos from a stepladder in the middle of the street while police block off traffic. McCartney picks the cover photo. The album is released about six weeks later as The Beatles are tying up loose ends before they part ways for good (the Let It Be album, which was recorded before Abbey Road, is released in 1970, after their split). For a while, Abbey Road Studios has been attracting admirers (notably the Apple Scruffs) trying to get a glimpse of the band, but with the album it becomes a full-blown tourist destination, with the crosswalk (known in the UK as a "zebra crossing") the main attraction. Locals get a bit frustrated with the constant flow of pedestrians stopping for photos in the street, but the studio comes to embrace its role as a tourist destination, offering a gift shop, a "graffiti wall," and in 2010, a webcam of the crossing. The cover remains firmly entrenched in the cultural lexicon; in 1988 The Red Hot Chili Peppers, release The Abbey Road E.P., where they re-create the famous cover wearing only socks (not on their feet). As for why Paul was barefoot: It was a hot day, and he didn't feel like wearing his sandals.

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