8 AUGUST
In Music History
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.
1976 JC Chasez (of 'N Sync) is born Joshua Scott Chasez in Washington, D.C.
1976 Drew Lachey (of 98 Degrees) is born in Cincinnati, Ohio.
1975 Jazz alto saxophonist Cannonball Adderley dies of a stroke at age 46 in Gary, Indiana.
1974 Richard Nixon says he will be resigning as president of the United States. Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, on tour in New Jersey, announce the news from the stage before playing their anti-Nixon song "Ohio."
1970 Creedence Clearwater Revival releases "Lookin' Out My Back Door."
1970 Blood, Sweat & Tears' Blood Sweat & Tears 3 LP hits #1.
1970 The Stooges fire bass player Dave Alexander after he forgets how to play the songs at their Goose Lake International Music Festival performance in Michigan. It's the last Stooges show with their original lineup, as Alexander dies in 1975 at 27 after years of alcoholism.
1966 The Beatles release "Eleanor Rigby" on a double A-side single with "Yellow Submarine."
1966 The Beatles release Revolver, which contains the psychedelic "Tomorrow Never Knows" and the bitter "Taxman."
1962 Rapper Kool Moe Dee is born Mohandas Dewese in New York City, New York.
1961 Rikki Rocket (drummer for Poison) is born Richard Allan Ream in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania.
1961 David Evans is born in East London. He later becomes The Edge as a member of U2.
1960 Brian Hyland's "Itsy Bitsy Teeny Weeny Yellow Polka Dot Bikini" hits #1, where it stays for one week.
1960 Decca Records in England refuses to release Ray Peterson's latest single, "Tell Laura I Love Her," going so far as to throw away 25,000 pressings of the teen-tragedy song, which they feel is "too tasteless and vulgar for the English sensibility." A cover by Ricky Valance proves them wrong by going straight to #1. (The grisly song, in which a stock-car driver mutters the title words before he dies, ironically only reaches #7 in America.)
Beatles Cross Abbey Road, Creating World's Most Famous Crosswalk
1969The 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.
Read more8 AUGUST
Featured Events
1992 Opening for Guns N' Roses at a show in Montreal, James Hetfield of Metallica is injured by the pyrotechnics, which burn the entire left side of his body. Metallica can't continue, and Guns N' Roses cut their set short after just 15 minutes when Axl Rose leaves the stage, upset over monitor problems. A near riot ensues at Olympic Stadium as fans are not pleased.
1988 N.W.A., featuring Dr. Dre and Easy-E, release the Gangsta Rap classic Straight Outta Compton, which gets a lot of attention for its song "F--k Tha Police."
1980 The fantasy musical Xanadu, starring Olivia Newton-John and Gene Kelly, debuts to scathing reviews ("In a word, Xana-don't.") and inspires the Golden Raspberry Awards for the worst films of the year. But it has a killer soundtrack thanks to "Magic."More
1975 Hank Williams Jr. nearly meets his doom when he falls 500 feet down Ajax Mountain in Montana. He survives, but with some facial scars he will often cover with a hat, beard, and sunglasses.
1970 Enjoying some libations at a nearby bar before her concert at the Capitol Theatre in Port Chester, New York, Janis Joplin writes the song "Mercedes Benz," which she sings that night. Joplin does just one more show before her death.
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