Pick a Day

Music History Events: Good Deeds

April 5, 1968 With tensions high the night after Martin Luther King Jr. is assassinated, James Brown goes ahead with his concert at the Boston Garden, agreeing to televise the show to help keep calm in the city.More

October 7, 1963 Pete Seeger copyrights "We Shall Overcome." The song dates to the early 1900s, but Seeger adapted it into the well-known version that became a civil rights anthem. He lists three others as songwriters, including two representatives of the Highlander Folk School in Tennessee, where he developed the song. Royalties from the song go to the We Shall Overcome Fund, which supports the school and its outreach efforts.

July 15, 1962 Héctor Angulo, a Cuban student attending the Manhattan School of Music, plays the song "Guantanamera" for Pete Seeger during the Folk Festival of the Catskills at Camp Woodland in Phoenicia, New York, where Angulo is working as a counselor for the summer. Seeger learns the song and adds it to his repertoire, introducing it to American audiences.

January 29, 1961 Five days after arriving in New York from Minnesota, Bob Dylan meets his ailing folk hero, Woody Guthrie, tracking him down in East Orange, New Jersey. Dylan pays tribute with "Song To Woody," which appears on his first album the following year.More

January 1, 1959 Johnny Cash plays one of his first jailhouse shows when he performs at San Quentin prison in San Rafael, California. Among those in the captive audience is Merle Haggard, who is serving time for burglary.More

August 26, 2023 Sean "Diddy" Combs makes a $1 million donation to the Earn Your Leisure fund to help foster financial literacy, then in a show of support for HBCU's, gives the Jackson State University football team another million. Diddy's alma matter is the HBCU Howard University.

November 10, 2019 In Houston, Joe Walsh stages the first annual VetsAid concert to assist veterans. He's joined on the bill by ZZ Top, Sheryl Crow and The Doobie Brothers.

March 6, 2017 Chance the Rapper, who made his debut mixtape, 10 Day, while on a 10-day suspension from school, announces a $1 million donation to the Chicago public schools.

March 2, 2014 Arby's buys the hat Pharrell Williams wore to the Grammys on eBay for $44,100. The fast-food chain donates the hat (which resembles their logo) to the Newseum in Washington, DC. Money from the auction goes to the From One Hand to Another charity.

August 10, 2012 The bands Kiss and Motley Crue donate $100,000 together to the families of the victims of the Aurora, Colorado, "Dark Knight" shooting. The massacre occurred Friday, July 20 at a movie theater showing The Dark Knight Rises. James Eagan Holmes burst into the theater with guns blazing, killing 12 and wounding 58. The story rocks the United States and the ensuing trial of shooter Holmes, who was inspired by the actions of The Joker, a famed villain in the Batman franchise played by Heath Ledger, is to generate top headlines for many months yet.

January 24, 2009 Kings Of Leon play a fundraiser for the University of Chicago's Comer Children's Hospital at the House of Blues in Chicago. Despite the $150 ticket price, the show sells out.

May 5, 2008 To thank fans for years of support, Trent Reznor (Nine Inch Nails) posts the album The Slip for free on his website.

April 16, 2008 Barbra Streisand donates $5 million to the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles for a women's heart education and research program.

March 18, 2008 Among other artists, Lou Reed, Damien Rice, and Moby take part in the Speak Up! concert (which benefits Iraq war veterans) held at St. Ann's Warehouse in Brooklyn, New York.

March 11, 2008 Kid Rock returns to the Waffle House in Duluth, Georgia (where he was involved in a brawl the previous year), to hang out with Waffle House workers and customers as part of a charity meet-and-greet.

January 26, 2008 Weezer's Rivers Cuomo takes part in the Mia Hamm and Nomar Garciaparra charity soccer match benefiting the Children's Hospital of Los Angeles and the Mia Hamm Foundation in Carson, California.

November 15, 2007 In a charity auction, a 25-year-old man from Scotland pays $170,000 for two tickets to the Led Zeppelin reunion show at the O2 Arena in London. Over a million people entered a lottery for the 18,000 tickets, which sold for a face value of $255.

November 9, 2006 At the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York, Alicia Keys and David Bowie perform "Changes" at a benefit for the Keep a Child Alive organization, which helps disadvantaged children in Africa. It is Bowie's final performance, as his health deteriorates and he withdraws from the public eye.

November 3, 2005 Alicia Keys hosts and performs at a fundraiser for the AIDS charity Keep a Child Alive at New York's Jazz at Lincoln Center. She is joined by fellow music heavyweights Usher, Paul Simon, John Mayer and Common, as well as African acts Angelique Kidjo, Baaba Maal, Femi Kuti and the Agape Children's Choir from Durban, South Africa.

September 20, 2005 The benefit concert "From The Big Apple To The Big Easy" is held in New York's Madison Square Garden in order to raise funds for the Gulf Coast cities and towns devastated by Hurricane Katrina. Among others, Simon & Garfunkel, Elvis Costello, Lenny Kravitz and Elton John perform at this charity concert.

September 18, 2005 Dashboard Confessional donates proceeds from its Toronto show to Hurricane Katrina relief efforts.

January 15, 2005 Sheryl Crow, Christina Aguilera and Tim McGraw participate in a benefit for victims of the tsunami in Southern Asia.

September 28, 2004 A Beverly Hills tribute concert in honor of Ray Charles, featuring Stevie Wonder, Michael McDonald, ]Patti Austin and James Ingram, raises $15 million for Atlanta's African-American institution, Morehouse College.

December 23, 2003 Simon & Garfunkel donate a million dollars to the Children's Health Fund (started by Paul six years earlier.)

August 24, 2003 Dick Peterson from The Kingsmen joins 753 other guitarists to perform "Louie Louie" for a charity fundraiser in Tacoma, Washington.

March 4, 2003 Bruce Springsteen plays Hank Ballard's 1960 hit "Let's Go, Let's Go, Let's Go" at his show in Jacksonville, Florida, to honor Ballard, who died two days earlier.

October 6, 2002 Mick Jagger of The Rolling Stones donates 100,000 pounds to the school he once attended in Dartford, England, for musical instruments and a band director. The resultant musical center is named after the singer.

February 26, 2002 John Fogerty, Elton John, Eagles, Stevie Nicks, and Billy Joel perform at the multi-venue Los Angeles charity benefit Four Concerts for Artists' Rights, proceeds of which benefit a labor-friendly musicians' organization called the Recording Artists Coalition.

December 5, 2001 David Crosby and Don Henley headline a benefit concert that raises $300,000 for children of the victims of the 9/11 attacks.

October 28, 2001 More than 22,000 friends, neighbors and fans turn out for Tim McGraw's eighth annual Swampstock, held in his hometown of Rayville, Louisiana. Proceeds from the day benefit local youth sports organizations, scholarship funds and the New York Police and Fire Widows' and Children's Benefit fund.