Pick a Day

Music History Events: Good Deeds

August 24, 1989 The Who perform a special 20th anniversary charity concert of their rock opera Tommy at the Universal Amphitheater in Los Angeles, featuring guests Elton John (as the Pinball Wizard), Patti LaBelle (as the Acid Queen), Steve Winwood (as the Hawker), Phil Collins (as Uncle Ernie), and Billy Idol (as Cousin Kevin).

June 5, 1987 The Prince's Trust Rock Gala is held for the fifth time at Wembley Arena in London. The annual charity event features the music of George Harrison, who performs "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" with Eric Clapton, and Ringo Starr's version of "With A Little Help From My Friends," featuring Jeff Lynne. Other performers include Elton John, Phil Collins, Dave Edmunds, and Ben E. King.

May 23, 1987 The Doobie Brothers reunite with original members, including singer/guitarist Tom Johnston, for a Vietnam Veterans benefit at the Hollywood Bowl. The show leads to a series of reunion concerts over the next month, and a full-on reunion tour in 1989.

April 5, 1985 Thousands of radio stations play "We Are The World" simultaneously at 10:50 a.m. EST. In the next few weeks, the song goes to #1 in America and the UK.

January 25, 1984 John Lennon's widow, Yoko Ono, donates $375,000 to Liverpool's Strawberry Field, an orphanage which served as the inspiration for the Beatles song "Strawberry Fields Forever."

May 24, 1982 Grateful Dead, Jefferson Starship, Boz Scaggs, and Country Joe & the Fish play a benefit concert for Vietnam vets at the Moscone Center in San Francisco.

January 21, 1982 B.B. King donates his entire record collection to the University of Mississippi's Center for the Study of Southern Culture. The 20,000-record collection includes 7,000 discs King aired as a disc jockey at Memphis' WDIA in the '50s.

January 12, 1981 The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) donates several rock albums to the Library of Congress, including Bob Dylan's Blonde on Blonde and KISS' Alive!

December 22, 1979 The Concerts For The People Of Kampuchea benefit premieres at London's Hammersmith Odeon, featuring organizer Paul McCartney, The Who, Queen, and an all-star "Rockestra."

November 6, 1979 Paul Simon kicks off his latest British tour at London's Hammersmith Odeon by offering to buy everyone in the audience a drink. The tab comes to about $2,000.

February 4, 1979 Save The Whales organizes a month-long rock memorabilia auction in San Francisco.

January 9, 1979 The Bee Gees perform "Too Much Heaven," the #1 song in America, at the Music For UNICEF Concert at the United Nations General Assembly in New York City, and also donate royalties from the song to the charity. Other performers include Donna Summer, Rod Stewart and John Denver. It airs on NBC the next night, and later, a soundtrack album is released.

February 3, 1978 Harry Chapin, who has started an organization to fight hunger called World Hunger Year, meets with US President Jimmy Carter to discuss the project.

December 25, 1977 At Ivanhoe's in Huddersfield, the The Sex Pistols play their last UK gig before their split. The show is a charity benefit for firemen who are on strike.

September 29, 1977 David Bowie sets up a trust fund for Rolan Bolan, the son of the recently deceased Marc Bolan, Bowie's close friend and frontman of glam rock band T. Rex.

October 29, 1976 Bruce Springsteen brings long-forgotten Gary U.S. Bonds on stage at The Palladium in New York City to perform Bonds' 1961 hit "Quarter To Three." Five years later, Springsteen engineers a comeback for Bonds, working on his album Dedication and supplying the hit "This Little Girl."

December 8, 1975 The benefit concert "A Night of the Hurricane" is held at Madison Square Garden. The last date on Bob Dylan's Rolling Thunder Revue tour, the show features many non-musical celebrities and raises over $100,000 for the release of wrongly imprisoned boxer "Hurricane" Carter and his alleged accomplice. Carter himself calls the stage from jail.

October 5, 1975 Original Wailers members Bob Marley, Peter Tosh, and Bunny Wailer play together for the last time at the Wonder Dream Concert, which is a benefit organized by Stevie Wonder, in Kingston, Jamaica.

February 1, 1975 For her seventh birthday, Lisa Marie Presley meets her favorite singer, Elton John, a gift arranged by her father.

April 5, 1974 The Guess Who host a celebrity tennis tournament in Toronto to benefit Ballet of Canada.

January 18, 1973 At The Forum in Inglewood, California, The Rolling Stones perform a benefit concert for the victims of an earthquake in Nicaragua, where Mick Jagger's wife Bianca is from. The show raises $400,000.

June 14, 1972 Actor Warren Beatty organizes his fifth benefit concert for doomed US Presidential candidate George McGovern at Madison Square Garden, featuring, among others, Simon & Garfunkel and Peter, Paul and Mary.

March 9, 1972 Carole King, James Taylor, Quincy Jones and Barbra Streisand take part in a fundraiser for presidential hopeful George McGovern.

December 10, 1971 At the "Free John Sinclair Rally" in Ann Arbor, Michigan, John Lennon debuts his new song, fittingly called "John Sinclair." Stevie Wonder, Bob Seger and Phil Ochs also appear at the rally, which is an effort to get Sinclair, who was sentenced to 10 years in prison for possession of two marijuana joints, out of jail. Sinclair was released two days later.

December 2, 1971 Taj Mahal performs for the men on death row at Wilmington State Penitentiary.

April 24, 1970 Chicago blues pianist Otis Spann dies at age 40 of liver cancer. His grave will go unmarked for nearly 30 years until blues enthusiasts unite to raise money for a headstone. Unveiled in 1999, it reads: "Otis played the deepest blues we ever heard – He'll play forever in our hearts."

January 13, 1970 John Lennon and Yoko Ono have their hair cut and donate it to a charity auction.

March 24, 1965 Bobby Darin, Harry Belafonte, and Peter, Paul & Mary take part in a protest against voter discrimination in Montgomery, Alabama.

February 25, 1961 Elvis Presley plays the first of two charity shows in Memphis. It's his first concert since entering the army in 1958.

December 26, 1958 Stan Freberg presents a check for $1,000 to the Hemophilia Foundation of Southern California as his royalties from the first year's release of "Green Chri$tma$" (he gives all proceeds from the single charity).