13 DECEMBER
Featured Events
2013 In a bold and brilliant marketing move, Beyoncé's self-titled album is released with no advance notice, sending radio stations scrambling to get the songs on the air and generating lots of free publicity.More
1999 BMI publishes their list of the most-played songs on American radio and TV in the 20th century. The Top 5: "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'" "Never My Love" "Yesterday" "Stand By Me" "Can't Take My Eyes Off of You"
1987 Paul Simon, Bruce Springsteen, Billy Joel and Lou Reed perform at a benefit concert for homeless children held at Madison Square Garden in New York City. Springsteen introduces a new introduction to "Born To Run," which he uses on his upcoming tour. "I woke up one morning and realized that I wanted a home," he says. "And nobody wants or deserves to be homeless."
1985 Phil Collins, whose song "In The Air Tonight" was used in the pilot episode of Miami Vice, plays a drug dealer in the episode "Phil The Shill."
1981 Evanescence lead singer Amy Lee is born in Riverside, California. Her future bandmate Ben Moody hears her playing a Meat Loaf tune on the piano while the two attend a youth camp in Little Rock, Arkansas, in 1994. The following year, Evanescence is born.
1967 At the Shrine Exhibition Hall in Los Angeles, the Grateful Dead perform "Dark Star" for the first time. The song quickly becomes one of the most revered songs in their live catalog, a conduit for extensive jams that become part of Dead lore. The studio version of the song runs a mere 2:44.
1948 Ted Nugent is born Theodore Anthony Nugent in Detroit, Michigan.
13 DECEMBER
In Music History
2017 Pat DiNizio, singer and main songwriter of the Smithereens, passes away at the age of 62.
2016 Canadian actor Alan Thicke, age 69, suffers a heart attack while playing hockey with one of his sons and dies shortly after. Aside from his popular role as dad Jason Seaver on the '80s sitcom Growing Pains, Thicke was a songwriter (Bill Champlin's "Sara") and TV theme song composer, penning themes for The Facts of Life and Diff'rent Strokes. He was also dad to "Blurred Lines" singer Robin Thicke.
2014 Raoul Cita (pianist, arranger for The Harptones) dies from liver and stomach cancer at age 86.
2012 Police bust a bizarre murder plot targeting pop singer Justin Bieber. A team of three hit men in Albuquerque, New Mexico, had been making plans to stalk and kill the singer and even castrate him. One of the three men had reportedly been obsessed with Bieber to the point of having a tattoo of him on his leg. All three men were apprehended along with confiscated weapons - and a set of pruning shears.
2012 Songwriting legend Carole King, whose career dates back to the Brill Building, wins the Library of Congress' Gershwin Prize in recognition of her lifetime achievement. She is the first woman awarded this honor, which fits with her having authored "You Make Me Feel Like A Natural Woman," among many other chart-smashers during her five-decade career.
2009 Big band singer Yvonne King (of The King Sisters) dies in Santa Barbara, California, at age 89.
2008 Eagles guitarist Joe Walsh marries Marjorie Bach, making him brother-in-law to Ringo Starr, who is married to Marjorie's sister Barbara.
2004 The "love shack" where Kate Pierson of The B-52s used to live in Athens, Georgia is destroyed by fire, with only its chimney and tin roof still standing.
2003 Jack White, frontman for The White Stripes, assaults Von Bondies frontman Jason Stollsteimer in a Detroit nightclub, possibly because Stollsteimer badmouthed White in the press. Three months later, White pleads guilty to assault and battery and is forced to pay $750 and take anger management classes.
1997 Hanson play "MMMbop" on Saturday Night Live and take part in a sketch where they are held hostage and forced to listen to the song until they snap.
1984 Deep Purple play the Entertainment Centre at Sydney. George Harrison makes a surprise appearance and is introduced by Jon Lord as "Arnold from Liverpool."
1975 Tom DeLonge (guitarist, co-lead vocalist for Blink-182) is born in Poway, California.
1966 Jimi Hendrix records "Foxy Lady."
1966 Jimi Hendrix, who is quickly gaining momentum in England, makes his first UK TV appearance when he performs on Ready Steady Go.
1953 Berton Averre (lead guitarist, keyboardist for The Knack) is born in Van Nuys, Los Angeles.
Taylor Swift Is Born
1989Taylor Swift is born in Reading, Pennsylvania. She is raised in Wyomissing, Pennsylvania, and moves to Nashville at age 14, where she discovers her knack for turning heartache into hit singles.
Before she becomes a Grammy-winning singer/songwriter and pop icon, Taylor Swift is a teenage country sensation who comes to Nashville with a guitar and a dream. Her first Top 20 country hit, named for country singer Tim McGraw, is inspired by a bittersweet breakup with an older boy – the beginning of her trend of mining romances for song ideas. Her self-titled debut album, featuring the hits "Teardrops On My Guitar," "Our Song," and "Picture To Burn," is a crossover smash that peaks at #5 on the US albums chart. Her pop-friendly country tunes ease her transition into a full-fledged pop star. Her sophomore album, the chart-topping Fearless, pushes her further into the mainstream when the video for "You Belong With Me" wins Best Female Video at the MTV Video Music Awards and Kanye West storms the stage in protest. The incident prompts support from a host of major stars and makes Swift a household name. Her next four albums – Speak Now, Red, 1989, and Reputation – uphold her #1 streak. She's also a mainstay on the Hot 100 with breakup tunes ("We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together"), confidence anthems ("Shake It Off"), and revenge fantasies ("Look What You Made Me Do"). With more than 50 million albums sold worldwide, Swift is one of the best-selling artists of all time. Despite Kanye's claim that he "made that bitch famous," the singer says her success is in spite of critics like Kanye. She explains in her acceptance speech when 1989 wins the Grammy for Album of the Year: "There are going to be people along the way who try to undercut your success or take credit for your accomplishments or your fame - but if you just focus on the work and you don't let those people sidetrack you, someday when you get where you're going, you'll look around and you will know that it was you, and the people who love you, who put you there - and that will be the greatest feeling in the world."
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