2 DECEMBER
In Music History
1991 The US Supreme Court rules that The Shirelles, Gene Pitney and B.J. Thomas are owed $1.2 million in unpaid royalties.
1986 Desi Arnaz, Cuban-born musician and I Love Lucy star, dies of lung cancer at age 69.
1986 Jerry Lee Lewis checks into the Betty Ford Clinic for addiction to painkillers.
1983 Jana Kramer is born in Michigan. She stars in the TV series One Tree Hill before launching a career as a country singer.
1982 Folk singer-songwriter David Blue, writer of the Eagles' "Outlaw Man," dies of a heart attack at age 41 while jogging in New York City.
1981 The Broadway musical Dreamgirls, which is based on The Supremes, opens on Broadway. It is later made into a hit movie starring Beyoncé and Jennifer Hudson.
1979 Kris Kristofferson and Rita Coolidge's divorce is finalized.
1978 Nelly Furtado is born in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada to Portuguese parents. Her 2000 debut album, Whoa, Nelly!, includes the hits "Turn Off The Light" and "I'm Like A Bird," but she reaches new heights with her 2006 album Loose, produced by Timbaland. That one includes the #1 hits "Promiscuous" and "Say It Right."
1978 Barbra Streisand and Neil Diamond's "You Don't Bring Me Flowers" hits #1 on the Hot 100 for the first of two weeks.
1976 The Bee Gees play a sold-out show at Madison Square Garden in New York City to benefit the Police Athletic League in the city.
1976 The British press is in an uproar the day after The Sex Pistols appeared on the Today programme on London regional TV and swore repeatedly. The front page headline of the Daily Mirror reads "THE FILTH AND THE FURY!"
1974 Ravi Shankar is hospitalized after suffering chest pains while touring with George Harrison.
1973 The Who and their companions are jailed overnight in Montreal following $6,000 worth of hotel destruction inflicted after their show at the Forum.
1972 Steely Dan make the Billboard 200 for the first time when their debut album, Can't Buy a Thrill, lands at #197. The title comes from the Bob Dylan song "It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes A Train To Cry," where he sings: Well, I ride on a mailtrain, baby Can't buy a thrill The album peaks at #17 on the chart.
1971 Taj Mahal performs for the men on death row at Wilmington State Penitentiary.
"Thriller" Video Debuts On MTV
1983Michael Jackson's 14-minute "Thriller" video debuts on MTV. Directed by John Landis, the short film shows Michael Jackson turning into a werewolf and leading a dance routine with various undead creatures.
Read more2 DECEMBER
Featured Events
1999 Jay-Z stabs the record executive Lance "Un" Rivera at a party at Manhattan's Kit Kat Klub, believing Rivera bootlegged his album Vol. 3... Life and Times of S. Carter. The rapper pleads guilty to misdemeanor assault and is sentenced to three years probation.
1995 "One Sweet Day," Mariah Carey's duet with Boyz II Men, hits #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and holds the top spot for a record 16 weeks.
1981 Britney Spears is born in McComb, Mississippi, raised in Louisiana. At 11 she joins the cast of The Mickey Mouse Club; at 16 she releases her first single, the #1 hit "...Baby One More Time."
1972 The Temptations "Papa Was A Rolling Stone" hits #1 in the US. Running 6:58, it's one of the longest chart-topping singles.
1957 Al Priddy, a disc jockey at the Portland, Oregon, radio station KEX, is fired for playing the Elvis Presley version of "White Christmas," which the station has banned, their program manager saying it "desecrates the Spirit of Christmas and transgresses the composer's intent." The story makes national news, but it turns out to be a brilliant publicity stunt - Priddy is back on the air two weeks later, with the station claiming letters were pouring in to support the DJ. As part of the stunt, Priddy recorded the GM calling in to "fire" him for playing the song and played the conversation on his show before he left.
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