2 DECEMBER
In Music History
1970 Treach (of the hip-hop trio Naughty by Nature) is born Anthony Criss in East Orange, New Jersey.
1969 An intruder kidnaps Cindy Birdsong of The Supremes and forces her to tie up her two companions and get in a car with him. Birdsong escapes by jumping out of the car, and the man is arrested four days later in a bizarre case that makes national headlines. The intruder turned out to be a maintenance man at Birdsong's apartment building.
1969 In Bristol, England, George Harrison joins the Delaney & Bonnie and Friends tour as a guitarist, making this the first tour of a Beatle since 1966.
1969 On the way to their fateful Altamont concert of December 6, The Rolling Stones stop at Muscle Shoals Sound Studios in Alabama, where they spend three days recording the songs "Wild Horses," "You Gotta Move" and "Brown Sugar."
1968 Rapper Danny Boy (of House Of Pain) is born Daniel O'Connor in Brooklyn, New York.
1968 Cruising with Ruben & the Jets, the fourth studio album of the Mothers of Invention, is released.
1968 Nate Mendel (bassist for Foo Fighters) is born in Richland, Washington.
1967 The Monkees' "Daydream Believer" hits #1 in America for the first of four weeks.
1967 The Monkees' Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn and Jones album hits #1 in America.
1963 Connie Francis records "In The Summer Of His Years," which was inspired by the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
1962 Andy Williams records "Can't Get Used To Losing You."
1961 Elvis Presley fills in an automobile insurance form. He lists a 1950 Chevy one-ton truck, a pink 1955 Cadillac Sedan, a 1958 Harley-Davidson and a 1960 Rolls-Royce.
1961 The Beach Boys earn their first airplay when the Los Angeles radio station KFWB plays their song "Surfin'."
1960 Rick Savage (bass guitarist for Def Leppard) is born in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England.
1957 Sam Cooke's "You Send Me" hits #1 for the first of three weeks.
"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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