3 DECEMBER
Featured Events
2015 Scott Weiland dies at age 48 when he suffers cardiac arrest on his tour bus in Bloomington, Minnesota, where his band The Wildabouts are scheduled to perform.More
2015 A live adaptation of The Wiz airs on NBC. Based on the book (but not the film) The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, The Wiz began as a stage production in 1975, and was made into a movie (with Michael Jackson and Diana Ross) in 1978.More
1994 Adam Sandler performs "The Chanukah Song" on the Weekend Update segment of Saturday Night Live, enlightening us to the fact that Harrison Ford, Paul Newman and David Lee Roth (among many others) are, in fact, Jewish. Released as a single the following year, the song reaches #10 US and becomes a seasonal favorite.More
1990 Madonna appears on the news program Nightline, where she debuts her video for "Justify My Love," which MTV has refused to play. As the lascivious clip plays, Madonna provides commentary, answering questions from host Forrest Sawyer.More
1979 Before The Who concert at Riverfront Coliseum in Cincinnati, 11 people are trampled to death and dozens are injured in a rush to enter the arena. Like many concerts of the day, there are no reserved seats, a practice known as "festival seating." The resulting controversy (and lawsuits) force promoters to rethink the practice.More
1968 A TV special simply called Elvis airs on NBC, drawing a huge audience and revitalizing the career of Elvis Presley. Footage from two June concerts makes up most of the special, which pays tribute to Bobby Kennedy with the closing number, "If I Can Dream."
1947 Patti Page records her first hit single, "Confess." Unable to find background singers due to a strike, Mercury Records sound engineer Bill Putnam overdubs Page's own vocals. It's the first-ever recording with overdubbed vocals.
3 DECEMBER
In Music History
2022 SZA performs two cuts from her album SOS on Saturday Night Live, but it's a song called "Cuffing Season" in the skit "Big Boys" - a celebration of hefty boyfriends - that takes off of TikTok.
2017 LL Cool J, 49, becomes the youngest person to receive a Kennedy Center Honor, and the first rapper to do so.
2016 Thanks to a spike in sales following his death, Leonard Cohen's original version of "Hallelujah" enters the Hot 100 at #59, giving Cohen his first entry on the chart.
2015 Crosby, Stills & Nash, which formed in 1968, finally implode at the White House National Christmas Tree Lighting concert when Stephen Stills throws a pick at David Crosby for talking over him. They get though a performance of "Silent Night," but never play together again.
2014 A fake MSNBC report claims that Guns N' Roses frontman Axl Rose has been found dead in his West Hollywood home. The band's official Facebook page posts photos of the singer with the caption "Ha! They say I'm dead -- again… Wait, what? WTF? It's a hoax. Guys. Get a life at ParadiseCity.com." The link references the band's online fan community.
2014 Ian McLagan (keyboardist for Small Faces, Faces) dies of a stroke at age 69.
2014 Graeme Goodall, an Australian recording engineer and co-founder of Island Records, dies at age 82.
2014 Sonny Bivins, leader of The Manhattans, dies at age 78.
2005 Josh Homme of Queens Of The Stone Age marries Brody Dalle of The Distillers. They have three children before splitting up in 2019; much of the 2023 QOTSA album In Times New Roman... deals with their messy divorce.
2000 Kevin Mills, Newsboys' former bassist, is killed in a motorbike accident. He was 32.
1992 Mick Jagger and Keith Richards confirm the rumors that Bill Wyman, their bass player since 1962, will be leaving The Rolling Stones.
1988 Carole King and Gerry Goffin receive a Lifetime Achievement award from the US National Academy of Songwriters.
1984 "Do They Know It's Christmas?," the first charity single on a grand scale, is released in the UK with proceeds going to help famine victims in Ethiopia. It becomes the biggest-selling single in UK history, a record that stands until 1997 when it's overtaken by Elton John's updated version of "Candle In The Wind." The single is released in America a week later.
1983 Songwriter Irving Taylor dies in Los Angeles. He co-wrote "Everybody Loves Somebody," which later became a hit for Dean Martin.
1981 At a show in Hartford, Connecticut, AC/DC is prohibited from firing their cannons during "For Those About To Rock (We Salute You)," as police enforce an ordinance banning stage weaponry.
Rudolph Gets A TV Special
1964The animated TV special Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer debuts on CBS, with Burl Ives as the voice of Sam the Snowman. The special is based on the 1949 song, which has become a perennial favorite.
The Rudolph story dates back to 1939, when a copywriter at Montgomery Ward department stores created a book called Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer that was given away to children at Christmastime. In the book, Santa discovers Rudolph one foggy Christmas Eve when he's making his rounds, stumbling through the dark. He's there to deliver presents to Rudolph, but commandeers him for sleigh duty when he sees his glowing nose. In 1949, the songwriter Johnny Marks turned Rudolph into a song, which Gene Autry recorded. The "singing cowboy" wasn't thrilled about doing a children's tune, but it sure shined his spurs when the song shot to #1 in America and became a seasonal favorite. 1960 was a big year for "Rudolph" covers: The Chipmunks, The Melodeers, and Paul Anka all hit the chart with their renditions. But this reindeer really takes flight with the 1964 TV special. Created with stop-motion animation by the team of Rankin/Bass, this Rudolph is part of a team of reindeer who aspire to one day pull Santa's sleigh. As in the book, the other reindeer make fun of his red nose and won't let him play in any reindeer games. Despondent, he runs off to the Island Of Misfit Toys, where he discovers a motley collection of malformed playthings that can't find homes with children. Rudolph returns home just in time to save Christmas by lighting the way for Santa's sleigh. Like a good action hero, he gets the doe (Clarice) and becomes the alpha deer. The special is a huge hit and becomes a holiday tradition passed down through generations, retaining its furry charm as the world becomes more hectic and computerized. More Rankin/Bass holiday specials follow, notably Frosty The Snowman and The Year Without A Santa Claus. Rudolph stands as the ultimate underdog story, reminding us to embrace our our quirks and differences, and never look down on a glowing nose.
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