24 FEBRUARY
In Music History
1997 Spice Girls win Brit Awards for Best Single ("Wannabe") and Best Video ("Say You'll Be There"). Geri Halliwell wears a skin-tight Union Jack dress when they perform at the ceremony, introducing her signature look.
1995 Dave Matthews Band make their first appearance on national TV when they perform the hit "What Would You Say" on the Late Show with David Letterman.
1994 James Taylor appears on the "Deep Space Homer" episode of The Simpsons.
1994 Singer/actress Dinah Shore dies at age 77 of cachexia (or wasting syndrome), a complication of her ovarian cancer.
1993 Tom Waits's stripped-down, raw, nearly primeval Bone Machine wins a Grammy Award for Best Alternative Rock Album.
1991 Honky tonk entertainer Webb Pierce dies of pancreatic cancer at age 69. Known for the 1955 chart-topper "In The Jailhouse Now."
1990 Johnnie Ray, one of the most popular singers of the early '50s, dies of liver failure at age 63.
1988 At a concert in Phoenix, Alice Cooper claims he is running for governor of Arizona, representing the "Wild Party." (A special election was being held to replace Evan Mecham, who had been impeached.) Cooper's slogan: "A troubled man for troubled times."
1988 American bluesman Memphis Slim dies in Paris.
1987 Fats Domino, Ray Charles and B.B. King win Lifetime Achievement Awards at the Grammy Awards.
1987 Bruce Hornsby & the Range take home the Grammy award for Best New Artist, winning over Glass Tiger, Nu Shooz, Simply Red, and Timbuk3.
1985 David Crosby escapes from Fair Oaks Hospital in New Jersey, where he has been sentenced to drug rehab. The next day, he is caught in Greenwich Village and arrested for cocaine possession.
1981 Rick Springfield releases his breakthrough album Working Class Dog, with the #1 hit "Jessie's Girl." The pooch on the cover is his bull terrier Ronnie.
1981 Peter Noone (of Herman's Hermits) and Stephen Bishop guest star on the Laverne & Shirley episode "I Do, I Do."
1975 Led Zeppelin releases Physical Graffiti.
Elton John Gets The Royal Treatment
1998Elton John is knighted by Queen Elizabeth II during a ceremony at Buckingham Palace.
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1993 Eric Clapton wins big at the Grammy Awards, taking three awards for "Tears In Heaven," two more for his album Unplugged, and Best Rock Song for his acoustic version of "Layla."
1992 Balloting begins to decide the design on the new Elvis stamp. The choice is between a fit '50s Elvis or a more plump '70s one. Young Elvis wins in a landslide.More
1992 Kurt Cobain of Nirvana and Courtney Love of Hole are married in Hawaii, with a non-denominational, female minister conducting the ceremony.
1990 At the Universal Amphitheatre in Los Angeles, The Byrds' David Crosby, Roger McGuinn, and Chris Hillman reunite for a tribute concert honoring the recently deceased Roy Orbison and raising money to support the homeless, a cause Orbison was passionate about. Bob Dylan, Emmylou Harris, John Fogerty and Bonnie Raitt are also on the bill; the concert is later broadcast as a Showtime special.
1976 The Eagles' Their Greatest Hits (1971–1975) becomes the first album certified Platinum by the RIAA, a designation introduced in 1975.
1973 Roberta Flack's "Killing Me Softly With His Song" hits #1 for the first of five weeks, a longer run than any other song of 1973. It was written by Charles Fox and Norman Gimbel, the guys who wrote the theme songs to Happy Days and Laverne & Shirley.
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