Pick a Day

28 JANUARY

In Music History

1985 Lionel Richie hosts the American Music Awards, where he wins five of the eight awards he's nominated for, including Favorite Pop/Rock Male Artist. He can't slow down: After the show, he heads to A&M Recording Studios to record "We Are The World," which he wrote with Michael Jackson.

1985 Jimmy Buffett opens his first Margaritaville retail store, named for his 1977 hit, in Key West. It sells beach-inspired apparel like Caribbean Soul t-shirts and flip-flops.

1984 Thanks to a ban by the BBC, "Relax," the debut single from Frankie Goes to Hollywood, hits #1 in the UK. In America, the #1 song is "Owner Of A Lonely Heart" by Yes. Both songs are produced by Trevor Horn, making him the first producer with #1s simultaneously in both territories with different acts.

1984 The legendary Nina Simone tells NME she was forced to record her 1978 album Baltimore under duress when she was kidnapped by five men and held in a basement for three days without food or water. She retracts the statement later.

1983 English pop singer Billy Fury, known for hit singles like 1961's "Halfway to Paradise," dies of a heart attack at age 42. Fury's heart was damaged when contracted rheumatic fever as a child.

1982 Jackson Browne's second child - a son named Ryan - is born. The mother is Lynne Sweeney, an Australian model and Browne's second wife. Ryan becomes a musician, performing in the band Sonny & the Sunsets.

1980 Nick Carter of Backstreet Boys is born in Jamestown, New York. He is just 13 when he joins the boy band in 1993.

1978 By request, Ted Nugent carves his autograph into the arm of a fan using his bowie knife.

1977 Joey Fatone (of 'N Sync) is born in Brooklyn, New York, where he grows up in the Bensonhurst neighborhood.

1976 R&B singer Raphael "Tweet" Brown (of Next) is born in Minnesota.

1969 Stevie Wonder releases "My Cherie Amour."

1968 DJ Muggs of Cypress Hill is born Lawrence Muggerud in Queens, New York.

1968 Rakim, of the hip-hop duo Eric B. & Rakim, is born William Michael Griffin Jr. in Wyandanch, Long Island, New York.

1968 Jim Morrison (of The Doors) is arrested after threatening a security guard at an adult movie theater.

1968 During their tour in Australia, members of The Who and The Small Faces, among others, are escorted off their flight from Adelaide to Essendon for drinking beer on the plane, being rowdy, and using "very bad language." Two of the flight's four attendants are said to be in tears.