15 JULY
In Music History
1989 200,000 people turn out for a free Pink Floyd concert in Venice, Italy.
1986 The city of El Cerrito, California, declares this day to be John Fogerty Day in honor of one of their hometown heroes.
1986 Columbia Records, Johnny Cash's home for 28 years, drops the singer from its roster of artists.
1983 The Saturday Night Fever sequel Staying Alive debuts in theaters, starring John Travolta. The Bee Gees also return for the soundtrack, introducing five new songs, including "The Woman In You."More
1982 Bill Justis of "Raunchy" fame dies of cancer at age 55.
1980 Linda Ronstadt makes a well-received dramatic debut in Joseph Papp's production of Gilbert and Sullivan's Pirates of Penzance in New York's Central Park, setting off a "Pirates" fad that lasts for the next three years.
1979 Punk rocker Rick Garberson (drummer for Bizarros) dies of a presumed suicide via carbon-monoxide poisoning.
1978 The Rolling Stones' Some Girls album hits #1 in America.
1973 At a festival concert in White City, London, a visibly distraught Ray Davies, newly separated from his wife, announces on stage that he's retiring from show business, leaves the concert, and checks into a local hospital for exhaustion. (A week later, he will return to the band.)
1972 Elton John lands his first #1 album in America as Honky Chateau blasts to the top thanks to the hit "Rocket Man." His next five albums also enter that orbit, going to #1.
1968 The Beatles' new enterprise, Apple, enters its new corporate headquarters on 3 Savile Row, London, later the site of their famous "rooftop concert."
1959 Perry Como re-records his hit Christmas song "(There's No Place Like) Home For The Holidays" for his album Season's Greetings from Perry Como. This version features the Mitchell Ayres Orchestra and the Ray Charles Singers.
1958 John Lennon's mother, Julia, is killed when she's hit by a car driven by an off-duty police officer. Lennon, 17 at the time, later writes the songs "Julia" and "Mother" about her.
1956 Joe Satriani is born in Westbury, New York.
1956 Marky Ramone (drummer for The Ramones) is born Marc Steven Bell in Brooklyn, New York.
Bret Michaels Looks For His Rock Of Love
2007After getting favorable ratings for their unruly reality series Flavor of Love, featuring hip-hop legend Flavor Flav, VH1 decides to cash in on a bygone era of rock n' roll with a similar spectacle called Rock of Love, starring one the biggest names in hair metal: Bret Michaels of Poison.
Read more15 JULY
Featured Events
2016 As he's done since 1972, Alice Cooper announces he's running for president, this time with the campaign slogan "A Troubled Man for Troubled Times." His platform includes "Adding Lemmy to Mount Rushmore" and "Getting Brian Johnson back in AC/DC." He loses to Donald Trump, but gains more exposure for his song "Elected."More
2012 The "Gangnam Style" video is posted to YouTube; we are powerless to resist.More
2009 45 years after he played at the Ed Sullivan Theater with The Beatles, Paul McCartney returns to the venue to appear on The Late Show With David Letterman. Earlier in the day, McCartney plays a few songs from the theater's marquee, surprising the onlookers in Manhattan.
1986 Run-DMC's Raising Hell becomes the first rap album certified Platinum.
1978 Bob Dylan performs at the biggest open-air concert in history for a solo artist, playing for over 200,000 at "The Picnic at Blackbushe" at Blackbushe Airport in Hampshire, England.
1962 Héctor Angulo, a Cuban student attending the Manhattan School of Music, plays the song "Guantanamera" for Pete Seeger during the Folk Festival of the Catskills at Camp Woodland in Phoenicia, New York, where Angulo is working as a counselor for the summer. Seeger learns the song and adds it to his repertoire, introducing it to American audiences.
1946 Linda Ronstadt is born in Tucson, Arizona. Her music career starts as lead singer of the folk trio the Stone Poneys.
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