27 JULY
Featured Events
2007 The Simpsons Movie debuts. Early in the film, Green Day sink into Lake Springfield.
1996 "Wannabe" hits #1 in the UK, making the Spice Girls the first all-female group to top the chart with their debut single.
1984 Prince stars in the film Purple Rain. The movie, in which he plays as an upstart musician who clashes with his band, parallels his life story, but is not strictly autobiographical, and he didn't write or direct it.More
1983 Madonna releases her first album. The self-titled debut doesn't burn up the charts and is derided by Rolling Stone (which calls her voice "irritating as hell"), but gets traction in dance clubs, setting the stage for her breakout second album, Like A Virgin.
1976 Later depicted in the movie What's Love Got to Do with It, Tina Turner files for divorce from her husband Ike. They have been married 16 years.
1958 Esso Oil (formerly Standard Oil, later Exxon), issues a report warning that listening to rock music in the car could waste gas because "the rhythm can cause a driver to unconsciously jiggle the gas petal."
1940 Billboard issues its first chart detailing what records are selling the most copies. Titled "National List of Best Selling Retail Records," it's a precursor to the Hot 100 and the first to count record sales (the existing charts are for sheet music sales, jukebox play and radio plugs). It's not an exact science, as Billboard polls record stores to find out what is selling - a practice that stays in effect until the '90s, when call-a-clerk is replaced with Soundscan technology. The first chart is dominated by big band hits, with "I'll Never Smile Again" by Tommy Dorsey (featuring Frank Sinatra on vocals) at #1 and three songs by Glenn Miller in the Top 10.
27 JULY
In Music History
2021 Dusty Hill of ZZ Top dies at 72, ending a 51-year run where the band's lineup was always Hill, Billy Gibbons and Frank Beard.
2017 Journey members Jonathan Cain, Arnel Pineda and Ross Valory get a tour of the White House and a photo with President Trump in the Oval Office thanks to Cain's wife, Paula, who is chairwoman of Trump's evangelical advisory board and delivered the invocation at his inauguration. The visit doesn't sit well with the band's guitarist, Neal Schon, who blasts Cain on social media and accuses him of using the band to promote his religious views.More
2013 At Gillette Stadium in Boston, Taylor Swift brings out Carly Simon to sing with her on "You're So Vain," which like many of Swift's hits, takes aim at a famous ex. Swift claims that backstage after the show, Simon whispered in her ear the identity of the man she was singing about in "Vain."
2009 A law enforcement official tells The Associated Press that Michael Jackson's personal doctor administered a powerful anesthetic to help him sleep, and authorities believe the drug is what killed the Pop singer.
2006 The company behind file-sharing service Kazaa agrees to pay record labels over $115 million in damages for piracy.
2001 Leon Wilkeson (bass guitarist for Lynyrd Skynyrd) dies in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, from chronic liver and lung disease at age 49.
2001 Saxophonist Harold Land dies from a stroke at age 72.
1999 Jazz trumpeter Harry "Sweets" Edison (of Count Basie's orchestra) dies in Columbus, Ohio, at age 83.
1994 Bob Seger serves jury duty in Michigan and, as the foreman in a criminal trial, finds the defendant guilty.
1993 Steve Vai's third solo album, Sex & Religion, is issued. The release is credited simply to "Vai," and is his first to feature traditional vocals, which were provided by a then-unknown Devin Townsend.
1992 Michael Jackson sues the London tabloid Daily Mirror over claims that too many plastic surgeries have left him permanently disfigured.
1990 "Rockin' Robin" singer Bobby Day dies of cancer in Los Angeles, California, at age 60.
1987 Rick Astley's first single, "Never Gonna Give You Up," is released in America. It climbs to #1 in March 1988, and in 2008 becomes the basis for the Rickrolling trend.
1986 At a Cure concert at The Forum in Inglewood, California, a shirtless man with a cowboy hat goes to the center of the floor section and stabs himself repeatedly with a hunting knife. He survives, and is identified as 38-year-old Jonathan Moreland. He claims he was trying to impress a girl who jilted him.
1986 Nancy Wilson (of Heart) marries screenwriter Cameron Crowe at her sister Ann's home. They remain married until 2010.
There's a Riot Goin' On In Chicago
1970A free concert in Chicago becomes a riot when fans pelt the stage with rocks and bottles before Sly & the Family Stone can go on. The band titles their next album There's a Riot Goin' On.
Chicago has been a flashpoint of civic unrest, especially in 1968 during protests at the Democratic National Convention. The free concert is part of a series set up by the city as a good faith offering. The show is scheduled to start in Grant Park at 4 p.m., but fans show up early in the morning, and many start drinking. By showtime, about 35,000 are in the audience, many inebriated and all dealing with the oppressive heat. Sly & the Family Stone have a history of missing shows, but they're present for this one, waiting to go on after the opening acts. Most of the crowd, though, doesn't know there are opening acts, and many expect another no-show from the band. So when an unknown group called Fat Water takes the stage at 4:15, the crowd grows restless and rumors circulate that Sly & the Family Stone aren't coming. When Fat Water finish their three-song set and the next act, The Flying Burrito Brothers, appear on stage, the crowd hurls projectiles at them, inciting a riot that leaves 162 injured, mostly police officers. The riots spread to nearby areas, with cars set on fire and stores looted. Unlike previous riots in the city, this one isn't motivated by race or politics - it's just dumb misunderstanding. Sly Stone wanted to take the stage to quell the violence, but the mob had disabled the sound system and was already out of control. The next year, the band release their next album and title it There's A Riot Goin' On in reference to the disastrous concert they never got to play.
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