4 JULY
Featured Events
2008 The movie Mamma Mia!, featuring the music of ABBA and based on the musical, opens in Sweden where the group attends the screening, briefly reuniting Benny Andersson, Bjorn Ulvaeus, Anni-Frid Lyngstad, and Agnetha Faltskog.More
1999 Victoria Adams, better known as Posh Spice of The Spice Girls, marries the soccer star David Beckham. The photogenic couple draw lots of press coverage and become known as "Posh and Becks."
1987 John Fogerty headlines a Vietnam veterans' benefit concert at the Capital Center in Landover, Maryland broadcast by HBO. Performers include Neil Diamond, Stevie Wonder and Kris Kristofferson.More
1982 Ozzy Osbourne and his manager, Sharon Arden, get married. She is the daughter of music mogul Don Arden, and a keen businesswoman. The union results in an MTV reality show, Ozzfest, and three children: Aimee, Kelly and Jack.
1982 Neil Diamond sees the movie E.T. along with the songwriters Burt Bacharach and Carole Bayer Sager. That night, they write the song "Heartlight" based on the film.
1970 Casey Kasem debuts the radio show American Top 40, where he counts down the Billboard hits (the #1 song: "Mama Told Me (Not to Come)" by Three Dog Night). He hosts the show until 2004, when Ryan Seacrest takes over.More
1964 The Beach Boys score their first #1 hit as "I Get Around" tops the Hot 100, where it stays for two weeks.
4 JULY
In Music History
2023 At his show in Las Vegas, Usher cozies up to the actress Keke Palmer while singing "There Goes My Baby." It blows up on social media and causes a rift with her boyfriend, Darius Jackson. In August, Palmer stars in Usher's video for "Boyfriend," poking fun at the controversy.
2020 On Twitter, Kanye West announces he's running for president. He forms his own political party, the "Birthday Party," telling supporters, "When we win, it's everybody's birthday."
2015 Ariana Grande licks some donuts on a display counter at Wolfee Donuts in Lake Elsinore, California.More
2014 Sia, the hit songwriter behind Rihanna's "Diamonds" and David Guetta's "Titanium," releases her album 1000 Forms Of Fear, which goes to #1 in America. For a "layer of protection," she wears a wig that covers her face while promoting the album and doesn't appear in the videos for the singles "Chandelier" and "Elastic Heart," which instead feature interpretive dancing by Maddie Ziegler.
2014 The first Beatles movie, A Hard Day's Night, is re-released in American theaters to celebrate its 50th anniversary.
2013 Jay-Z releases his twelfth studio album, Magna Carta... Holy Grail, as a free download, but only for Samsung customers who can access it through the Jay-Z Magna Carta app. Non-Samsung users will have to tough it out and buy the album at retail price four days later.
2010 After attending a gay pride parade in London, George Michael crashes his Range Rover into a Snappy Snaps photo store in Hampstead, England. Convicted of driving under the influence of cannabis, he goes to prison on September 21 and serves four weeks.
2009 Drake Levin (guitarist for Paul Revere and the Raiders) dies of cancer at age 62.
2009 Allen Klein, an influential music publisher who simultaneously managed The Rolling Stones and The Beatles, dies of respiratory failure at age 77 after years of diabetes-related complications and an Alzheimer's diagnosis.
2007 Bill Pinkney (of The Drifters) dies of a heart attack at age 81.
2005 Rockabilly entertainer "Big" Al Downing dies of leukemia at age 65.
2003 Barry White, age 58, dies two months after suffering a severe stroke while awaiting a kidney transplant.
2002 Michael Abram, the man who attacked and nearly murdered George Harrison some 19 months earlier, is given a conditional release by a Mental Health Review Tribunal, to the fury of George's widow, Olivia. Says Abram: "If I could turn back the clock I would give anything not to have done what I did. But I have come to realise that I was very ill at that time, really not in control."
1995 Foo Fighters release their self-titled debut album. It's essentially a Dave Grohl solo project - he wrote, produced, and played all the instruments except for some guitar on "X-Static" by Greg Dulli.
1995 Post Malone is born Austin Richard Post in Syracuse, New York. Raised in Grapevine, Texas, from age 9, he's living in Los Angeles when his song "White Iverson" takes off on SoundCloud in 2015 and launches him to stardom.
"Baby Got Back" Hits #1
1992The king of all booty songs, Sir Mix-A-Lot's Baby Got Back," hits #1 in America.
An L.A. face with an Oakland booty? Can't beat that, although you wouldn't think so from watching movies and TV, where the voluptuous African-American female form isn't exactly celebrated. "They either played prostitutes or maids," Mix-A-Lot says. "I wanted to talk about it, and that's what 'Baby Got Back' is really about." Sex symbols of the era are the likes of Kim Basinger and Michelle Pfeiffer, but they don't have that bubble. There's also Pamela Anderson, but silicone parts are made for toys. Rappers like LL Cool J have been singing the praises of natural women with big behinds, but Mix-A-Lot shakes the foundation with four simple words: "I like big butts!" Just as John Lennon tucked a deep meaning inside a sweet melody in "Imagine," Mix-A-Lot embedded his message in an irresistible beat. But the Seattle rapper has something Lennon didn't: MTV. The video, opening with two valley girls disparaging (but clearly envious of) a woman with a fine behind, explodes on the network, proving that it's not just rappers who are interested in girls with an itty bitty waist and a round thing in your face. Much of the song deals with Mix-A-Lot chasing the booty, but along the way he challenges the beauty ideals set forth in magazines like Playboy and Cosmopolitan, and encourages women to show off their assets with pride. A raft of booty songs follow in the wake of "Baby Got Back." There's "Rump Shaker," "Bootylicious," and "Honky Tonk Badonkadonk" (even white boys got to shout). These songs reflect a culture that now values big behinds, especially on social media, where Kim Kardashian is a breakout star. Mix-A-Lot's dream girl in the song is Florence Griffith Joyner ("Flo Jo"), an Olympic sprinter known for her dazzling speed, outrageously long fingernails, and packed posterior. Decades later Mix-A-Lot cites Serena Williams as having the kind of curves exemplified in this song. Flo Jo made the cover of Sports Illustrated, but Serena also lands in the fashion magazines, gracing to covers of Essence, Glamour and Vogue. Big butts are the thing, and we have Mix-A-Lot to thank for it.
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