9 JULY
Featured Events
2009 In an article published in The Guardian, "Hallelujah" writer Leonard Cohen admits the song is overplayed. "I think it's a good song, but I think too many people sing it," he says.
1995 At Soldier Field in Chicago, the Grateful Dead play their last show with Jerry Garcia, who dies a month later.
1977 The Steve Miller Band hits #8 in the US with "Jet Airliner," a song written by the blind folk singer Paul Pena.
1975 Jack White (lead singer, guitarist for The White Stripes) is born John Anthony Gillis in Detroit, Michigan. He takes the name "White" when he marries his bandmate, Meg White.
1968 David Ruffin is fired from The Temptations after missing a show. The lead singer on their hits "My Girl" and "Ain't Too Proud To Beg," Ruffin clashes with his bandmates and with Motown head Berry Gordy before he is fired.
1956 In the broadcast equivalent of Lou Gehrig taking over for Wally Pipp at first base, Dick Clark replaces Bob Horn as host of the TV show Bandstand, which runs on the Philadelphia TV station WFIL. The show goes national the next year, with Clark hosting it until 1989.
1955 Bill Haley & His Comets' "Rock Around The Clock" becomes the first Rock song to hit #1 on the Billboard Pop chart, where it stays for eight weeks. The song was originally released as a the B-side of "Thirteen Women," but became a massive hit after it appeared in the film Blackboard Jungle.More
9 JULY
In Music History
2019 After years of animosity that kept Ann and Nancy Wilson apart, Heart regroup for their Love Alive tour, which kicks off with a show in St. Louis. Support acts are all women: Joan Jett, Sheryl Crow, Brandi Carlile and Elle King.
2017 The radio station Mansfield 103.2 in England is hijacked by a transmitter hacker who engages in some monkeyshines, saying, "I'm a w--ker, I'm a w--ker" in a Nottinghamshire accent before playing the "The Winker's Song (Misprint)" by Ivor Biggun, a paean to self-pleasure that repeats the phrase over and over.More
2012 Soul singer Linda "Kay Kay" Greenwade (of Kay Kay and the Rays) dies at age 56 after a long period of ill health, including diabetes and a brain tumor.
2011 Matt Bellamy of Muse and his fiancé Kate Hudson welcome a baby boy named Bingham. Hudson had a boy with Black Crowes frontman Chris Robinson seven years earlier; she and Bellamy call off their engagement in 2014.
2006 Milan B. Williams (keyboardist for The Commodores) dies of cancer at age 58.
2003 Buzzcocks play Madison Square Garden for the first time ever in their career, opening for Pearl Jam.
2001 During an appearance on MTV's TRL, four of the Backstreet Boys announce their Black & Blue tour will be put on hold so their fifth member, AJ McLean, can enter rehab to treat alcoholism and depression.
1999 Avoiding a legal battle over whether or not they were ever legally married (they had a ceremony in Bali in 1991), Mick Jagger and Jerry Hall reach a settlement, calling their split an annulment.
1996 Thirteen-year-old LeAnn Rimes releases her debut album, Blue, and wows critics with the hits "Blue" and "One Way Ticket (Because I Can)."More
1995 Hootie & the Blowfish play the first-ever concert at the Meadows Music Theater in Hartford, Connecticut, drawing a crowd of 17,000.
1981 The ABC News show 20/20 runs a story called "Rappin' To The Beat," becoming the first national TV news magazine to cover rap music. "You never miss the fact there's no melody," Hugh Downs says in his introduction. "It's all beat and talk." The coverage suggests rap may be more than just a passing fad.
1978 Andy Gibb and his brothers, the Bee Gees, perform together for the first time when Barry, Robin and Maurice join him at his concert in Miami to sing his hit "Shadow Dancing," which they wrote together.
1977 Alan O'Day's "Undercover Angel" hits #1. It will hold the position for one week.
1977 Elvis Costello quits his job at cosmetics factory to pursue a music career.
1974 Rush sign a deal with Mercury Records, who are impressed by their debut album, a self-titled independent release with the track "Working Man."
Cheap Trick Make A Comeback With "The Flame"
1988Cheap Trick, hitless since the '70s, go to #1 in America with "The Flame," joining the power ballad party of the late '80s.
After a string of hits in the '70s, Cheap Trick fell out of favor in the '80s, with declining sales figures for each album. To get back on the charts, they went through demos looking for a hit. It came down to "The Flame" and "Look Away." They went with "The Flame"; Chicago took "Look Away." Released on their album Lap Of Luxury, "The Flame" shoots to the top, just like so many power ballads of the time recorded by established rockers ("Angel" by Aerosmith, "Love Bites" by Def Leppard...). The band is happy to be back in the spotlight, but not thrilled with how they got there. "They were all pretty sickening," Cheap Trick drummer Bun E. Carlos says of the power ballads. "But it was a trend – they came and then they went."
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