23 MAY
In Music History
1970 Grateful Dead play outside North America for the first time, doing a 4-hour set at the Hollywood Music Festival in England. Mungo Jerry and Steppenwolf are also on the bill.
1970 Paul McCartney's first solo album, the back-to-basics McCartney, hits #1 in America even though it contains no singles.
1967 Phil Selway (drummer for Radiohead) is born in Abingdon-on-Thames, Oxfordshire, England.
1967 Bobby Darin's film Cop-Out, also known as Stranger In The House, debuts in the UK.
1966 After a few months honing their act at the Los Angeles club The London Fog, The Doors play the Whisky a Go Go for the first time, where they become the house band. Their Whisky run gets them lots of exposure and earns them a contract with Elektra Records.
1964 Ella Fitzgerald's cover of The Beatles' "Can't Buy Me Love" enters the UK chart, making her the first outside artist to have a hit with a Beatles song.
1964 Elvis Presley's ninth film, Follow That Dream, opens.
1963 Paul Revere and the Raiders sign their first major label contract with Columbia Records.
1960 The Everly Brothers' "Cathy's Clown" hits #1 in America for the first of five weeks. In the UK, it has been at #1 since May 11, making it the first song to top both charts at the same time.
1953 Rick Fenn (guitarist for 10cc) is born in England.
1952 Rock guitarist Jim Mankey (of Concrete Blonde) is born in Washington.
1947 Bill Hunt (keyboardist and horn player for Electric Light Orchestra) is born in Birmingham, England.
1946 Danny Klein (bassist for The J. Geils Band) is born in The Bronx, New York City.
1946 Ruth Komanoff, the future Ruth Underwood, is born. The percussionist becomes known for her work with Frank Zappa.
1945 Country singer Misty Morgan is born in Buffalo, New York.
The Who Release The Rock Opera Tommy
1969The Who release their album Tommy, a rock opera about a deaf, dumb and blind boy who plays a mean pinball.
Read more23 MAY
Featured Events
2010 Bret Michaels of Poison wins Season 9 of Donald Trump's show The Celebrity Apprentice.
2008 Weezer's video for "Pork and Beans," featuring a number of YouTube stars, makes its debut.More
2007 The US Library of Congress hands out the first Gershwin Award to Paul Simon for being a "performer whose lifetime contributions exemplify the standard of excellence associated with the Gershwins."
2006 Dixie Chicks release Taking the Long Way, their seventh studio album. It goes on to win five Grammy Awards.
2000 A Perfect Circle release their debut album, Mer de Noms. In addition to Maynard James Keenan of Tool, the group features guitarist Billy Howerdel and drummer Josh Freese, who had been working on the Chinese Democracy album for Guns N' Roses. Mer de Noms racks up worldwide sales of well over 2 million; Chinese Democracy doesn't appear until 2008.
1997 Country singers LeAnn Rimes and Trisha Yearwood release separate versions of the Diane Warren-penned ballad "How Do I Live" on the same day.More
1979 Responding to a wave of lawsuits after refusing to transfer his contract to MCA Records, Tom Petty files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, a bold move that halts the legal proceedings and forces MCA to negotiate.More
1974 Jewel Kilcher is born in Payson, Utah. Raised in Homer, Alaska, she rises to fame using just the name Jewel. Her debut album, Pieces Of You, released in 1995 when she's 20, catches on a year later thanks to the hits "Who Will Save Your Soul" and "You Were Meant For Me." It sells over 12 million copies and moves Jewel into the upper echelon of singer-songwriters.
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