28 MAY
In Music History
1955 "The Ballad of Davy Crockett" has four different versions on the charts, including a #1 hit for Bill Hayes. The other three are by Fess Parker, Walter Schumann and Tennessee Ernie Ford.
1955 Elvis Presley makes his first appearance on the Big D Jamboree radio program, broadcast from the Dallas Sportatorium by KRLD.
1949 Wendy O. Williams (lead singer of Plasmatics) is born in Webster, New York.
1948 Ray Laidlaw (drummer for Lindisfarne) is born in Newcastle-on-Tyne, England.
1944 Billy Vera (of Billy Vera & the Beaters) is born William Patrick McCord in Riverside, California.
1944 Country musician Gary Stewart, known for '70s hits like "She's Actin' Single (I'm Drinkin' Doubles)," is born in Jenkins, Kentucky.
1944 Gladys Knight is born in Atlanta, Georgia.
1943 Tony Mansfield (drummer for Billy J. Kramer with the Dakotas) is born Anthony Bookbinder in Salford, Lancashire, England.
1943 Vaughn De Leath, a female crooner who was one of the first artists to record "Are You Lonesome Tonight," dies at age 42.
1941 Country singer Ernest Tubb releases his signature song, "Walking The Floor Over You," and launches the honky tonk genre.
1931 Sonny Burgess, rockabilly guitarist of the Pacers and later The Sun Rhythm Section, made up of former Sun Records' session musicians, is born Albert Austin Burgess of Newport, Arkansas.
1923 Gyorgy Ligeti, a contemporary classical music composer, is born in Transylvania, Romania.
1917 Papa John Creach (violinist of Hot Tuna, Jefferson Starship) is born in Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania.
1910 T-Bone Walker, a pioneer of jump blues and electric blues, is born Aaron Thibeaux Walker in Linden, Texas.
Steve Wozniak Buys the Most Expensive Backstage Pass in History
1983Apple's Steve Wozniak hosts the second US Festival, intending it to be the "Super Bowl of rock." The lineup is even more impressive than that of its 1982 predecessor, and the attendance is substantially larger. Wozniak splurges on David Bowie with two million dollars of his own money, simply because he "really loves him."
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Featured Events
2007 The Police set aside their differences and launch their first tour since 1986 in Vancouver. Despite some bandmember clashes along the way, the tour lasts over a year, selling 3,300,912 tickets in 151 shows.
1996 Dave Gahan of Depeche Mode takes a nasty speedball (cocaine and heroin) and goes into cardiac arrest. Medics manage to kickstart his heart, saving his life.More
1982 Rocky III hits theaters. This one features a new theme song written around a key line of dialogue in the film: "Eye of the Tiger." Sylvester Stallone asked the upstart Chicago band Survivor to write and record the song when he couldn't get permission to use the Queen song "Another One Bites The Dust."
1968 Kylie Minogue is born in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. She becomes a star in her homeland with a role on the soap opera Neighbours, but her music makes her a global icon, with dancefloor-filling hits like "Spinning Around," "Can't Get You Out Of My Head" and "Padam Padam."
1957 The National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (NARAS) is established. They become known for their Grammy Awards, which kicks off in 1958.
1945 John Fogerty is born, but not on the bayou; the Creedence Clearwater Revival leader claims Berkeley, California as his birthplace.More
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