29 MAY
Featured Events
1997 Jeff Buckley drowns while swimming in Wolf River in Tennessee. The singer/songwriter/guitarist known for his version of "Hallelujah" is 30 years old at the time of his death.More
1996 This item appears in The Guardian: Newly widowed Stella Serth has been convicted of a public order offence in Tasmania. Mrs. Serth has been fined £200 for dancing on her husband's grave and singing "Who's Sorry Now?"
1984 Tina Turner releases Private Dancer, her big comeback album.More
1976 Diana Ross' "Love Hangover" hits #1 in America. It's the first disco hit for Motown Records, which is slow to embrace the sound.
1971 The Rolling Stones' "Brown Sugar" hits the top of the Hot 100 for the first of two weeks.
1969 Crosby, Stills & Nash release their self-titled debut album, lighting a path for '70s bands like America and the Eagles with rich harmonies and mysterious lyrics.More
1961 Melissa Etheridge is born in Leavenworth, Kansas.
29 MAY
In Music History
2021 B.J. Thomas dies of lung cancer at 78. His most popular song is "Raindrops Keep Fallin' On My Head," a #1 US hit in 1970 used in the movie Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid.
2013 Marvin Junior (lead baritone of The Dells) dies from complications of kidney failure at age 77.
2012 Aaron Freeman tells Rolling Stone that he is retiring Gene Ween, the stage name under which he has performed with Ween for nearly two decades. This appears to be the end of Ween, and the members of the now-defunct band begin pursuing other projects.
2010 Justin Bieber, 16, hits #1 with his debut album, My World 2.0, making him the youngest male solo artist to top the chart since 13-year-old Stevie Wonder did it in 1963.
2005 Jazz singer-songwriter Oscar Brown Jr., writer of the popular jazz song "Afro Blue," dies from complications of osteomyelitis at age 78.
1999 Photographers taking shots of old cars wrecked at the bottom of Malibu's Decker Canyon discover the body of Iron Butterfly bassist Philip Kramer, who had gone missing on February 12, 1995. His death is ruled a suicide.
1989 John Cipollina (lead guitarist of Quicksilver Messenger Service) dies at age 45 from Alpha 1-antitrypsin deficiency, a genetic disorder that can lead to several diseases including emphysema, liver disease, lung cancer and COPD.
1989 Elvis Presley's first grandchild, Danielle Riley Keough, is born to Lisa Marie Presley.
1988 Bob Dylan duets with Band drummer Levon Helm on the group's "The Weight" at a Helm show in New York. The duo also perform Chuck Berry's "Nadine."
1984 Comic rap group the Fat Boys release their self-titled debut album. By the end of the '80s, they have four Gold albums (including their debut) and star in the movie Disorderlies.
1983 Kiss play their last concert in their famous makeup; at least until 1996 when they re-form with all original members and painted faces once again.
1983 Van Halen get a record $1.5 million to play Day 2 ("Heavy Metal Day") of Apple founder Steve Wozniak's US Festival, the second and final year of the event. It's the most any act has ever been paid for a single performance.More
1982 "House Of Fun" by Madness hits #1 in the UK. It's the only #1 hit of their career, but they place 17 songs in the Top 10 and 31 in the Top 40.
1977 Goddard Lieberson, who served as president for both Columbia Records (1956-1971; 1973-1975) and the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), dies of cancer at age 66.
1976 Dave Buckner (original drummer for Papa Roach) is born in Los Angeles, California.
Student Protest Gets Queen Song Re-released
1992Concerned that students are identifying with Freddie Mercury, who has recently died of AIDS, the principal at Sacred Heart School in Clifton, New Jersey, doesn't allow 8th graders to perform the Queen song "We Are The Champions" at their graduation ceremony. When students flood the radio station Z100 with requests for the song, it is re-released as a single.
Just a few months before the 8th graders at Sacred Heart School start preparations for their graduation ceremony, Wayne's World hits movie theaters across the US, featuring a head-banging send-up to Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody" that lands the re-released single at #2 on the Hot 100, 17 years after its debut. Starring Mike Myers and Dana Carvey as the rock-obsessed slackers they originated on Saturday Night Live, the movie is one of the most successful films of the year. It also revitalizes US interest in Queen, especially among teens who are eager to hear the rest of the British rockers' catalog, including the 1977 victory anthem "We Are The Champions." Over at Sacred Heart, a conservative Catholic school that boasts "excellent education alongside high moral values," students are furious when Principal Donald Quinlan, protecting the school's moral high ground from the bisexual dead rock star, denies them the right to cap their tenure as champions of the world - or at least of Sacred Heart. "If they wanted to sing 'I'm Popeye the Sailor Man,' that wouldn't be appropriate at a religious graduation," Sacred Heart pastor Julian Varettoni insists to the Associated Press. "This has nothing to do with the lifestyle of the author." The students aren't convinced and invite the group ACT-UP (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power) to protest on campus, where two of the activists are arrested by waiting police. When the students bombard their local radio station with requests for the song, the story becomes a national headline and inspires a re-release as a medley with "We Will Rock You." The single only peaks at #52, but it's a big win for the kids at Sacred Heart, whose graduation ceremony is canceled over the controversy.
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We Are the Champions is a widely used song to celebrate milestones the world over.
Though the Principal later announced that the Lead Singers, the eternal Freddie Mercury’s, life style did not affect his decision, he did say that he thought the kids were indentifying with him.
It was a well known fact, that Freddie Mercury was a wonderful, loving, gentle, generous, man, who became probably the MOST Celebrated Musician in history. I have also read that there is consideration to, posthumously, Knight Freddie Mercury. I think that would be wonderful, and would have pleased Mr. Mercury very much Darlings!! When that does happen, as I think it most likely will, the Principal who snubbed his world renowned, ever popular, SO many years later, song, We are the Champions,will feel a bit silly. Love you Freddie...Always♥️