2008 Darius Rucker, known as the frontman for the '90s pop band Hootie & the Blowfish, hits #1 on the Country chart with his first country single, "Don't Think I Don't Think About It," making him the first African American singer to top that tally since 1985, when Ray Charles hit the top with "Seven Spanish Angels," a duet with Willie Nelson.
2005 Little Big Town gets the last laugh when their second album, The Road to Here, is released and spawns four Top 20 hits on the country chart. It's humble pie for critics who shredded the group and their self-titled debut in 2002.More
2000 Dixie Chicks are the big winners at the CMA Awards, taking Entertainer of the Year, Album of the Year (for Fly), Vocal Group of the Year and Video of the Year for "Goodbye Earl."
1996 That Thing You Do!, a musical film starring its writer/director Tom Hanks, who plays the manager of fictional '60s band The Wonders, is released to US cinemas. The title track to the film was written by Adam Schlesinger, bass player for Fountains of Wayne.More
1986 The popular newsman Dan Rather is attacked by a man who hits him from behind and repeats the phrase "Kenneth, what is the frequency," prompting REM to write the song "What's the Frequency, Kenneth?"
1979 Jimmy Buffett appears on the cover of Rolling Stone ahead of his forthcoming Volcano album. The article details his experience recording the Caribbean-flavored tracks near a dormant volcano at George Martin's AIR Studios in Montserrat.More
2019 The blockbuster film Joker becomes the first film to use "Rock And Roll Part 2" since Gary Glitter's 2015 conviction for pedophilia. Many in the UK, where Glitter's crimes are well-known, are outraged because it earns the disgraced glam rocker substantial royalties.
2019 After being reissued for its 50th anniversary, The Beatles' Abbey Road album returns to #1 in the UK, where it spent 17 weeks in the top spot in 1969 and 1970.
2017 In San Francisco, T-Pain kicks off an acoustic tour, performing his hits without his famous Auto-Tune.
2014 Paul Revere of Paul Revere & the Raiders dies at age 76.
2012 Loudon Wainwright III guest stars as a Texas sheriff on the "Bad Code" episode of the CBS crime drama Person of Interest.
2007 Pitchfork gives Bon Iver's debut album, For Emma, Forever Ago, a positive review (8.1) leading to huge record label interest.
2006 Barbra Streisand's tour-opening performance at Philadelphia's Wachovia Center is the highest single event gross in the 10-year history of the arena. Streisand grosses $5,265,600 from 16,510 attendants.
2005 Exodus releases their seventh studio album, Shovel Headed Kill Machine.
2005 Michael Gibbins (drummer for Badfinger) dies in his sleep in Florida, at age 56.
2005 Nickelback release their fifth album, All The Right Reasons, with the hits "Photograph," "Far Away" and "Rockstar." It goes to #1 in their native Canada and also in the US, where it sells over 10 million copies.
2000 Teenage UK R&B vocalist Craig David wins a record three MasterCard Music of Black Origin (MOBO) Awards at London's Alexandra Palace. He is named Best UK Newcomer and wins awards for Best R&B Act and Best UK Single for "Fill Me In."
1999 Jazz trumpeter Art Farmer dies of a heart attack in Manhattan, New York, at age 71.
1999 15-year-old country music singer Jessica Andrews is honored in her native Carroll County, Tennessee, where she receives the first-ever Youth Achievement Award.
1999 Jimi Hendrix's half-sister Janie announces her plans to exhume the body of her famous brother and move it to a mausoleum where curious onlookers can view it for a price. The public outcry forces her to shelve the idea.
1997 Farm Aid returns to Illinois for the first time since it started in 1985, selling out the New World Music Theater in Tinley Park. Performers include The Dave Matthews Band and Beck.
Janis Joplin is found dead at the Landmark Hotel in Los Angeles after a heroin overdose. She was just 27.
Joplin's road manager, John Cooke, went looking for her when she didn't turn up for a recording session. When there was no answer at her door, he got the key from the front desk and found Joplin dead. The singer had battled heroin addiction and seemed to have it beat, but while recording her Pearl album, she started taking it again in small doses to get her through the sessions. The recordings went well and were nearly finished when Joplin's musicians, the Full Tilt Boogie Band, put down tracks for the last song, "Buried Alive In The Blues." Joplin liked what she heard and planned to do her vocal the next day. Around 11 p.m. on October 3, she and the band grabbed some food and a few drinks at Barney's Beanery, and an hour or so later headed to the Landmark, where they were staying. Joplin was usually on time, so when she didn't show for the session on October 4, her producer, Paul Rothchild, called Cooke, who entered her room around 8 p.m. The time of death is estimated at 1:40 a.m. Joplin died because the heroin she got that night from a local dealer was nearly pure, about 10 times stronger than what she was used to. It's an all-too-common tragedy; Jimi Hendrix died of an overdose just 16 days earlier; in July 1971, Jim Morrison meets a similar fate. All three are 27 when they die. The Pearl album is released on January 12, 1971. "Buried Alive In The Blues" is left on as an instrumental, and "Mercedes Benz," a song Joplin recorded on a lark her last night alive, is included a capella. The album goes to #1 in America, as does the single "Me And Bobby McGee."
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