7 OCTOBER
In Music History
1969 Leeroy Thornhill (of The Prodigy) is born in Barking, East London, England.
1968 Thom Yorke (lead singer/songwriter for Radiohead) is born in Wellingborough, Northamptonshire, England.
1967 R&B singer Toni Braxton is born in Severn, Maryland.
1967 Promoter Sid Bernstein, who had promoted The Beatles at their first two Shea Stadium concerts, offers one million dollars to the group, who is retired from the road, to perform a third concert there. They refuse.
1967 After a London hotel accuses The Mamas & The Papas' Cass Elliot of running out on her bill, the singer is jailed overnight and strip-searched, forcing the cancellation of both an upcoming gig and television appearance.
1966 Smiley Lewis, New Orleans R&B musician, dies of stomach cancer at age 53. Originally recorded "One Night," which became a hit for Elvis Presley in 1958.
1966 Johnny Kidd dies in a car accident near Lancashire, England, at age 30.
1965 Manfred Mann become one of the first Western bands to play behind the Iron Curtain when they do a show in Bratislava, Czechoslovakia.
1964 The Beatles appear (on tape) during a special British Invasion-themed episode of the popular ABC-TV variety show Shindig!, performing "Kansas City"/"Hey-Hey-Hey-Hey!," "I'm A Loser" and "Boys."
1960 Elvis Presley records "Flaming Star."
1959 Singer/actor Mario Lanza dies at a weight loss clinic in Rome, possibly from a pulmonary embolism or a massive heart attack (no autopsy was performed). He was 38.
1959 The detective show Hawaiian Eye debuts on ABC with Connie Stevens starring as Cricket Blake. The show lasts four seasons.
1957 The idea of expanding his gospel album into a Christmas album works out well when Elvis Presley's Elvis' Christmas Album earns pre-orders of 500,000 copies, going Gold before it is even released. It eventually becomes the best-selling Christmas album of all time.
1953 Tico Torres (drummer for Bon Jovi) is born Hector Juan Samuel Torres in New York.
1952 The Philadelphia dance show Bandstand, hosted by Bob Horn and later by Dick Clark as American Bandstand, debuts on WFIL-TV.
Rolling Stones Kick Off Most Lucrative Festival Ever
2016The Rolling Stones play the first night of the Desert Trip festival, which also features Bob Dylan, Paul McCartney, Neil Young, Roger Waters and the Who. The six-day (split over two weekends) event rakes in $160 million, making it the highest-earning music festival ever.
Read more7 OCTOBER
Featured Events
2014 The TV series The Wonder Years, which went off the air in 1993, is finally released on DVD. What took so long? The distributor spent years clearing most of the 285 songs that were used on the show, including the theme, Joe Cocker's version of "With A Little Help From My Friends."
1999 Garth Brooks releases an album as "Chris Gaines," a character he created that was intended for a movie. The ruse turns off many fans, and the album is Brooks' first since 1995 that fails to debut at #1, charting behind Creed's Human Clay.
1995 Alanis Morissette's Jagged Little Pill reaches the top of the US albums chart in its 15th week, giving the Maverick label, founded by Madonna, its first #1. Morissette is the fourth female artist to have a debut album reach #1 in the 1990s, following Paula Abdul, Mariah Carey and Toni Braxton.More
1989 Paula Abdul's first album, Forever Your Girl, hits #1 in America. The album was released on June 13, 1988 and first appeared on the chart July 23 that year. It took 64 more weeks to hit the top spot, a record for the longest climb to the top.
1986 The Police release their final single, "Don't Stand So Close To Me '86," and then call it a career. They had hoped to reunite and record another album but injury and conflict lead to Stewart Copeland declaring they can no longer work together.More
1968 Long before the US National Anthem becomes a performance piece, the Puerto Rican singer Jose Feliciano makes waves when he does a slow, jazzy version of the song before Game 5 of the World Series between the Tigers and Cardinals. Among those joining the uproar are Tigers starting pitcher Mickey Lolich, who complains that the overly long rendition screwed up his pregame routine.More
1963 Pete Seeger copyrights "We Shall Overcome." The song dates to the early 1900s, but Seeger adapted it into the well-known version that became a civil rights anthem. He lists three others as songwriters, including two representatives of the Highlander Folk School in Tennessee, where he developed the song. Royalties from the song go to the We Shall Overcome Fund, which supports the school and its outreach efforts.
1951 John Mellencamp is born in Seymour, Indiana. He has Spina bifida, but survives thanks to an experimental surgery performed at Riley Children's Hospital in Indianapolis.More
1939 Judy Garland, 16, records "Over The Rainbow" for the movie The Wizard of Oz.
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