2 SEPTEMBER
In Music History
1957 Steve Porcaro (keyboardist for Toto) is born in Hartford, Connecticut.
1956 Elvis Presley records "When My Blue Moon Turns To Gold Again," "Long Tall Sally," "Old Shep," "Paralyzed," "Too Much," and "Anyplace Is Paradise."
1956 Fritz McIntyre (keyboardist for Simply Red) is born in Birmingham, England.
1953 American composer John Zorn is born in New York City. As a child, he shows an eccentric fascination with sound and avant-garde music that prompts his parents to get him psychologically evaluated.
1951 Mik Kaminski (violinist for Electric Light Orchestra) is born in Harrogate, North Yorkshire, England.
1946 Billy Preston is born in Houston, Texas. He is raised in Los Angeles, California. Aside from being a sought-after session musician for acts like The Beatles and The Rolling Stones, the affable performer with the gap-toothed grin becomes a star in his own right with a number of funky hits throughout the '70s.More
1946 Rocker Marty Grebb (of The Buckinghams) is born in Chicago, Illinois.
1943 Soul/R&B singer Joe Simon is born in Simmesport, Louisiana. Known for the Grammy Award-winning song "The Chokin' Kind" (1969).
1943 R&B singer Rosalind Ashford (of Martha and the Vandellas) is born in Detroit, Michigan.
1940 Teen idol Jimmy Clanton is born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Known for the swamp pop/R&B hits "Just a Dream" (1958) and "Venus in Blue Jeans" (1962).
1939 Soul singer Sam Gooden (of The Impressions) is born in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
1939 R&B singer Bobby Dickey (of James & Bobby Purify) is born in Tallahassee, Florida.
1934 Russ Columbo dies when his friend's antique gun accidentally fires and strikes him in the eye. The 26-year-old singer's friends and family hide the news from his ailing mother, fearing the shock will kill her. Through an elaborate scheme of writing fake letters and using old recordings to simulate live broadcasts, it appears that Columbo is alive and well, but busy. The subterfuge lasts until her death a decade later.
1925 Pianist Russ Conway is born Trevor Herbert Stanford in Bristol, England. Known for hit instrumental singles like "Side Saddle" and "Roulette," both released in 1959.
1925 Hugo Montenegro, orchestra leader and film composer, is born in New York City.
"Jeremy" Wins Big At The VMAs
1993Pearl Jam's "Jeremy" video wins four awards, including Video of the Year, at the MTV Video Music Awards. Pearl Jam responds by not making any more videos until 1998.
Read more2 SEPTEMBER
Featured Events
1995 The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame opens in Cleveland, with opening ceremony performances by Bob Dylan, Chuck Berry, James Brown, Aretha Franklin, Little Richard, Al Green, The Allman Brothers Band, Booker T. & the MG's, Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash, The Pretenders, John Fogerty, Lou Reed, Iggy Pop, George Clinton, The Kinks, John Mellencamp, Bruce Springsteen, The Animals' Eric Burdon, and Boz Scaggs.
1995 Michael Jackson's "You Are Not Alone" becomes the first song to debut at #1 on the Hot 100. In the video, Jackson and his wife, Lisa Marie Presley, appear topless.More
1988 The Human Rights Now! tour to benefit Amnesty International kicks off with a show at Wembley Stadium in London. Performers on the 20-date trek are Youssou N'Dour, Peter Gabriel, Bruce Springsteen, Tracy Chapman and Sting. It is Springsteen's last tour with the E Street band until 1999.
1987 Sonny Bono announces his run for mayor of Palm Springs, California, after running into zoning problems with his restaurant there. He wins and later becomes a congressman.
1982 Fleetwood Mac kick off their Mirage tour in Atlanta. Their opening act is Men at Work, whose debut album Business as Usual is racing up the charts in America. Two weeks after the tour ends in October, Men At Work get their own tour as headliners.
1978 Teddy Pendergrass plays a midnight "For Women Only" concert at Avery Fisher Hall in New York to promote his album Life Is A Song Worth Singing. It's ladies only in the crowd, and they are treated to white chocolate and lollipops. It proves very popular and more women-only shows are held to capitalize on Pendergrass' appeal to the opposite sex.
1976 Grandmaster Flash and The Furious Five become the first rap act to play a theater when they do their first major gig, performing at the Audubon Ballroom in Harlem. They introduce various DJ techniques along with rap interplay and choreography.
1957 Pete Seeger plays "We Shall Overcome" at the Highlander Folk School in Tennessee as part of its 25th anniversary celebration. On hand is Martin Luther King, Jr., who gives the closing speech at the celebration. The song becomes ingrained with the civil rights movement as King and Seeger fight for equality.
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