30 SEPTEMBER
In Music History
1997 Randy Travis becomes the first artist to ink a deal with DreamWorks Records Nashville. His signing instantly raises the stock of the new country label.
1997 Patty Loveless releases Long Stretch of Lonesome.
1997 U2 cause controversy during its show in Tel Aviv, Israel, with frontman Bono appealing for the release from imprisonment of nuclear secrets traitor Mordechai Vanunu.
1997 Fleetwood Mac's reunion show at the Continental Airlines Arena in East Rutherford, New Jersey, grosses a house record of $1,094,520.
1991 Liza Minnelli receives a star on Hollywood's Walk of Fame at 7000 Hollywood Blvd. Her mother, Judy Garland, has three stars on the famous boulevard.
1989 Neil Young performs "Rockin' In The Free World" on Saturday Night Live.
1988 John Lennon is awarded a posthumous star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1750 Vine St.
1987 Fleetwood Mac open their Shake The Cage Tour in Kansas City, Missouri, but without Lindsey Buckingham, a key contributor to the album they're touring behind, Tango In The Night. Buckingham, who had a falling out with the group the previous month, is replaced by Billy Burnette and Rick Vito. He doesn't return to the group until 1997.
1984 T-Pain, known for his Auto-Tuned productions, is born Faheem Najm in Tallahassee, Florida.
1982 Bruce Springsteen releases Nebraska, an album made up of tunes Bruce recorded on a 4-track tape machine in his home studio.
1978 Exile's "Kiss You All Over" hits #1 on the Hot 100, where it stays for four weeks. The group doesn't place another song higher than #40 ("You Thrill Me"), but returns as a country act in the '80s and score 10 Country chart-toppers.
1977 Mary Ford dies after eight weeks in a diabetic coma in Arcadia, California, at age 53.
1971 Isaac Hayes releases "Theme From Shaft."
1967 BBC Radio One goes on the air. The first song played is "Flowers In The Rain" by The Move.
1965 Donovan appears on US television for the first time when he shows up on Shindig.
James Dean Dies While Rock Is Born
1955James Dean is killed in a car accident at age 24. Dean dies around the same time rock and roll comes alive (the #1 song the day he dies: Pat Boone's cover of "Ain't That A Shame" - clearly America is at a crossroads).
Read more30 SEPTEMBER
Featured Events
2016 Mary J. Blige debuts her Apple Music talk show, The 411, and welcomes Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton as her first guest. Halfway through the intimate conversation, Blige bursts into a rendition of Bruce Springsteen's protest anthem "American Skin (41 Shots)" in a bid to address the rash of police brutality against African Americans. The attempt falls flat with viewers, who heckle the singer on social media.More
1998 On The Drew Carey Show episode "In Ramada Da Vida," Slash, Lisa Loeb, Dusty Hill of ZZ Top, Dave Mustaine, Jonny Lang, Joey Ramone, Joe Walsh and Cheap Trick guitarist Rick Nielsen audition for Drew's band, which has a gig at the Ramada Inn. Walsh gets the job.
1995 Mariah Carey's "Fantasy" becomes just the second single to debut at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 (the first was Michael Jackson's "You Are Not Alone"). It stays at the top spot for eight weeks.
1993 George Harrison and David Crosby play their animated selves on the Season 5 premiere of The Simpsons, "Homer's Barbershop Quartet."
1989 Bette Midler is awarded $400,000 in her lawsuit against the Ford Motor Company, which had her former backing singer Ula Hedwig sing Midler's hit "Do You Want To Dance" in a 1985 commercial for the Mercury Sable. The verdict means that companies can't purposely imitate the vocals of a famous singer in advertisements without consent.
1987 Roy Orbison's comeback picks up speed at a Los Angeles concert filmed for the Cinemax special Roy Orbison and Friends, A Black and White Night. Bruce Springsteen, Tom Waits, Elvis Costello, Jackson Browne, and J.D. Souther all perform at the show, which is fittingly filmed in black and white.
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