02 January – Today in Music History

1905 Composer Michael Tippett – known for the 1955 opera The Midsummer Marriage, among many other notable works – is born in Cornwall, England. 
1926 The first issue of The Melody Maker went on sale priced at 3d. The monthly magazine was for ‘all who are interested in the production of popular music’. In the first issue, Dance Band news, a feature on Ukuleles and how to read music by sight. 
1930 Pop singer Julius LaRosa – known for ’50s hits like “Anywhere I Wander” and “Eh Cumpari” – is born in Brooklyn, New York. He died of natural causes on May 12, 2016, at age 86.
1936 Roger Miller born in Fort Worth, Texas. US Country Singer/Songwriter. 1965 UK No.1 & US No.4 single ‘King Of The Road.’ The Proclaimers had the UK No.9 hit with their version of ‘King Of The Road.’ Roger died 25/10/91.
1941 The Andrews Sisters release “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy.” 
1942 Chick Churchill (Michael George Churchill) born in Ilkeston, Derbyshire. UK Keyboard Player with Ten Years After, 1970 UK No.10 single ‘Love Like A Man.’ 
1946 Grantley Dee (Grantley De Zoeta) born in Melbourne, Victoria. Australian DJ & Pop Singer.
1950 Sam Phillips opens the Memphis Recording Service, which he will later rename Sun Studio. Among the artists to record there is Elvis Presley, who gets his start recording with Phillips. 
1952 Graeme ‘Shirley’ Strachan born in Melbourne. Australian Singer/TV Lead Singer with Skyhooks. Shirl died on the 30th Aug 
1954 Eddie Calvert started a nine-week run at No.1 on the UK singles with ‘Oh, Mein Papa.’ This was the first No.1 to be recorded at Abbey Road studios in London and stayed at the top of the charts for 9 weeks. 
1954 Glenn Goins (singer, guitarist for Parliament, Funkadelic) is born in Plainfield, New Jersey. Glenn Goins died from Hodgkin’s lymphoma, aged 24, in 1978.
1955 In Memphis, the funeral is held for Blues star Johnny Ace, who accidentally shot himself on December 25, 1954. His pallbearers include Junior Parker and Roscoe Gordon. 
1957 Ricky Van Shelton born in Danville, Virginia. Retired American country music artist. Active between 1986 and 2006, scored country No.1 duets with Dolly Parton and Brenda Lee. 
1962 An upcoming appearance by The Weavers on NBC-TV’s influential Tonight Show, with host Jack Parr, is canceled after the left-leaning folkies refuse to sign a statement denying any involvement with the US Communist Party. 
1963 Keith Gregory, bass, The Wedding Present. During 1992 the UK band released one single every month giving them 12 top 30 hits. Making them the only group ever to score more than 10 new UK hits in one year. 
1965 Elvis Presley went to No.1 on the US album chart with the soundtrack from ‘Roustabout,’ Presley’s eighth No.1. 
1967 Robert Gregory, drums, Babybird, (1996 UK No.3 single ‘You’re Gorgeous’, 1996 UK No. 9 album ‘Ugly Beautiful’). 
1968 The entire shipment of John and Yoko’s album ‘Two Virgins’ was seized by authorities in New Jersey due to the full frontal nude photograph of the couple on the cover. The album was eventually wrapped in plain brown paper in record stores. 
1969 Led Zeppelin played the first of four nights at the Whisky A Go-Go, Los Angeles during the bands first North American tour. Support group was the Alice Cooper band. 
1969 Filming began at Twickenham studios in England of The Beatles rehearsing for the ‘Let It Be’ album. The project ran into several problems including George Harrison walking out on the group on January 10th. 
1971 The George Harrison album ‘All Things Must Pass’ started a seven week run at No.1 on the US album chart, making Harrison the first solo Beatle to score a US No.1 album. 
1971 Scott Underwood – Drummer with Train. 
1971 BBC TV aired the first of a 13-week series, ‘Its Cliff Richard’ featuring resident guests singer and actress Una Stubbs and Shadows guitarist Hank Marvin. 
1974 US country singer, actor and radio presenter Tex Ritter died of a heart attack when he was trying to bail a member of his band from a jail in Nashville. His song ‘High Noon’ won an Oscar for Best Song in 1952. 
1975 Douglas Seann Robb born in Agoura Hills, California. Lead singer of southern Californian pop-punk rock band Hoobastank (formed in 1994) 2004 US No.2 hit ‘The Reason’. 
1975 US District Court judge Richard Owen allows John Lennon and his counsel access to his FBI files in his ongoing deportation case, on Lennon’s suspicion that the deportation attempt is politically motivated.
1975 The Allman Brothers Band is named “Outstanding Community Organization” by the Georgia Department of Corrections.
1976 Bad Company, Nazareth, Ronnie Lane’s Slim Chance, The Pretty Things and Be Bop Deluxe all appeared at the second day of the Great British Music Festival at London’s Olympia. Tickets £3.50 ($5.95). 
1976 Appearing at the second day of the Great British Music Festival at London’s Olympia, Bad Company, Nazareth, Ronnie Lanes Slim Chance, Pretty Things and Be Bop Deluxe, tickets £3.50. 
1978 Two months after quitting the band, Ozzy Osbourne rejoins Black Sabbath. 
1979 Sex Pistol’s bass player Sid Vicious went on trial in New York accused of murdering his girlfriend Nancy Spungen three months earlier. 
1980 US singer Larry Williams was found dead from a gunshot wound to his head in his Los Angeles, California home aged 45. Williams had the 1957 US No.5 & UK No. 21 single ‘Short Fat Fannie.’ Also known for ‘Bony Moronie’ and ‘Dizzy Miss Lizzy.’ The Beatles, Rolling Stones, Dr. Feelgood, Flying Burrito Brothers, Johnny Winter, Little Richard, The Who, Ritchie Valens and Bill Haley & His Comets all covered his songs. 
1981 American singer David Lynch of The Platters died of cancer at age 51 in Long Beach, California. (1959 UK & US No.1 single ‘Smoke Gets In Your Eyes’). 
1981 Kelton “Little Drummer Boy” Kessee (drummer for Immature) is born in Los Angeles, California. He would get his first drum kit at age 6. 
1981 Abba were enjoying their sixth week at No.1 on the UK album chart with ‘Super Trouper.’ 
1985 Rolling Stone Ron Wood married his girlfriend Jo in Gerrards Cross, Buckinghamshire, England. Guests included Keith Richard, Bill Wyman, Charlie Watts, Ringo Starr, Rod Stewart and Jeff Beck. 
1988 Michael Jackson and Bono shared first place in an American poll of ‘The Most Beautiful Lips.’ 
1989 Record Mirror published a chart of last years Top UK singles artists. No.1 was Kylie Minogue, No.2, Bros, No.3, Yazz, No.4 Tiffany, No.5, Phil Collins, No.6, Cliff Richard, No.7, Erasure, No.8, Pet Shop Boys, No.9, Belinda Carlisle, and No.10, Wet Wet Wet. 
1993 Brett Anderson from Suede was quoted in a Melody Maker interview ‘I honestly think lack of sex is vital to my writing process. I don’t know if the same goes for Aerosmith.’ 
1994 Dannii Minogue married Julian McMahon, (the son of Billy McMahon, Australia’s Prime Minister during the 1970s), in Melbourne, Australia. Dannii’s new mother in law, Lady Sonia McMahon was unhappy with the wedding and was quoted as saying, ‘I hope I break a leg so I don’t have to go.’ 
1994 Meat Loaf started a three-week run at No.1 on the UK album chart with ‘Bat Out Of Hell 2-Back Into Hell.’ 
1996 Arrested Development announced they had split up. The US group released two albums and scored the US No.1 single ‘Tennessee.’ 
1997 Randy California (guitarist for Spirit) drowns at age 45 while rescuing his 12-year-old son from a rip current in Molokai, Hawaii. 
1999 Chef went to No.1 on the UK singles chart with Chocolate Salty Balls (PS I Love You). Chef appeared in the cult TV series South Park, the voice was that of Isaac Hayes (who had a hit with Shaft in 1971). 
2000 Jazz cornet and trumpet player Nat Adderley dies of complications from diabetes at age 68. 
2000 Travis started a six-week run at No.1 on the UK album chart with ‘The Man Who.’ 
2002 Backstreet Boy Nick Carter was arrested in a Tampa, Florida night-club after being involved in a fight. Police said that Carter was arguing with a woman and when they asked him to leave, he continued arguing. He was arrested on a misdemeanour count of resisting a law enforcement officer without violence. 
2003 50 Cent was arrested by police in New York after guns were found in his vehicle, after his SUV was searched when it had been left in a no-parking zone. Police found a .25-calibre handgun and a .45-calibre pistol in the vehicle, officers said both guns were loaded. 
2003 Pop singer Edward Farran (The Arbors) dies of kidney failure at age 74. 
2004 Daniel Bedingfield suffered two fractured vertebrae in his neck after the jeep he was driving rolled over and crashed when on holiday in New Zealand. Emergency workers had to cut the singer free before he could be taken to hospital. 
2005 Winner of TV talent show, X-Factor Steve Brookstein went to No.1 on the UK singles chart with his version of the 1984 Phil Collins song ‘Against All Odds’. 
2005 Green Day were at No.1 on the UK album chart with their seventh album ‘American Idiot.’ The album went on to be nominated for seven Grammy Awards, winning the Best Rock Album of 2005. 
2007 Kylie Minogue played the first of two nights at Wembley Arena in London during her re-scheduled Showgirl world tour. The tour was postponed last year after Kylie was diagnosed with breast cancer, for which the singer had since received treatment. 
2007 Cristin Keleher who once broke into former Beatle George Harrison’s Hawaii home was found dead after an apparent murder-suicide in California, aged 34. She made headlines in December 1999 by entering Harrison’s Maui estate and then cooking herself a frozen pizza. Police said her body had been found with that of a 48-year-old man in a car, both had gunshot wounds to their heads 
2007 Gnarls Barkley’s song ‘Crazy’ was confirmed as the biggest selling UK single of 2006 selling over 700,000 copies. The track, which was the first to reach number one on downloads alone, held off the challenge of X-factor winner Leone. Snow Patrol’s album ‘Eyes Open’ topped the album chart with estimated sales of 1.5m while Take That’s comeback release ‘Beautiful World’ came in just behind. Singles sales had doubled to over 65m since the download chart was launched in September 2004. 
2008 Josh Groban was America’s top selling artist of 2007, the 26-year-old whose hits included ‘You Raise Me Up’, had the best-selling album of the year with the Christmas compilation Noel, which sold close to 3.7m copies. The second biggest seller was the soundtrack for Disney’s High School Musical 2. The Eagles were 2007’s biggest selling group with sales of 3.58m albums. 
2009 According to official US sales figures AC/DC were the biggest sellers of 2008 with over 3.4m sales. To promote the groups latest album Black Ice, Columbia Records created “Rock Again AC/DC Stores” as well as “Black Ice” trucks which were dispatched on the streets of New York and Los Angeles playing AC/DC music aloud and making various stops each day to sell merchandise. 
2010 Kesha’s first single, “TiK ToK,” hits #1, where it would stay for nine weeks, making it the longest-running chart-topper of 2010. 
2014 Jay Traynor died of liver cancer at a hospital in Tampa, Florida, at the age of 70. Traynor was the third lead vocalist of the Mystics. Later, he started Jay and the Americans with Kenny Vance and Sandy Yaguda, and was the original lead singer. 
2016 Adele was at No.1 on the US album chart with her third studio album 25. The album was a massive commercial success, debuting at No.1 in more than 25 markets and broke first-week sales records in multiple countries, including the United Kingdom and United States; in the US, the album sold 3.38 million copies in its first week of release, marking the largest single-week sales for an album since Nielsen SoundScan began tracking point-of-sale music purchases in 1991. 
2018 American record producer, songwriter, music publisher, and musician Rick Hall best known as the owner of Fame Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama died aged 85. Hall almost single-handedly established the town of Muscle Shoals as a crucible of some of the greatest soul music to be produced in America in the Sixties and Seventies. Aretha Franklin, Wilson Pickett, Etta James and Clarence Carter were just a few of the rhythm and blues artists who recorded under Hall’s supervision, using the superlative group of session musicians who formed the basis of what became known as the “Muscle Shoals sound”.