1928 Frankie Vaughan (Frank Abelson) born in Liverpool, England. UK singer.During the 50’s he scored twenty UK Top 30 singles including, UK No.2 ‘Green Door’. Made an OBE in 1965. Died 17th Sept 1999 aged 71.
1929 Val Doonican (Michael Valentine Doonican) born in Waterford, Ireland. Irish Singer/Entertainer. Doonican died at a nursing home in Buckinghamshire on 1 July 2015, aged 88.
1935 Johnny ‘guitar’ Watson, guitarist, singer, (1976 UK No.35 single ‘I Need It’). Died 17th May 1996.
1940 Angelo D’Aleo, Born in The Bronx. US Vocalist (First Tenor) with : ‘Dion & The Belmonts’, (1961 US No.1 & UK No.11 single ‘Runaround Sue’).
1941 Jimmy Dorsey and his Orchestra recorded the classic standard, “Amapola”, on Decca Records this day. Helen O’Connell and Bob Eberly joined in a vocal duet on this very famous and popular song of the Big Band era.
1942 No. 1 Billboard Pop Hit: “A String of Pearls,” Glenn Miller Orchestra.
1943 Dennis Edwards born in Birmingham. He joined The Temptations in 1968 as Lead Vocalist. (1971 US No.1 & UK No.8 single ‘Just My Imagination’ and re- issued ‘My Girl’ UK No.2 in 1992). Edwards died in a Chicago hospital on February 1, 2018, two days before his 75th birthday. He had been battling meningitis before his death.
1943 Eric Haydock born in Stockport, England. Bass Player with The Hollies,he left in 1966. over 25 Top 40 singles since 1963, (1972 US No.2 single ‘Long Cool Woman In A Black Dress’, 1988 UK No.1 single ‘He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother’, first released in 19
1943 Johnny Cymbal born in Ochiltree, Ayrshire, Scotland. US Singer. One hit with mr. bass Man. Under the name of Derek he returned to the charts in 1968 with Cinnamon. He co-wrote Rock Me Baby a hit for John Farnham & David Cassidy in 1972. He died March 16, 1993 (aged 48) in Nashville, Tennessee.
1944 Patsy Ann Noble born in Sydney. Australian Singer & Daughter of the late buster Noble.
1945 Bobby Bright born in Adelaide, South Australia. Bobby & his late partner Laurie Allen had hits as Bobbie & Laurie.
1946 Stan Webb born in Fulham, South West London. UK Guitarist/Singer/Songwriter with Chicken Shack, (1969 UK No.14 single ‘I’d Rather Go Blind’).
1947 Dave Davies born in London, England. Guitarist with the UK group The Kinks, (1964 UK No.1 & US No.7 ‘You Really Got Me’, 1967 UK No.2 single ‘Waterloo Sunset’ plus 19 other UK Top 40 singles).
1947 Melanie Safka born in New York City, New York. US Singer/Songwriter, (1971 US No.1 & 1972 UK No.4 single ‘Brand New Key’).
1949 Arthur ‘Killer’ Kane, bass guitarist with The New York Dolls, who had the 1973 album ‘New York Dolls’. Kane died in Los Angeles on July 13th 2004, due to complications from leukaemia, aged 55.
1950 Ed, Gene, Joe and Vic Ames — The Ames Brothers — reached the top of the pop music chart for the first time as their single “Rag Mop” hit the No. 1 spot.
1956 Lee Ranaldo born in Glen Cove, New York. Guitarist with American alternative rock band Sonic Youth, who had the 1993 UK No.26 single ‘Sugar Kane’.
1957 Tony Butler born in London, England. Bass Player with Big Country, (1983 UK No.10 single ‘Fields Of Fire’ plus 14 other UK Top 40 singles).
1958 Buddy Holly performed at Cloudland in Brisbane. Also on the bill were Paul Anka, Jerry Lee Lewis & Johnny O’Keefe. 12 months later Holly was killed in a plane accident.
1958 Lee Crystal – Drummer with Joan Jett & The Blackhearts.
1958 “Sail Along Silvery Moon” by Billy Vaughn Orchestra peaked at #5 on the US singles chart.
1958 “The Stroll” by The Diamonds peaked at #4 on the US singles chart.
1959 Laurence Tolhurst born in Horley, Surrey, England. Founding member and the former drummer and keyboardist of British band The Cure. He left The Cure in 1989
1959 22 year old Buddy Holly, The Big Bopper and Ritchie Valens, aged 17, died in a crash shortly after take-off from Clear Lake, Iowa, the pilot of the single-engined Beechcraft Bonanza plane was also killed. Holly hired the plane after heating problems developed on his tour bus. All three were travelling to Fargo, North Dakota, for the next show on their Winter Dance Party Tour which Holly had set – covering 24 cities in three weeks, to make money after the break-up of his band, The Crickets, last year.
1960 Anthony Newley was at No.1 on the UK singles chart with ‘Why’, the singers first of two UK No.1 hits.
1960 Frank Sinatra forms his own label, Reprise Records.
1961 Bob Dylan makes his first recording, taping “San Francisco Bay Blues” in New York.
1962 “Can’t Help Falling In Love” by Elvis Presley peaked at #2 on the pop singles chart.
1962 “Baby It’s You” by The Shirelles peaked at #8 on the US singles chart.
1964 The British group, The Beatles, received its first Gold record award certified by the RIAA for the single, “I Want To Hold Your Hand/I Saw Her Standing There”. The group also won a gold LP award for “Meet The Beatles”. The album had been released in the United States only 14 days earlier. Today, albums are certified gold weeks before they are even released, due to the number of orders placed for them.
1965 Nick Hawkins, guitar, Big Audio Dynamite, (1986 UK No.11 single ‘E=MC2’.
1965 The Rolling Stones went to No.1 in the Australian Singles Chart with ‘Under The Boardwalk/Walking The Dog’. Topping the charts for 2wks.
1966 Beach Boy Carl Wilson married Annie Hinsche in LA.
1966 During a UK tour Stevie Wonder played at the Scotch Of St James night-club in London.
1966 Paul McCartney meets Stevie Wonder for the first time after Wonder’s show at London’s Scotch Of St. James nightclub.
1967 “Purple Haze” was recorded by Jimi Hendrix.
1967 appearing at The Civic Coliseum, Knoxville, Tennessee were Otis Redding, The Marvelettes, Aaron Neville, James and Bobby Purify and The Drifters. Tickets cost $2.50–3.50 (£1.47–2.06).
1967 Producer Joe Meek shot his landlady Violet Shenton and then shot himself at his flat in London, Meek produced The Tornadoes hit ‘Telstar’, the first No.1 in the US by a British group. Meek was interested in spirituality and often attended séances . At one such meeting in 1958 he was warned that Buddy Holly would die on February 3. Meek tried his best to find Holly when he was in London to warn him but failed in his mission. Holly died on February 3, 1959.
1967 Otis Redding, The Marvelettes, Aaron Neville, James and Bobby Purify and The Drifters all appeared at The Civic Coliseum, Knoxville, Tennessee. Tickets cost $2.50 -3.50 (£1.47 – 2.06).
1968 One hit wonders The Lemon Pipers went to No.1 on the US singles chart with ‘Green Tambourine’ the song was a No.7 hit in the UK.
1968 Cliff Richard recorded the hit single ‘Congratulations’.
1968 The Beatles started work on their new single ‘Lady Madonna’ at Abbey Road studios in London. Recording three piano and drum takes with overdub bass, fuzz guitars, drums, and vocals.
1968 “Hello Goodbye” by The Beatles peaked at #1 on the U.K. pop singles chart and stayed there for six weeks.
1968 “Nobody But Me” by The Human Beinz peaked at #8 on the US singles chart.
1968 MOTOWN MAKES HISTORY IN ENGLAND When THE SUPREMES “GREATEST HITS” album became the first LP by a black group to reach #1 on the British sales charts
1969 Allen Klein was appointed The Beatles business manager.
1969 Allen Klein became The Beatles business manager and Eastman & Eastman their legal consultants, but Paul McCartney refused to sign with Klein, preferring his father-in-law, Lee Eastman. The Beatles hired Klein to try to straighten out the tangled financial affairs of their company, Apple Corps Limited. Allen Klein became The Beatles business manager and Eastman & Eastman their legal consultants, but Paul McCartney refused to sign with Klein, preferring his father-in-law, Lee Eastman. The Beatles hired Klein to try to straighten out the tangled financial affairs of their company, Apple Corps Limited.
1970 Led Zeppelin II was in the Top 20 on both the UK & US album charts after peaking at No.1. The album went on to spend 138 weeks on the UK chart. The album is now recognised by writers and music critics as one of the greatest and most influential rock albums ever recorded.
1971 Lynn Anderson received a Gold record certified by the RIAA for the single, “Rose Garden”. The Grand Forks, ND country singer was raised in Sacramento, CA. In addition to being a singer, she was California Horse Show Queen in 1966 — as an accomplished equestrian.
1972 “Leon Russell & The Shelter People” album by Leon Russell was certified Gold by the RIAA
1973 Elton John started a three-week run at No.1 on the US singles chart with ‘Crocodile Rock’. Elton’s first of five US No.1 singles.
1976 David Bowie begins his first U.S. tour in over a year in Seattle, Washington. Guitar player Earl Slick replaces Mick Ronson and Bowie has shelved the white soul persona for a character he calls the “Thin White Duke.”
1977 Led Zeppelin postponed its planned tour when Robert Plant contracted tonsillitis.
1977 Elton John resumes live performing in Sweden a mere fifteen months after announcing his “retirement” from the stage.
1978 It’s the 19th anniversary of Buddy Holly’s death. It’s also the day on which his birthplace in Lubbock, Texas had been scheduled for demolition by the Lubbock Building Department. The Department had no idea the house had any association with the town’s most famous son. However a few days ago, a man bought the place, moved it intact, outside the city limits and fixed it up so his family could move in. He too, did not know the significance of the house and became the man who save Buddy Holly’s birthplace by accident.
1978 “Waylon & Willie” album by Waylon Jennings/willie Nelson was certified Gold by the RIAA
1978 Harry Chapin meets with US President Jimmy Carter to discuss the world hunger situation.
1979 “New York Groove” by Ace Frehley peaked at #13 on the US singles chart.
1979 Blondie had their first of five UK No.1 singles, with ‘Heart Of Glass’, taken from the band’s third studio album, Parallel Lines. ‘Heart of Glass’ was originally recorded in 1975 under the name ‘Once I Had a Love.’
1979 The Blues Brothers went to No.1 on the US album chart with ‘Briefcase Full Of Blues’. Featuring the hit cover “SOUL MAN”
1979 Y.M.C.A.” by Village People peaked at #2 on the US singles chart.
1979 20TH ANNIVERSARY TRIBUTE JIMMY CLANTON, DEL SHANNON and THE DRIFTERS perform at the SURF BALLROOM in Clear Lake, IOWA in a nostalgia show marking the 20th anniversary of the deaths of Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and the Big Bopper
1979 20 years after the plane crash that killed Buddy Holly, Del Shannon and The Drifters perform a tribute show in Clear Lake, Iowa, where Holly’s last concert took place.
1980 Studio 54 throws one last bash with A-list regulars Diana Ross, Andy Warhol and Richard Gere before the owners, Steve Rubell and Ian Schrager go to jail for tax evasion.
1981 Diana” album by Diana Ross was certified Gold and Platinum by the RIAA
1981 “Heroes” album by Commodores was certified Gold and Platinum by the RIAA
1981 “Hotter Than July” album by Stevie Wonder was certified Gold and Platinum by the RIAA
1983 Dionne Warwick went to No.1 in the Australian Singles Chart with ‘Heartbreaker’. Staying at the top spot for 1wk.
1984 a ZZ Top concert in Vancouver, British Columbia, ended in chaos…with two fans in hospitalized and 149 chairs destroyed.
1989 “Wild Thing” by Tone Loc becomes the first rap single certified Platinum.
1990 During a European tour Bob Dylan started a six-night residency at London’s Hammersmith Odeon.
1990 Sean Kingston, (Kisean Anderson) born in Kingston, Jamaica. Jamaican-American reggae, rap and pop musician who scored the 2007 US and UK No.1 single ‘Beautiful Girls’.
1990 For the first time ever, the UK Top 3 singles featured non-British and non-American acts. Ireland’s Sinead O’Connor, Australia’s Kylie Minogue and Belgium’s Technotronic. Sinead O’Connor had her first No.1 single with Nothing Compares To U’, a song written by Prince.
1990 “I Remember You” by Skid Row peaked at #6 on the US singles chart.
1990 “Tender Lover” by Babyface peaked at #14 on the US singles chart.
1991 Sinead O’Connor says she won’t accept any Grammy Awards or attend the ceremony because the show reflects “false and destructive materialistic values.” The Irish pop singer had been nominated in four Grammy categories.
1992 On their first Europe tour Pearl Jam played at The Esplanade Club in Southend, England to 300 people, the bands first ever UK show. The tour also took Pearl Jam to Norway, Sweden, Holland, France, Spain and Italy.
1993 Gloria Estefan receives a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. The pop star receives the 1,974th star on the famous avenue, in front of the Hollywood Galaxy Shopping Complex on Hollywood Boulevard.
1993 Grammy-winning singer and pianist Harry Connick Jr. enters a plea bargain with New York authorities stemming from his arrest in December for having a gun in his carry-on luggage at New York’s Kennedy Airport. Under the deal, Connick did not have to plead guilty to the crime, avoids going to jail and will make at his own expense a public service announcement about carrying guns in the city.
1993 During a UK tour, Radiohead appeared at The Wheatsheaf, Stoke On Trent, tickets cost £3.50 ($5.95).
1993 Paul McCartney returned to where it all began, The Ed Sullivan Theater, to record a concert for MTV. He played songs never before performed live, including “Penny Lane.”
1993 Billy Idol denied reports that he was ill. Rumors to that effect had begun circulating after the British rocker collapsed in the parking lot of a Los Angeles nightclub.
1994 “Don’t Overlook Salvation” album by Ricky Van Shelton was certified Gold by the RIAA
1994 Michael Jackson and Lisa Marie Presley had their first date. They saw The Temptations perform.
1995 “American Thighs” album by Veruca Salt was certified Gold by the RIAA
1996 Queen Latifah was stopped by police for speeding who found a concealed weapon and marijuana, the singer was given two years probation.
1996 The Ramones claimed to have played their last gig in the UK, at The Brixton Academy, after 22 years together.
1997 No Doubt went to No.1 in the Australian Singles Chart with ‘Don’t Speak’. Staying at the top spot for 8wks in a row.
1997 Graham Nash was honored by the New York Institute of Technology with an Arts and Technology Medal and an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters degree for his work in bridging arts and technology.
1999 Tony Hadley singer with Spandau Ballet told a High Court in London of his “desperate” financial situation after his solo career failed. Hadley and band members Steve Norman and drummer John Keeble, were suing Spandau Ballet songwriter Gary Kemp for hundreds of thousands of pounds of allegedly unpaid publishing royalties. Hadley earned £120,000 a year during the band’s heyday in the early 1980s, but the court heard that when he fell on hard times he was forced him to sell his home to pay off a £50,000 overdraft in 1993.
2001 The commercial television regulator warned Granada TV about over- promoting its manufactured band from the show Pop Stars. It claimed Granada TV would make money from T- shirts, videos and calendars and was ‘treading a fine line.’
2003 The exclusive documentary ‘Living With Michael Jackson’ was shown on UK television. Reporter Martin Bashir had spent eight months with the star, the shows editor said, ‘viewers will not believe what they’re seeing.’
2003 Phil Spector is arrested for allegedly murdering actress Lana Clarkson in his Alhambra, California, home.
2004 Sean ‘P. Diddy’ Combs settled a $3 million (£1.76 million) court case filed by his former driver after an incident in 1999. Wardell Fenderson had driven Mr Combs and his then-girlfriend Jennifer Lopez away from a New York nightclub where three people had been wounded in a shooting. Mr Fenderson said he was traumatized by having guns in the car and being ordered to ignore police orders to stop, for which he was arrested.
2004 R. Kelly appeared in Court and entered of plea of not guilty to 21 charges of child pornography. Kelly, who was free on bond, did not talk during the brief hearing. Outside the Cook County Criminal Courthouse fans voiced their support for the singer, proclaiming his innocence with placards and T-shirts. Kelly had been arrested in Florida after he was indicted by a grand jury in Chicago on 21 counts of child pornography, stemming from a videotape that allegedly shows the star performing sexual acts with a 14-year-old girl.
2004 Appearing at Vicar Street, Dublin, Damien Rice.
2004 ne of the most respected groups to emerge from the 1980s underground rock scene, the Meat Puppets, are honored with the Rykodisc release of “Classic Puppets,” a retrospective featuring catalog tracks alongside rare and unreleased material.
2006 Former Dynasty star Heather Locklear filed for divorce from Bon Jovi guitarist Richie Sambora after 11 years of marriage. Locklear who was previously married to Motley Crue drummer Tommy Lee and Sambora were married in 1994 and have an eight-year-old daughter called Ava.
2007 Daughtry were at No.1 on the US album chart with their self-titled debut. Lead singer Chris Daughtry was the fourth-place finalist on the fifth season of American Idol. The album sold over a 1m copies after just five weeks of release, becoming the fastest selling debut rock album of all time.
2007 Wayne Fontana, of ‘Game Of Love’ fame, was arrested at his home in Glossop, Derbyshire, England and charged with arson with intent to endanger life. The 61 year-old, who was already set to appear in court in March on traffic offenses, was accused of pouring gasoline over a bailiff’s car and setting it on fire. The following November, he was sentenced to 11 months in jail, but was allowed to walk free from court immediately after already serving the equivalent of his term while held under the Mental Health Act.
2008 UK singer Adele went to No.1 on the UK album chart with her debut album ’19’. As of December 2011, worldwide sales for the album stood at over 6.5 million copies.
2010 AC/DC singer Brian Johnson, joined a growing group of critics of Bob Geldof and U2 singer Bono over their very public charity work, saying they should stop lecturing audiences about charity work and instead do their good deeds in private. Johnson said “When I was a working man I didn’t want to go to a concert for some bastard to talk down to me that I should be thinking of some kid in Africa. I’m sorry mate, do it yourself, spend some of your own money and get it done. It just makes me angry.”
2014 Bruce Springsteen was at No.1 on the US chart with his eighteenth studio album High Hopes. His eleventh No.1 album in the US, placed him third all-time for most No. 1 albums only behind The The Beatles and Jay-Z. The album is a collection of cover songs, out-takes and re-imagined versions of tracks from past albums, EPs and tours.
2015 Former Death Row Records CEO Suge Knight is rushed to the hospital after pleading not guilty in his connection with a fatal hit-and-run just days before. His friend Terry Carter was killed in the incident and actor Cle Denyale Sloan was injured during an altercation over the N.W.A. biopic Straight Outta Compton. Knight faces charges of murder and attempted murder, along with two counts of hit-and-run.
2018 American pop, funk and jazz drummer Leon Chancler died in Los Angeles, California of prostate cancer, at the age of 65. He worked with Herbie Hancock, Miles Davis, Michael Jackson’s (on ‘Billie Jean’), Donna Summer, Carlos Santana, The Crusaders, Frank Sinatra, Weather Report, Lionel Richie, Kenny Rogers, Thelonious Monk, Herbie Hancock and John Lee Hooker.
February 4 – Today in Music History
