This Day in Music

Billboard Staff
Updated ·3 min read
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2004 – Soprano saxophonist Steve Lacy, whose avant-garde approach to his instrument influenced John Coltrane and others, dies of cancer in Boston. He is 69.

2002 – Coinciding with the publication of the first issue of Gene Simmons Toungue Magazine, Kiss introduces its novelty Kiss Kondomes to consumers.

2002 – Fifteen years after his death, the remains of master classical guitarist Andres Segovia are exhumed from a cemetery in Madrid and brought back to his hometown of Linares, Spain to be re-interred in accordance with his final wishes.

2001 – Beloved hard rock veterans Spinal Tap come back from the dead at New York’s Carnegie Hall with a 20-song, 90-minute performance as part of the annual Toyota Comedy Festival.

2001 – Singer, songwriter, and producer John Hartford dies in a Nashville hospital after a lengthy battle with non-Hodgkins lymphoma. He is 63. Hartford was best known as the writer of Glen Campbell’s 1967 hit “Gentle on My Mind.”

2000 – Rapper Eminem (Marshall Mathers) and three others are arrested outside the Hot Rocks Caf in Warren, Mich., a Detroit suburb. A fight breaks out in the parking lot of the nightclub after several people in the crowd recognize the 27-year-old Grammy-winning rapper. Police are soon called to the scene.

1999 – Country singer Tim McGraw and more than 400 listeners are forced to evacuate his charity concert at the 7th House in Pontiac, Mich., after a woman uses pepper spray against a man she claims groped her. McGraw falls to his knees, choking, in mid-song, and frightened audience members flee from the hall, coughing and holding shirts over their faces.

1998 – Ray Charles celebrates his 50th year in the music industry by performing with an all-star reunion band at the 15th annual Chicago Blues Festival in Grant Park. He is joined by David “Fathead” Newman, Hank Crawford, and Leroy “Hog” Cooper on saxes and Philip Guilbeau on trumpet. Mabel John, a former Raelett performs guest vocals.

1998 – Brooks & Dunn, Reba McEntire and the pop group Hanson team up to benefit Children’s Miracle Network hospitals. The entertainers give a private concert, which is shown via satellite on TV screens in over 1,200 Wal-Mart electronics departments and broadcast in stores over “Wal-Mart Radio.”

1997 – The body of Jeff Buckley is found floating in a harbor leading to the Mississippi River. Buckley had disappeared the previous Thursday while swimming with a friend in a Memphis harbor.

1997 – Ronnie Lane, bassist with the Small Faces and, later, the Faces, dies at his home in Colorado. He is 51. Lane had suffered from multiple sclerosis since 1977.

1992 – Priscilla Presley announces the winner of the Elvis postage stamp vote from the lawn of Graceland in Memphis, Tenn. Fans vote 851,200 to 277,723 for a 1950s-era Elvis over an older Elvis. Presley was chosen for a “Legends of American Music” series of 29-cent first-class stamps.

1979 – No. 1 Billboard Pop Hit: “Love You Inside Out,” The Bee Gees.

1964 – Jimmy Nicol becomes the Beatles’ temporary drummer when Ringo Starr becomes ill before start of a world tour.

1958 – No. 1 Billboard Pop Hit: “The Purple People Eater,” Sheb Wooley. Wooley plays Peter Nolan on the TV series “Rawhide.” He also records comic recordings under the name Ben Colder and writes the “Hee Haw” theme song.

1945 – Michelle Phillips (Holly Michelle Gilliam) of the Mamas and the Papas is born in Long Beach, Calif. The group’s biggest hit is the million-selling No. 1 song “Monday, Monday.” Phillips later acts in the TV show “Knots Landing.”

1945 – Gordon Waller of Peter & Gordon is born in Braemar, Scotland. The duo’s biggest hit is the No. 1 song “A World Without Love,” which is written by Paul McCartney.

1937 – Freddy Fender (Baldemar Huerta) is born in San Benito, Texas. His biggest hit is the million-selling No. 1 hit “Before the Next Teardrop Falls” in 1975. He appears in Robert Redford’s film “The Milagro Beanfield War.”

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