Birthdays:
Singer, songwriter and virtuoso pianist, Bruce Hornsby, was born in Williamsburg, VA in 1954.
They Are Missed:
The late Betty Everett ("Shoop Shoop Song") was born in 1939.
O.C. Smith ("Little Green Apples") died of a heart attack in 2001.
Songwriter Tommy Boyce committed suicide by shooting himself at his Nashville home in 1994. Besides writing "Last Train To Clarksville", "Valleri" and "I'm Not Your Steppin' Stone" for The Monkees, Boyce and his partner Bobby Hart scored a number eight hit of their own with "I Wonder What She's Doing Tonight" in 1967.
In 1997, Michael Hutchence, lead singer of the Australian super group INXS, hanged himself in Sydney, just as the band was to begin rehearsals for their 20th anniversary tour. He was 37 years old.
Country great Roy Acuff, whose vocals influenced everyone from Hank Williams to George Jones, died in 1992 (age 89).
Badfinger bassist Tom Evans commits suicide in 1983 after the band splits by hanging himself, just as Badfinger songwriter Pete Ham had done eight years earlier.
History:
The world's first jukebox, then known as a "nickel in the slot machine", was installed at San Francisco's' Palais Royal Hotel in 1889. It had been created by simply adding a coin slot to an Edison phonograph. In its first six months of service, the machine earned over $1000.
Despite objections from The Recording Industry Association of America, who was worried about the growing problem of internet file swapping, the first portable MP3 player went on sale in the US in 1998. As of 2007, over 150 million had been sold.
“Soul Man,” by Isaac Hayes, tops the R&B chart and peaks at #2 on the pop chart in 1967. The song is one of 200 written by the team of Isaac Hayes and David Porter for Stax Records artists.
In 1954, agent Bob Neal assumed the manager's role for Elvis Presley, booking him as Elvis Presley, the Hillbilly Cat.
Elvis Presley's first post-Army film, "G.I. Blues" was officially released in 1960 and his "Spinout" movie came out in 1966.
Billy Swan, a former member of Kris Kristofferson's band and writer of Clyde McPhatter's "Lover Please", had a US number one single of his own in 1974, "I Can Help". It reached #6 in the UK.
In a San Antonio hotel room in 1936, mysterious blues pioneer Robert Johnson recorded his first tracks, including "Ramblin' on My Mind."
In 1962, The Beatles auditioned for BBC producers looking for bands with TV potential. They failed.
In 1964, The Rolling Stones were banned from the BBC for unprofessionalism after showing up late for appearances on the radio shows Top Gear and Saturday Club.
In 1968, Led Zeppelin manager Peter Grant finalized a deal to sign the band to Atlantic Records after Dusty Springfield recommends Jimmy Page to label boss Ahmet Ertegun.
Police arrested Jerry Lee Lewis outside the gates of Graceland in 1976, after he showed up for the second time that night and made a scene by shouting, waving a pistol and demanding to see Elvis Presley.
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