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Featured Events
1979After a show in Cleveland, Joe Perry quits Aerosmith when he gets in screaming match with Steven Tyler. He is replaced by Jim Crespo, but rejoins the band in 1984.
1939Judy Garland records "Over The Rainbow."
28
In Music History
2016Katy Perry performs her songs "Roar" and "Rise" on the final night of the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia. Before she sings, she encourages voters to support Hillary Clinton.More
2012At a show in Gothenburg, Sweden, Bruce Springsteen plays "Jungleland" for the first time since the death of Clarence Clemons a year earlier. He dedicates the song to Clemons, whose nephew Jake earns rapturous applause after playing the famous saxophone solo.
2004George Williams (lead vocalist for The Tymes) dies in Maple Shade, New Jersey, at age 68.
2000Guitarist Jerome Smith (of KC And The Sunshine Band) dies in a construction-site accident in Miami, Florida, at age 47.
1996Jason Thirsk (bass player for Pennywise) dies from a self-inflicted gunshot wound at age 28.
1996Marge Ganser (of The Shangri-Las) dies of breast cancer at age 48 in Valley Stream, New York.
1995Guitarist Eddie Hinton dies from a heart attack in Birmingham, Alabama. He wrote the Dusty Springfield hit "Breakfast in Bed."
1995After decades of legal wrangling, James Al Hendrix, surviving father of Jimi, is once again granted legal use of his son's name and likeness for merchandising.
199310,000 Maniacs perform with lead singer Natalie Merchant for the last time at the birthday bash for New York radio station Z100 (Bon Jovi, Duran Duran, The Proclaimers and Terence Trent D'Arby are also on the bill). Merchant launches a successful solo career and the band soldiers on without her, bringing new lead singer Mary Ramsey into the fold.
1992Prince trademarks the male/female symbol he has been using on various album covers and promotional materials. He later re-designs the symbol and uses it as his name.More
1992Mary J. Blige releases her debut album, What's The 411?, produced by Sean "Puffy" Combs. It takes the top spot on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums Chart as well as #6 on the Billboard 200. Her unique blend of hip-hop and soul earns her the nickname "Queen of Hip Hop Soul."
1992Patti LaBelle walks offstage during her concert in Warwick, Rhode Island, having complained to the audience about the catering backstage.
1990Rapper Soulja Boy is born DeAndre Cortez Way in Chicago, Illinois.
1989Anne Murray opens the Anne Murray Centre, a multimedia museum of her career, in her hometown of Springhill, Nova Scotia.
1987The Ice-T album Rhyme Pays becomes the first hip-hop album to get a warning label for explicit lyrics.
Summer Jam Draws Biggest Festival Crowd Ever
1973
The "Summer Jam" concert takes place at Watkins Glen racetrack in New York, outdrawing Woodstock with a crowd of over 600,000. The Grateful Dead, The Allman Brothers Band, and The Band play to the massive crowd that paid $10 a ticket - if they bought one.
After the soundchecks turn into a de facto concert for the many fans who showed up the night before, the Summer Jam gets officially underway. The Band's set is interrupted by a thunderstorm. While the rest of the group seeks refuge, organist/keyboardist Garth Hudson refuses to be punked by weather and tears through a rendition of his improvisational master work "The Genetic Method." The concert grounds quickly turn into a mud bath reminiscent of the Woodstock scene from four years before. After the rain stops, the rest of The Band regains the stage and rips into "Chest Fever."
The Allman Brothers Band, never one to be outdone when it comes to fortitude or indulgence, play for three hours. "In Memory Of Elizabeth Reed," "Statesboro Blues," Whipping Post," and "Les Brers in A Minor" are righteously wailed.
About 150,000 people have paid $10 each for a ticket, but few, if any, have their tickets collected. All other attendees get in for free. The traffic jam resulting from the crowd is reputed by some sources to be 100 miles long. One reporter observes, "The odor of marijuana, mixed with that of exhaust smoke. Pollution—counter-culture style."
A local resident sees a redheaded woman "better than 200 pounds" walk through his land with no clothes on. Later he will remark, "You couldn't help but get a kick out of something like that."
The otherwise idyllic rock and dope fest is slightly tarnished by two events. The first is an incident involving Willard "Smitty" Smith of Syracuse, New York. Smith's body becomes engulfed in flames as he skydives over the concert with either a flare or an M-18 smoke grenade tied to his rig. The second event is the disappearance of Mitchel Weiser and Bonita Mara Bickwit, two teenagers attempting to hitchhike to the concert. They were never discovered.
The concert goes on to enter The Guinness Book of World Records for the largest audience ever at a pop festival. Historians estimate that nearly one out of every three people aged 17-24 from Boston and New York are in attendance.
Forty years later, cars abandoned by concertgoers are discovered by a maintenance crew.
The Grateful Dead's So Many Roads (1965–1995), released in 1999, includes an 18-minute jam they played during sound check.
The Allman Brothers Band, never one to be outdone when it comes to fortitude or indulgence, play for three hours. "In Memory Of Elizabeth Reed," "Statesboro Blues," Whipping Post," and "Les Brers in A Minor" are righteously wailed.
About 150,000 people have paid $10 each for a ticket, but few, if any, have their tickets collected. All other attendees get in for free. The traffic jam resulting from the crowd is reputed by some sources to be 100 miles long. One reporter observes, "The odor of marijuana, mixed with that of exhaust smoke. Pollution—counter-culture style."
A local resident sees a redheaded woman "better than 200 pounds" walk through his land with no clothes on. Later he will remark, "You couldn't help but get a kick out of something like that."
The otherwise idyllic rock and dope fest is slightly tarnished by two events. The first is an incident involving Willard "Smitty" Smith of Syracuse, New York. Smith's body becomes engulfed in flames as he skydives over the concert with either a flare or an M-18 smoke grenade tied to his rig. The second event is the disappearance of Mitchel Weiser and Bonita Mara Bickwit, two teenagers attempting to hitchhike to the concert. They were never discovered.
The concert goes on to enter The Guinness Book of World Records for the largest audience ever at a pop festival. Historians estimate that nearly one out of every three people aged 17-24 from Boston and New York are in attendance.
Forty years later, cars abandoned by concertgoers are discovered by a maintenance crew.
The Grateful Dead's So Many Roads (1965–1995), released in 1999, includes an 18-minute jam they played during sound check.
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