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Featured Events
2003MTV debuts the reality series Newlyweds: Nick and Jessica, following the recent marriage of Jessica Simpson and 98 Degrees' Nick Lachey. The show is a hit thanks to Jessica's "dumb blonde" antics and lasts three seasons, after which the couple promptly divorce.
1973They aren't quite the Sonny and Cher power couple, but Kris Kristofferson and Rita Coolidge get married. They divorce in 1980.
1972The Midnight Special debuts on NBC. At first just a one-off special presentation, the next year it is launched as a regular show, with Wolfman Jack serving as announcer. The first performance is "Slippin' Into Darkness" by War.
1969Crosby, Stills and Nash appear on the Dick Cavett Show, giving a first-hand account of the Woodstock festival that took place over the weekend. Joni Mitchell, who skipped the festival to make sure she could keep her appearance on the show, performs a song she wrote about it called "Woodstock."
1957In a "Special Music Report," Newsweek puts Pat Boone on the cover with the tagline, "His Refreshing Song Fills The Air."More
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In Music History
2016Former music mogul Lou Pearlman, creator of 'N Sync and the Backstreet Boys, dies at age 62 while serving a 25-year sentence at the Federal Correctional Institution in Texarkana, Texas. In 2008, he was convicted of conspiracy and money laundering related to a massive Ponzi scheme.
2013The phrase "bro-country" appears for the first time, used by Jody Rosen in a New York magazine story to describe the Florida Georgia Line song "Cruise." Rosen crowns Luke Bryan king of the genre, which he describes as "music by and of the tatted, gym-toned, party-hearty young American white dude."
2008Dave Matthews Band Saxophonist/arranger LeRoi Moore dies at 46 after being injured in an ATV accident in Charlottesville, Virginia.
2001Betty Everett, the first to have a hit with "The Shoop Shoop Song (It's In His Kiss)," dies at 61.
1991At CNE Stadium in Toronto on the last date of the Operation Rock & Roll tour, Judas Priest lead singer Rob Halford's motorcycle entrance goes horribly wrong and he hits a metal beam, breaking his nose and spraining his neck. He completes the show up is taken to a hospital immediately afterward.
1990Leonard Bernstein conducts his final concert, playing Benjamin Britten's "Four Sea Interludes" and Beethoven's Seventh Symphony with the Boston Symphony at Tanglewood in Massachusetts.
1989Lou Reed breaks his ankle after a soundcheck in Cleveland, and is forced to cancel the remainder of his tour.
1989Rapper Lil' Romeo is born Percy Romeo Miller Jr. in New Orleans, Louisiana.
1988Elvis Presley's "Hound Dog" is named the most-played song in the first 100 of the jukebox.
1984Singer Kirsty MacColl marries the producer Steve Lillywhite. In 1987, she sings on The Pogues Christmas classic "Fairytale Of New York," which Lillywhite produces. They have two children together before divorcing in 1994.
1983Having been sporadic since it was originally shut down in 1968, "pirate radio" station Radio Caroline makes its comeback on board the ship Ross Revenge in the North Sea's international waters. Six years to the day later, it would be shut down again.
1981Chris Lowe and Neil Tennant meet at an electronics shop in London and start talking synthesizers. They form Pet Shop Boys, and five years later land their first hit with "West End Girls."
1979Dorsey Burnette (of Johnny Burnette and the Rock and Roll Trio) dies of a massive coronary in Canoga Park, California, at age 46.
1976Multi-instrumentalist and Arcade Fire co-founder Régine Alexandra Chassagne is born in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
1972Chicago's LP Chicago V hits #1.
Rap Single Certified Gold For The First Time
1980"The Breaks" by Kurtis Blow becomes the first rap single certified Gold.
With an original beat and a huge party vibe, the song extends the reach of rap well past the Bronx, where Kurtis grew up. The song is a tribute to the break dancers in the area, with lots of wordplay on the different meanings of "breaks." Running nearly 8-minutes long, it's a 12-inch single, just the second one to go Gold, following the Donna Summer and Barbra Streisand disco duet "No More Tears (Enough Is Enough)." Perfect for club play, it fills dancefloors throughout the summer of 1980. By melding with disco, rap crosses over to a new audience; in 1981 Debbie Harry busts some rhymes in the Blondie song "Rapture," which becomes the first #1 hit with a rap. As disco fades, so does hip-hop, but it proves far more than a fad when it comes alive a few years later, with Run-D.M.C., Beastie Boys and LL Cool J leading the way. Kurtis Blow never reaches the heights of "The Breaks," but in 1985 he releases "If I Ruled The World," later a huge hit for Nas. In later years, Kurtis becomes an ambassador for classic hip-hop, always getting a huge reaction when he does "The Breaks."
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