What Happened Today In Music

January 28th

1956 - Elvis Presley

Elvis Presley (with Scotty Moore and Bill Black), made his first National Television appearance on the Dorsey brother's "Stage Show". It was the first of six appearances on the show and the first of eight performances recorded and broadcast from CBS TV in New York City. After the success of their first appearance they were signed to five more in early 1956.

1965 - The Who

The Who made their first appearance on UK TV show Ready Steady Go! To project the desired image, the hand-picked audience consisted only of teens dressed in the current Mod fashion. 

1968 - The Doors

Jim Morrison of The Doors was arrested and charged with public drunkenness after harassing a security guard at a Las Vegas adult movie theatre.

1977 - Pink Floyd

Pink Floyd's tenth studio album Animals entered the UK charts at No.2. The sleeve concept was that of Roger Waters, who lived at the time near Clapham Common, and regularly drove past Battersea Power Station. A view of the imposing but disused former power station building was chosen for the cover image, complete with massive inflatable pig suspended between two of the towers.

1978 - Van Halen

Van Halen released their first single, a cover of The Kinks' ‘You Really Got Me’. The Kinks' Dave Davies has claimed to dislike Van Halen's rendition of the song and stated of how a concert-goer once approached him after a live Kinks show and congratulated him on performing a "great cover of the Van Halen song."

1978 - Fleetwood Mac

The Fleetwood Mac album Rumours went to No.1 on the UK album chart. The groups eleventh studio album went on to sell over 45 million copies world-wide and spent over 440 weeks on the UK chart. The songs 'Go Your Own Way', 'Dreams', 'Don't Stop', and 'You Make Loving Fun' were released as singles.

1983 - Narara Music Festival

The first Narara Music Festival was held near Somersby, NSW over the Australia Day weekend, the line-up included Men At Work, The Church, The Choirboys, Cold Chisel and INXS. The following year saw Simple Minds, Talking Heads, Def Leppard, Eurythmics and The Pretenders all appearing.

1983 - Billy Fury

British Rock & Roll singer Billy Fury died of heart failure aged 42. An early British rock and roll (and film) star, he equalled the Beatles' record of 24 hits in the Sixties , and spent 332 weeks on the UK chart, without a chart-topping single or album. His We Want Billy (released in 1963, with The Tornados) was one of the first live albums in British rock history. Fury later played rock 'n' roller "Stormy Tempest" in the film That'll Be The Day along side David Essex and Ringo Starr.

1984 - Frankie Goes To Hollywood

Frankie Goes To Hollywood started a five-week run at No.1 on the UK singles chart with 'Relax!' BBC Radio 1 DJ Mike Read expressed on air his distaste for both the record's suggestive sleeve and its lyrics, he announced his refusal to play the record, not knowing that the BBC had decided that the song was not to be played on the BBC anyway. Produced by Trevor Horn the song remained on the chart for 48 weeks.

1984 - Motley Crue

Backstage after a Motley Crue show in Buffalo, New York, Tommy Lee found out that his girlfriend has posed for the current issue of Penthouse magazine without his knowledge, after a fan passed comment on the pictures. Tommy punched the fan unconscious with one hit, Motleys manager Doug Thaler later convinced the fan not to press any charges.

1985 - Michael Jackson

The recording took place for We Are The World the US equivalent of Band Aid at A&M Studios in Hollywood. Written by Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie the all star cast included Stevie Wonder, Tina Turner, Bruce Springsteen, Diana Ross,  Bob Dylan, Ray Charles, Daryl Hall, John Oates, Cyndi Lauper, Steve Perry and Bob Geldof.

1990 - Paul Abdul

Paul Abdul started a 10-week run at No.1 on the US album chart with 'Forever Your Girl'. Abdul spent sixty-four consecutive weeks on the Billboard 200 before hitting number one, making it the longest time for an album to reach the number one spot.

1994 - Paul McCartney

Paul and Linda McCartney attended the premiere of Wayne's World II in London. The couple then went on to Hard Rock Cafe, where the film star Mike Myers presented them with a cheque for LIPA (the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts) for £25,000 ($42,500) from the sale of Linda's vegetarian burgers.

1995 - TLC

TLC started a four week run at No.1 on the US singles chart with 'Creep' the group's first US No.1, it made No.6 in the UK the following year.

1998 - Noel Gallagher

Oasis guitarist Noel Gallagher played a 20-minute solo gig at the King Head, an English pub in Santa Monica in front of 250 fans.

2000 - Thomas Bowles

Saxophonist and bandleader Thomas 'Beans' Bowles died of prostate cancer aged 73. Played on many Motown sessions including Marvin Gaye's 'What's Going On', Martha and the Vandellas' 'Heat Wave' and The Supremes 'Baby Love' and wrote the melody on Stevie Wonder's 'Fingertips Pt. 2.'

2003 - Keven Conner

H-Town singer Keven Conner was killed in a car crash in Houston aged 28. Conner died when an SUV ran a red light and crashed into the car he was a passenger in, which had just picked him up from the recording studio.

2004 - Elvis Presley

Elvis Presley fans expressed their anger at plans to cut up a rare tape of the singer's early songs and sell the snippets at auction. The tape, which featured a recording made by Presley during the early 1950s, was now too fragile to play. US firm Master Tape Collection said the tape would be cut into two-inch snippets and sold for £270 ($460) each.

2005 - Jim Capaldi

English drummer and singer songwriter Jim Capaldi died of stomach cancer aged 60. He co-founded Traffic with Steve Winwood who had the 1967 UK No.2 single 'Hole In My Shoe'. Capaldi also had the solo 1975 UK No.4 single 'Love Hurts'. Capaldi also worked with Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton and George Harrison. 

2008 - Madonna

Madonna topped the list for the richest female musician, according to Forbes.com. Its first-ever list focusing on women in the music industry estimated the 49-year-old banked $72m (£36m) between June 2006 and June 2007. Madonna earned much of that from her Confessions tour - the highest-grossing tour for a female artist - earning $260m (£130m) worldwide. Barbra Streisand came second, with $60 million (£30 million) followed by Celine Dion with $45 million (£23.6), mainly from her recent concerts at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas.

2009 - Lynyrd Skynyrd

Lynyrd Skynyrd keyboard player Billy Powell died at the age of 56 of a suspected heart attack in Florida. Powell called police saying he was having trouble breathing and emergency services tried to resuscitate him, but he was pronounced dead an hour later. Powell had missed a doctor's appointment on the day before his death; the appointment was for a checkup on his heart. He played piano on Kid Rock's 'All Summer Long' (which sampled the Lynyrd Skynyrd song 'Sweet Home Alabama').

2015 - Sly Stone

Funk legend Sly Stone was awarded $5m (£3.3m) in missed royalties by a Los Angeles court. The singer claimed his former manager, Gerald Goldstein, and lawyer, Glenn Stone, had cheated him out of earnings dating back more than 20 years. In 2011, it was reported he was homeless and living in a camper van after falling on hard times and fighting drug addiction problems.

2015 - Black Sabbath

Black Sabbath bassist Geezer Butler was arrested after officers were called to the Corkscrew Saloon on the Furnace Creek Ranch in Death Valley National Park, California. The 65 year-old bassist was arrested for misdemeanour assault, public intoxication and vandalism after a fight broke out in the bar.

2016 - Signe Toly Anderson

American singer Signe Toly Anderson died aged 74. She was one of the founding members of the American rock band Jefferson Airplane. She sang on the first Jefferson Airplane album, Jefferson Airplane Takes Off, most notably on the song 'Chauffeur Blues'.

2016 - Paul Kantner

American guitarist, singer and songwriter, Paul Kantner died in San Francisco at the age of 74 due to multiple organ failure and septic shock after he suffered a heart attack days earlier. He was known for co-founding Jefferson Airplane, the leading psychedelic rock band of the counterculture era, and its more commercial spin-off band Jefferson Starship. With Jefferson Airplane, Kantner was among the performers at the Monterey Jazz Festival in 1966 and the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967 and the WoodstockFestival in 1969.

2017 - Geoff Nicholls

British musician and keyboardist, and longtime member of the heavy metal band Black Sabbath, Geoff Nicholls died aged 68. Until his death, Nicholls played keyboards with former Black Sabbath singer Tony Martin, in his band Tony Martin's Headless Cross.

2020 - Bob Nave

American Keyboardist Bob Nave died age 75. He was a member of psychedelic rock band The Lemon Pipers who scored the 1968 US number one hit 'Green Tambourine'. The song has been credited as being the first bubblegum pop chart-topper.

Born Today In Music

January 28th

1927 - Roy Caton

American trumpet player and session musician Roy Caton who worked with Nancy Sinatra, The Monkees, Harpers Bizarre, The Byrds, Love, (Forever Changes), The Righteous Brothers and The Beach Boys, (Pet Sounds). Caton died on July 29, 2010 aged 83.

1927 - Ronnie Scott

Ronnie Scott, jazz musician. Formed his own nine-piece group in 1953 and opened the first Ronnie Scott's night club in London in 1959 where he presented the cream of the world's jazz musicians at the club. He died on December 23rd 1996.

1929 - Acker Bilk

Bernard Stanley Bilk, (Acker Bilk), bandleader who had the 1962 US No.1 & UK No.2 single 'Stranger On The Shore'. He died on 2nd Nov 2014.

1941 - King Tubby

King Tubby, reggae producer who has worked with Robbie Shakespeare, Sly Dunbar and Carlton Barrett. He was killed on 6th February 1989 after being shot in the street outside his home.

1943 - Dick Taylor

Dick Taylor, English musician, best known as the guitarist and founder member of the Pretty Things who had the 1964 UK No.10 single 'Don't Bring Me Down'. They took their name from Willie Dixon's 1955 song 'Pretty Thing'.

1945 - Robert Wyatt

Robert Wyatt multi instrumentalist who was a member of Soft Machine. As a solo artist Wyatt scored the 1983 UK No.35 single 'Shipbuilding'. During an alcohol-fuelled party in London in 1983, an inebriated Wyatt fell from a fourth floor window. He was paralysed from the waist down and consequently uses a wheelchair.

1946 - Rick Allen

Rick Allen, bassist with The Box Tops who had the 1967 US No.1 & UK No.5 single 'The Letter'.

1949 - Gene McFadden

American singer, songwriter, and record producer Gene McFadden, best known as half of the Philly soul team McFadden & Whitehead. The duo who were discovered by Otis Redding, who acted as their manager had the 1979 hit 'Ain't No Stoppin' Us Now', which sold more than 8 million copies and was nominated for a Grammy Award. McFadden died of cancer on 27 January 2006 at the age of 56.

1951 - William Nelson

William Nelson the original bassist for Funkadelic. He left the group in late 1971 after a financial dispute with George Clinton. Nelson later played with The Commodores, Chairmen of the Board, Jermaine Jackson, Lionel Richie, Smokey Robinson and The Temptations.

1959 - Dave Sharpe

Dave Sharpe, guitarist and singer with The Alarm who had the 1983 UK No.17 single '68 Guns'.

1968 - Lawrence Muggerud

Lawrence Muggerud, DJ Muggs with Cypress Hill who had the 1993 UK No.15 single 'I Ain't Goin' Out Like That', and the 1993 US No.1 album 'Black Sunday'.

1968 - Sarah McLachlan

Canadian musician singer songwriter, Sarah McLachlan, who had the 1997 US No.2 album 'Surfacing'. McLachlan who has sold over 40 million albums worldwide is the organiser of the Lilith Fair US tour.

1975 - Lee Latchford-Evans

Lee Latchford-Evans, singer with British dance-pop group Steps. Between 1997 and 2001 Steps scored two No.1 singles in the UK, two No.1 albums and 14 consecutive top 5 singles in the UK.

1976 - Rick Ross

Rick Ross (William Leonard Roberts II), American hip-hop artist who had the 2006 US No.1 with his debut album 'Port of Miami'.

1977 - Joseph Fatone

Joseph Fatone, singer from American boy band *NSYNC. Among the group's singles, 'Bye Bye Bye', 'This I Promise You', 'Girlfriend' and 'It's Gonna Be Me' reached the top 10 in several international charts. The group's second album, No Strings Attached, sold over one million copies in one day.

1980 - Nick Carter

Nicolas Carter singer with American boy band Backstreet Boys who had the 1997 US No.2 single 'Quit Playing Games With My Heart', and the 1999 UK No.1 single 'I Want It That Way'.

1987 - Secondcity

Rowan Harrington better known by his stage name Secondcity, American-born British DJ and producer, best known for his 2014 song ‘I Wanna Feel’, which peaked at No.1 on the UK Singles Chart.