THIS DAY IN MUSIC

December 4th: On this Day

1956, The so-called 'Million Dollar Quartet' impromptu jam session took place at Sun Studios in Memphis with Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash and Carl Perkins.

1960, The Crickets released the single 'I Fought the Law' on Coral Records. Written by Sonny Curtis of the Crickets, a remake by the Bobby Fuller Four became a top-ten hit for the band in 1966 and was also recorded by The Clash in 1979 after Joe Strummer and guitarist Mick Jones heard the song on a jukebox in San Francisco.

1962, The Beatles made their London-area debut on television when they appeared in a live broadcast from Wembley on Tuesday Rendezvous, on ITV station Rediffusion. The Beatles performed live, doing lip-sync performances of 'Love Me Do'and 45 seconds of ‘P.S. I Love You.’

1963,

1964, The Beatles released their fourth album 'Beatles For Sale'. The album featured: ‘No Reply’, ‘I'm a Loser’, ‘Baby's in Black’, ‘Rock and Roll Music’, ‘I'll Follow the Sun’, ‘Mr. Moonlight’, ‘Kansas City/Hey Hey Hey Hey’, ‘Eight Days a Week’, ‘Words of Love’, ‘Honey Don't’, ‘Every Little Thing’, ‘I Don't Want to Spoil the Party’, ‘What You're Doing’, and ‘Everybody's Trying to Be My Baby’. It spent 11 weeks as the UK No.1 album.

1965, The Byrds started a three week run at No.1 on the US singles chart with 'Turn! Turn! Turn!' the group's second No.1. A No.26 hit in the UK. Unlike their first chart topper, ‘Mr. Tambourine Man’, the entire band was allowed to play on the recording, instead of studio musicians.

1967, This was the penultimate night of a 16-date UK package tour, on which Pink Floyd joined The Jimi Hendrix Experience, The Move, The Nice, The Eire Apparent, The Outer Limits and Amen Corner to play at the City Hall, Newcastle-Upon-Tyne. Jimi Hendrix was having equipment problems and in his frustration rammed his GibsonFlying V into his speaker cabinets. Like an enormous arrow, the guitar became stuck in the amplifier, which the audience greeted as all was part of the act.

1971, The Montreux Casino in Switzerland burnt to the ground during a gig by Frank Zappa. The incident is immortalized by Deep Purple's 'Smoke On The Water'. In 1967 the Casino became the venue for the Montreux Jazz Festival, which was the brainchild of music promoter Claude Nobs. On the night of the blaze, Nobs saved several young people who, thinking they would be sheltered from the flames, had hidden in the casino from the blaze. A recording of the outbreak and fire announcement can be found on a Frank Zappa Bootleg album titled Swiss Cheese / Fire.

1971, Led Zeppelin started a two-week run at No.1 on the UK chart with the Four Symbols album, otherwise known as Led Zeppelin IV. Featuring the 8-minute track 'Stairway To Heaven', the album stayed on the US chart for one week short of five years, selling over 23 million copies in the US alone.

1971, T Rex scored their first No.1 album with their 6th release 'Electric Warrior'. The album which became the biggest seller of the year in the UK contained two of T. Rex's most popular songs, 'Get It On' and 'Jeepster.'

1971,

1976, American guitarist Tommy Bolin died from a heroin overdose aged 25 the day after opening a show for Jeff Beck in Miami, Florida. Bolin was a member of Zephyr (1969 to 1971), The James Gang (1973 to 1974) and Deep Purple (1975 to 1976).

1976, Workers at EMI records went on strike, refusing to package The Sex Pistols single 'Anarchy In The UK.'

1979, U2 appeared at The Hope and Anchor, Islington, London. Misnamed ‘The U2s’, they played to only nine people and the show ended abruptly after The Edge broke a guitar string.

1980, Prince played the first night on his 31 date Dirty Mind North American tour at Shea’s in Buffalo, New York. After being told by his managers he couldn't wear spandex pants without any underwear, Prince began performing in a long trench coat, black high heeled boots and leggings, and bikini brief trunks.

1982, The Jam were at No.1 on the UK singles chart with 'Beat Surrender', the group's fourth UK No.1 and final single. They split in 1983, and leader Paul Weller formed the Style Council.

1988, Roy Orbison  played his final ever gig when he appeared in Cleveland, Ohio. Orbison died of a heart attack two days later.

1993, Multi-instrumentalist, producer and composer, Frank Zappa died of prostate cancer. Zappa recorded many albums with The Mothers Of Invention as well a solo recordings including the 1969 album 'Hot Rats' and 1974 album 'Apostrophe'. Zappa recorded one of the first concept albums, 'Freak Out' released in 1966, it was also one of the earliest double albums in rock music (although Bob Dylan's Blonde on Blonde preceded it by a week). He married Adelaide Gail Sloatman, in 1967, they had four children: Moon Unit, Dweezil, Ahmet Emuukha Rodan and Diva Thin Muffin Pigeen.

1999, Rapper Jay-Z was released on $50,000 bail, after being accused of attacking Lance Rivera when a fight broke out at a party for rapper Q-Tip at a Manhattan Club. Police declined to say what caused the dispute.

2002, Whitney Houston  admitted in an US TV interview that drink and drugs nearly killed her. Bobby Brown's missus also admitted to being addicted to sex. She said her business is sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll, and got into the lifestyle after missing out on partying when her career kicked off aged 18.

2006, Yahoo revealed that Britney Spears was the most searched for term of 2006 with more online searches done about Spears than any other topic or person. Female celebrities dominated the top 10 overall search list, with Shakira at number three, Jessica Simpson at number four and Paris Hilton at number five.

2012, Randy Blythe, the frontman of US metal band Lamb of God, was charged over the death of a fan at a concert in Prague in 2010. The singer was accused of pushing the fan off stage during a show in the Czech Republic. The fan hit his head when he fell to the concrete floor and died of his injuries 14 days later. The 41-year-old singer faced five to 10 years in prison if convicted.

2015, Justin Bieber scored his third UK No.1 single with 'Love Yourself', which knocked his previous chart topper, 'Sorry', to No.2. The last living artists to achieve the feat were The Beatles in 1963 with 'She Loves You' and 'I Want to Hold Your Hand'.

2015, A new statue of The Beatles was unveiled in Liverpool - 50 years after their last show in Merseyside. The bronze sculpture, by Andy Edwards which weighed 1.2 tonnes, had been given to the city by The Cavern Club the venue synonymous with the Fab Four in the 1960s.

December 4th: Born on this day

1940, Born on this day, Freddy Cannon, singer, (1959 US & UK No.3 single, 'Way Down Yonder In New Orleans').

1942, Born on this day, Bob Mosley, Moby Grape, (1967 'Moby Grape').

1944, Born on this day, Chris Hillman, bass, vocals, The Byrds, (1965 UK & US No.1 single 'Mr Tambourine Man'), Flying Burrito Brothers, The Souther, Hillman, Furay Band, (1974 US No.27 single 'Fallin' In Love').

1944, Born on this day, Dennis Wilson, drums, vocals, The Beach Boys, (1966 UK & US No.1 single 'Good Vibrations', plus over 25 other UK Top 40 singles). Wilson drowned while swimming from his boat moored in Marina Del Rey, California on 28th December 1983 after a heavy day's drinking.

1944,

1947, Born on this day, Terry Woods, The Pogues, (1987 UK No.8 single 'The Irish Rover').

1948, Born on this day, Southside Johnny, vocals, harmonica, Southside Johnny & The Asbury Jukes, (1978 album 'Hearts Of Stone').

1951, Born on this day, Gary Rossington, guitar, Lynyrd Skynyrd, (1974 US No. 8 single 'Sweet Home Alabama', 1982 UK No.21 single 'Freebird').

1967, Born on this day, Adamski, (Adam Tinley, 1990 UK No.1 single 'Killer').

1969, Born on this day, Jay-Z, (Shawn Carter), 1998 UK No.2 single 'Hard Knock Life' 1999 UK No. 10 single with Mariah Carey, 'Heartbreaker' 2001 US No.1 album 'The Blueprint'. Owner of Roc-A-Fella Records, is the second richest Hip-Hop Entertainer (behind Sean "Puffy" Combs), having a net-worth estimate of $340 million.

1972, Born on this day, Justin Welch, drums, Elastica, (1995 UK No.13 single 'Waking Up'), Me Me Me, (1996 UK No.19 single 'Hanging Around').

1973, Born on this day, Kate Rusby, UK folk singer, songwriter. 2007 No.2 indie album Awkward Annie.