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Featured Events
1969Eric Clapton's supergroup Blind Faith release their self-titled album. On the cover is a photo of a naked 11-year-old girl holding a model spacecraft.More
1962Stevie Wonder's first single is released: "I Call It Pretty Music (But Old People Call It The Blues)." Motown newbie Marvin Gaye plays drums on the track.
1962Pete Best is fired as drummer for The Beatles, replaced by Ringo Starr. The group's manager Brian Epstein does the firing by calling Best into his record shop and giving him the bad news.
1958Madonna Louise Ciccone is born in Bay City, Michigan. Shortening her name to a mononym, she becomes the best-selling female singer of all time.More16
In Music History
2014To announce Syro, his first Aphex Twinalbum in 13 years, Richard James arranges for a blimp to fly over London with his iconic logo on one side and the year on the other. The same logo is also spraypainted on New York sidewalks.
2008Noah and the Whale make a splash when their debut single "5 Years Time" peaks at #7 on the UK Singles Chart. It proves to be the biggest hit for the British group.
2005Country/Bluegrass fiddler Vassar Clements (of Bill Monroe's Bluegrass Boys) dies of lung cancer in Jamestown, New York, at age 77.
2003The USPS unveils a new commemorative postage stamp of recently deceased composer Henry Mancini, famous for the Pink Panther theme and several other film works.
200225 years after the death of Elvis Presley, an album containing 30 of his #1 hits is released with "A Little Less Conversation" as a bonus track. The song was remixed in 2002 and went to #1 in the UK.
2000Guitarist Alan Caddy (of The Tornados) dies at age 60 after a lifelong battle with alcoholism.
1997A tribute concert is held in Memphis, Tennessee, remembering Elvis Presley on the 20th anniversary of his death. Daughter Lisa Marie unveils the music video "Don't Cry Daddy," a virtual duet with her father that features his original vocals from the 1969 tune along with her own.
1996With the help of Broadway star Chita Rivera, over 50,000 baseball fans at Yankee Stadium break the record for the largest group dance when they bust a move to the "Macarena," the decade's latest dance craze.
1995Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys performs live for the first time with his daughters Carnie and Wendy, recently famous for their stint in the trio Wilson Phillips.
1991Wilfrid Thomas, broadcaster and radio commentator, dies in London, England, at age 87. Wrote the English lyrics to "Rose, Rose, I Love You," recorded by Frankie Laine in 1951.
1986At a soggy Monsters Of Rock festival at Castle Donington, England, Def Lepparddrummer Rick Allen gets a huge ovation when he takes the stage with the band. Twenty months earlier, Allen's left arm was severed in a car accident, and after extensive rehab and some warm-up gigs, he makes a triumphant return at the festival, playing barefoot behind a drum kit modified with electronic pedals. Scorpions and Motörhead are also on the bill, which is headlined by Ozzy Osbourne.
1972Emily Robison (of the Dixie Chicks) is born in Pittsfield, Massachusetts.
1969The Beckenham Arts Lab holds the Free Festival in Beckenham, London. One one of the performers is David Bowie, who memorializes the concert in his song "Memory of a Free Festival."
The festival is largely forgotten by history, probably because it happened at the same exact time as Woodstock in the United States.
The festival is largely forgotten by history, probably because it happened at the same exact time as Woodstock in the United States.
The King Is Dead
1977
The King is dead. Elvis Presley dies at his home in Graceland as a result of an overdose from from prescription drugs.
Elvis is found dead at the age of 42 in the bathroom of his Graceland mansion, lying face down on the floor having suffered a heart attack. Although not noted on his death certificate, his condition was exacerbated if not directly caused by an overdose of prescription drugs. His autopsy finds that he had taken 14 different drugs on the night of his death including morphine, quaaludes and valium. He had hired a personal live-in doctor, George Nichopoulos, known in celebrity circles as Doctor Nick, to prescribe him with a variety of painkillers in the belief that this formal method of supply would distinguish him from a common "junkie." In the preceding eight months, Doctor Nick has written prescriptions for more than 8,000 pills, phials and injectables.
At the time of his death, Elvis is a shadow of his former self. Over the last few years his health has steadily deteriorated as his intake of drugs - initially intended to control his weight - increased. His live shows had become erratic and his appearance more unkempt. His weight had ballooned to about 350 pounds. Still, he remained a huge draw and had recently filmed a CBS TV special in which his health problems were clear but his performance strong.
Elvis's father, Vernon, attempts to protect the singer's reputation by sealing his autopsy report - which details his habitual drug use - for 50 years, but this has the unintended effect of adding fire to rumors that the star has faked his death. The scene of his death is not photographed or forensically analysed, since there are no suspicious circumstances. Conspiracy theories abound in the decades to come, with the singer being sighted everywhere from Graceland itself to touting T-shirts outside an Oasis concert in London. One famous photograph even appears to show him behind a screen door at Graceland after his death.
Other "evidence" of Elvis remaining alive includes the spelling of his middle name on his gravestone, which reads:
Elvis Aaron Presley - January 8th 1935 - August 16 1997
For most of his life Elvis had used the spelling "Aron," but had always wanted it to be spelt "Aaron," "like in the Bible." Elvis's name on his birth certificate is spelt Aaron. His family spelt it Aron. He was going to change it but then realized it had been legally spelt with a double-a all along. The record clerk had "corrected" the spelling when registering his birth.
Alleged Elvis sightings are commonplace throughout the 1980s and 1990s, with him turning up in places as diverse as Ottawa, Michigan and Kalamazoo. Even as late as 2016, video emerges of a white-haired groundsman at Graceland who bears a strong resemblance to how the King might have looked had he made it to his 81st year.
At the time of his death, Elvis is a shadow of his former self. Over the last few years his health has steadily deteriorated as his intake of drugs - initially intended to control his weight - increased. His live shows had become erratic and his appearance more unkempt. His weight had ballooned to about 350 pounds. Still, he remained a huge draw and had recently filmed a CBS TV special in which his health problems were clear but his performance strong.
Elvis's father, Vernon, attempts to protect the singer's reputation by sealing his autopsy report - which details his habitual drug use - for 50 years, but this has the unintended effect of adding fire to rumors that the star has faked his death. The scene of his death is not photographed or forensically analysed, since there are no suspicious circumstances. Conspiracy theories abound in the decades to come, with the singer being sighted everywhere from Graceland itself to touting T-shirts outside an Oasis concert in London. One famous photograph even appears to show him behind a screen door at Graceland after his death.
Other "evidence" of Elvis remaining alive includes the spelling of his middle name on his gravestone, which reads:
Elvis Aaron Presley - January 8th 1935 - August 16 1997
For most of his life Elvis had used the spelling "Aron," but had always wanted it to be spelt "Aaron," "like in the Bible." Elvis's name on his birth certificate is spelt Aaron. His family spelt it Aron. He was going to change it but then realized it had been legally spelt with a double-a all along. The record clerk had "corrected" the spelling when registering his birth.
Alleged Elvis sightings are commonplace throughout the 1980s and 1990s, with him turning up in places as diverse as Ottawa, Michigan and Kalamazoo. Even as late as 2016, video emerges of a white-haired groundsman at Graceland who bears a strong resemblance to how the King might have looked had he made it to his 81st year.
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