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Featured Events
2012Justin Timberlake marries actress Jessica Biel at a super-secret ceremony in Italy.
1991At a gig in Texas, Nirvana's Kurt Cobain gets in a fight with a bouncer. While crowd surfing, the bouncer shoves him back into the crowd by the face, to which Cobain responds by driving the butt of his guitar into the bouncer's own mug. Barely back on his feet, Cobain gets a sucker punch to the back of the head before his bandmates jump in to help him.
1984The Talking Heads concert movie Stop Making Sense opens in theaters. A highly unconventional film that doesn't rely on crowd shots or backstage footage, it's hailed as a triumph of the genre.More
1979Prince releases his sophomore album, Prince, containing the #1 R&B hit "I Wanna Be Your Lover" and the original version of "I Feel For You," later a hit for Chaka Khan. It's his first album certified Platinum for sales over 1 million.
1979Following a vicious legal battle with MCA Records, the third Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers album, Damn The Torpedoes, is released on the label's new subsidiary, Backstreet Records.More
1977In Greenville, South Carolina, Lynyrd Skynyrd play their last show before the plane crash that kills three of their members. Nazareth is the opening act.
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In Music History
2014Raphael Ravenscroft, who played the famous saxophone solo on "Baker Street," dies at age 60.
2013Noel Harrison, whose "Windmills Of Your Mind" won an Academy Award for Best Original Song for the 1968 heist film The Thomas Crown Affair, dies of a heart attack at age 79.
2011Blues guitarist John-Alex Mason, age 35, dies of complications after surgery to remove cancerous tissue.
2011Texas-born blues pianist Earl Gilliam dies at age 81 of advanced lung disease.
2007Trini Lopez is given the Lifetime Achievement honor at the Latinos of Distinction Awards in Ontario, California.
2006Nick Valensi of The Strokes and his wife, photographer/actress Amanda de Cadenet, welcome fraternal twins, Silvan and Ella.
2005Yusuf Islam, the singer/songwriter formerly know as Cat Stevens, is named songwriter of the year at the ASCAP Awards in London. Islam also receives the song of the year honor for "First Cut Is The Deepest," which was first released in 1967.
2004Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger and Eurythmics co-founder Dave Stewart are the lead performers on the Alfie soundtrack. Jagger sings lead on about one-third of the songs, including the first single "Old Habits Die Hard." Another version with Jagger, Stewart and Sheryl Crow is included as a bonus track.
2001Luciano Pavarotti is acquitted of tax evasion in a trial in his home town of Modena, Italy. The opera star, who was accused of owing the government $18 million for income earned from 1989-95, faced a nominal 18-month prison sentence.
1999Primus issue their sixth studio album, Antipop. The song "Eclectic Electric" features guitar from James Hetfield of Metallica, and Jim Martin, formerly of Faith No More.
1997After a number of health scares related to a lifetime of drug and alcohol abuse, original Alice Cooper guitarist Glen Buxton dies of viral pneumonia at age 49.
1997Vince Gill honors John Denver with a performance of "Take Me Home Country Roads" at the Grand Ole Opry. Denver died a week earlier in a plane crash.
1995Don Cherry, acclaimed trumpet player and father of Neneh and Eagle-Eye Cherry, dies of liver cancer at age 58.
1993Counterparts, Rush's 15th studio album, hits stores.
1988Blues singer/guitarist Son House dies of cancer of the larynx at age 86.
Groundbreaking Video Sends "Take On Me" To #1
1985Thanks to an innovative video that takes place in a comic book, "Take On Me" gives the Norwegian group a-ha a #1 hit in America.
Earlier versions of "Take On Me" flopped hard, but when Warner Bros' exec Jeff Ayeroff got a look at the band, he knew their swoonworthy looks were made for MTV and commissioned a music video to promote a more radio friendly version of the tune. In the clip, helmed by "Billie Jean" director Steve Barron, an animated version of a-ha frontman Morten Harket lures an attractive girl into his cartoon world. The comic landscape was created by husband-and-wife team Michael Patterson and Candace Reckinger using rotoscoping, which involves tracing over live action footage to create realistic movements in animation. Their video work continues on Paula Abdul's "Opposites Attract" and Suzanne Vega's "Luka." The groundbreaking video helps push "Take On Me" to #1 and earns six accolades at the MTV Video Music Awards, including Best Special Effects, Best Concept, and Viewer's Choice. It also forever traps a-ha in their seminal hit, at least in the US, where they never reach the apex of the Hot 100 again. By the time "Take On Me" reaches its 30th anniversary, however, a-ha has taken on the rest of the world with a moodier brand of pop and a legacy of hits on several European charts.
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