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Featured Events
2012With one day to go until the United States presidential election, dozens of music stars take to the press to support incumbent Barack Obama over Republican challenger Mitt Romney. Those voicing support for Obama include Jay-Z, Lemmy Kilmister of Motörhead, Bruce Springsteen, Katy Perry, Mike McCready of Pearl Jam, and Stevie Wonder. This should come as no surprise, as music celebrities traditionally come out to support the progressive candidate in elections.
2002Justin Timberlake releases his debut solo album, Justified. It debuts at #2 in America and earns Top 5 entries with the singles "Cry Me A River" and "Rock Your Body."
1999Van Halen announce that lead singer Gary Cherone, who joined in 1996 and sang on the Van Halen III album, is leaving the band. All parties claim the split is amicable. The group later coaxes Sammy Hagar back into the fold, and reunites with original frontman David Lee Roth in 2007.
1988Edie Brickell and New Bohemians are the musical guests on Saturday Night Live. Brickell meets Paul Simon on the broadcast, whom she marries in 1992.
1971After Elvis Presley's set at the Met Center in Bloomington, Minnesota, announcer Al Dvorin tells the crowd, "Elvis has left the building." The phrase soon enters the cultural lexicon, used to signal that an event is truly over.
1959Bryan Adams is born in Kingston, Ontario, Canada.
5
In Music History
2017Robert Knight, who had a hit with "Everlasting Love," dies at 72.
2014It's a big day in Las Vegas, as Kiss begins their first residency with a show at the Hard Rock, while Britney Spears is honored with a key to the strip in celebration of her successful concert production at Planet Hollywood, which began in December 2013.
2012The building at 1325 Commmonwealth Avenue in Boston, where the five members of Aerosmith shared an apartment in the '70s, is declared a historic landmark. To celebrate, the band play a free concert outside the building to thousands of fans.
2007Garth Brooks plays the first of nine sold-out shows at the Sprint Center in Kansas City, Missouri, which opened a month earlier. When baseball season begins in 2008, the Kansas City Royals begin a tradition of playing "Friends In Low Places" during the sixth inning of every home game.
2005Beach Boys singer Mike Love sues the group's mastermind Brian Wilson, whom Love claims is "shamelessly misappropriating Mike Love's songs, likeness and the Beach Boys trademark" in promotion for his album SMiLE. The lawsuit is later dismissed.
2005Link Wray (of Link Wray & His Ray Men) dies of heart failure at age 76 at his home in Copenhagen, Denmark.
2003Jimmy Buffett wins his first Country Music Association Award when "It's Five O'Clock Somewhere," a duet with Alan Jackson, is named Vocal Event of the Year.
2003Bobby Hatfield (of The Righteous Brothers) dies of a cocaine-induced heart attack at age 63.
2002Billy Guy (original baritone singer of The Coasters) dies of heart disease at age 66.
2000The Who guest star on the "A Tale of Two Springfields" episode of The Simpsons.
2000Jimmie Davis, a country singer-songwriter who also served as governor of Louisiana from 1960-1964, dies at age 101 of a possible stroke. In 1945, he had a #1 hit on the country chart with "There's A New Moon Over My Shoulder."
2000U2 score their eighth UK #1 album when All That You Can't Leave Behind tops the chart, keeping Blur off the top.
1999Mariah Carey makes her acting debut, playing a temperamental opera singer in the romantic comedy The Bachelor, starring Chris O'Donnell and Renée Zellweger.
1996Johnny Cash releases Unchained, his second album produced by Rick Rubin. He's backed by Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers and covers their song "Southern Accents."
1996Jazz tenor saxophonist Eddie Harris, who was also credited for introducing the electrically amplified saxophone, dies of bone cancer and kidney disease at age 62.
Beach Boys Land First #1 In 22 Years With "Kokomo"
1988The Beach Boys, who haven't had a #1 hit since "Good Vibrations" in 1966, top the charts with the Brian Wilson-less "Kokomo," used in the movie Cocktail. It's the longest gap between #1 hits for any artist.
The Beach Boys days of Surfin' Safaris may be over, but they are still drawn to the water, this time in the tropical paradise of Kokomo, where you can get there fast and then take it slow. Yeah, that's where we want to go. The group hasn't had a Top 10 hit since their 1976 cover of Chuck Berry's "Rock And Roll Music," but they're still active, playing oldies shows and state fairs with a lineup that includes original members Carl Wilson, Al Jardine and Mike Love. "Kokomo" is commissioned for the Tom Cruise movie Cocktail, where he plays a bartender who goes to Jamaica. Mike Love writes the song with producer Terry Melcher and two other stars of the '60s: John Phillips of the The Mamas & the Papas and Scott McKenzie of "San Francisco (Be Sure To Wear Some Flowers In Your Hair)." Together, they create a lilting daydream of a song with steel drums and their famous harmonies. Thanks to a video that shows clips from the film along with the band performing beachside (with John Stamos on drums), the song climbs all the way to #1 on the Hot 100, their first chart-topper since "Good Vibrations" in 1966. At 22 years, it sets the record for longest stretch between #1 hits, a record that is broken by Cher in 1999 when she hits the top with "Believe." The song is also notable for having nothing to do with Brian Wilson, who was working on his first solo album at the time. So where is this island of delight? There's a city in Indiana called Kokomo, but that's not what they had in mind. This Kokomo is a name John Phillips came up with that sounded very island. After the song took off, various Kokomo resorts appeared.
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