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Featured Events
2009"No Scrubs" songwriter Kandi Burruss, formerly of Xscape, joins the cast of Bravo's The Real Housewives of Atlanta and produces "Tardy For The Party" for co-star Kim Zolciak.
2003Sam Phillips, the record producer who launched Elvis Presley's career at Sun Records, dies of respiratory failure at age 80.
2001The Strokes revive garage rock with the release of their debut album, Is This It. It drops in Australia first before making its way to England and America.More
1996Sublime's self-titled album is released. It's their major-label debut, and also their last, as lead singer Brad Nowell died of a heroin overdose two months earlier. The album goes on to sell over 5 million copies.More
1969The Beatles, producer George Martin, and the Abbey Road engineers assemble the first rough cut of the proposed Abbey Road medley. Paul McCartney, feeling that the song "Her Majesty" distracts from the flow of the medley, has it removed and orders it erased. Second engineer John Kurlander, not wanting to destroy a Beatles song, instead appends it to the end of the medley tape, adding 15 seconds of leader to make sure it's kept separate. When he finds out, Paul likes the effect so much that he leaves the ending of the album just that way.
1958Kate Bush is born in Bexleyheath, Kent, England. At 19, she releases her debut single, "Wuthering Heights," which goes to #1 in the UK.More
1942Frank Sinatra ends his association with the Tommy Dorsey orchestra, recording the last two of over 90 songs before moving on to great acclaim as a solo star at Columbia.
30
In Music History
2014Guitarist Dick Wagner dies of respiratory failure at age 71. Wagner is known for his associations with Lou Reed, KISS, David Bowie, and especially Alice Cooper.
2011U2 wrap up their 360 tour at Moncton, Canada. The final gross for the tour is $735 million, breaking the record set by The Rolling Stones on their A Bigger Bang tour, which ran from 2005-2007. Ed Sheeran sets a new mark in 2019 with $775 million on his ÷ (Divide) tour, but it takes him 255 shows to do it - U2s tour ran for 110 dates.
2010Rapper T.I. marries Tameka "Tiny" Cottle of the R&B group Xscape in Miami Beach, Florida.
2004While walking around London, The Isley Brothers' Ronald Isley suffers a minor stroke and is admitted to a local hospital. He recovers in a matter of just a few weeks.
2002Bruce Springsteen releases The Rising.
2001Performing at OzzFest in Clarkston, Michigan, a thong-clad Marilyn Manson wraps his legs around the head of a 26-year-old security guard and grinds into him. The guard sues, claiming his head was "completely engulfed" in Manson's groin.More
1995Biggie Tembo (guitarist/lead vocalist for Bhundu Boys) commits suicide at age 37 in Harare, Zimbabwe.
1993Don Myrick (saxophonist for Earth, Wind & Fire), age 53, is fatally shot by Santa Monica policemen during a narcotics investigation when the lighter he is holding is mistaken for a weapon.
1991"Enter Sandman" is released as a single, serving as a preview of what's to come from Metallica's Black Album. With a cover of the early Queen classic "Stone Cold Crazy" on the B-side, it reaches #16 on the Hot 100, their best showing to this point.
1986RCA releases John Denver from his contract, possibly over his new single, "What Are We Making Weapons For?," which he recorded with the Russian singer Alexandre Gradsky. RCA had recently been acquired by General Electric, which was a top military contractor.
1982The Ron Howard comedy Night Shift, starring Henry Winkler and Michael Keaton, debuts in theaters. The soundtrack features the song "That's What Friends Are For," performed by Rod Stewart. Written by Burt Bacharach and Carole Bayer Sager, it becomes a huge hit four years later when Dionne Warwick, Elton John, Gladys Knight, and Stevie Wonder (aka Dionne & Friends) cover it for AIDS awareness, winning Grammys for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals and Song of the Year.
1977Andy Gibb's "I Just Want To Be Your Everything," written by his brother, Barry Gibb, hits #1 in America. His next two singles, "(Love Is) Thicker Than Water" and "Shadow Dancing," also hit the top spot, making him the first male solo artist with three straight #1 hits on the Hot 100.
1971Brad Hargreaves (drummer for Third Eye Blind) is born in Marin County, California.
1968The Beatles' Apple Boutique, a psychedelic clothing store located at 94 Baker Street in London, closes after seven months of bad business practices and rampant theft. With the group and its intimates having had the pick of the remaining inventory the night before, Apple Boutique employees are instructed to simply let people in off the street to take whatever merchandise they like. The store was closed that evening for good.
1966The Troggs' "Wild Thing" hits #1.
Toronto Kicks SARS Scare With Stones Concert
2003When the disease SARS spreads to Toronto, it scares a lot of people away. To get visitors back, the city puts on a huge open-air concert featuring The Rolling Stones, The Guess Who, Rush, The Isley Brothers, The Flaming Lips and Justin Timberlake (who is jeered and has muffins thrown at him). About 450,000 people attend.
The first case of SARS (Severe acute respiratory syndrome) in Toronto, Canada is identified on February 23, 2003. Starting in a woman returning from a trip to Hong Kong, the virus goes on to infect 257 individuals in the area. On April 23, 2003, WHO (World Health Organization) issues a global advisory against all non-essential travel to the city, which has a devastating economic impact on Toronto. As the city becomes the subject of increasing international media scrutiny, Toronto needs a big event with marquee names to prove it is safe. Enter The Rolling Stones – a band that has rehearsed tours there for decades and has a longstanding relationship with the city (not always a good one: Keith Richards was infamously busted for heroin possession there in 1977). The Stones agree to a benefit concert at Downsview Park, which is announced for July 30, 2003 at Downsview Park. Toronto is still under a SARS warning, but the show goes on, with an estimated 450,000 to 500,000 tickets were sold, making it the largest outdoor ticketed event in Canadian history. Opening the concert is Have Love Will Travel Revue, a blues band comprising Canadian actor Dan Aykroyd and American comedian Jim Belushi. Aykroyd and Belushi also act as hosts for the event, the first half of which includes Sam Roberts, Kathleen Edwards, La Chicane, The Tea Party, The Flaming Lips (who invited other artists on the lineup to dance with them on stage in animal costumes), Sass Jordan, The Isley Brothers and Blue Rodeo. The second part of the concert starts in the late afternoon with Justin Timberlake, and continues into the night with The Guess Who, Rush (the last band to agree to perform at the event, having been off the road for eight months), AC/DC and The Rolling Stones, who end the evening with a 90-minute hit-filled set. Justin Timberlake is jeered and pelted with water bottles, toilet paper and muffins (yes, muffins) throughout his performance, with songs like "Cry Me A River" and "Rock Your Body" missing the mark with the rock fans in attendance. He is heckled again when he returns to duet with The Rolling Stones on "Miss You," prompting an incensed Keith Richards to demand that the crowd show him some respect. The concert succeeds in changing the narrative, and Toronto puts the SARS scare behind them. The next night, Timberlake gets a better reception when he plays the Air Canada Centre as part of the Justified and Stripped tour with Christina Aguilera.
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