Today in Music History...August 11, 2017 (Now with more info & links)

Music History: August 11th

 

2016 For the second year, President Obama releases two summer playlists on Spotify. It's his last year in office, which might be why "So Very Hard To Go" is on the list.More

2011 Go-Go's receive the 2,444th star on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame. It is located where the legendary punk club The Masque used to stand. Go-Go's frequently played this club during their early years.

2008 Noah and the Whale debut Peaceful, the World Lays Me Down is released on the Mercury/Vertigo label. Laura Marling, who was a member of the band at the time of recording but soon left to focus on her solo career, is featured as a vocalist on the album. Fellow Indie-Folk artist Emmy the Great also contributes vocals to the album.

2006 Singer/talk show host Mike Douglas dies suddenly on his 86th birthday after a bout of dehydration in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida.

2004 Vanessa Williams and her basketball-player husband Rick Fox get divorced.

2003 Phish bass player Mike Gordon is arrested backstage at a Grateful Dead concert in Jones Beach after he is found taking photos of a 9-year-old girl. He is later cleared of the charges, and the girl's parents agree that it was an "unfortunate misunderstanding."

2000 Madonna gives birth to her second child, Rocco. The father is Guy Ritchie, director of the films Snatch and Lock, Stock And Two Smoking Barrels.

1999 Kiss are awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

1997 Sonny West, Red West, Lamar Fike and Marty Lacker, four of the biggest members of Elvis' "Memphis Mafia," recall the King in a one-time-only webchat.

1996 Mel Taylor (drummer for The Ventures) dies of lung cancer at age 62 in Los Angeles, California.

1995 Dangerous Minds, starring Michelle Pfeiffer as an inner-city schoolteacher, debuts in US theaters. The movie's soundtrack tops the Billboard 200 albums chart thanks to its lead single, Coolio's "Gangsta's Paradise."

1992 The Mall of America opens in Bloomington, Minnesota, with Ray Charles performing "America The Beautiful."

1989 Bruce Springsteen joins Ringo Starr onstage at a concert in New Jersey, where they perform "Get Back," "Long Tall Sally," "Photograph" and "With A Little Help From My Friends."

1987 Rolling Stone magazine declares The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band the best album of the last twenty years.

1985 J-Boog (of B2K) is born Jarell Damonte Houston in Compton, California.

1982 Donna Summer has her first daughter, Amanda Grace Sudano, with husband Bruce Sudano.

1980 Johnny Cash sings a duet of "Jackson" with Miss Piggy on The Muppet Show. He gets under the fur of Rowlf the dog with his song "Dirty Old Egg-Sucking Dog."

1978 Chris "Mac Daddy" Kelly of Kris Kross is born in Atlanta, Georgia. The rap duo becomes known for their hit "Jump" and for wearing their clothes backwards, a look they call "totally krossed out."

1973 Rather than join Paul McCartney in traveling to Nigeria to record the band's latest album, Band On The Run, Henry McCullough and Denny Seiwell both quit Wings, forcing Paul, wife Linda, and Denny Laine to record the album as a trio.

1973 The Edgar Winter Group releases "Free Ride."

1972 The mayor of San Antonio, Texas, declares today "Cheech and Chong Day" after the popular comedy duo, although neither was born anywhere near the city.

1970 DJ/producer Ali Shaheed Muhammad (of A Tribe Called Quest) is born in Brooklyn, New York.

1969 The Beatles finish recording "I Want You (She's So Heavy)."

1969 Diana Ross holds a party for 350 at Beverly Hills' Daisy Club to announce her discovery of the singing group The Jackson 5 - even though Gladys Knight actually recommended them to Motown head Berry Gordy. That night, the group gains even more exposure by performing at the first Miss Black America pageant.

1969 Deep Purple records "Speed King" in Studio 2 at the Aeolin Hall. It is aired six days later on Symonds On Sunday.

1969 The Beatles record "I Want You (She's So Heavy)," "Oh! Darling" and "Here Comes The Sun."

1968 Guitarist/singer/songwriter Charlie Sexton is born in San Antonio, Texas.

1964 The Who, temporarily known as the High Numbers, take the stage at Harrow, England's Railway Hotel, but not before lead singer Roger Daltrey is involved in a fistfight with his father-in-law just outside.

1964 The Beatles record "Baby's In Black."

1963 The Kingston Trio appear as the celebrity "mystery guests" on CBS-TV's What's My Line?

1962 Bragi Ólafsson (bassist for The Sugarcubes) is born in Reykjavík, Iceland.

1962 Neil Sedaka's "Breaking Up Is Hard To Do" hits #1 for the first of two weeks.

1962 Booker T. and the M.G.s instrumental hit "Green Onions" enters the charts.

1962 Mary Wells releases "You Beat Me To The Punch."

1958 Elvis Presley's "Hard Headed Woman" is certified gold.

1954 Guitarist Bryan Bassett (of Wild Cherry) is born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

1954 Singer/musician Joe Jackson is born David Ian Jackson in Burton upon Trent, Staffordshire, England.

1950 Eric Braunn (guitarist for Iron Butterfly) is born Rick Davis in Pekin, Illinois.

1949 Eric Carmen (of The Raspberries) is born in Cleveland, Ohio.

1948 Bill Hurd (pianist/organist for the Rubettes) is born in East Ham, East London, England.

1943 Songwriter Kenny Gamble is born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Co-wrote a string of popular Soul hits with Leon Huff, including "If You Don't Know Me By Now," "Back Stabbers" and "Me and Mrs. Jones."

1943 Jim Kale (bassist for The Guess Who) is born Michael James Kale in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.

1943 Saxophonist Denis Payton (of The Dave Clark Five) is born in Walthamstow, North London, England.

1942 Singer/musician Mike Hugg (of Manfred Mann) is born in Gosport, Hampshire, England.

1942 Guy Villari (of The Regents - the original "Barbara Ann" singers) is born in The Bronx, New York.

1937 The Who producer/manager Shel Talmy is born in Chicago, Illinois.

1925 Singer/talk show host Mike Douglas is born in Chicago, Illinois.

1922 Ron Grainer, composer of the "Doctor Who Theme," is born in Queensland, Australia.

 

Keith Moon Shows His Dark Side In A Moment Of Lunacy

 

1976Keith Moon trashes a hotel room - no surprise there. But this time The Who drummer is hospitalized after beating up his room at the Fontainebleau Hotel in Miami.
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Featured Events

2011 Warrant lead singer Jani Lane dies at age 47 after a long battle with drug and alcohol addiction.

1986 The Monkees, who are on a reunion tour, have an amazing six albums on the Billboard 200. The highest is The Monkees at #92.



1973 At a dance party in the Bronx, DJ Kool Herc plays a set with lots of instrumental breaks that his friend MCs over, marking what many consider the beginning of hip-hop.More

1964 The Beatles' first film, A Hard Day's Night, has its US premiere in New York City.

1962 Tony Bennett releases "Once Upon A Time" b/w "I Left My Heart in San Francisco." When DJs begin flipping over the record and playing the b-side, "San Francisco" climbs to #19 on the charts and eventually wins Bennett Grammy Awards for Record of the Year and Best Male Solo Vocal Performance.

1956 Richard Goodman and Bull Buchanan, recording as Buchanan and Goodman, enter the charts with "Flying Saucer," which is the first song to use what's called the "Break In" technique, dropping in bits of other hit songs throughout. The song would eventually peak at #3.