1955 - Elvis Presley plays at the Odessa Senior High School in Odessa, Texas. A young Roy Orbison is in the audience.
1972 - Doing a week-long stint as guest host of the Mike Douglas Show, John Lennon performs "Memphis" and "Johnny B. Goode" with Chuck Berry, whom Lennon refers to as "my hero." A little over a minute into 'Memphis', while Lennon and Berry are singing about the Mississippi Bridge, Ono decides that what the song needs are some dolphin-like vocalizations, so she proceeds to add those to the mix. For Lennon, this is par for the course, but Berry is visibly shaken and gives the camera a startled, wide-eyed look. He recovers, though, and also performs his famous duck walk.
1974 - Bob Dylan started a four week run at No.1 on the US album chart with Planet Waves, his first US No.1. Beloved collaborators The Band back him on the effort. The cover features Dylan's own artwork, complete with the phrase "Cast-iron songs & torch ballads." The album was originally set to be titled Ceremonies Of The Horsemen, a reference to the song 'Love Minus Zero / No Limit', from the 1965 album 'Bringing It All Back Home'. When Dylan decided to change the title at the last minute, the release was delayed for two weeks.
1990 - The day before he turns 18, Billie Joe Armstrong drops out of high school. A week later, he releases the first album with his band Green Day: 39/Smooth. (Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images for dcp)
1991 - The Simpsons went No. 1 on the U.K. singles chart with "Do The Bartman". The song was written by Michael Jackson and Bryan Loren, and The Simpsons became the first cartoon characters to go No. 1 since the Archies hit "Sugar Sugar" in 1969. Jackson was a massive fan of The Simpsons and had called the producers one night offering to write Bart a No. 1 single and do a guest spot on the show.
2004 - Singer Doris Troy died. She had been a session singer, sang on Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon She sang back-up for many acts including The Rolling Stones, (‘You Can't Always Get What You Want’), Carly Simon's ('You're So Vain'), George Harrison, (‘My Sweet Lord’). She the hit, 'Just One Look' in 1963.
2005 - Yusuf Islam, the former Cat Stevens was awarded substantial damages from The Sunday Times and The Sun, after they had printed articles alleging he was involved in terrorism. Both newspapers apologized to the 56 year old musician for the "false and highly defamatory allegations." The papers also paid his legal bills and pledged not to repeat the allegations. The money awarded was given to Tsunami relief projects.
Birthdays:
Otis Blackwell, American songwriter and producer who wrote 'All Shook Up', 'Return To Sender', 'Don't Be Cruel', 'Great Balls Of Fire' and 'Fever', was born today in 1932.
Sonny Bono was born today in 1935.
Ice-T (Tracy Lauren Marrow) is 63.
Andy Taylor, guitarist with Duran Duran, is 60.
The Weeknd (Abel Makkonen Tesfaye) is 31.
On This Day In Music History sourced from This Day in Music, Paul Shaffer's Day in Rock, Song Facts, AV Club, and Wikipedia.