1969 - Wiggen sisters Dorothy, Helen, Betty, and Rachel record Philosophy of the World as The Shaggs. Numerous music critics and historians consider it the worst album ever recorded, but years later both Frank Zappa and Kurt Cobain call it one of their favorites ever made. The original 100 pressings become some of the most coveted albums in the world among collectors.
1970 - Having recently changed their name from Earth to Black Sabbath, Ozzy Osbourne, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler and Bill Ward made their concert debut at The Roundhouse, London.
1981 - Robert Plant played a secret gig at Keele University, England with his new band, The Honey Drippers. Deriving their name from Roosevelt Sykes, a blues singer also known as "Honeydripper", Plant formed the group in 1981 to satisfy his long-time goal in having a heavy rhythm and blues rock band.
1987 - U2 released The Joshua Tree. The Joshua Tree originated from the band's "great romance" with the United States, as the group had toured the country for up to five months per year in the first half of the 1980s. U2 tempered their textural post-punk with American influences. Not only are Bono's lyrics obsessed with America, but country and blues influences are heard throughout the record, and instead of using these as roots, they're used as ways to add texture to the music. Never before have U2's big messages sounded so direct and personal. (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images)
1990 - At The Central in Seattle, Mother Love Bone play their last show, as their lead singer Andrew Wood dies of a heroin overdose 10 days later. Jeff Ament and Stone Gossard from the band form Pearl Jam later that year.
1991 - "Should I Stay Or Should I Go" gave The Clash their only U.K. No. 1 single. Although the track was originally released in 1982 as part of the Clash's Combat Rock album, "Should I Stay or Should I Go" re-entered the public consciousness after the track was used in a TV commercial for Levi's jeans, propelling the song up the charts. "Should I Stay or Should I Go" includes backing vocals sung in Spanish by Joe Strummer and by Joe Ely, who assisted on the record. Strummer got the idea to sing in Spanish while recording the track; tape operator Eddie Garcia and his mother checked the Spanish lyrics for accuracy.
1997 - Notorious BIG was killed as he left a party at the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles. Born Christopher Wallace, the rapper was pronounced dead on arrival at Cedars Sinai Hospital. He was 24 years old.
2004 - Tom Jones was banned from wearing tight leather pants by his son — and manager — Mark Jones. Mark told Tom it was time to "dress his age" as he was in danger of becoming a laughingstock at 63.
2005 - The tour bus driver for The Dave Matthews Band pleads guilty to dumping sewage into the Chicago River, which hit a group of tourists cruising on an architectural tour. Stefan Wohl denied the charges at first, but admitted it when confronted with surveillance video. The band was not on the bus at the time.
2012 - 76-year-old Jerry Lee Lewis married for the seventh time when he wed his caregiver Judith Brown. Lewis split from his sixth wife, Kerrie McCarver, in 2004 after twenty years of marriage. Brown, who was 14 years younger than Lewis, was previously married to the star's cousin Rusty.
2020 - An appellate court upholds a 2016 ruling that Led Zeppelin's "Stairway To Heaven" did not infringe on the Spirit song "Taurus," bringing an end to the lawsuit that was filed in 2014. The court also overturns the "inverse ratio rule," which sets a lower standard for infringement based on how much access a defendant had to a song.
Birthdays:
Country singer Mickey Gilley is 85.
John Cale of the Velvet Underground is 79.
Procol Harum guitarist Robin Trower is 76.
On This Day In Music History is sourced from This Day in Music, Paul Shaffer's Day in Rock, Song Facts, Allmusic, and Wikipedia.