1955 - Little Richard recorded the song "Tutti Frutti." The session had not been going well, but with only 15 minutes left in the session, Richard recorded the song and coined the phrase, "A-wop-bop-a-loo-bop-a-lop-bam-boom."
1968 - The first episode of the animated series, The Archies, based on the comic strip, aired on television. Rock mogul Don Kirshner (who also brought us The Monkees), was put in charge of the show's studio musicians.
1974 - Eric Clapton scored a US No.1 with his version of the Bob Marley song 'I Shot The Sheriff' which was first released in 1973 on The Wailers' album Burnin'. Clapton didn't want to use this on the album because he thought it might seem disrespectful to Marley. Eric spoke with Bob Marley about the song, he said "I tried to ask him what the song was all about, but couldn't understand much of his reply. I was just relieved that he liked what we had done."
1974 - Stevie Wonder started a two-week run at No. 1 on the U.S. album chart with Fulfillingness First Finale, his second No. 1 album. The two big singles are "Boogie on Reggae Woman," with a deep electronic groove balancing organic congas and gospel piano, and "You Haven't Done Nothin'," an acidic dismissal of President Nixon and the Watergate controversy.
2004 - Arcade Fire release their debut album Funeral. Allmusic said this: Brave, empowering, and dusted with something that many of the indie rock genre's more contrived acts desperately lack: an element of real danger.
Birthdays:
Steve Berlin musician (The Blasters, Los Lobos) and producer (R.E.M., The Replacements, the Go-Go's, many others) is 66.
Rapper Nas (Nasir Jones) is 48.
Amy Winehouse was born in 1983. She passed in 2011. Her album, Back to Black, led to five 2008 Grammy Awards, tying what was then a record for the most wins by a female artist in a single night, and made her the first British female to win five Grammys -- including three of the general field "Big Four" awards: Best New Artist, Record of the Year and Song of the Year. (Photo by Simone Joyner/Getty Images)
Morton Harket of A-ha is 62.
John Bauman (Bowzer) of Sha Na Na is 74.
Fred "Sonic" Smith of MC5 was born. He passed in 1994.
Jon "Bowzer" Bauman of Sha Na Na is 74.
On This Day In Music History is sourced from This Day in Music, Song Facts, Allmusic, and Wikipedia.