1952 - Cleveland stakes a claim on rock history when the Moondog Coronation Ball is held at the Cleveland Arena. Organized by the WJW DJ Alan Freed ("Moondog" on the air), it is widely considered the first rock concert. It may also be one of the shortest, as it is shut down after one song. Over 25,000 people turn up for the show, the problem was that the capacity of the arena is only 10,000. The Cleveland Police Department, supported by firefighters bearing fire hoses, bring the show to a halt.
1983 - Pink Floyd released The Final Cut, which was their final album with bassist and singer Roger Waters. The Final Cut extends the autobiography of The Wall, concentrating on Roger Waters' pain when his father died in World War II. Waters spins this off into a treatise on the futility of war, with scathing anger to impossibly subdued music that demands full attention. Distinctive, to be sure, but not easy to love and, depending on your view, not even that easy to admire.
1976 - The French actress Claudine Longet, ex-wife of Andy Williams, shoots her live-in lover, the famed skier Spider Sabich, at his home in Aspen, Colorado. The shooting is ruled an accident, and Longet is sentenced to 30 days in jail for criminal negligence. Her case inspires the Rolling Stones song "Claudine." Said Richards to Spinner: "I wished, and I think all of us did at the time, that that should have been on the original album, but there was some legal difficulties and stuff. But otherwise, she was a perfect 'Some Girl.' It was eventually released on the bonus disc of 'Some Girls' deluxe set.
1994 - Bruce Springsteen won the Best Music, Original Song Oscar at the 66th Academy Awards for "Streets of Philadelphia." Director Jonathan Demme used this to open his movie Philadelphia, starring Tom Hanks as a lawyer dying of AIDS.
Demme first cut the title sequence of Philadelphia to "Southern Man" and asked Neil Young to write a song like it for the movie. Young gave him "Philadelphia," which he used at the end of the film. Still needing a song for the open, he called Springsteen.
Demme asked Springsteen for a rock song to open his movie. Bruce started writing it based on lyrics he had previously written about the death of one of his friends, but it did not work over a rock beat. Springsteen sent what he came up with to Demme, considering it an unfinished demo. Demme loved it and felt it was perfect for his movie just as it was. (Photo by Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images for SUFH
2000 - Soul Coughing disbanded after eight years and three albums.
Birthdays:
Chip Taylor, a songwriter noted for writing "Angel of the Morning" and "Wild Thing," is 82.
Eddie Money was born today in 1949.
Roger Hodgson, guitarist and singer for Supertramp, is 72.
Conrad Lozano, bass player for Los Lobos, is 71.
Stray Cats drummer Slim Jim Phantom is 61.
Jonas Berggren of Ace of Base is 55.
On this Day In Music History is sourced from This Day in Music, Allmusic, Song Facts and Wikipedia.