1956 - Elvis Presley played the first of two nights at the San Diego Arena. The local Police chief issued a statement saying if Elvis ever returned to the city and performed like he did, he would be arrested for disorderly conduct.
1964 - The Beatles hold the top five spots on the Billboard Hot 100 chart with the following singles:
5) "Please Please Me"
4) "I Want To Hold Your Hand"
3) "She Loves You"
2) "Twist And Shout"
1) "Can't Buy Me Love"
1992 - The film soundtrack from Wayne's World started a two-week run at No. 1 on the U.S. album chart. Included on the soundtrack was Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody," which climbed up the American singles chart once again as a result - this time reaching all the way to No. 2, higher than its original U.S. position of No. 9 in 1976.
1996 - Grateful Dead leader Jerry Garcia's ashes are scattered in the Ganges river in India by Dead guitarist Bob Weir and Garcia's widow, Deborah. I will have tickets all week for Dead & Company at Folsom Field in June at 5:25.
2007 - An article is published in New Musical Express quoting Keith Richards as saying, "I snorted my father." In the interview Richards said he mixed some of his father's ashes with cocaine.
"It was an off-the-cuff remark, a joke, and it is not true. File under April Fool's joke," said Bernard Doherty, a Rolling Stones spokesman, about Richards' quote in NME magazine.
In a statement on the Rolling Stones Web site, Richards said:
"The complete story is lost in the usual slanting! The truth of the matter is that I planted a sturdy English Oak. I took the lid off the box of ashes and he is now growing oak trees and would love me for it!!! I was trying to say how tight Bert and I were. That tight!!! I wouldn't take cocaine at this point in my life unless I wished to commit suicide."
Birthdays:
Blues man Muddy Waters, born McKinley Morganfield, was born today in 1913. Muddy Waters was the single most important artist to emerge in post-war American blues. A peerless singer, a gifted songwriter, an able guitarist, and leader of one of the strongest bands in the genre (which became a proving ground for a number of musicians who would become legends in their own right), Waters absorbed the influences of rural blues from the Deep South and moved them uptown, injecting his music with a fierce, electric energy and helping pioneer the Chicago Blues style that would come to dominate the music through the 1950s, ‘60s, and '70s. The depth of Waters' influence on rock as well as blues is almost incalculable, and remarkably, he made some of his strongest and most vital recordings in the last five years of his life.
Clive Davis, founder of Arista Records, is 90.
Berry Oakley, bassist for The Allman Brothers Band, was born today in 1948.
Pick Withers, drummer for Dire Straits, is 74.
Gary Moore, guitarist for Thin Lizzy, was born today in 1952.
On This Day In Music History is sourced from Allmusic, South Coast Today, This Day in Music, Song Facts and Wikipedia.