1954 - 19-year old Elvis Presley signed a recording contract with Sun Records and quit his job as a truck driver at The Crown Electric Company later that day.
1962 - The Rolling Stones made their live debut at The Marquee Club in London. Their material included the Chicago blues as well as Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley songs. At the time, the band featured Dick Taylor on bass (later of The Pretty Things) and Mick Avory on drums, (later of The Kinks). Billed as The Rollin’ Stones, they were paid £20 for the gig.
1970 - The local band Fritz opens for Janis Joplin at the Santa Clara County Fairgrounds in California. The lead singer in Fritz is Stevie Nicks, who is awestruck watching Joplin perform. Nicks credits Joplin for showing her how to connect with an audience from the stage.
1979 - Soul singer Minnie Riperton, known for her hit "Lovin' You," dies of breast cancer at age 31. Her daughter, Maya Rudolph, future Saturday Night live star, is 6 years old at the time..
1979 - It's "Disco Demolition Night" at Comiskey Park, Chicago, where the White Sox and Tigers are playing a doubleheader. The plan is to blow up a bunch of disco albums between games, but it goes horribly wrong when fans become unruly and rush the field, forcing the White Sox to forfeit the second game.
1988 - Playgirl magazine publishes their list of the 10 sexist rockers. They are:
George Michael
LL Cool J
Bryan Ferry
Michael Hutchence of INXS
Richard Marx
John Cougar Mellencamp
Bret Michaels of Poison
Larry Mullen Jr. of U2
Robert Plant
Terence Trent D'Arby
1997 - The French magazine Le Figaro publishes an interview with George Harrison where he blasts modern music, taking aim at U2 and the Spice Girls.
On U2: "Bono and his band are so egocentric. The more you jump around, the bigger your hat is, the more people listen to your music. The only important thing is to sell and make money. It's nothing to do with talent."
Spice Girls: "The good thing about them is that you can look at them with the sound turned down."
Birthdays:
Christine McVie of Fleetwood Mac is 79. With her naturally smoky low alto vocal style and a knack for writing simple, direct, and memorable songs about the joys and pitfalls of love, Christine McVie has had a long and productive musical career while seldom insisting on being center stage. Was in the bluse band Chicken Shack before joining Fleetwood Mac. First appeared on Fleetwood Mac's second album, "Mr. Wonderful", playing piano as a session artist. She has appeared in one way or another on all but 2 Fleetwood Mac studio albums.(Photo by Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images )
Dan Murphy, guitarist of Soul Asylum, is 60.
On this Day In Music History was sourced from This Day in Music, Song Facts, Allmusic, and Wikipedia.