1955 - CBS talent scout Arthur Godfrey turned down the chance to sign Elvis Presley. Instead, at the same audition, he signed singer Pat Boone.
1983 - David Bowie releases the song "Let's Dance". Producer Nile Rodgers transformed the song from its folk origins to a dance number through studio effects and new musicians Bowie had yet to work with. Bowie used then-unknown Texas guitarist Stevie Ray Vaughan, who added a blues-edge. Bowie hired him after seeing him play at the 1982 Montreux Jazz Festival.
1987 - At Fender's Ballroom in Long Beach, California, No Doubt play their first concert, a benefit for a local scooter shop that burned down. In the audience is Tony Kanal, who like No Doubt singer Gwen Stefani, is still in high school. He joins the band later that year and starts dating Stefani; their breakup inspires the song "Don't Speak."
1991 - R.E.M. played the first of two nights at London's Borderline Club under the name of 'Bingo Hand Job.' The group were in the UK promoting their seventh studio album Out of Time and their current single ‘Losing My Religion’.
While the origin of the name seems to be lost in the haze of time ( Mike Mills: That sounds like Peter), a recording of the second show was made available on Record Store Day 2019. (Photo credit should read Odd Andersen/AFP via Getty Images)
1995 - The Goo Goo Dolls, A Boy Named Goo. The eternal Replacements tag now makes less sense than ever -- the Goos have their own sound. "Name" is the breakthrough hit, a song about friendship, loss, and fame, that feels like both a farewell to the American Dream and to a long-lost partner.
1998 - Weeks after Johnny Cash's Unchained wins the Grammy for Best Country Album, his producer Rick Rubin takes out a full-page ad in Billboard with a photo of the singer giving the middle finger along with the text, "American Recordings and Johnny Cash would like to acknowledge the Nashville music establishment and country radio for your support."
Birthdays:
Quincy Jones is 90. In a career spanning over seven decades, Quincy Jones has earned his reputation as a renaissance man of American music. Since entering the industry as an arranger in the early 1950s, he has distinguished himself as a bandleader, solo artist, sideman, songwriter, producer, film composer, and record label executive. A quick look at a few of the artists he's worked with -- Miles Davis, Frank Sinatra, Count Basie, Lesley Gore, Michael Jackson, Peggy Lee, Ray Charles, Paul Simon, and Aretha Franklin -- reveals the remarkable diversity of his career.
On This Day In Music History was sourced from This Day in Music, Allmusic, Billboard, Song Facts and Wikipedia.
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