1965 -Blues harmonica player, singer and songwriter, Sonny Boy Williamson died in his sleep. Van Morrison, Aerosmith, The Who, The Animals, Yardbirds and Moody Blues all covered his songs. According to the Led Zeppelin biography Hammer of the Gods, touring the UK in the 60s, Sonny Boy set his hotel room on fire while trying to cook a rabbit in a coffee percolator.
1987 - The Cure find mainstream success in America with the versatile double album Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me. It finds Robert Smith expanding his pop vocabulary by tentatively adding bigger guitars, the occasional horn section, lite-funk rhythms, and string sections and helps make the album one of the group's very best. (Photo by Theo Wargo/Getty Images)
1996 - Sublime frontman Brad Nowell dies of a heroin overdose at age 28, just one week after marrying Troy Dendekker, the mother of his 11-month-old son, Jakob.
Sublime had just completed their major label debut at the time of Nowell's death. That album was going to be called Killin' It, but is renamed Sublime
1997 - Bob Dylan was diagnosed as suffering from histoplasmosis pericarditis, a fungal infection of the lung, and was admitted to hospital he stayed until June 2nd. Having just turned 56, Dylan later admitted: 'I really thought I'd be seeing Elvis soon'. Treated by drugs and rest, Bob was back on the road only 10 weeks later, for 22 American and Canadian shows.
1998 - Coldplay released their first ever record, an EP called Safety, which featured 3 tracks; 'Bigger Stronger', 'No More Keeping My Feet on the Ground', and 'Such a Rush'. The EP was intended as a demo for record companies and is now such a rarity that it is known to fetch in excess of £2000 on eBay.
2004 - In a letter to fans, Phish frontman Trey Anastasio says that after 21 years together, the band is splitting up. "We all love and respect Phish and the Phish audience far too much to stand by and allow it to drag on beyond the point of vibrancy and health. We don't want to become caricatures of ourselves, or worse yet, a nostalgia act." They wrap things up with a show in Coventry, Vermont, in August, but it is not the final curtain: In 2009, the band reunites.
2015 - Don Henley lashed out on his Facebook page against fans using cell phones to capture images and video at the band's concerts. "The madness, the rudeness, the thoughtlessness must stop. Constantly looking at the world through a viewfinder is not seeing. Listening to live music while recording on a smartphone is not hearing. Experiencing life second-hand is not living. Be here now."
Birthdays:
Joe King from The Fray is 43.
Paul Weller is 65. Weller began his musical career as an angry teenage punk obsessed with old records. Throughout his long career, he thrived in the place where the past meets the present, creating forward-thinking music with deep roots. When he led the Jam, the most popular British rock band of the punk era, he spun his love of the Beatles, the Kinks, and the Who into vital punk rock, spearheading the mod revival of the late 1970s. During the final days of the Jam, he developed a fascination with Motown and soul, which led him to form the sophisti-pop group the Style Council in 1983. he continues to put out solo albums to this day.
On This Day In Music History was sourced from Allmusic, This Day In Music, Songfacts, Classic Bands, and Wikipedia.