Today in Rock n Roll History

1959: No. 1 Chart Toppers Pop Hit “Stagger Lee,” Lloyd Price. The song is based on an old folk song, “Stack-O-Lee,” about the tragic fate of two gamblers.

1970: Ringo Starr made a guest appearance on Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In. This was Starr’s first solo television appearance.

1978: The Eagles win Grammys for the “Hotel California” album and “New Kid in Town” single.

1978: David Coverdale’s Whitesnake made their live debut at the Sky Bird Club in Nottingham, U.K.

1979: The first tour of the U.S. and Canada by Dire Straits opens at the Paradise Club in Boston. The group logs 51 sold-out shows in 38 days.

1994: Eddie Van Halen, B.B. King and Chris Issak were among those in attendance for the groundbreaking ceremony for the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas that opened the following year.

1995: Melvin Franklin of the Temptations dies of heart failure in Los Angeles leaving Otis Williams the sole surviving member of the popular Motown group of five.

1998: Nine music fans are killed and more than 40 injured when a truck on which leading Haitian band Ram is performing veers out of control during the annual carnival in Port-au-Prince. None of the band members are hurt. The driver flees the scene but is later arrested.

2000: Carlos Santana tied Michael Jackson’s record of eight Grammy Awards, including Album of the Year for his album Supernatural, Record of the Year & Song of the Year for Smooth, Santana’s collaboration with Matchbox Twenty singer Rob Thomas.

2003: Howie Epstein, 47 former bassist for Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers dies at a hospital in Santa Fe, New Mexico. A female companion who transports Epstein to the hospital claims that he had been doing heroin and taking prescription antibiotics for an illness.

2004: Courtney Love fires her lawyer after he advises her to plead guilty to drugs possession charges.

2005: Ray Charles’ posthumous duets record Genius Loves Company ascends to the No.1 album spot in the U.S. following his multiple Grammy wins.

2005: The jury is selected for The Trial of the Century, aka Michael Jackson’s child molestation trial.

2006: Twenty people are injured when ticketless fans try to gatecrash a Rolling Stones concert in Buenos Aires. Police use rubber bullets and tear gas to control the unruly crowd.

2010: The Rock Hall induction “gala” this year will take place in NYC on March 15th.
This year’s inductees: Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong will induct The Stooges, Phish’s Trey Anastasio will induct Genesis, Wyclef Jean will induct Jimmy Cliff, Barry and Robin Gibb will induct ABBA and Jackson Browne will induct David Geffen.

2010: U.K. declares Abbey Road a historic site. With all the talk about EMI possibly selling Abbey Road Studios, the U.K. government has stepped in and declared it a historic site so that no radical changes can be made.


TODAY'S BIRTHDAYS
1944: Johnny Winter
1950: Steve Priest bass player for Sweet
1952: Brad Whitford guitarist for Aerosmith
1962: Michael Wilton guitarist for Queensryche