1964, The Rolling Stones make their American concert debut at the Manning Bowl in Lynn, MA...

1967, The Beatles release Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band ... the album will go on to win a number of Grammys and be hailed by many as one of the most influential rock albums ever, both for its songs and its production...

1969, Blind Faith makes its live debut at a free concert in London's Hyde Park ... an estimated 150,000 people attend the show ... the group, consisting of Eric Clapton, Ginger Baker, Steve Winwood, and Ric Grech, will disband the following October after a U.S. tour that Winwood describes as "vulgar, crude, disgusting (and) lacking in integrity"...

1972, Grand Funk Railroad sells out its concert at Shea Stadium within 72 hours of the on-sale ... this breaks the previous box-office record there, held by The Beatles...

1980, The Grateful Dead celebrates 15 years together at an anniversary concert in Phoenix, AZ...

1992, after over one million votes on the Elvis postage stamp are received, Priscilla Presley announces from the Graceland lawn that the '50s-era King prevailed ... fans had a choice between the young Elvis and the portly, chops-bearing King in his Vegas years ... young Elvis took home 851,200 votes while the Vegas King garnered 277,723...

1997, the body of singer-songwriter Jeff Buckley turns up in a harbor on the Mississippi River confirming that he had indeed drowned ... Buckley had disappeared days earlier after wading into the river fully clothed while a friend swam nearby...

1999, the incomparable Mel Torme dies from complications of a stroke he suffered three years earlier that ended his career...

2000, the National Fatherhood Institute names country singer Tim McGraw its Father of the Year during its annual summit ... the organization cites McGraw's commitment to children's charities and his commitment to his own family ... in an ironic twist, McGraw and fellow country star Kenny Chesney are arrested the next day in Buffalo, NY, after Chesney steals a mounted police officer's steed ... McGraw allegedly attacks deputies trying to stop Chesney ... the pair will be acquitted on all charges the following May ... this continues McGraw's series of unfortunate events for this week ... a year earlier in the same week, he and 400 attendees of his charity concert were forced to evacuate the 7th House in Pontiac, MI, after a female fan pepper-sprayed a man she claimed groped her ... McGraw collapsed mid-song from the spray as the exodus began ... Rolling Stone Ronnie Wood enters Priory Clinic, a rehab center in London, to deal with his alcohol addiction...

2002, KISS bassist-media mogul Gene Simmons announces the launch of Gene Simmons Tongue magazine ... the Maxim-ish publication features plenty of scantily-clad babes as well as interviews with musicians ... preliminary sales of the magazine prompt Simmons to proclaim, "We have a huge smash!"...the magazine lasts for only five issues despite his claim...

2003, early reports indicate Led Zeppelin's three-disc live album How the West Was Won will debut at #1 on the U.S. album chart ... rapper 50 Cent's Get Rich or Die Tryin' ends up at #2 ... Chester Bennington, lead singer for Linkin Park, is hospitalized with severe back and abdominal pains in Los Angeles ... plans for festival dates in Europe are scrapped as a result ... Napster-haters Metallica announce a new website, Metallicavault.com ... the site will offer free downloads of live recordings, rare demos, and b-sides ... to access the material, fans will need a passkey included in copies of the band's forthcoming album St. Anger, making the downloads not-so-free after all...

2004, Velvet Revolver's highly-anticipated debut album Contraband makes its online debut courtesy of MTV.com ... fans can preview the entire album on the website prior to its June 8 release ... the group features former Guns 'n Roses members Slash, Duff McKagan, and Matt Sorum, with former Stone Temple Pilots frontman Scott Weiland handling vocals ... the album will go platinum within two months ... no comment from Axl ... legendary '80s metal band Judas Priest plays the first show of its reunion tour with singer Rob Halford in Hanover, Germany ... Halford left the group in 1993 to form the alt-metal band Fight ... he was replaced by Tim Owens, frontman for a Judas Priest cover band...

1957, "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On" hits the C&W charts for Jerry Lee Lewis ... the recording will ease on over to the pop charts within a week...

1958, Jerry Lee Lewis' producer, Sam Phillips, forces Lewis to sign an apologetic letter he then posts as a full-page ad in Billboard ... the letter is a vain attempt to bolster Lewis' plummeting reputation in the fallout from his divorce and subsequent marriage to 14-year-old second-cousin Myra ... though marriage to a second cousin of that age isn't such a big deal in the '50s southern U.S., the sanctimonious British press has turned it into a nightmare from which the Killer's career will never completely recover...

1964, The Rolling Stones know they have arrived when they get the chance to hang out with two of their idols, Muddy Waters and Willie Dixon, while recording at Chicago's Chess studios ... the band's name is derived from a tune by Muddy...

1965, it is announced that The Beatles will receive MBE awards from Queen Elizabeth in October ... in the controversy that ensues, some previous recipients return their medals ... John Lennon returns his medal in 1969 signifying his displeasure with Britain's support for U.S. involvement in Vietnam...

1966, The Beatles record "Rain," which employs a reversed-tape effect for the first time in one of their songs ... it's the same technique that later results in the "Paul-is-dead" rumors ... John Lennon claims to have discovered the coolness of backwards tape when he accidentally put a working tape on his tape machine backwards while under the influence of illegal green stuff...

1966, rumors of Roger Daltrey's death are greatly exaggerated as European radios spew misinformation after Pete Townshend is injured in a car accident...

1969, multi-instrumentalist-turned-junkie and founder of The Rolling Stones Brian Jones announces he's leaving the band because he doesn't agree with their musical direction ... the band has had their fill of him and probably forced him out since his drugging and mental instability have prevented the Stones from touring the U.S. ... they will later joke about pranks they played on him such as having him record overdubs with no tape running ... hot blues guitarist Mick Taylor has already been lined up for the position and steps in as soon as Jones steps out ... within three weeks Jones will be found dead on the bottom of his pool...

1969, the Houston Astrodome hosts Soul Bowl '69, with perennial crowd pleasers Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles, and the Staple Singers...

1970, Derek and the Dominos hit the stage for the first time in Britain ... Clapton's much-feted collaboration with other former Delaney & Bonnie & Friends members (with a guest appearance by Duane Allman on D&D's only studio album) will play itself out by December...

1971, police panic when people start climbing over the fence at a Jethro Tull concert in Red Rocks Amphitheater outside Denver ... they drop tear gas from helicopters resulting in a general riot with lots of injuries ... averting disaster, Jethro Tull comes onstage in the middle of the ruckus--after the opening act flees--and plays their entire show while choking from tear gas fumes ... Red Rocks says no more rock concerts will be held there ... but they will eventually relent...

1974, king of the big keyboard sound Rick Wakeman parts ways with Yes to pursue a solo career ... he will rejoin the band for 1977's Going for the One, setting the pattern for decades of on-again/off-again relations...

1974, the Who sells out a four-night gig at Madison Square Garden in three days, two months before the show ... in the innocent world of 1974, that's a big deal...

Rolling Stone magazine that Little Feat has broken up after 10 years of musical matrimony ... Little Feat frontman, leader, and former Zappa sideman Lowell George won't live to see July...

1989, Jerry Lee Lewis, still going strong, gets a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame...

1991, Bruce Springsteen weds singer-songwriter Patti Scialfa who has been singing backup vocals with the Boss's E-Street Band for the past four years...

1992, a judge in L.A. dismisses a $25 million palimony suit brought by model Kelly Emberg against Rod Stewart ... she charges that they had lived together in a marital-like state between 1985 and 1990 and had a child together ... despite their current contretemps, sources close to Emberg report that she still thinks Rod is sexy

1992, feeling under the gun, Texas law enforcement officials call for a ban on Ice-T and Body Count's Cop Killer ... the album's sales double in the aftermath...

1993, the movie What's Love Got to Do With It? opens to solid box office ... the biopic is based on Tina Turner's tell-all biography I Tina that details her stormy relationship with ex-husband Ike ... an anticipated counter-biography, I Ike, never materializes...

1994, Atlanta Falcon's wide receiver Andre Rison's Atlanta mansion burns to the ground ... it's determined that in a fit of pique his girlfriend Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes committed the arson...

1995, 90 minutes before he's to perform at a Texas police convention, country star Ty Herndon is busted by an undercover cop for drug possession ... he pleads guilty...

1998, a judge in the Appellate Division of the New York Supreme Court hears opening arguments in a suit brought by the Ronettes against their former producer, Phil Spector, charging him with breaching their 34-year-old contract by failing to pay royalties ... in 2002 the reclusive studio guru is finally ordered to pay the girls $2.9 million plus interest...

2000, Sinead O'Connor outs herself in an article that appears in Curve magazine.

1948, Columbia Records begins mass production of the 33-1/3 RPM LP...

1955, Sun Records releases Johnny Cash's first single, "Cry Cry Cry" ... it is the first in a line of well over 100 hit singles by Cash to appear on the Country, Rock, and Pop charts...

1963, Kyu Sakamoto's "Sukiyaki" hits number one on the U.S. pop charts ... it is the first and last Japanese song to do so ... the song, about a man trying to hold back his heartbroken tears, was originally recorded for the Japanese market as "Ue o Muite Aruko" (Looking Up As I Walk) ... the UK group Kenny Ball and the Jazzmen recorded a version of it and retitled it "Sukiyaki" after a type of Japanese cuisine ... American DJ Richard Osbourne of the Pasco, Washington, radio station KORD started playing Sakamoto's original version, with the Anglo-cized "Sukiyaki" title ... the song remains at number one for three weeks and sells over a million copies in the States ... on August 12, 1985, at the age of 43 Sakamoto will be killed along with 519 other passengers in the worst airline accident in Japan's history...

1966, The Beatles album Yesterday... And Today is released by Capitol in the original and soon-to-be controversial butcher sleeve ... the cover shows the Beatles garbed in white butcher's smocks and smiling cherubically amidst bloody cuts of meat and dismembered baby dolls ... assembled from B-sides and UK album leftovers, it is the last album created for the American market without the group's direct consent ... the cover is intended to represent how the LP and albums like it are a melange of chopped-up pieces of music ... the negative backlash rolls in just days later and Capitol scrambles to replace the cover with a tamer one ... the company pastes a new band photo over the original sleeve on thousands of already-manufactured copies ... as a consequence it is the only U.S. Beatles album to ever show a loss on Capitol's books ... it makes lots of money for record collectors over the years, however, as the the original quickly becomes a valuable collectors' item ... lots of fans will ruin their Yesterday... And Today album sleeves by attempting to pull off the replacement cover to view the original...

1969, Jimi Hendrix earns what is in its day the largest paycheck ever paid to a performer for a single show; $125,000 for a single set at the Newport Jazz Festival ... the three-day music fest gathers 150,000 people in Northridge, California to hear and see Hendrix, Steppenwolf, Jethro Tull, Joe Cocker, CCR, Ike and Tina Turner, and more...

1970, "Cinnamon Girl" by Neil Young goes gold...

1973, The Rocky Horror Picture Show opens for the first time in London ... two years later Tim Curry will reprise his role for the movie version...

1980, The Blues Brothers, starring Dan Ackroyd and John Belushi, premieres in New York City ... oodles of musicians appear in cameos including James Brown, Cab Calloway, Ray Charles, Steve Cropper, Donald "Duck" Dunn, Murphy "Murph" Dunne, Aretha Franklin, Willie "Too Big" Hall, John Lee Hooker, Chaka Khan, Tom Malone, "Blue" Lou Marini, Matt "Guitar" Murphy, Pinetop Perkins, and Joe Walsh ... in addition to its many significant and hilarious musical numbers the film also boasts the biggest car-crash sequence ever filmed for a motion picture...

1980, Led Zeppelin begins a three-week tour with a concert in Dortmund, Germany ... held at the Westfalenhalle, it is their first concert on the European continent since 1973 ... due to John Bonham's death in September, it will be the group's last European tour ... they open the show with "Train Kept A Rollin," a song they haven't played since 1969 and which Page also performed with the original Yardbirds ... the Tiny Bradshaw composition was popularized by Johnny Burnette and will later be covered by rockers ranging from Alex Chilton to Motorhead to--most famously--Aerosmith...

1982, James Honeyman-Scott of the Pretenders dies of a cocaine and heroin overdose in his sleep in London at the age of 25 ... ironically the guitarist was among the band members who voted out bass player Pete Farndon for drug abuse a mere two days earlier ... after Honeyman-Scott's death frontwoman Chrissie Hynde pens the tune "Back on the Chain Gang" as a tribute to him ... the song will go on to be one of the band's biggest hits ... guitarist Robbie McIntosh, whom Honeyman-Scott was trying to talk into joining the band just before his untimely death, is enlisted to replace him ... a year later Pete Farndon will also die from drug-related causes...

1987, Mötley Crüe is sued by a woman claiming that she lost her hearing because a Crüe concert she attended was too loud ... the Florida real estate agent was sitting in the front row when she suffered the hearing damage ... the band's insurance company eventually pays her $30,000 ... no one knows what type of volume level she was expecting at a concert by a band called Mötley Crüe...

1990, Little Richard receives his star on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame...

1993, the U.S. Postal Service releases a set of stamps that feature iconic images of Bill Haley, Buddy Holly, Clyde McPhatter, Elvis Presley, Otis Redding, Ritchie Valens, and Dinah Washington...

1994, Hole bassist Kristen Pfaff is found slumped over her bathtub, dead of a heroin overdose ... next to her body is a cosmetic bag with more than just lipstick inside ... tragically, this occurs just after Kristen had packed her bags to move back to Minneapolis in order to escape Seattle and its too-easy-to-cop drug scene ... Pfaff dies just two months after Kurt Cobain ended his life ... it's been a swell couple of months for Courtney Love...

1995, Pearl Jam begins the infamous Ticketmaster Monopoly tour ... the band will, with mixed results, use a mail-order ticket service instead of the industry-standard Ticketmaster distribution ... PJ is frustrated by the company's attempts to raise ticket prices for their concerts above the mandated $20 price tag ... the band accuses the ticket giant of monopolizing the concert ticket industry and the U.S. Justice Department investigates ... guitarist Stone Gossard and bassist Jeff Ament will testify before a House subcommittee to no avail...

1996, the Furthur Festival kicks off in Atlanta ... the surviving members of The Grateful Dead perform together for the first time since the death of Jerry Garcia...

1999, Pantera ride a float in the Dallas Stars Stanley Cup victory parade in downtown Dallas ... the honor is bestowed upon the band because Pantera, in addition to being huge Stars fans, wrote the team's theme song which is played multiple times at every home game...

2004, faced with anemic ticket sales, the promoters of the Lollapalooza Festival pull the plug on the tour...organizers say they would lose millions if the tour went ahead as scheduled ... according to promoters the festival's problem lies with the death of the alternative music genre as a viable consumer market ... the situation elicits this quote from one: "The audience for true alternative rock just isn't that big anymore. Lollapalooza was big in the early '90s, when the scene was exploding, when you had bands like Pearl Jam and Nirvana, and it was something new and truly 'alternative.' Now you turn on the TV and everyone is pierced. I saw Shrek 2 the other day, and there's a scene in it where one of the characters crowd-surfs." ... the planned headliners for the abortive festival were Morrissey, the Flaming Lips, the String Cheese Incident, and the Pixies ... also included on the bill were bands Le Tigre, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Modest Mouse, and Wilco... ...and that was the week that was in matters musical