2014: Big Bank Hank of the Sugarhill Gang dies at 58. Henry Jackson was one of the three rappers on “Rapper's Delight,” the 1979 single that brought hip hop to mainstream radio for the first time.
2008: Taylor Swift releases her second album, Fearless. Swift was 18. Powered by “Love Story” and “You Belong with Me,” the album sold more than 10 million copies in the U.S. and won the Grammy for Album of the Year.
2006: The Hannah Montana soundtrack hits number one. The Disney Channel album, sung by 13-year-old Miley Cyrus in character, topped the Billboard 200 and placed six songs on the Hot 100.
1999: Britney Spears dominates the MTV Europe Music Awards. At the ceremony in Dublin she took home Best Female, Best Pop, Breakthrough Artist and Best Song for “…Baby One More Time.”
1993: James Brown guest stars on The Simpsons. In the episode “Bart's Inner Child,” the Godfather of Soul performed “I Got You (I Feel Good)” in Springfield until the stage gave way beneath him.
1991: MTV tells its staff to call Michael Jackson the “King of Pop.” The memo went out a week before the premiere of the “Black or White” video, part of a deal that gave MTV rights to the clip. The 11 minute video, featuring Macaulay Culkin, reached an estimated half billion viewers.
1986: Pink Floyd announces a new album without Roger Waters. David Gilmour, Nick Mason and Richard Wright pressed on despite Waters suing to retire the band name. The album, A Momentary Lapse of Reason, arrived in 1987, and the suit was settled soon after.
1982: Prince kicks off his 1999 tour. Minnesota's own opened the run in Chattanooga, Tennessee, with The Time and Vanity 6, two Minneapolis acts he had assembled himself, as the opening acts.
1978: Donna Summer's “MacArthur Park” reaches number one. Her disco version of the Jimmy Webb song topped the U.S. chart, a decade after Richard Harris's original stalled at number two.
1972: Allman Brothers Band bassist Berry Oakley dies at 24. Oakley was killed in a motorcycle crash in Macon, Georgia, just three blocks from where bandmate Duane Allman had died in a motorcycle accident a year earlier.
1970: Bob Dylan publishes his first novel, Tarantula. The Minnesota native's stream of consciousness book, written in the mid 1960s, got a cool reception from critics.
1968: John Lennon and Yoko Ono release Unfinished Music No. 1: Two Virgins. The experimental album's cover showed the couple nude, so it was sold in a brown paper wrapper. Lennon shot the photo himself using a timer.
1964: Tom Jones records “It's Not Unusual.” The song became his breakthrough hit, going to number one in Britain in 1965 and making him an international star.
1958: Hank Ballard & the Midnighters record “The Twist.” The song started as a B side, but Chubby Checker's cover went to number one in 1960 and again in 1962, launching a worldwide dance craze.
1945: Broadway composer Jerome Kern dies at 60. Kern wrote the music for Show Boat, including “Ol' Man River,” along with standards such as “Smoke Gets in Your Eyes” and “The Way You Look Tonight.”
Born on This Day
1986: Jon Batiste, American singer and pianist Turns 40. Led the house band on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and won the Grammy for Album of the Year for We Are.
1978: Aaron Bruno, American singer (AWOLNATION) Turns 48. Frontman behind the 2011 alternative smash “Sail.”
1974: Jon B., American R&B singer and producer Turns 52. Known for 1990s slow jams including “They Don't Know.”
1974: Static Major, American songwriter and producer Wrote and produced for Aaliyah, including “Are You That Somebody?,” and was featured on Lil Wayne's “Lollipop”; he died in 2008.
1973: Jason White, American guitarist (Green Day) Turns 53. Longtime touring guitarist who became a full member of Green Day for a stretch in the 2010s.
1955: Dave Alvin, American singer and guitarist (The Blasters) Turns 71. Roots rock guitarist and songwriter who co-founded The Blasters with his brother Phil.
1953: Marshall Crenshaw, American singer-songwriter Turns 73. Best known for the 1982 hit “Someday, Someway”; he also played Buddy Holly in the film La Bamba.
1953: Andy Partridge, English singer and guitarist (XTC) Turns 73. Main songwriter for XTC, known for “Dear God” and “Making Plans for Nigel.”
1952: Paul Cowsill, American singer (The Cowsills) Member of the family band behind “The Rain, the Park and Other Things” and “Hair.”
1950: Jim Peterik, American singer and guitarist (Survivor) Turns 76. Sang “Vehicle” with the Ides of March and co-wrote “Eye of the Tiger” for Survivor.
1948: Robert John “Mutt” Lange, British-South African record producer Turns 78. Produced AC/DC's Back in Black, Def Leppard's Hysteria and Shania Twain's Come On Over.
1945: Vince Martell, American guitarist (Vanilla Fudge) Turns 81. Played on the band's slowed down 1967 hit cover of “You Keep Me Hangin' On.”
1945: Chris Dreja, English guitarist and bassist (The Yardbirds) Rhythm guitarist and later bassist in the band that launched Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page; he died in 2025.
1940: Dennis Coffey, American guitarist Detroit session guitarist on Motown records who scored a 1971 instrumental hit with “Scorpio.”
1929: LaVern Baker, American R&B singer Early rock and roll star known for “Tweedlee Dee,” “Jim Dandy” and “I Cried a Tear”; inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
1927: Mose Allison, American singer and pianist Jazz and blues songwriter whose “Young Man Blues” was famously covered by The Who.
