2023: Cher releases her first holiday album, Christmas. Among the guests was Darlene Love, who joined Cher on “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home),” the song Love first recorded for Phil Spector's 1963 holiday album.
2016: Little Big Town releases “Better Man.” The country group's single turned out to be written by Taylor Swift, the first song she had handed to another act. It topped the country airplay chart and won a Grammy, and Swift later released her own version in 2021.
2003: Amy Winehouse releases her debut album, Frank, in the UK. She was 20 at the time. The jazz-flavored record did not reach American stores until 2007, after her follow-up, Back to Black, had made her a star.
2001: Paul McCartney leads The Concert for New York City at Madison Square Garden. The benefit for victims of the September 11 attacks and their families featured Elton John, Billy Joel, David Bowie, The Who and Eric Clapton.
2000: Ice-T makes his first appearance on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. The rapper played Detective Fin Tutuola, a role he has kept for more than two decades.
1998: 98 Degrees releases 98 Degrees and Rising. The boy band's album produced the hits “Because of You” and “The Hardest Thing,” and also carried “True to Your Heart,” their duet with Stevie Wonder from the Mulan soundtrack.
1992: Madonna releases Erotica. The album arrived one day before her controversial coffee-table book, Sex, and included the single “Deeper and Deeper.”
1991: Country star Clint Black marries actress and singer Lisa Hartman. Hartman was known for the TV drama Knots Landing. The couple later scored a number-one country duet with “When I Said I Do.”
1980: U2 releases its debut album, Boy. Produced by Steve Lillywhite, the record had no big hit single, but “I Will Follow” became a fan favorite and an early concert staple for the Irish band.
1979: Bob Dylan makes his only appearance as musical guest on Saturday Night Live. The Minnesota native, born in Duluth and raised in Hibbing, played three songs from his gospel album Slow Train Coming.
1979: Herb Alpert's “Rise” hits number one. The instrumental got a big boost from heavy use on the soap opera General Hospital. It won a Grammy and was later sampled on The Notorious B.I.G.'s “Hypnotize.”
1977: Lynyrd Skynyrd's Ronnie Van Zant and Steve Gaines die in a plane crash. The band's chartered plane went down in Mississippi, killing singer Van Zant, 29, guitarist Gaines, 28, backup singer Cassie Gaines, a member of the band's management and both pilots. Other band members were badly hurt. The album Street Survivors had come out just days earlier.
1973: The Rolling Stones' “Angie” hits number one. The acoustic ballad came from the album Goats Head Soup and topped the American chart.
1962: “Monster Mash” by Bobby “Boris” Pickett and the Crypt-Kickers hits number one. Pickett sang in an imitation of horror star Boris Karloff. The novelty song returned to the top 10 in 1973 and is still a Halloween radio staple.
1955: Elvis Presley shares a bill with Bill Haley and Pat Boone at a Cleveland high school. The show was filmed for a documentary about a Cleveland disc jockey that was never released, making it one of the earliest filmed Elvis performances.
Born on This Day
1999: YoungBoy Never Broke Again, American rapper Turns 27. The Baton Rouge rapper's album Sincerely, Kentrell debuted at number one in 2021.
1988: A$AP Ferg, American rapper (A$AP Mob) Turns 38. The Harlem rapper is known for “Work” and “Plain Jane.”
1971: Snoop Dogg, American rapper Turns 55. The Long Beach rapper broke through on Dr. Dre's “Nuthin' but a 'G' Thang” and his own “Gin and Juice.”
1964: Jim Sonefeld, American drummer (Hootie & the Blowfish) Played drums on the band's 1990s hits “Hold My Hand” and “Only Wanna Be with You.”
1958: Mark King, English singer and bassist (Level 42) Turns 68. Sang and played slap bass on the band's American top 10 hit “Something About You.”
1955: Thomas Newman, American film composer Turns 71. Scored The Shawshank Redemption, American Beauty and Finding Nemo.
1951: Al Greenwood, American keyboardist (Foreigner) Turns 75. Original keyboard player on early Foreigner hits like “Cold as Ice” and “Hot Blooded.”
1950: Tom Petty, American singer and songwriter (Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers) Known for “American Girl,” “Refugee” and “Free Fallin',” and a member of the Traveling Wilburys; he died in 2017.
1937: Wanda Jackson, American singer Turns 89. The “Queen of Rockabilly” recorded “Let's Have a Party” and entered the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2009.
1925: Tom Dowd, American record producer and engineer Worked on landmark records by the Allman Brothers Band and Eric Clapton, including 461 Ocean Boulevard.
1913: Grandpa Jones, American country singer and banjo player A longtime Grand Ole Opry star best remembered from the TV show Hee Haw.
1908: Stuart Hamblen, American country singer and songwriter Wrote “This Ole House,” a 1954 hit for Rosemary Clooney, and the gospel standard “It Is No Secret.”
1901: Frank Churchill, American film composer Wrote the songs for Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, including “Heigh-Ho” and “Whistle While You Work.”
1890: Jelly Roll Morton, American jazz pianist and composer The New Orleans pioneer was one of the first great jazz composers, known for “Jelly Roll Blues” and “King Porter Stomp.”
