The Platters ' "Only You" entered the Billboard Top 100 chart at No. 24, where it eventually peaked at No. 5 while simultaneously becoming a seven-week No. 1 hit on the US R&B chart. The record later became the first single to sell over one million copies in France. Celebrating its cultural impact, it entered the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1999.

Guitarist Scotty Moore and bassist Bill Black resigned from Elvis Presley's band over a bitter salary dispute with Colonel Tom Parker, while drummer D.J. Fontana chose to stay on. After leaving, Black successfully formed Bill Black's Combo, placing eight instrumental tracks in the US Top 40 before his untimely death from a brain tumor in 1965.

A guitar and steel guitar instrumental called "Sleep Walk" by Santo And Johnny reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. While a major success in the United States, the original rendition was held to a No. 22 peak on the UK Singles Chart due to heavy competition from British artists releasing localized cover versions of the track.

Bobby Vinton's second US Top Ten entry, a cover of Tony Bennett's 1951 hit, "Blue Velvet", reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. It was a song that Bobby recorded in two takes as a filler for an album of all "blue" songs. Session musicians on the track included Floyd Cramer ("Last Date") and Boots Randolph ("Yakety Sax").

26-year-old Trini Lopez scored his biggest hit when "If I Had A Hammer" reached No. 3 on the Billboard Pop chart. He later had three more Top 40 hits and co-star in the Oscar winning film The Dirty Dozen in 1967.

The Grass Roots ' "Midnight Confessions" entered the Billboard Top 40 chart where it eventually peaked at No. 5, becoming their most successful record. The music was recorded by The Wrecking Crew, with The Grass Roots' Rob Grill singing the verses and Warren Entner, the choruses.

It was rare that a Country tune could top the Billboard Pop chart, but Jeannie C. Riley's "Harper Valley P.T.A." did just that. The record sold over 1,750,000 copies in the first two weeks after its release. Although she never cracked the Top 50 on the Hot 100 again, Riley went on to have several big Country hits, including five that made the Top Ten.

Jimi Hendrix's "All Along the Watchtower" entered the Billboard Hot 100 where later became his only Top 40 hit single, topping out at No. 20. In the UK the song later reached No. 5 and be awarded a Platinum Record for sales of 600,000.

Paul McCartney's first post-Beatles US No. 1 hit, "Uncle Albert / Admiral Halsey" earned an RIAA Gold certification.

Canada's Bachman-Turner Overdrive entered the Billboard Hot 100 with "You Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet", which later became their third US Top 30 entry and their only number one.

At three hundred pounds, he didn't look like a Rock star, but Barry White scored his first US number one and third of six Top Ten singles with "Can't Get Enough Of Your Love, Babe". It made No. 8 in the UK.

Iconic character actor Walter Brennan died at age 80 from emphysema. Twelve years earlier, the three-time Oscar winner scored an unexpected musical triumph when his spoken-word release "Old Rivers" reached No. 5 on the Billboard Hot 100. That 1962 chart run temporarily made the 67-year-old Brennan the oldest living artist to secure a Top 5 Pop hit in American history.

The New York Post sparked massive public excitement by running a front-page headline declaring "The Beatles Are Back!" and falsely reporting that the band would reunite for a Kampuchean boat people benefit concert. Addressing the intense media speculation, Paul McCartney noted that if the group ever did reform, they would need to rehearse for six months first. Ultimately, the full-band reunion never took place, though McCartney did go on to organize the star-studded Concerts for the People of Kampuchea later that December without his former bandmates.

New York's Madison Square Garden hosted the third night of the landmark five-day "No Nukes" benefit concerts. The evening's lineup was headlined by Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band, along with Jackson Browne, Chaka Khan, Ry Cooder, Sweet Honey On The Rock, and Jesse Colin Young. A high point of the night occurred during Springsteen's set when Tom Petty and Jackson Browne joined him on stage for a special collaborative rendition of the classic song "Stay".

Bob Marley collapsed during a morning jog in Central Park. Although he recovered in a few hours, a neurologist examined the Jamaican singer the next day and said he had just two weeks to live. Marley ignored the prognosis and performed what would prove to be his last concert in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on September 23rd. He would die of cancer on May 11th 1981, at age 36.

A media frenzy peaked on this day as major US Sunday newspapers widely circulated The National Enquirer's viral image of Michael Jackson inside a hyperbaric oxygen chamber. Accompanied by claims that Jackson intended to use the machine to live to be 150, the Pop star quickly set the record straight. He explained that the photo was captured at Brotman Memorial Hospital during a routine equipment test. Jackson had a close relationship with the Culver City facility, having donated $1.5 million from his Pepsi injury settlement to fund its specialized Michael Jackson Burn Center.

The Temptations and Rod Stewart combined to take a single called "The Motown Song" to its peak position of No. 10 in the US. The song also reached that position in the UK and made the Top 40 in nine different countries. The instruments on the track were played almost entirely by members of the rock band Toto, including Steve Lukather and Jeff Porcaro.

PolyGram Records released "ABBA Gold", a collection of the Swedish group's greatest hits. With worldwide sales of over 30 million copies, "Gold" goes on to become one of the best selling albums of all time. It topped the charts in twelve countries around the globe, but only reached No. 25 on the Billboard 200.

Paul Simon began holding auditions for his new musical The Capeman, which will recount the true story of Salvador Agron, a Puerto Rican, New York gang member who was convicted of murdering two teenagers in 1959. Chosen to play the lead role is 28-year-old Marc Anthony. Plagued with problems from the outset, the show is still remembered as one of Broadway's biggest flops, closing after just 68 performances and losing an estimated $11 million. Things would work out for Anthony, however, as he later scored two big Hot 100 hits: "I Need To Know" (No. 3 in 1999) and "You Sang To Me" (No. 2 in 2000).

Oz Bach, bassist for Spanky And Our Gang on their 1967, Billboard No. 9 hit, "Sunday Will Never Be The Same", died of cancer at age 59. His real name was Paul Michael Bach.

The Guess Who teamed up with Lenny Kravitz at the Much Music Video awards in Toronto to perform "American Woman". Kravitz had recorded the Randy Bachman / Burton Cummings tune for the soundtrack to Mike Myers' 1999 film The Spy Who Shagged Me nearly thirty years after the original became The Guess Who's biggest hit.

America: A Tribute to Heroes, a commercial-free, live TV program was broadcast on all of the major US TV networks to raise money following the September 11th terrorist attacks. The show featured performances by Bruce Springsteen ("My City in Ruins"), Tom Petty ("I Won't Back Down"), Paul Simon ("Bridge Over Troubled Water"), Billy Joel ("New York State of Mind"), U2 ("Walk On"), Celine Dion ("God Bless America") and Willie Nelson ("America The Beautiful"). Accepting pledges over the telephone were Robin Williams, Meg Ryan, Danny DeVito, Sally Field, Jack Nicholson, Goldie Hawn, Cuba Gooding Jr., Kurt Russell, Adam Sandler, Jim Carrey, Whoopi Goldberg and many more. The broadcast and soundtrack album helped raise over $128 million for the victims and their families.

A Washington-bound commercial flight carrying musician Yusuf Islam, formerly known as Cat Stevens, was diverted to Bangor, Maine, after US authorities discovered his name on a federal no-fly list. Upon landing, federal agents escorted the singer off the aircraft for questioning before officially denying him entry into the country and deporting him back to the United Kingdom. Islam strongly maintained his innocence and spent years publicly denouncing all forms of terrorism.

John Fogerty, the former leader of Creedence Clearwater Revival, released "Deja Vu (All Over Again)", his first new album in seven years. It eventually peaked at No. 23 on the Billboard 200, and the title track reached No. 4 on the Billboard Adult Alternative chart.

English bassist and vocalist Boz Burrell died of a heart attack in Spain at age 60. His career included a stint as the frontman for the Progressive Rock band King Crimson in the early 1970s and as a founding member for the celebrated Hard Rock supergroup Bad Company.

A contract revealing that The Beatles refused to perform in front of a segregated audience at the Cow Palace in Daly City, California on August 31st, 1965, sold for $23,033 at an auction in Los Angeles. Along with the desegregation clause, the contract guaranteed the band $40,000 and at least 150 police officers to provide security at the show.

74-year-old Folk icon Buffy Saint-Marie was awarded Canada's prestigious Polaris Music Prize for her album "Power In The Blood". Chosen by an 11-member jury of music journalists and broadcasters, the recognition came with a $50,000 cash prize, adding to an elite collection of accolades that included an Academy Award, a Golden Globe, a Gemini, and multiple Juno Awards. Following a 2023 investigative report questioning her Indigenous ancestry, Saint-Marie admitted that she was an American citizen, not Canadian. The Polaris organization and the Juno Awards then officially rescinded her music honors, though Polaris did not seek a return of the original 2015 prize money.

Trumpeter Ben Cauley, a member of the Stax Records group The Bar-Kays and the only survivor of the 1967 plane crash that killed Otis Redding, died at age 67. After the tragedy, Cauley rebuilt the band, and went on to a prolific multi-decade career as a highly respected session musician.

Tommy DeVito, a founding member and lead guitarist of the celebrated Pop group The Four Seasons, died from COVID-19 complications at age 92. DeVito's distinct baritone vocals anchored the New Jersey vocal group through 27 of their 31 Billboard Top 40 hits. He left the band in 1970 due to severe financial distress caused by mounting gambling debts to mob-connected loan sharks and unpaid federal back taxes. To resolve these dangerous liabilities, bandmates Frankie Valli and Bob Gaudio agreed to pay off his debts. In exchange, DeVito legally surrendered all of his financial stakes, rights to the band's name, and future royalties before permanently leaving the group.