Detroit station 8MK began broadcasting, becoming WBL under a commercial licence in October 1921 and then WWJ on March 3, 1922 after reception made WBL easy to mishear. Still on 950 AM, it remains a leading Detroit station.

Sun Records released Elvis Presley’s “I Forgot to Remember to Forget.” In February 1956 it topped Billboard’s national country chart and reached No. 4 on the jockeys’ chart, providing his first national exposure.

MGM began filming Connie Francis’s acting debut, Where the Boys Are, in Fort Lauderdale. It became a box-office success, though its proposed sequel, Where the Girls Are, was never made.

A Forest Hills Music Festival crowd of 14,000 saw the Supremes, Stevie Wonder and the Temptations in Queens, an unusually prominent Motown showcase at a venue known for tennis, folk and rock events. The Outsiders’ Isley Brothers cover “Respectable” returned them to the Top 40 and rose to No. 15; they had four chart singles and four Bubbling Under entries, but never broke in Britain.

Dr. David M. Lipscomb of the University of Tennessee audio lab said a guinea pig exposed to 88 hours of 120-decibel rock over three months developed acute inner-ear damage. New York club owner Steve Paul jokingly promised to consider guinea-pig comfort if attendance surged.

After an eight-day Canadian tour, Frank Zappa put the Mothers of Invention on hold, frustrated that audiences applauded their image and antics rather than the music’s compositional complexity. It was also the last day all four Beatles were together at London’s EMI Studios: they mixed “I Want You (She’s So Heavy)” and discussed Abbey Road sequencing, without recording.

The Rolling Stones released “Angie,” later a U.S. No. 1 and U.K. No. 5. Rumours linked it to several women, but Keith Richards wrote in Life that he chose the name randomly before knowing his child would be Angela—or even a girl.

Chicago trio the Emotions began a five-week Hot 100 reign with “Best of My Love,” two years after the Eagles had topped the chart with another song of that name. It earned Gold certification and a Grammy for Best R&B Vocal Performance by a Duo, Group or Chorus.

Bob Dylan’s 19th studio album, Slow Train Coming, arrived as his first release after converting to Christianity. Its faith-centered material reached No. 3 in the U.S. and No. 2 in the U.K.; “Gotta Serve Somebody” won the 1980 Grammy for Best Male Rock Vocal.

John Lennon began work on his final album, Double Fantasy. Geffen issued it November 17; it reached No. 1 three weeks later and won Album of the Year at the 1982 Grammys.

Bruce Springsteen played the Los Angeles Sports Arena for Vietnam Veterans of America and the Los Angeles Mental Health Center, personally contributing $100,000 afterward—a gift credited with preventing the VVA’s financial collapse. In London, Phil Lynott received a £200 cocaine-possession fine and worried publicly about its effect on his career.

Michael Jackson and the Jackson 5’s 18 Greatest Hits started three weeks at No. 1 in Britain, replacing the Beach Boys’ 20 Golden Greats. It spent more than 50 weeks on the chart and became Platinum.

Huey Lewis and the News released Fore!, their fourth studio album. It topped Billboard’s pop-album chart, sold more than three million copies, and produced “Jacob’s Ladder” and “Stuck with You” (both U.S. No. 1), plus “Doing It All for My Baby” (No. 6), “Hip to Be Square” (No. 3) and “I Know What I Like” (No. 9); the listed U.K. peaks were 12, 93 and 41 respectively for the middle three.

Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man opened in U.S. cinemas with Peter Frampton and Steve Marriott’s “The Bigger They Come,” their first joint work since Humble Pie 20 years earlier. Amid the “Cop Killer” controversy, Ice-T appeared on Rolling Stone in police uniform and had already removed the track from future Body Count pressings after threats to Warner Bros. staff.

Session musician Larry Knechtel died at 69 after an apparent heart attack. A 1970 Grammy winner for piano on “Bridge over Troubled Water,” he also played on Johnny Rivers’ “Rockin’ Pneumonia and the Boogie Woogie Flu,” worked with Bread from 1971–73, and entered Nashville’s Musicians Hall of Fame with the Wrecking Crew in 2007. A New York judge dismissed Allgood Entertainment’s $300 million claim against Michael Jackson’s estate because no Jackson 5 deal was signed. Four Freshmen founder Ross Barbour died at 82; “Graduation Day” had reached No. 17 in 1956.

Police searched Gene Simmons’s home in an Internet Crimes Against Children investigation but said the family were victims, not suspects; Simmons and Shannon Tweed cooperated. Michael McDonald joined the Doobie Brothers on The Tonight Show for “Long Train Runnin’” and “Takin’ It to the Streets.” Alice Cooper jokingly announced a presidential run with Tom Hanks as running mate, continuing a four-year joke dating to “Elected” (1972).

Jerry Lewis died at 91; besides his 1956 No. 10 “Rock-A-Bye Your Baby With a Dixie Melody,” he made 17 films with Dean Martin, starred in films including The Bellboy and The Nutty Professor, and raised more than $1.5 billion through the MDA telethon. His will later excluded six sons, including Gary Lewis, and left the estate to SanDee Pitnick and adopted daughter Danielle. The Eagles’ Greatest Hits 1971–1975 surpassed Thriller as the top-selling U.S. album at 38 million certified units. Tom T. Hall died at 85; he wrote “Harper Valley P.T.A.” and reached No. 12 with “I Love” in 1974.

GottaHaveRockAndRoll offered 24 Beatles 1964 North American tour performance contracts, signed by Brian Epstein or NEMS employee Bernard Lee. The Hollies later announced their breakup after more than six decades as Tony Hicks retired for health reasons and Bobby Elliott stepped away with him; the 2010 Rock Hall inductees logged 30 U.K. and 12 U.S. Top 40 singles, including “Bus Stop,” “Stop Stop Stop,” “Carrie Anne,” “He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother,” “Long Cool Woman in a Black Dress” and “The Air That I Breathe.”