Johnny Mathis topped Cashbox with “Chances Are,” then No. 7 on Billboard’s disc-jockey chart. The single sold more than two million copies and entered the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1998.

While touring Australia, Little Richard renounced rock and roll and threw four diamond rings valued at $8,000 into the Hunter River after a bandmate challenged his faith. He soon began a gospel career, but returned to secular rock five years later.

One week after releasing “Love Me Do,” the Beatles opened for their idol Little Richard at the Tower Ballroom in Wallasey. Backstage photographs captured them with Richard and his young touring keyboard player Billy Preston.

Jimmy Gilmer and the Fireballs topped Billboard with “Sugar Shack.” The million-selling single became the year’s biggest U.S. record, while reaching No. 45 in Britain.

The Ronettes’ “Be My Baby” reached No. 2 during a ten-week Top 40 run. Phil Spector required 42 takes before accepting the recording, an exhausting process engineer Larry Levine later described as evidence of Spector’s musical genius.

At Abbey Road, the Beatles recorded “Run for Your Life” and an early version of “This Bird Has Flown” for Rubber Soul. They rebuilt the latter recording nine days later and retitled it “Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown).”

Big Brother and the Holding Company’s Cheap Thrills began eight nonconsecutive weeks at No. 1 and became the year’s best-selling album with more than a million copies. The Library of Congress added it to the National Recording Registry in 2013.

Rockabilly singer Gene Vincent died from a bleeding ulcer at 36. Best remembered for “Be-Bop-A-Lula,” he had four Billboard Top 100 entries but enjoyed even greater British success with eight Top 40 hits from 1956 to 1961.

Diana Ross made her feature-film debut as Billie Holiday in Lady Sings the Blues, alongside Billy Dee Williams, Richard Pryor, James T. Callahan, and Scatman Crothers. The film earned five Academy Award nominations, including Best Actress for Ross, who lost to Liza Minnelli for Cabaret.

Olivia Newton-John topped America’s album chart with If You Love Me, Let Me Know. Its title track reached No. 5, while “I Honestly Love You” became her first Hot 100 No. 1 and won the following spring’s Grammy for Record of the Year.

John Denver’s “Annie’s Song,” written for then-wife Annie Martell Denver, reached No. 1 in Britain after topping the American chart in July.

Nancy Spungen, Sid Vicious’s 20-year-old girlfriend, was found fatally stabbed in their Chelsea Hotel room. Vicious was charged and released on bail but died from a heroin overdose in February 1979 before trial, after which New York police closed the case.

A rose thrown during Jethro Tull’s Madison Square Garden performance pierced Ian Anderson’s right eye. Hospital treatment forced two cancellations; when touring resumed, Anderson wore protective goggles and an eye patch.

Warner Bros. rushed Fleetwood Mac’s Tusk into stores after RKO stations obtained a leaked copy and broadcast it in major markets. The double album reached No. 4 and sold more than two million copies in America, produced Top 10 singles “Sara” and “Tusk,” and topped the UK chart with Platinum sales.

Seven spectators were stabbed during a brawl at a Blood, Sweat & Tears performance at Los Angeles’s Street Scene festival. Engineers continued recording the disrupted set, which was preserved and released as a live album by Avenue and Rhino in 1994.

Hall & Oates released their twelfth studio album, Big Bam Boom. It peaked at No. 5, sold a million copies within weeks, remained charted for 51 weeks, and featured the American No. 1 “Out of Touch,” which reached only No. 48 in Britain.

B-52s founding guitarist Ricky Wilson died from AIDS-related complications at 32 after keeping his illness private from most bandmates, including sister Cindy Wilson. The devastated group withdrew from touring and promotion for the newly completed Bouncing Off the Satellites.

Mariah Carey’s “Emotions” made her the first performer whose first five singles all reached No. 1, surpassing the Jackson 5’s four. In 2008 her eighteenth chart-topper moved her past Elvis Presley and left her behind only the Beatles’ twenty.

A temporary seating structure collapsed as Pink Floyd opened a fourteen-night Earls Court residency, spilling 1,200 fans. Nearly 100 people received treatment and 36 went to hospitals, but serious injuries were avoided; the band postponed the concert to October 17.

The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus finally premiered at the New York Film Festival, nearly 28 years after its December 1968 filming. The Stones had reportedly withheld the production because they felt the Who’s performance outshone their own.

John Denver died at 53 when his experimental aircraft crashed into Monterey Bay. Investigators found that an awkwardly located fuel-selector valve contributed to his loss of control; Denver left fifteen Billboard Top 40 hits, ten No. 1s across adult-contemporary and country charts, and a prominent acting role in Oh, God!

The Isle of Man issued six commemorative Bee Gees stamps. To meet rules restricting living people on stamps, the brothers’ images appeared in the borders and margins of the souvenir sheets rather than on the stamps themselves.

Elvis: 30 #1 Hits topped Billboard 25 years after Presley’s death. The compilation also reached No. 1 in fourteen other countries and was certified six-times Platinum in America in 2017.

Blue Cheer singer and bassist Dickie Peterson died from liver cancer in Germany at 63. The band’s heavy cover of “Summertime Blues” reached No. 14 in 1968, and Peterson was its only constant member through 30 personnel changes between 1967 and 2009.

Janet Jackson, 50, confirmed that she and husband Wissam Al Mana were expecting her first child. The couple had married in 2012.

Fifty years after release, John Lennon’s “Imagine” received triple-Platinum RIAA certification. The album’s only single reached No. 3 in America and, when issued with Shaved Fish in 1975, No. 6 in Britain.