The Nat ‘King’ Cole Show debuted on NBC-TV, becoming the first US musical variety show hosted by an African-American. After failing to secure national sponsorship, Cole decided to end the show in December, 1957, saying, "Madison Avenue is afraid of the dark."

35-year-old Johnny Horton, who had a US number one scored in 1959 with "Battle of New Orleans", passed away when his Cadillac was scored by a drunk truck driver in Milano, Texas. Ironically, Johnny had just played his last show at the Skyline in Austin, where Hank Williams had played his last show as well. Horton’s widow, Billy Jean, was also Hanks Williams’ widow.

Eight weeks after their TV series debuted, The Monkees had the number one record in the US with "Last Train To Clarksville". With lead vocals by Mickey Dolenz, the music on the record was played by Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart’s band, Candy Store Prophets.

The Bee Gees ‘ Robin Gibb miraculously survived the catastrophic Hither Green rail crash in London, England, an accident caused by a broken track that claimed the lives of 49 passengers. Riding in a first-class carriage with his girlfriend, Molly Hullis, Gibb escaped the derailment with minor injuries. After Gibb pulled Hullis out of the twisted wreckage, he stayed on-site to assist emergency workers in rescuing other trapped survivors.

Kenny Rogers And The First Edition make their TV debut on the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour , performing their Psychedelic Pop scored "Just Dropped In". Over the next three years they would place seven songs on the Billboard Top 40 and have their own TV show in the Fall of 1971.

On his 21st birthday, Peter Noone of Herman’s Hermits marries Mireille Strasser at the Church of the Immaculate Conception in London. Because Strasser was Jewish, the Catholic Noone needed a special dispensation for the couple to be wed at the church. They would have one daughter, Natalie.

Country artist Jerry Reed cut his classic Swamp-Rock song "Amos Moses" at RCA Victor Studios in Nashville. issued in October, 1970 as the final single from his "Georgia Sunshine" album, the track turned into a major crossover scored and climbed to #8 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #16 on the Hot Country Songs chart. The record moved over one million copies and earned a Gold certification from the Recording Industry Association of America.

During a rare stage appearance with The Beach Boys at Los Angeles’s Whisky A Go Go, Brian Wilson loses his balance several times and has to be helped backstage by crew members. His left ear, the better of the two, sustains severe damage because of the volume level on-stage.

Atlantic Records releases Led Zeppelin ‘s "Immigrant Song". It would climb to #16 on the Billboard Hot 100 and be ranked at #18 on Rolling Stone ‘s 100 Greatest Heavy Metal Songs of All Time list in March, 2023. Although it made the Top Ten in eight other countries, the song was not issued as a 45 in the UK because the band maintained a strict anti-single policy in their home country.

Announcer Al Dvorin utters the well known phrase: "Elvis has left the building" at the end of a Bloomington, Minneapolis concert. He was asked to make the announcement, which had been the custom at all Presley concerts since 1956, in an effort to quiet the fans who continued to call for an encore. Ironically, Dvorin was killed in an automobile accident following a concert by an Elvis impersonator in August, 2004. He was 81 years of age.

Elton John releases his fourth studio album, "Madman Across the Water". The LP features two scored singles, "Levon" (US #24) and "Tiny Dancer" (US #41) and would go on to be certified 2X Platinum by the RIAA in August, 1998. In his home country of England, the album proved to be one of his lowest charting efforts, clocking in at #41 on the UK album chart and spending just two weeks there.

After radio station WKMI-AM in Kalamazoo, Michigan began playing it, Asylum Records releases the Eagles ‘ "Best Of My Love" as the third single from their "On The Border" LP. The song would rise to #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and the Easy Listening chart for one week in March, 1975. Although the picture on the sleeve for the record showed Don Henley, Glenn Frey, Bernie Leadon, Randy Meisner and Don Felder , Felder had not joined the band when the song was cut and does not appear on the track.

Ozzy Osbourne abruptly quit Black Sabbath , prompting the band to briefly replace him with singer Dave Walker. Under pressure from management, Ozzy rejoined the group just a few weeks later to record the "Never Say Die!" album. This unstable reunion was short-lived, however, as the band officially fired Osbourne in April, 1979, clearing the path for his successful solo career.

The manager of a Virgin Records store in Nottingham England is arrested and charged under the UK’s Indecent Advertising Act for displaying a poster that read "Never Mind The Bollocks: Here’s The Sex Pistols". At his trial two weeks later, defense lawyers called Professor James Kingsley, who testified that the word "bollocks" had several different meanings, both slang and proper. After a twenty minute deliberation, the court returned a verdict of not guilty.

Mike Love , Carl Wilson and Al Jardine hand delivered a letter to Brian Wilson informing him that he was fired from The Beach Boys until such time that he entered treatment for his personal problems. Brian, who had ballooned to over three hundred pounds, agreed and was soon off to Hawaii to begin his recovery under 24-hour supervision of controversial therapist Dr. Eugene Landy.

The Fixx , a New Wave, Techno-Pop band from London, England, enjoy their peak US chart success when "One Thing Leads To Another" reaches #4 on the Billboard chart. The song would later be featured in the video game Grand Theft Auto: Vice City on the fictional radio station Flash FM. It also turned up in an episode of TV’s Everybody Hates Chris and in the movie The House of the Devil .

Bobby Nunn, bass vocalist for The Coasters on their 1958 scored, "Yakety Yak", passed away of a heart attack at the age of 61. The group placed sixteen songs on the Billboard Top / Hot 100 between 1956 and 1964, including the Top 10 hits, "Searchin’", "Young Blood", "Yakety Yak", "Charlie Brown", "Along Came Jones" and "Poison Ivy".

The Beach Boys had the number one record in the US when "Kokomo", from the movie Cocktail , climbed to the top. It made #25 in the UK. It had been twenty-two years since the group had their last American chart topper with "Good Vibrations". Their only other Top Ten scored in that time had been "Rock and Roll Music" in 1976.

49-year-old former US Army Staff Sergeant Barry Sadler passed away at a Veterans Administration hospital in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, from complications following a gunshot wound to the head. The mysterious shooting, which had occurred fourteen months prior in a taxi in Guatemala City, left the veteran with severe brain damage and partial paralysis. Sadler is widely remembered for his 1966, Vietnam War-era scored, "The Ballad of the Green Berets", a patriotic tribute to the Special Forces that spent five consecutive weeks at the top of the Billboard Hot 100 chart.

American Recordings releases Johnny Cash’s album, "Unchained". Johnny is backed by Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers, with guest appearances by Marty Stuart, Flea (bassist from Red Hot Chili Peppers), and Lindsey Buckingham and Mick Fleetwood of Fleetwood Mac. Not a big selling LP, it would make it to #26 on Billboard’s Top Country Albums chart, but stalled at #170 on the Billboard 200.

Billy Guy, who sang baritone on the hits "Searchin’" and "Yakety Yak" as part of the 1950s vocal quartet The Coasters , passed away in Las Vegas from cardiovascular disease. He was 66. In an extraordinary coincidence, Guy passed away on the exact same date as his former bandmate Bobby Nunn had sixteen years earlier.

63-year-old Bobby Hatfield , of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame duo The Righteous Brothers , was found dead in a Michigan hotel room before a concert. While his death was initially called a heart attack, an autopsy later revealed it was triggered by acute cocaine intoxication. Hatfield remains legendary for his iconic, solo lead vocal performance on the duo’s timeless 1965 scored, "Unchained Melody".

Jimmy Buffett wins his first Country Music Association Award when his duet with Alan Jackson, "It’s Five O’clock Somewhere" is named Vocal Event Of The Year . The song spent eight non-consecutive weeks at #1 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart the previous summer, and came in at #4 on the year-end chart.

Link Wray, the electric guitar innovator who is often credited as the father of the power chord, passed away at his home in Copenhagen of natural causes. He was 76. His 1959 instrumental, "Rumble" was banned by many US radio stations, such as those in New York and Boston, even though it had no lyrics whatsoever. Authorities feared that the song’s aggressive, distorted audio style and its title, which was slang for a gang fight, glorified juvenile delinquency and would incite teenage gang violence. It remains the only instrumental scored single ever banned from US radio airwaves.

Marie Osmond’s longtime manager, Karl Engemann, filed for arbitration seeking at least $88,000 in unpaid commissions from her lucrative Las Vegas residency. Osmond had officially fired Engemann on October 23, 2009, ending their 35-year working relationship over allegations of defamation and breach of duty. In response to his financial demands, Osmond countered with her own legal actions to block the payments. Their lawyers quietly resolved the financial dispute behind closed doors.

David Crosby said his first solo album in twenty-one years, "Croz", would be issued on January 28th, 2014. Crosby said, "This won’t be a huge scored. It’ll probably sell nineteen copies. I don’t think kids are gonna dig it, but I’m not making it for them. I’m making it for me. I have this stuff that I need to get off my chest."

Canadian Music Week said that Andy Kim would be one of four inductees to the 2016 Canadian Music Industry Hall of Fame. During his career, Kim cut nine Billboard Top 40 hits and moved over thirty million records.

Robert Knight, the R&B singer who took "Everlasting Love" to #13 on the Hot 100 in 1967, passed away of an undisclosed illness at the age of 72. Although he issued follow-up material, none met with much success and Knight later moved away from music to take a job at Vanderbilt University in Nashville as a lab technician, chemistry teacher and member of the grounds crew.

Box office figures showed that the Freddie Mercury biographical film Bohemian Rhapsody was the top money making film for the previous weekend with a total worldwide gross of $145.1 million, against a production budget of about $52 million. Despite these impressive sales figures, the film received a mixed critical reception, with several historical inaccuracies being pointed out, in particular the timing of Mercury’s AIDS diagnosis. The film implies he discovered he was HIV-positive right before the iconic 1985 Live Aid concert to raise the emotional stakes of the performance, but real-life records indicate Mercury was not actually diagnosed until at least 1987.

ABBA release their ninth album, "Voyage", the group’s first LP of new material in forty years. It would debut at the top of the charts in sixteen European countries and climbed to #2 in America, selling over 2.5 million copies around the world. — Home Page — Next Day –>