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1968, Elvis Presley appeared on an NBC show that was billed as his “comeback special.” The show featured the king performing on a small, square stage, surrounded by a mostly female audience. Presley was outfitted in black leather and performed many of his early hits. For more on this story, see This Day in Music Spotlight.
1969, The Doors appeared at the Forum, Mexico City, Mexico.
1970, Led Zeppelin, The Byrds and Jefferson Airplane all appeared at The Bath Festival of Blues and Progressive Music in Bath, England.
1970, The Trans-Continental Pop Festival (better known as the Festival Express) set off. The tour was unique in that rather than flying to each city, most of the acts traveled on a chartered CN train. The Grateful Dead, Janis Joplin, The Band, The Flying Burrito Brothers and Buddy Guy Blues Band all traveled together on the train playing shows in Toronto, Winnipeg, Saskatoon and Calgary.
1987, Whitney Houston became the first woman in U.S. history to enter the album chart at #1 with Whitney. She also became the first woman to top the singles chart with four consecutive releases when “I Wanna Dance with Somebody” hit #1.
1992, Michael Jackson played the first night on his Dangerous World Tour at the Olympic Stadium in Munich, Germany. The tour consisted of 69 concerts to approximately 3.9 million fans across three continents. All profits made from the tour were donated to various charities including the Heal the World Foundation, Jackson’s main reason for conducting the tour.
1994, Aerosmith became the first major band to let fans download a full new track free from the Internet.
1998, After spending 30 weeks on the U.K. album chart, The Corrs went to #1 with Talk on Corners. It went on to be the best selling U.K. album of 1998 spending 142 weeks on the chart.
1999, Brian O’Hara, singer and guitarist with The Fourmost, hung himself at age 56. The Liverpool group, who were managed by Brian Epstein, had the 1964 U.K. #6 single “A Little Loving.”
2002, One day before the scheduled first show of The Who’s 2002 U.S. tour, bass player John Entwistle, died at age 57 in his hotel room at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. Entwistle had gone to bed that night with a stripper, who woke at 10 a.m. to find Entwistle cold and unresponsive. The Las Vegas medical examiner determined that death was due to a heart attack induced by an undetermined amount of cocaine.
Born on this day:
1925, Doc Pomus, songwriter
1942, Bruce Johnston, vocals, bass, The Beach Boys
1958, Jeffrey Lee Pierce, vocals, guitar, The Gun Club
1959, Lorrie Morgan, country singer
1976, Leigh Nash, vocals, Sixpence None the Richer
1983, Evan David Taubenfeld, guitar, Avril Lavigne