Music History

Chad Smith of the Red Hot Chili Peppers was hospitalized after crashing his motorcycle while riding along Sunset Boulevard.

The former Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev visited the 10th edition of the Popkomm music trade fair.

Terence Trent D'Arby, who had not been heard from since the release of his 1995 album “Vibrator”, posted a statement on his website: “I am a holographic representation in the third dimension of what your souls have asked to be one of your favorite artists. I have sent a portion of my soul to incarnate into an artist named Terence Trent D'Arby, who fulfilled this request.” He later explained that he was using the new name Sananda Maitreya, which had come to him in a dream.

All four original members of KISS attended the unveiling of their star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in Los Angeles. The star is located at 7092 Hollywood Boulevard. At the time, the band had released more than 30 albums and sold more than 80 million records worldwide.

Madonna gave birth to her second child, son Rocco Ritchie, at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Beverly Hills. His father was British director Guy Ritchie.

The John Lennon Museum opened in Japan on what would have been his 60th birthday. It operated for exactly ten years under an agreement with Yoko Ono.

A pizza-stained piece of paper signed by three of the four members was sold for $48,000 (£17,441) to an anonymous collector at an auction in Melbourne. John Lennon, Paul McCartney and George Harrison signed it during the band's 1964 Australian tour at a hotel in Adelaide. Ringo Starr had laryngitis and did not join the tour.

Aaliyah's funeral was held at St. Ignatius Loyola Church in Manhattan, New York, six days after her death in a plane crash in the Bahamas. Hundreds of grieving fans accompanied her horse-drawn casket to the private ceremony, which was attended by Gladys Knight, Lil' Kim, Sean Combs, Timbaland and Missy Elliott. After the service, 22 white doves were released in her memory, representing each year of her life.

A memorial to John Lennon was unveiled in the Scottish village of Durness. Lennon spent his holidays there from the age of seven to fifteen, and the memorial consists of three stones engraved with verses from the song “In My Life”.

Jimmy Buffett's first Cheeseburger In Paradise restaurant, named after his 1978 song, opened in Indianapolis, Indiana.

Norwegian Elvis Presley impersonator Kjell Henning Bjoernestad set a world record by singing the rock'n'roll legend's hits continuously for more than 26 hours. The previous record was held by British Elvis fan Gary Jay with a time of 25 hours, 33 minutes and 30 seconds.

Vanessa Williams and her husband, basketball player Rick Fox, divorced.

A report highlighted the growth of concert ticket scalpers on eBay. Examples included tickets for Madonna's concert at Wembley, whose price increased from £150 to £350, and two tickets for The White Stripes, whose original value of £90 increased to £130.

A man from Stoke-on-Trent, England, named singer Bryan Adams in his divorce papers as “the other man” after years of trying to cope with his wife's obsession with the singer. He said that she had a six-foot-tall cardboard cutout of Adams in the bedroom and posters on the walls.

The Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum announced that it had acquired a Gibson L-5 guitar formerly owned by „Mother Maybelle“ Carter.

A post office near the Los Angeles studio where Ray Charles recorded much of his music was renamed in his honor. The federal bill renaming the post office was signed by US President George W. Bush.

John Duff Lowe and Colin Hanton of The Quarrymen unveiled a plaque at the site where the group that later became The Beatles made their first recordings. John Lennon, Paul McCartney and George Harrison recorded Buddy Holly's “That'll Be The Day” and the Lennon-Harrison song “In Spite Of All The Danger” there as The Quarrymen in 1958.

Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans and caused extensive damage to the local music community.

American filmmaker Adam Muskiewicz launched the website elviswanted.com as part of a documentary investigating the myth that Elvis Presley is still alive, offering a $3 million reward to anyone who could find Elvis alive. The film was scheduled for release in August 2007 to mark the 30th anniversary of Presley's death.

A man surfing the internet in America helped catch three men who broke into a shop in Liverpool, England. He was watching a live internet feed from Mathew Street and the nearby Beatles festival when he saw men smashing the shop window and climbing inside. He called Merseyside Police, who arrested the offenders.

While singing his 1968 hit “Fire” on stage in Lewes, England, Arthur Brown caught fire after the characteristic foil cap he was wearing, with a small fire in the middle, ignited.

The mayor of St. Louis refused to declare the day “Ike Turner Day”. Turner was performing at the Big Muddy Blues Festival in the city at the time.

Roseanne Cash criticized the use of her late father Johnny Cash's name in connection with support for a U.S. presidential candidate. Country singer John Rich suggested that Cash would have supported Republican candidate John McCain. Roseanne Cash called such a claim presumptuous and said that even she would not presume to publicly state what her father actually felt or thought.

A thief in New Zealand reserved a copy of Pink Floyd's album The Wall at a record store in Christchurch, left his name and telephone number, and subsequently robbed the store.

Two months after Michael Jackson's death, on what would have been his 51st birthday, 13,597 people in Mexico City danced to "Thriller", setting a new Guinness World Record.

Worldwide media reported that a toilet once owned by John Lennon sold at auction for £9,500 ($14,740), approximately ten times its original estimated value. After a new toilet was installed, Lennon told builder John Hancock, who took away the original blue-and-white toilet: “Put some flowers in it or something.” The toilet had been stored for more than 40 years and was put up for sale after Hancock died.

The Go-Go's received the 2,444th star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6652 Hollywood Boulevard, on the site of the former punk club The Masque, where the group frequently performed early in its career.

The city of Clear Lake, Iowa, named streets Ritchie Valens Drive and J. P. Richardson Avenue. They joined the existing Buddy Holly Place, commemorating the three musicians who died in a plane crash after a concert in Clear Lake on February 3, 1959.

A version of the video game Angry Birds dedicated to Green Day was released, featuring Billie Joe Armstrong, Mike Dirnt and Tre Cool as green pigs. Players could unlock a new Green Day song from level 10 of the game.

The phrase “bro-country” first appeared in an article by Jody Rosen in New York magazine, where he used it to describe Florida Georgia Line’s song “Cruise”. Rosen called Luke Bryan the king of the genre, which he described as “music by and for the tattooed, muscular, party-minded young white American”.

Lady Gaga asked her fans to stop making online threats against her critics. She said she did not approve of hateful or abusive behavior toward others and that such a way of dealing with emotions was not healthy. Some of her fans had sent death threats on Twitter to dance music producer Deadmau5, who had criticized Gaga over her video collaboration with artist Marina Abramović.

After her appearance at the V Festival in Britain, Beyoncé was reportedly said to have spent nearly £1,500 at a Nando's branch in Essex. The bill posted on Twitter included 48 whole chickens, 24 portions of coleslaw, 58 portions of chicken wings and 48 portions of fries. The branch manager confirmed that a member of her entourage had placed the order by phone.

A signed copy of John Lennon’s 1964 humorous book “In His Own Write” sold for more than $5,600 on eBay after 47 bids. The book contained short stories, poems and drawings.

Sir Paul McCartney was ranked No. 1 on therichest.com's list of the world's richest bass players, with an estimated fortune of $1.2 billion. Sting and Gene Simmons were tied for second place, each with a fortune of $300 million, followed by Pink Floyd's Roger Waters, U2's Adam Clayton and Flea of the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

The television show Catfish: The TV Show featured Spencer Morrill, who claimed to have been in an online relationship with Katy Perry for six years and had even made a ring from a family heirloom.

Alice Cooper announced to CNN that he had decided to run for President of the United States and had chosen actor Tom Hanks as his running mate. Jokingly, he gave his campaign slogan as “I can do nothing as well as they can do nothing” and declared that his platform was “non-existent”. It was part of a long-running joke in which Cooper has claimed to be running for president every four years since the release of his song “Elected” in 1972.

A copy of the first pressing of The Beatles’ “The White Album”, owned by Ringo Starr and bearing the catalog number 0000001, was officially confirmed as the most expensive LP ever sold at auction. In December 2015, it was sold for $790,000 at Julien's Auction House.

A blue plaque was unveiled marking the first house where Freddie Mercury lived after arriving in England. The Queen frontman moved into the semi-detached house in Feltham, West London, after his family left Zanzibar in 1964, when he was 17.

Asteroid 17473 was named Freddiemercury in honor of Freddie Mercury on what would have been his 70th birthday.

Collectors from around the world gathered at Graceland in Memphis to bid on items and memorabilia associated with him as part of the 40th anniversary of Elvis Week. The August 12 auction sold 315 items for more than $1.6 million. All came from private collectors rather than the Graceland archives owned by Lisa Marie Presley.

Pantone announced a new color, a shade of purple honoring Prince and named after his famous Love Symbol #2.

During Elvis Week 2017, a Candlelight Vigil was held at Elvis Presley's grave in Memphis. Lisa Marie Presley, her children and Priscilla Presley also attended to thank the fans.

Taylor Swift deleted her Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and personal YouTube accounts. Three days later, she began posting videos featuring a snake as a teaser for her confrontational song “Look What You Made Me Do,” which was released on August 25.

The Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum in Nashville held a private memorial event for Glen Campbell. Jimmy Webb and the current lineup of The Beach Boys performed „I Get Around“.

On the 60th anniversary of Gladys Presley's death, her gravestone was added to the Meditation Garden at Graceland. She died on August 14, 1958, and was buried at Forest Hill Cemetery in Memphis. Her original gravestone had been stored in the Graceland archives since 1977.

At the age of 74, Rod Stewart attended his daughter Kimberly's 40th birthday celebration in Los Angeles. He was also accompanied by three of his former wives: Alana Stewart, Kimberly's mother, Kelly Emberg and Rachel Hunter. Rod Stewart has eight children with five different women.