Today in Music History

Survivor were at number one on the UK singles chart with “Eye of the Tiger,” the title song from the film Rocky III, beginning a four-week run at the top. After spending six weeks at number one in the US, the song reached the top of the UK chart. It was their only UK number-one hit. The song won a Grammy for Best Rock Performance.

Phil Lynott played his final concert with Thin Lizzy at the Monsters of Rock festival in Nuremberg, Germany. Lynott died nearly two and a half years later, on January 4, 1986.

Gregg Allman of The Allman Brothers Band was arrested in Florida for driving under the influence shortly after regaining his driver's license following a five-year suspension. Police spotted his 1985 Pontiac Trans Am weaving along Route 441; he was arrested in Belleview, with one source placing the area south of Ocala. His blood alcohol level was recorded at 0.27, and he was also charged with driving with an expired license. He was sentenced to five days in jail and community service, which he completed by performing at drug- and alcohol-free high school proms at local schools. He served the sentence in January 1987.

Mike Joyce, drummer of The Smiths, left the band, stating that his role in the group had been fulfilled. In 1996, he sued former Smiths members Johnny Marr and Morrissey over an equal share of songwriting and recording income. He won the case and received approximately £1 million in damages.

George Michael's song “Faith” won the award for Best Male Video at the MTV Video Music Awards.

English singer, songwriter and guitarist James Bay was born in Hitchin, England. He became known for his debut studio album Chaos and the Calm, which according to the source reached number one on the chart.

Queensryche released Empire, a triple-platinum album featuring the song “Silent Lucidity.”

Country singer and songwriter Dottie West died at the age of 58 from injuries sustained in a car accident several days earlier while traveling to a performance at the Grand Ole Opry. She was the first woman to win a Grammy in the country category.

Paula Abdul hosted the AIDS-awareness television special In a New Light '93.

UB40 spent their seventh week at number one with their cover of Elvis Presley's classic “Can't Help Falling in Love.”

Blur, Oasis, Radiohead, Paul Weller, Manic Street Preachers and The Stone Roses recorded tracks for the charity album War Child, which was released five days later. All proceeds went to children affected by the war in the former Yugoslavia.

Jethro Tull released the album Roots to Branches.

Cat Stevens (Yusuf Islam) appeared at a London music store after an 18-year absence, signing copies of his new spoken-word Islamic album The Life of the Last Prophet, released under his legal name, Yusuf Islam.

Kiss performed “Rock and Roll All Nite” at the foot of the Brooklyn Bridge at the conclusion of the 1996 MTV Video Music Awards. The band was then in the middle of a highly successful reunion tour of the original lineup.

Oasis caused a stir at the MTV Awards at Radio City Hall in New York. During their performance of “Champagne Supernova,” singer Liam Gallagher spat on stage and threw beer into the audience.

Oasis reached number one in the UK with “Don't Look Back in Anger,” which was released there as a single.

At the MTV Video Music Awards, Van Halen appeared on stage for the first time in 11 years with founding singer David Lee Roth, who had recently split from the band with Sammy Hagar. They did not perform together but jointly presented Beck with the award for Best Male Video for “Where It's At.” The reunion was short-lived, and a month later the band announced Gary Cherone, formerly of Extreme, as their new singer. Roth issued a statement saying he had been an unwitting participant in the deception. Van Halen released one album with Cherone before reuniting with Roth in 2007.

Bruce Springsteen joined The Wallflowers on stage at the MTV Video Music Awards, and they performed “One Headlight” together.

At age 19, Fiona Apple sharply criticized society while accepting the award for Best New Artist, saying that the world was meaningless and that people should not shape their lives around what others consider cool, what they wear or what they say.

After performing at the MTV Video Music Awards, Pat Smear publicly announced that he would no longer be the guitarist for Foo Fighters.

Enrique Iglesias reached number one on the US Billboard Hot 100 with “Bailamos” (“We Dance”).

Lou Bega reached number one on the UK singles chart with his version of “Mambo No. 5 (A Little Bit Of…).” The song became a major international hit and reached number one in 22 countries.

American bassist and songwriter David Brown died at the age of 53 from liver and kidney failure. He was best known as Santana's lead bassist from 1966 to 1971. With Santana, he performed at Woodstock and the 1969 Altamont festival and played on the band's first three studio albums. He was later inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with Santana.

System of a Down released their second studio album, Toxicity, regarded as a classic of the Armenian folk-metal genre. It sold more than three million copies, reached number one in North America and featured three of their best-known songs: “Chop Suey!,” “Toxicity” and “Aerials.”

Kelly Clarkson defeated Justin Guarini to become the first winner of American Idol.

Nearly 26 years after Elvis Presley's death, radio stations and other media began reporting that BMG/RCA had discovered a previously unheard song, “I'm a Roustabout.” The song had originally been commissioned and written by Winfield Scott and Otis Blackwell for the 1964 film Roustabout but was not used. Winfield Scott found the original acetate recording in the basement of his home in New Jersey, and BMG/RCA subsequently added it to the album Elvis, 2nd to None.

Electronic group The Prodigy scored their third consecutive UK number-one album with Always Outnumbered, Never Outgunned.

Simon Cowell's music competition show The X Factor premiered in the UK. It quickly became a talent factory that produced stars including Little Mix, Leona Lewis, Olly Murs and One Direction. The US version of The X Factor premiered in 2011, with Fifth Harmony its biggest success.

Badfinger drummer Mike Gibbins died in his sleep at his home in Florida at the age of 56. Badfinger had the 1970 single “Come and Get It,” which reached number four in the UK and number seven in the US and was written by Paul McCartney. Gibbins had also been a member of The Iveys in the 1960s.

Steve Irwin was remembered on this date through cultural tributes, including musical memorial dedications.

The Bob Dylan biographical film I'm Not There: Suppositions on a Film Concerning Dylan premiered at the Venice Film Festival in Italy. Directed by Todd Haynes, the film features six actors portraying different aspects or periods of Dylan's life and music, including Cate Blanchett, Richard Gere, Heath Ledger and Christian Bale. Before its wider release later in 2007, the title was shortened to I'm Not There.

The Police played the first UK concert of their reunion tour, performing for two nights at the National Indoor Arena in Birmingham, England.

Billboard reported that Aerosmith were working closely with the creators of a new Guitar Hero game dedicated to the band's music. The game was released on June 29, 2008.

The first guitar Jimi Hendrix famously set on fire on stage sold for £280,000 at a rock memorabilia auction. It was a 1965 Fender Stratocaster that Hendrix set alight at the end of his 1967 concert at the Astoria in Finsbury Park, London. At the same London auction, the Beatles' first management contract, signed in 1962 by all four members and manager Brian Epstein, sold for £240,000. One source states that the guitar was sold by British auction house The Fame Bureau for approximately $575,000.

The-Dream and Christina Milian secretly married in Las Vegas; they separated three months later, although the breakup was not made public until July 2010.

Eminem reached number one on the UK albums chart with his seventh studio album, Recovery.

Taio Cruz's “Dynamite” was at number one on the UK singles chart on September 4. The song also topped the charts in six other countries and reached number two on the US Hot 100.

Red Hot Chili Peppers reached number one with the album I'm With You.

Imagine Dragons released their debut album Night Visions, which gained popularity through prominent rock songs such as “Radioactive” and “Demons.”

One Direction won a legal dispute over the right to use their group name. An American punk band of the same name claimed that it had used the name first. One Direction US sought $1 million in damages from the British group and a share of licensing revenues.

Live recordings by Rory Storm And The Hurricanes were discovered in the basement of Storm's sister's home. Although the tapes were reportedly in very poor condition, an edited debut and only album, Live at the Jive Hive March 1960, was being prepared. After listening to the recordings, Ringo Starr officially denied that he was the drummer on them.

Seattle was in a celebratory mood as reigning Super Bowl champions the Seahawks played their first game of the season and local band Soundgarden performed during the pregame program.

After a 90-minute hearing, a US federal judge granted Aretha Franklin an emergency injunction preventing the premiere of the film Amazing Grace that evening at the Telluride Film Festival. Franklin objected to the use of footage from her 1972 concert in Los Angeles in the film. After her death in 2018, her family arranged for the film's release, and Amazing Grace was released worldwide on April 5, 2019.

Keith Richards of The Rolling Stones told the New York Daily News that rap music was for “people who can't hear” and criticized its musical construction. He said that, in his view, rap listeners only needed a drum beat and someone shouting over it. In the same interview, he also commented on Metallica and Black Sabbath.

Cuban-Jamaican ska and reggae trombonist Rico Rodriguez died at the age of 80. He recorded with numerous musicians, including Karl Pitterson, Prince Buster and Lloyd “Matador” Daley. He was one of the earliest and most influential ska performers and had been performing and recording in Britain since the early 1960s, including with The Specials, Jools Holland and Paul Young.

The Arcs released the album Yours, Dreamily.

Travis Scott, already known for his mixtapes, released his debut album Rodeo, a psychedelic trap recording featuring guests including Kanye West, Justin Bieber, The Weeknd, Future and Swae Lee.

Queen guitarist and astrophysicist Brian May announced that an asteroid orbiting between Mars and Jupiter had been named after Freddie Mercury in honor of what would have been his 70th birthday.

Joe Jeffrey, leader of The Joe Jeffrey Group, which had the number-14 Billboard hit “My Pledge of Love” in August 1969, died of cancer at his home in Cleveland at the age of 80. His real name was Joseph Stafford Jr.