1959 – Bobby Darin was at No.1 on the UK singles chart with ‘Dream Lover’. The American singer’s first UK No.1 which featured Neil Sedaka on piano.
1964 – The Rolling Stones appeared as the entire panel on the TV show ‘Juke Box Jury’. The music panel show ran on the BBC between June 1959 and December 1967 attracting 12 million viewers weekly on Saturday nights.
1969 – John Lennon, Yoko Ono and family were involved in a car accident in Golspie, Scotland. Both John and Yoko needed hospital treatment. John later had the car crushed into a cube and exhibited it on his lawn at Tittenhurst Park.
1971 – American singer, songwriter and poet, Jim Morrison of The Doors was found dead in a bathtub in Paris. The cause of death was given as a heart attack. He co-wrote some of the group’s biggest hits, including ‘Light My Fire’, ‘Love Me Two Times’, and ‘Love Her Madly.’ On the 25th anniversary of his death an estimated 15,000 fans gathered at Pere Lachaise Cemetery in Paris, France to pay their respects.
1974 – Charles Aznavour was at No.1 on the UK singles chart with ‘She’, the French singer’s only UK No.1. At the time it made him the oldest living male chart-topper in the UK charts (at fifty years old).
1977 – Elton John achieved a lifelong ambition when he became the Chairman of Watford Football Club.
1979 – Sony introduced the Walkman, the first portable audio cassette player. Over the next 30 years they sold over 385 million Walkmans in cassette, CD, mini-disc and digital file versions, and were the market leaders until the arrival of Apple’s iPod and other new digital devices.
1983 – Rod Stewart started a three week run at No.1 on the UK singles chart with ‘Baby Jane’, his sixth UK No.1.
1991 – Jason Donovan had his third UK No.1 single with ‘Any Dream Will Do’ a song written by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice for the 1968 musical Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. He was playing the lead role in a new London production of the musical at the time.
1998 – After spending 30 weeks on the UK album chart The Corrs went to No.1 with ‘Talk On Corners’. It went on to be the best selling UK album of 1998 spending 142 weeks on the chart.
1999 – Michael Jackson suffered severe bruising after falling over 50 feet when a bridge collapsed during a concert at Munich’s Olympic stadium. He was singing ‘Earth Song’ at the time of the accident.
2001 – The Rolling Stone’s Ronnie Wood was commissioned to paint a group portrait of diners who are regulars at the West End London restaurant The Ivy. Elton John and Pet Shop Boy Neil Tennant were two pop stars to be included in the portrait.
2002 – A session violinist serenaded a High Court judge during a copyright battle worth an estimated £100,000. The case was over the rights to The Bluebells version of ‘Young At Heart.’ Bobby Valentino won his case as joint owner of the song.
2008 – The gravestone of former Joy Division frontman Ian Curtis was stolen. Cheshire Police said his memorial stone was taken from where he is buried in Macclesfield Cemetery. In the same year Kylie Minogue received an OBE for services to music from the Prince of Wales at Buckingham Palace.
