This week in music history: August 8-14

Benny Goodman

August 8

1923 - Benny Goodman, at the age of 14, took a job as a clarinet player on a Chicago-based excursion boat on Lake Michigan.

1960 - "Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polkadot Bikini" hits #1

1961 - The Edge, [Dave Evans], born in London

1963 - Kingsmen release "Louie, Louie," radio stations label it obscene

1966 - Beatles' release "Revolver"

1975 - Julian "Cannonball" Alderly, saxophonist/ bandleader, died of a stroke at 46

Jerry Garcia

August 9

1710 - Gabriel Schutz, composer, died at 77

1964 - Bob Dylan and Joan Baez performed on stage together for the first time.

1975 - Dimitri Shostakovitch, composer, died at 68

1978 - Muddy Waters performed at a White House picnic for U.S. President Jimmy Carter.

1995 - Jerry Garcia died at 53 of a heart attack

August 10

1865 - Alexander K Glazunov, composer, born in St Petersburg Russia

1909 - Leo Fender, rocker (Fender guitars), born in Anaheim California

Madonna "Like a Virgin"

1947 - Ian Anderson (Jethro Tull) born in Scotland

1985 - Michael Jackson buys ATV Music (every Beatle songs) for $47 million.

1985 - Madonna's "Like A Virgin" became the first album by a female to be certified for 5 million sales.

2004 - The iTunes Music Store became the first store to have a catalog of more than one million songs.

August 11

1965 - The Beatles' movie "Help!" premiered in the New York.

1966 - Last Beatle concert tour of US begins

1968 - Beatles launch "Apple Records" label. The first Beatles single on their own Apple Records was released. The single was "Hey Jude" b/w "Revolution."

1969 - Diana Ross invited 350 guests to a Beverly Hills club to see the newest Motown act, The Jackson 5.

1972 - Elvis and Pricilla Presley filed for divorce. They had married in May of 1967.

1999 - KISS received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

This week in music history: August 1-7

August 1

1779 - Francis Scott Key, composer of the "Star-Spangled Banner", born

1981 - MTV made its debut at 12:01am. The first video to be shown was "Video Killed the Radio Star" by the Buggles.

1996 - MTV launched another channel known as M2.

August 2

1961 - The Beatles began their engagement as regular headliners at Liverpool's Cavern Club. They performed about 300 shows over the next 2 years.

1962 - Robert Zimmerman legally changed his name to Bob Dylan.

1965 - Milton Babbitt, US composer, died at 49

Tony Bennett

August 3

1926 - Tony Bennett born in Queens NY

1963 - The Beatles made their final appearance at the Cavern Club in Liverpool. They had performed nearly 300 shows at the club since 1961.

August 4

1901 - Louie "Satchmo" Armstrong born in New Orleans

1958 - Billboard Magazine introduced its "Hot 100" chart, which was part popularity and a barometer of the movement of potential hits. The first number one song was Ricky Nelson's "Poor Little Fool."

Louis Armstrong

1966 - A ban of the broadcast of any and all Beatles records on most U.S. radio stations went into effect. The ban was in response to John Lennon stating that the band was now more popular than Jesus Christ.

2005 - The iTunes Music Store in Japan officially opened with one million songs available.  

2009 - The iTunes Music Store was officially launched in Mexico.

August 5

1957 - American Bandstand made its network debut on ABC-TV. The show was hosted by Dick Clark. Until this day the show had been a local show in Philadelphia since 1952

1966 - Beatles release "Yellow Submarine" and "Eleanor Rigby" in UK

1999 - Music written by Johann Sebastian Bach was found in the Ukraine. The music was thought to have been destroyed over 50 years prior during World War II. The material was found in the musical estate of Carl Phillipp Emanuel Bach, who was one of J.S. Bach's children.

August 6

1970 - Ingolf Dahl, German composer, died at 58

1973 - Stevie Wonder was seriously injured in a car accident. He permanently lost his sense of smell. He was in a coma for four days

August 7

1921 - Karel Husa, composer, born in Prague Czechoslovakia

*~*~*~*~*

"If you have to ask what jazz is, you'll never know" - Louis Armstrong

This week in music history: July 25-31

July 25

1965 - Bob Dylan appeared on stage at the Newport Jazz Festival with an electric guitar. It was his first non-acoustic set.

1970 - Chicago's "25 or 6 to 4" released.

1975 - "A Chorus Line" debuted on Broadway. The show closed in 1990 after 6,137 performances.

1990 - Rosanne Barr sang the National Anthem in San Diego before a Padres baseball game. She was booed for her performance.

This week in music history: July 18-24

July 18

1821 - Carl Maria von Weber's opera "Der Freischutz" was first performed in Berlin.

1948 - Columbia Records publicly unveiled its new long-playing phonograph record, the 33 1/3, in New York City.

1967 - The Jimi Hendrix Experience made its debut performance at the Monterey Pop Festival in California.

1987 - A woman sued Motley Crue for $5,000 claiming that she lost her hearing because a concert was too loud.

July 19

1942 – Shostakovich’s 7th Symphony was performed for the 1st time in the U.S. by Arturo Toscanini and the NBC Symphony Orchestra.

1954 - Elvis Presley's first single was released by Sun Records. It was "That's All Right" b/w "Blue Moon of Kentucky."

1966 - Frank Sinatra, at the age of 50, married the 20-year-old actress Mia Farrow.

1976 - Rock group Deep Purple disbanded

1991 - Former Guns N' Roses drummer Steven Adler filed a lawsuit against the band. He claimed the other members had forced him to use heroin, then made him quit the band when he entered a rehabilitation program.