Happy Birthday: In 1942, Jerry Garcia, guitarist & songwriter for the Grateful Dead, was born on this day. Joe Elliott, singer for Def Leppard, was born in 1959.
1971 – George Harrison organized “The Concert for Bangladesh” at Madison Square Garden. The concert featured Harrison, Bob Dylan, Ringo Starr, Eric Clapton and many others.
1981 – MTV launched at 12:01 a.m. At the time of its launch, only a few thousand people on one cable system in northern New Jersey could see it. The First video was the Buggles “Video killed the radio star”. The Who’s “You Better You Be” was the first song to be repeated and Rod Stewart had the most appearances with 16 featuring 11 different songs.
1987 – Bob Seger hits number one on Singles Chart for the first and only time with “Shakedown” off the soundtrack for “Beverly Hills Cop II“. Glenn Frey was supposed to be the original lead singer, but he came down with laryngitis, he suggested Seger and the rest is Rock and Roll history.
1992 – The music video for Pearl Jam’s “Jeremy” debuts on MTV.
1994 – For the first time ever, without Bill Wyman, The Rolling Stones begin their Voodoo Lounge tour with a show in Washington, D.C. Their tour of 134 shows finishes as the top-grossing tour of all time.