TODAY IN HISTORY – DECEMBER 23rd
1959 - Chuck Berry was arrested after taking 14 year old Janice Norine (who unbeknown to Berry is working as a prostitute) across a state line. He was sentenced to 5 years jail but after racist comments by the judge Berry was freed.
1964 - During a US tour Beach Boy Brain Wilson had a nervous breakdown during a flight from Los Angeles to Houston. Wilson left the band to concentrate on writing and producing. Glen Campbell replaced Wilson for the bands forthcoming live shows.
1964 - Born this day, Eddie Vedder [Mueller], heavy metal songwriter, singer, Pearl Jam, 1992 UK No.16 single Alive, 1998 Uk No.12 single Given to fly, 1992 UK No.18 album Ten, 1993 UK No.2 album VS, 1994 UK No.4 album Vitalogy, 1996 UK No.3 album No Code, 2000 UK No.5 album Binaural.
1969 - B.J. Thomas received a gold record for the single, Raindrops Keep Fallin’ On My Head, from the motion picture, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Raindrops hit No.1 on the US pop charts on 3 January 1970 and stayed there for 4 weeks.
1969 - Elton John met with arranger Paul Buckmaster, writer Bernie Taupin and producer Gus Dudgeon. The collaboration marked the start of one of the most successful milestones of music in the 1970s. Together, they created Your Song, Friends, Levon, Tiny Dancer, Rocket Man and many more.
1972 - Former Grand Funk Railroad manager Terry Knight arrived during a concert by the band with a court order to seize $1m in money or assets. Police inform the ex manager that he couldn't take anything until after the show.
1972 - Little Jimmy Osmond started a five week run at No.1 on the UK singles chart with Long Haired Lover From Liverpool. At nine years of age he was the youngest person to have a No.1 record and also the biggest seller of 1972.
1977 - English singer-songwriter, Cat Stevens formally changed his name to Yusef Islam.
1984 - Howard Jones played the first of three sold out shows at London's Hammersmith Odeon, with support band Strawberry Switchblade.
1985 - Two young men, allegedly inspired by the British heavy-metal band Judas Priest to commit suicide, shot themselves on this date with a sawn-off shotgun. Five years later in 1990, the parents of Raymond Belknap, age 18, and James Vance, age 20, filed a lawsuit against the members of Judas Priest and CBS Records, saying that subliminal messages on the group's records, such as Try suicide, Let's be dead and Do it, led the young men to shoot themselves in a duo suicide pact.
The parents' argument in the lawsuit was that the subliminal messages in the group's albums had pushed the two men over the edge, and made suicide sound like an adventure. Belknap died at the time of the shooting; Vance lived for three years, ultimately dying from his injuries and to a reaction to medication. Vance had blown away the lower portion of his face. Judas Priest was found innocent in the lawsuit.
1989 - Phil Collins started a four week run at No.1 on the US singles chart with Another Day In Paradise, it was his 7th US solo No.1, and a No.2 hit in the UK.
1991 - James Brown sued the producers of the movie The Commitments, claiming one of the characters resembled him (he lost).
1996 - Motley Crue bassist Nikki Sixx married TV's 'Baywatch' star and former Playboy Playmate of the Month, Donna Deruico.
1999 - George Harrison's home in Maui in the Hawaiian Islands was broken into by Cristin Keleher, who cooked a frozen pizza, drank beer from the fridge, started some laundry and phoned her mother in New Jersey. Keleher was arrested and charged with burglary and theft.
2000 - Simply Red singer Mick Hucknall was given a police caution for possessing cocaine and cannabis. The Class A and Class B drugs were found at his Surrey home by police after a woman falsely accused him of rape in November.
2003 - Simon and Garfunkel donated a million dollars to the Children's Heart Fund.
2005 - Geezer Butler, the bass player with Black Sabbath offered £5,000 for any information leading to the safe return of Toga, the three-month-old penguin that had been stolen from a zoo on the Isle of Wight a few days earlier.
2006 - It was reported that U2 singer Bono was to be given an honorary knighthood in recognition of his outstanding contribution to music and humanitarian work.
2007 - The Police were named as the highest earning touring group for the past year, bringing in nearly £66.5m, ($132m). The band's 54 date North American tour had generated almost double the total of the second-placed act, Country star Kenny Chesney.
2013 - The Mail On Sunday reported that documents they obtained from the Cabinet Office via the Freedom Of Information Act showed that George Harrison, who passed away in 2001, turned down the chance to be included in the New Year's Honours List in 2000. The OBE was recommended by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport who said that Harrison should be recognised for his contribution to the music industry. The citation read: "He was a member of a band that many people would say is the best thing that Britain has ever produced, and possibly the best in the world, The Beatles."
1959 - Chuck Berry was arrested after taking 14 year old Janice Norine (who unbeknown to Berry is working as a prostitute) across a state line. He was sentenced to 5 years jail but after racist comments by the judge Berry was freed.
1964 - During a US tour Beach Boy Brain Wilson had a nervous breakdown during a flight from Los Angeles to Houston. Wilson left the band to concentrate on writing and producing. Glen Campbell replaced Wilson for the bands forthcoming live shows.
1964 - Born this day, Eddie Vedder [Mueller], heavy metal songwriter, singer, Pearl Jam, 1992 UK No.16 single Alive, 1998 Uk No.12 single Given to fly, 1992 UK No.18 album Ten, 1993 UK No.2 album VS, 1994 UK No.4 album Vitalogy, 1996 UK No.3 album No Code, 2000 UK No.5 album Binaural.
1969 - B.J. Thomas received a gold record for the single, Raindrops Keep Fallin’ On My Head, from the motion picture, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Raindrops hit No.1 on the US pop charts on 3 January 1970 and stayed there for 4 weeks.
1969 - Elton John met with arranger Paul Buckmaster, writer Bernie Taupin and producer Gus Dudgeon. The collaboration marked the start of one of the most successful milestones of music in the 1970s. Together, they created Your Song, Friends, Levon, Tiny Dancer, Rocket Man and many more.
1972 - Former Grand Funk Railroad manager Terry Knight arrived during a concert by the band with a court order to seize $1m in money or assets. Police inform the ex manager that he couldn't take anything until after the show.
1972 - Little Jimmy Osmond started a five week run at No.1 on the UK singles chart with Long Haired Lover From Liverpool. At nine years of age he was the youngest person to have a No.1 record and also the biggest seller of 1972.
1977 - English singer-songwriter, Cat Stevens formally changed his name to Yusef Islam.
1984 - Howard Jones played the first of three sold out shows at London's Hammersmith Odeon, with support band Strawberry Switchblade.
1985 - Two young men, allegedly inspired by the British heavy-metal band Judas Priest to commit suicide, shot themselves on this date with a sawn-off shotgun. Five years later in 1990, the parents of Raymond Belknap, age 18, and James Vance, age 20, filed a lawsuit against the members of Judas Priest and CBS Records, saying that subliminal messages on the group's records, such as Try suicide, Let's be dead and Do it, led the young men to shoot themselves in a duo suicide pact.
The parents' argument in the lawsuit was that the subliminal messages in the group's albums had pushed the two men over the edge, and made suicide sound like an adventure. Belknap died at the time of the shooting; Vance lived for three years, ultimately dying from his injuries and to a reaction to medication. Vance had blown away the lower portion of his face. Judas Priest was found innocent in the lawsuit.
1989 - Phil Collins started a four week run at No.1 on the US singles chart with Another Day In Paradise, it was his 7th US solo No.1, and a No.2 hit in the UK.
1991 - James Brown sued the producers of the movie The Commitments, claiming one of the characters resembled him (he lost).
1996 - Motley Crue bassist Nikki Sixx married TV's 'Baywatch' star and former Playboy Playmate of the Month, Donna Deruico.
1999 - George Harrison's home in Maui in the Hawaiian Islands was broken into by Cristin Keleher, who cooked a frozen pizza, drank beer from the fridge, started some laundry and phoned her mother in New Jersey. Keleher was arrested and charged with burglary and theft.
2000 - Simply Red singer Mick Hucknall was given a police caution for possessing cocaine and cannabis. The Class A and Class B drugs were found at his Surrey home by police after a woman falsely accused him of rape in November.
2003 - Simon and Garfunkel donated a million dollars to the Children's Heart Fund.
2005 - Geezer Butler, the bass player with Black Sabbath offered £5,000 for any information leading to the safe return of Toga, the three-month-old penguin that had been stolen from a zoo on the Isle of Wight a few days earlier.
2006 - It was reported that U2 singer Bono was to be given an honorary knighthood in recognition of his outstanding contribution to music and humanitarian work.
2007 - The Police were named as the highest earning touring group for the past year, bringing in nearly £66.5m, ($132m). The band's 54 date North American tour had generated almost double the total of the second-placed act, Country star Kenny Chesney.
2013 - The Mail On Sunday reported that documents they obtained from the Cabinet Office via the Freedom Of Information Act showed that George Harrison, who passed away in 2001, turned down the chance to be included in the New Year's Honours List in 2000. The OBE was recommended by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport who said that Harrison should be recognised for his contribution to the music industry. The citation read: "He was a member of a band that many people would say is the best thing that Britain has ever produced, and possibly the best in the world, The Beatles."