This Day in Music
 
February 9th: On this Day
1961, The Beatles appeared at The Cavern Club, Liverpool, for the very first time (as The Beatles), they would go on to make a total of 292 other appearances at the Club.
1963, Paul and Paula started a three-week run at No.1 on the US singles charts with 'Hey Paula', it made No.8 in the UK.
1964, The Beatles made their US live debut on CBS-TV's 'The Ed Sullivan Show'; they performed five songs including their current No.1 'I Want To Hold Your Hand' watched by an estimated 73 million people. The show had received over 50,000 applications for the 728 seats in the TV studio.
1967, Canadian conductor Percy Faith died aged 67. He scored the 1953 hit 'Song from the Moulin Rouge' and 1960 US No.1 'Theme From A Summer Palace', nine weeks at No.1, which won the Grammy Award for Record of the Year in 1961.
1967, the film for the latest Beatles single 'Penny Lane' and 'Strawberry Fields Forever' was shown on BBC-TV's Top Of The Pops. It was the first Beatles single not to make No.1 in the UK since 1963, held off the top by Engelbert Humperdinck's 'Release Me.'
1968, Hal Cone former manager of The Monkees and Head of Jones Records was found guilty of theft, forgery, receiving stolen property and conspiracy.
1972, Paul McCartney's Wings played the first night of a UK College tour in Nottingham. The group arrived unannounced asking social secretaries if they would like them to perform that evening. The band's intended first stop on the tour, Ashby-de-la-Zouch, refused to allow them to play so they drove on to Nottingham. Admission was 40p, British pub rock band Brinsley Schwarz was the opening act for the tour.
1974, The Love Unlimited Orchestra went to No.1 on the US singles chart with 'Love's Theme', it made No.10 in the UK.
1981, American singer Bill Haley was found dead, fully clothed on his bed at his home in Harlington, Texas from a heart attack, Haley had sold over 60 million records during his career. Scored the 1955 UK & US No.1 single 'Rock Around The Clock', and became known as the first Rock 'n' Roll star. Haley was blinded in his left eye as a child due to a botched operation and later adopted his distinctive spit-curl hairstyle to distract attention from his blind eye.
1982, George Harrison presented UNICEF with a cheque for $9 million (£5.3 million), ten years after the fundraising concert for Bangladesh.
1985, Elaine Page and Barbara Dickson were at No.1 on the UK singles chart with 'I Know Him So Well.' The song was taken from the musical Chess, written by Tim Rice and Bjorn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson from Abba. It gave Benny and Bjorn their 10th No.1 as writers.
1985, Madonna started a three-week run at No.1 on the US album chart with 'Like A Virgin', a No.3 hit in the UK.
1986, Pete Townshend, Chrissie Hynde and The Communards played a charity show at London's Albert Hall for the victims of a volcanic eruption in Colombia.
1987, winners at this years Brit awards held in London included Peter Gabriel who won British Male Solo Artist, Kate Bush won British Female Solo Artist, Best British Group went to Five Star, British Album was Dire Straits 'Brothers In Arms', British Breakthrough Act was The Housemartins, International Solo Artist went to Paul Simon, The Bangles won Best International Group, Best British Video went to Peter Gabriel for 'Sledgehammer' and Best British Single was The Pet Shop Boys for 'West End Girls'.
1990, Nirvana set out on a short west coast tour opening for Dinosaur Jr. at the Pine Street Theater, Portland, Oregon.
1991, C & C Music Factory started a two week run at No.1 on the US singles chart with 'Gonna Make You Sweat', a No.3 hit in the UK.
1991, Jesus Jones went to No.1 on the UK album chart with their second LP 'Doubt.'
1992, touring Australia and New Zealand for the first and only time Nirvana appeared at the Logan Campbell Center in Auckland, New Zealand.
1993, British broadcaster Bill Grundy died of a heart attack aged 69. He conducted the famous Sex Pistols interview on Thames Television on December 1, 1976; when Grundy provoked the band into using obscenities on live TV. The broadcast wrecked Grundy's television career. He was also the first television presenter to present The Beatles on Granada Television on October 17, 1962.
1997, Mississippi blues artist Jack Owens died aged 92. In 1995 he appeared in a TV advertisement for Levi's jeans, showing him seated on his front porch.
1998, Brit Award winners included All Saints best single and video with 'Never Never', The Verve, best group and album with 'Urban Hymns', best male artist was Finley Quaye, best female was Shola Ama and Stereophonics won the best newcomers.
2001, Eminem beefed up security for his UK shows following the threat of gay rights protests. Campaigners said the rapper was a homophobe who fuelled prejudice with hate-filled lyrics.
2002, Billboard published the Top 5 selling albums in the world from 2001: Britney Spears’ 'Britney', $7m (£4.1m); Shaggy’s 'Hotshot', $7.2m £4.24m); Destiny’s Child’s 'Survivor', $7.8m (£4.6m); Linkin Park’s 'Hybrid', $8.5m (£5m) and Dido’s 'No Angel', $8.6m (£5.06m) sales.
2003, Destiny’s Child singer Kelly Rowland went to No.1 on the UK album chart with ‘Simply Deep.’
2005, winners at this years Brit Awards included The Streets who won Best British male solo artist, Joss Stone won British female solo artist, Best British Album went to Keane for ‘Hopes and Fears’, Franz Ferdinand won Best British Group and Best Rock Act, McFly won Best Pop Act, Scissor Sisters won Best International group and the Best Album award the Brits 25 best song award went to Robbie Williams for ‘Angels’ and Sir Bob Geldof won the Outstanding Contribution To Music award.
2009, Led Zeppelin singer Robert Plant took home five prizes for his collaboration with bluegrass singer Alison Krauss at this years Grammy Awards held in Los Angeles. The duo won album of the year for Raising Sand and record of the year for ‘Please Read The Letter.’ Coldplay, (who won song of the year for ‘Viva La Vida’) Adele, Duffy, Radiohead and Peter Gabriel were among other UK acts to be honoured. John Mayer won Best solo rock vocal performance for ‘Gravity’, Kings of Leon won Best rock performance by a group with ‘Sex on Fire’, Best rock song went to Bruce Springsteen for ‘Girls In Their Summer Clothes’ and Lil' Wayne won Best rap solo performance and Best rap album for Tha Carter III.
Search by artist or keyword:
Or by date: