1965 - Barbra Streisand's first TV special aired on CBS today, as Babs was showing the signs of a superstar in the making. The special was titled My Name is Barbra, and tied in with her album of the same name. She's may not be rock'n'roll, but Streisand is a near-perfect entertainer, and a beautiful woman to boot.
1987 - We're on a plane, returning to Boston, from Miami, and Ozzy Osbourne shouted us all to three rounds of drinks and then he sang Crazy Train over the PA system. So, dear reader, following is the very song that he sang, and Ozzy is performing it live. Personally, I'd rather walk across the desert in bare feet with a fur coat on my back, and glass splinters in my heels than hear this again, but 16 million fans can't be wrong.
1987 - For the first time in recorded music history, a compact disc of an album was released before its vinyl version. The album was The Art of Excellence by the immaculate Tony Bennett. Couldn't locate any vids for this, but immaculate is the word, so howzabout this amazing clip of Stevie Wonder and Tony Bennett on Tony Bennett's American Classic TV Show. Awesome performance! Very moving, and what about Stevie's harmonica playing. And then...The legendary Tony Bennett performs a unique concert for BBC One in the intimate setting of LSO St Lukes, London. Accompanied by a four piece band - Bruce Barth on piano, Gray Sargent on guitar, Harold Jones on drums and Paul Langosch on double bass - Bennett performs classic numbers including The Way You Look Tonight (Jerome Kern). He is the complete class act, is Tony.
1989 - This was the day when teenage girls around the world cried their hearts out, as Jon Bon Jovi and Dorothea Hurley were married. They had been high school sweethearts. A couple of years later, on the same day, Bonnie Raitt and Michael O'Keefe were married.
1999 - Brit band the Verve announced that the band members had mutually agreed for the group to split. They had a couple of great songs, this one in particular, which become an anthem for a generation, and anybody in doubt out there in spaceland just needs to look at this performance in Glastonbury, 2008...and then a bonus of The Drugs Don't Work, same festival, same performance. Brilliant.
1999 - This is the day shock rocker Marilyn Manson reputedly spat the dummy and slinked off stage during a concert in Des Moines, Iowa. The reason? Some bright spark decided to lighten things up a bit, and stuck a large yellow "smiley face" on one of the many stage props...the aftermath of the violence that erupted after the foot-stomping event, resulted in 23 arrests. Is Manson a pretender? Does anybody care? I know many of you love him, so here's one for you. Did he put a spell on you guys?
1999 - Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Here's Tom with his visual take on Alice In Wonderland...Don't Come Around Here No More.
2003 - This was the very day, now eight years ago, when iTunes Music Store opened for business, with more than 200,000 items to purchase, and a year later the store marked its first anniversary with more than 70 million songs sold.
2006 – Abba star Bjorn Ulvaeus was accused of avoiding paying 87m Swedish kronor (£6.5m) in taxes on the band’s hit songs and musicals. The Swedish government was demanding he repaid the money. Abba sold over 370 million records and he also co-wrote the musical Mamma Mia. Mmmm, now I wonder what song we should put up for you on this one.
