1962: Ray Charles started the first of five weeks at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 with his recording of the Don Gibson ballad “I Can’t Stop Loving You,” which had also reached the top of the R&B chart the week before for the first of ten weeks.

1964: After arriving in the US the day before, the Rolling Stones made their first stateside television appearance on NYC ABC-TV program The Les Crane Show. Crane pressed the comparison between the Stones and the Beatles, repeatedly referring to the Stones as “that other British group.”

1967: Small Faces released “Here Come the Nice,” the band’s debut release on Immediate Records following feuds with Decca Records.

1967: The Beatles’ eighth studio album, Sgt. Peppers’ Lonely Hearts Club Band, was released in the US a week after being initially issued in the UK.

1972: Pink Floyd released their seventh studio album, Obscured by Clouds. The album is based on their soundtrack for the French film La Vallée and was recorded and produced by the band in two sessions in France while they were in the midst of touring.

1972: Dion & The Belmonts reunited for the one and only time for a concert at New York City’s Madison Square Garden. The performance was recorded and released as a live album the following year.

1973: Paul McCartney and Wings were at the top of the Billboard Hot 100 for the first of four weeks with “My Love,” a song written by Paul for his wife Linda, and the most successful song from the group’s second studio album, Red Rose Speedway. On the same day, the album took the #1 spot on the Billboard pop chart, displacing the Beatles’ compilation album 1967-1970, also known as the “Blue Album.”

1973: Electric Light Orchestra made their concert debut in the US at San Diego Stadium in California promoting their second album, ELO 2.

1977: Bob Marley and the Wailers released their ninth studio album, Exodus. It followed an attempted assassination of Marley, who afterward left Jamaica for London, where the album was recorded.

1978: Bruce Springsteen released his fourth studio album, Darkness on the Edge of Town. The LP marked the end of a three-year gap between albums brought on by contractual obligations and legal battling with former manager Mike Appel. Although the album did not produce any high-charting singles, it remained on the charts for ninety-seven weeks and was later certified triple platinum.

1978: Peter Gabriel released his second self-titled solo album. Commonly referred to as his “Scratch” album, it was produced by guitarist Robert Fripp and features Fripp’s tape looping technique known as “Frippertronics.”

1979: Boomtown Rats released their third studio album, The Fine Art of Surfacing. It peaked at #7 in the UK and became the band’s most successful LP in America, where it reached #73 on the Billboard chart.

1982: The Rolling Stones’ cover of the Miracles’ 1965 hit “Going to a Go-Go” was released as the first single from the band’s live album Still Life.

1986: Queen released their twelfth studio album, A Kind of Magic. It was the group’s first album recorded digitally, and is based on their soundtrack to the film Highlander, which was released earlier that year.

1993: The Buzzcocks released their fourth studio album and first release in fourteen years, Trade Test Transmissions.

2008: R.E.M. released “Hollow Man,” the second single from their fourteenth studio album, Accelerate.

Birthdays Today

Jimmy Jones, R&B singer-songwriter best known for his 1960 hit “Handy Man,” was born in Birmingham, AL in 1930.

Johnny Carter, soul and doo wop singer and founding member of The Flamingos and The Dells, was born in Chicago, IL in 1934.

Charles Miller, saxophonist, flutist, and vocalist for War, was born in Olathe, KS in 1939.

Charlie Watts, drummer for the Rolling Stones and his own group, the Charlie Watts Quintet, was born Charles Robert Watts in Kingsbury, London, England in 1941.

William Guest, soul singer best known as a member of Gladys Knight & the Pips, was born in Atlanta, GA in 1941.

Dave Flett, guitarist best known for performing with Manfred Mann’s Earth Band and Thin Lizzy, was born in Aberdeen, Scotland in 1951.

Michael Steele, bassist and vocalist for the Runaways and the Bangles, was born Susan Nancy Thomas in Pasadena, CA in 1955.

Tony Hadley, singer, songwriter, and lead singer for Spandau Ballet, was born in Islington, London, England in 1960.

Þór Eldon, guitarist for the Sugarcubes, was born in Iceland in 1962.

Jeremy Cunningham, bassist and founding member of the Levellers, was born in Cuckfield, England in 1965.

Fabrizio Moretti, drummer for The Strokes, was born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in 1980.