This Day in Music

Billboard Staff
Updated ·2 min read

2004 – Roy “Pop” Lewis, patriarch of bluegrass gospel group the Lewis Family, dies at Wills Memorial Hospital in Washington, Ga. He is 98. Lewis and wife Pauline Holloway formed the Lewis Family in 1925. It went on to become one of gospel’s most successful performing families.

2004 – An album Paul Simon recorded in 1965 that has never saw the light of day in America gets its first official release there. “The Paul Simon Songbook,” previously only available as an import and long out-of-print even in that form, is released via Columbia/Legacy. The original 12-track album was recorded in the wake of the lukewarm response afforded Simon & Garfunkel’s 1964 debut, “Wednesday Morning 3 A.M.”

2003 – U2 makes their Oscar debut performing at the 75th Anniversary Academy Awards. The Irish quartet plays “The Hands That Built America” from “Gangs of New York.”

2002 – ZZ Top bassist Dusty Hill and his girlfriend for the past decade, actress Charleen “Chuck” McCrory, finally tie the knot. The pair exchanges vows at Tony’s Ballroom in Houston before 200 guests.

2001 – Alejandro Sanz wins all three awards for which he is nominated at the fifth Premios de la Musica ceremony in Madrid, but the sentimental vote goes to Carlos Cano, who also wins three awards just months after dying of heart failure at the age of 54.

1999 – Pope John Paul II’s “Abba Pater” compact disc is released. It rings up brisk sales in Italy, selling 50,000 copies on the first day of release. The CD features 11 tracks in which the pontiff chants and prays in Latin with a rich musical accompaniment.

1999 – Michael Jackson announces that he will donate the proceeds from two upcoming concerts to the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund and the Red Cross. The singer makes the announcement with Mandela in Cape Town, South Africa.

1985 – Billy Joel marries model Christie Brinkley. The couple splits nine years later.

1983 – No. 1 Billboard hit: “Billie Jean,” Michael Jackson. The song is the first No. 1 single from “Thriller,” the best-selling album of all time.

1981 – No. 1 Billboard hit: “Rapture,” Blondie. The song is the first rap song to reach No. 1.

1977 – No. 1 Billboard hit: “Rich Girl,” Daryl Hall & John Oates. Hall and Oates met in 1969 in a service elevator while trying to escape a fight between rival gangs at a record hop in Philadelphia’s Adelphi Ballroom.

1968 – Damon Albarn, singer for the group Blur, is born in London.

1953 – Chaka Khan (Yvette Marie Stevens) is born in Great Lakes, Ill. Her song “I Feel for You” reaches No. 3 in 1984.

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