2002 – Ray Conniff, the Grammy-winning composer and conductor who pioneered the use of vocal elements in pop arrangements, dies at an Esondido, Calif., hospital after injuring his head in a fall. He is 85. A top-selling big band leader and trombonist, Conniff made more than 100 albums, 25 of them reaching the top 40 in a career that spans six decades.
2002 – More than 25 years after his death, Elvis Presley is once again the King. RCA Records’ “Elv1s 30 No. 1 Hits” boys at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 with 500,325 units sold. This marks the first Elvis album to ever debut at the top of the U.S. chart.
2001 – Limp Bizkit guitarist Wes Borland quits the band. A post on the group’s Web site states, “Limp Bizkit and Wes Borland have amicably decided to part ways. Both Limp Bizkit and Borland will continue to pursue their respective musical careers.”
1999 – Juke joint bluesman Frank Frost, 63, dies at his home in Helena, Ark.
1999 – David Crosby, Stephen Stills, Graham Nash and Neil Young appear at New York’s Madison Square Garden to announce their forthcoming album and CSNY2K tour.
1997 – John Denver, whose 1970s hits including “Rocky Mountain High” and “Take Me Home, Country Roads” gained him millions of fans worldwide, is killed when his experimental plane crashes into Monterey Bay in Northern California. He is 53.
1997 – Spanish fans of the Backstreet Boys force the cancellation of a free open-air gig by the band. By midday, more than 7,000 fans – mostly teenage girls – turn up in a central Madrid square. After city hall doctors treat 300 girls who had fainted in the heat, officials call the event off. A turn out of no more than 5,000 had been expected.
1995 – Rap musician Tupac Shakur is released from prison on $1.4 million bail, just eight months after a judge sentenced him to a jail term of up to 4 years for sexual assault. Shakur, 23, is released pending an appeal of his conviction.
1991 – Nirvana’s album, “Nevermind” goes gold.
1985 – B-52s drummer Ricky Wilson dies of AIDS at age 32.
1978 – Sid Vicious of the Sex Pistols is arrested for the murder of his girlfriend, Nancy Spungen. A 1986 movie of the relationship and murder at New York’s Chelsea hotel, “Sid and Nancy” starred Gary Oldman and Chloe Webb. Vicious dies of a heroin overdose before he can be tried for the murder.
1971 – Early rock’n’roller Gene Vincent of “Be Bop A Lula” fame dies at age 36 from a ruptured stomach ulcer.
1970 – Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s “Jesus Christ Superstar” debuts on Broadway.
1964 – No. 1 Billboard Pop Hit: “Do Wah Diddy Diddy,” Manfred Mann. The song was written by Jeff Barry and Ellie Greenwich, who also wrote “Da Doo Ron Ron.”
1957 – Little Richard publicly renounces rock `n’ roll and embraces Christianity during a tour in Australia. (He returns to music five years later.)
1949 – No. 1 Billboard Pop Hit: “That Lucky Old Sun,” Frankie Laine.
1935 – Sam Moore of Sam & Dave is born in Miami.
1925 – Singer and guitarist Guitar Gabriel (Robert Lewis Jones) is born.
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