... and more December 2 birthdays –
Moses Asch (1905) – founder of Folkways Records.
Peter Goldmark (1906) – developer of the 33 1/3 LP vinyl record.
Adolph Green (1914) – Broadway lyricist (“New York, New York”).
Eddie Sauter (1914) – Jazz arranger for Woody Herman and Benny
Goodman.
Charlie Ventura (1916) – saxophonist, bandleader.
Sylvia Syms (1917) – Jazz singer ("I Could Have Danced All Night").
Martin DeLugg (1918) – composer/arranger (“The Happy Wanderer”).
Ted Bluechel (1942) – drummer for The Association.
John Wesley Ryles (1950) – Country singer (“Kay”).
Razzle (aka Nicholas Dingley, 1960) – drummer for Hanoi Rocks.
Rick Savage (1960) – bassist for Def Leppard.
Nate Mendel (1968) – bassist for Foo Fighters.
Nelly Furtado (1978) – Canadian singer/songwriter.
Britney Spears (1981)
December 2 R.I.P. –
David Blue (1982) – heart attack. Age 41. Folk singer/songwriter
(“Outlaw Man”).
Desi Arnaz (1986) – lung cancer. Age 69. Cuban bandleader/actor.
Lee Dorsey (1986) – emphysema. Age 61. R&B singer (“Ya Ya”).
Aaron Copeland (1990) – Alzheimer's disease. Age 90. Composer
("Fanfare For The Common Man").
Michael Hedges (1997) – car crash. Age 43. Acoustic guitarist.
Bobby Haggart (1998) – Age 84. Jazz bassist.
Charlie Byrd (1999) – lung cancer. Age 74. Jazz guitarist.
Valerie Jones (2001) – Age 45. The Jones Girls.
Mariska Veres (2006) – cancer. Age 59. Vocalist for Shocking Blue
(“Venus”).
Dave Mount (2006) – suicide. Age 59. Drummer for Mud.
Odetta (2008) – heart disease. Age 77. Singer/songwriter, civil rights
activist.
Eric Woolfson (2009) – kidney cancer. Age 64. The Alan Parsons
Project.
Aaron Schroeder (2009) – progressive aphasia. Age 83. Songwriter
(“Good Luck Charm”).
Howard Tate (2011) – myeloma, leukemia. Age 72. Soul singer/songwriter
(“Get It While You Can”).
December 2 album releases –
Frank Zappa and The Mothers Of Invention – Cruising With Rueben & The
Jets (1968)
George Harrison – Wonderwall Music (1968) U.S.
Stephen Stills – Still Stills: The Best Of Stephen Stills (1976)
Dolly Parton – 9 To 5 And Odd Jobs (1980)
Bon Jovi – Hard & Hot (1991) Australia
Suzy Quatro – Live & Kickin’ (1991)
December 2 events –
1947 – Perry Como, along with Russ Case and His Orchestra, records
“Because” at RCA Studios in New York City.
1947 – Pee Wee King records “Tennessee Waltz” and seven others songs
at RCA Studios in Chicago.
1957 – Sam Cooke appears on American Bandstand.
1957 – Harvey and The Moonglows record “The Ten Commandments Of Love”
for Chess Records.
1959 – Bobby Darin is the subject on This Is Your Life.
1960 – Elvis Presley invites Priscilla Beaulieu to come to Graceland
for a visit, and asks his dad, Vernon, to help convince her father. It
works.
1962 – Andy Williams records “Can’t Get Used To Losing You.”
1963 – The Beatles film their appearance on The Morecambe And Wise
Show at ATV's Elstree Studio Centre in Borehamwood. The group performs
“This Boy,” “All My Loving” and “I Want To Hold Your Hand,” before
singing a rendition of “Moonlight Bay” with the show’s hosts. Later in
the evening, The Beatles perform at the Grosvenor House hotel before a
black-tie-and-tails audience in a benefit for cerebral palsy
sufferers.
1964 – Aretha Franklin, Bobby Vinton, Freddy Cannon, The Chambers
Brothers and Bobby Sherman all appear on Shindig!
1966 – Love, Moby Grape and Lee Michaels play the first of three shows
at the Fillmore Auditorium in San Francisco.
1969 – George Harrison joins Delaney and Bonnie’s UK tour in Bristol
as a side guitarist, and will stay for the remaining six dates,
playing two shows at each stop.
1969 – Cindy Birdsong of The Supremes is kidnapped by the caretaker of
her Hollywood apartment, Charles Collier, who, while holding a knife
to her throat, forces her to tie up her two visiting male friends,
then forces her into her car and drives toward Long Beach. While on
the road, Birdsong jumps from the car and escapes. Collier will turn
himself in and be arrested in Las Vegas four days later.
1969 – The Rolling Stones begin recording “Brown Sugar” at Muscle
Shoals in Alabama. At Mick Taylor’s insistence, the group debuts the
song live four days later at the Altamont Speedway.
1970 – Eric Burdon launches his “Curb the Clap” campaign to fight what
he calls “the number one sickness in the record business today - VD.”
For every donation made to L.A.’s Free Clinic, Burdon sends out a Curb
the Clap bumpersticker.
1971 – Led Zeppelin releases their single, “Black Dog” b/w “Misty
Mountain Hop.”
1972 – Carly Simon’s single “You’re So Vain” enters the Billboard Hot
100 at #99.
1972 – The Eagles play the last date of their first concert tour at
Royce Hall on the campus of UCLA.
1973 – The Who and their entourage are jailed overnight in Montreal
after causing $6,000 worth of damages to their hotel after their show
at the Forum.
1973 – Bob Dylan begins taking ticket requests by mail. Over 658,000
tickets are sold.
1974 – While on tour with George Harrison, Ravi Shankar is
hospitalized in Chicago after suffering chest pains. He will rejoin
the tour in Boston in a week.
1976 – The first day of Pink Floyd’s Animals album cover photo shoot
takes place at Battersea Power Station in London with a giant
inflatable pig lashed between two of the structures’ tall towers. A
trained marksman is hired ready to fire if the inflatable escapes, but
is not needed.
1979 – Kris Kristofferson’s divorce from Rita Coolidge becomes final.
1983 – MTV airs the full 14-minute version of Michael Jackson's
Thriller video for the first time.
1984 – The Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton holiday special, A Christmas
To Remember, airs on CBS-TV.
1985 – Roger Daltrey begins his first North American solo tour at the
Capitol Theater in Passaic, New Jersey.
1986 – Jerry Lee Lewis checks into the Betty Ford Clinic to battle his
addiction to painkiller medications.
1986 – Eurythmics’ Annie Lennox tears off her bra on stage in front of
10,000 fans while performing “Missionary Man” at a show in Birmingham,
England.
1988 – The Stone Roses appear at the London School of Economics with
opening act The Charlatans.
1991 – The U.S. Supreme Court rules that The Shirelles, Gene Pitney
and B.J. Thomas are owed $1.2 million in unpaid royalties and
penalties by Nashville’s Gusto Records.
1997 – At a Rolling Stones concert at the Pontiac Silverdome in
Detroit, a man falls to his death from the second level mezzanine
after dancing on a handrail.
1998 – First Lady Hillary Clinton and country music singer Garth
Brooks turn on the lights on the Christmas tree at Manhattan's
Rockefeller Center.
1999 – Stevie Wonder announces that he is pursuing an intraocular
retinal prosthesis to partially restore his sight.
1999 – David Bowie plays his first UK show in over two years at the
Astoria Theatre in London in front of 2,000 fans.
2000 – Thieves break into Madonna and Guy Ritchie’s London home
through a basement door, then load up Ritchie's car with some of the
couple's possessions and drive off, all while the couple sleeps
upstairs.
2000 – Smashing Pumpkins play their final concert at the Metro Club in
Chicago.
2002 – At the Bayerischer Hotel in Munich, Germany, Oasis’ Liam
Gallagher is arrested and charged with assault after he Kung-Fu kicks
a police officer in the chest during a brawl. Gallagher loses his two
front teeth in the fight.
2003 – Darkness singer Justin Hawkins is held for two hours at JFK
Airport in New York after police mistake him for a wanted man with the
same name and looks. The police agree to let him go after Justin's
fiance and manager Sue Whitehouse produces a tour schedule to prove
that he was in England on July 4th when the crime was committed.
2003 – Ray Charles is recovering after undergoing hip replacement
surgery.
2003 – Simon and Garfunkel play their first New York concert in ten
years at Madison Square Garden on their Old Friends Tour.
2003 – Alice Cooper receives a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
2004 – Country music singer Lynn Anderson is arrested for drunk
driving after being found passed out in her car in Denton, Texas.
2007 – Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne sell of some of their possessions for
charity, bringing in more than $800,000.
2010 – Aretha Franklin undergoes “mystery surgery” at a hospital in
Detroit.
