January 2 Born –
Julius La Rosa (1930) – American singer.
Roger Miller (1936)
Chick Churchill (aka Michael George Churchill, 1946) – keyboardist for
Ten Years After.
Kerry Minnear (1948) – multi-instrumentalist for Gentle Giant.
Glen Goins (1954) – singer/guitarist for Parliament-Funkadelic.
Douglas Robb (1975) – vocalist for Hoobastank.
January 2 R.I.P. –
Red Smiley (1972) – diabetes. Age 46. Bluegrass musician, Reno And
Smiley.
Tex Ritter (1974) – heart attack. Age 68.
Erroll Gardner (1977) – cardiac arrest. Age 53. Jazz pianist/
songwriter (“Misty”).
Wayne Walker (1979) – Age 53. Rockabilly singer/songwriter.
Larry Williams (1980) – suicide. Age 44. Singer/songwriter ("Dizzy
Miss Lizzy").
David Lynch (1981) – cancer. Age 51. The Platters.
Randy California (1997) – drowned. Age 45. Guitarist for Spirit.
Nik Venet (1998) – Burkitt’s lymphoma. Age 61. Record producer.
Nat Adderly (2000) – diabetes. Age 68. Jazz cornetist and trumpeter.
Ed Farran (2003) – kidney failure. Age 64. The Arbors.
Larry "Rhino" Reinhardt (2012) – sclerosis of the liver. Age 63.
Guitarist for Iron Butterfly and Captain Beyond.
January 2 album releases –
Elvis Presley – Elvis’ Gold Records Volume 4 (1968)
Merle Haggard – Sing Me Back Home (1968)
Elvis Presley – Elvis Country (I’m 10,000 Years Old) (1971)
January 2 events –
1921 – Pittsburgh radio station KDKA airs the first ever religious
service, broadcast from Calvary Episcopal Church with Dr. E.J. Van
Etten preaching.
1926 – The British music weekly, Melody Maker, publishes their first
issue.
1936 – Bing Crosby becomes the sole host of NBC radio’s Kraft Music
Hall.
1941 – The Andrews Sisters record "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy" at Decca
Studios in Hollywood.
1955 – The funeral for Johnny Ace is held at Memphis' Clayborn Temple.
1962 – An appearance by The Weavers on The Jack Paar Show is cancelled
by NBC when they refuse to sign a statement denying their involvement
with the Communist Party.
1966 – The Four Seasons appear on The Ed Sullivan Show, performing
“Let’s Hang On.” Also on the show are The King Family and Leslie
Uggams.
1969 – The Beatles begin the month-long sessions that will ultimately
produce the Let It Be album and film.
1969 – 30,000 copies of John and Yoko's Two Virgins album are
confiscated in New Jersey as pornography.
1969 – Led Zeppelin plays the first of four nights at the Whisky A Go-
Go in Los Angeles with opening act Alice Cooper.
1969 – Edwin Starr releases his single, “Twenty-Five Miles” b/w “Love
Is My Destination” on the Gordy label.
1970 – Marty Robbins records “My Woman, My Woman, My Wife” at Columbia
Studios in Nashville.
1972 – Elvis Presley buys a $10,000 robe inscribed with "The People's
Champion," and presents it to boxer Muhammad Ali.
1975 – John Lennon and his attorneys are allowed access to his FBI
files for his deportation case.
1976 – Bad Company, Nazareth, Ronnie Lane's Slim Chance, The Pretty
Things and Be Bop Deluxe all appear on the third day of the Great
British Music Festival at London's Olympia.
1978 – Rhino Records releases their first album, Wildmania, by Wildman
Fischer.
1979 – Former Sex Pistols bassist Sid Vicious goes on trial in New
York for the murder of his girlfriend Nancy Spungen.
1981 – The RKO Radio network begins airing Night Time America: a live
five hour daily call-in music show broadcast from New York City and
hosted by DJ Bob Dearborn. The show lasts four years.
1985 – Ron Wood marries his second wife, Jo Karslake.
1999 – Isaac Hayes has his first UK hit in years as South Park's
"Chef" with "Chocolate Salty Balls."
2002 – Backstreet Boy Nick Carter is arrested in a Tampa, Florida
night-club on a misdemeanor count of resisting a law enforcement
officer without violence after being involved in a fight with a woman
and refusing to leave when asked to by police.
2003 – Rapper 50 Cent is arrested in New York when two loaded guns are
found in his vehicle after his SUV is searched when it’s left in a no-
parking zone.
2004 – Singer Daniel Bedingfield suffers two fractured vertebrae in
his neck while on holiday in New Zealand when the jeep he is driving
rolls over and crashes. Emergency workers have to cut the singer free
before he can be taken to the hospital.
2007 – 34-year old Cristin Keleher, who made headlines in December
1999 for breaking into George Harrison's Maui, Hawaii estate and
cooking herself a frozen pizza and doing laundry, is found dead in
California after an apparent murder-suicide when her body is found
with that of a 48-year old man in a car, both with gunshot wounds to
their heads.
2008 – Paul McCartney undergoes coronary angioplasty.
