This Week in Music History

January 30th, 1969 - The Beatles, joined by Billy Preston, play the rooftop gig on top of the Apple building on Savile Row, London. Lasting for just over 40 minutes it was the last time The Beatles performed live. The played ‘Get Back’, ‘Don’t Let Me Down’, ‘I’ve Got A Feeling’, ‘The One After 909’ and ‘Dig A Pony’. Traffic was brought to a standstill as crowds of people gathered below and watched from windows in nearby buildings.

January 31st, 1976 – Abba kicks Queen from the top of the charts with ‘Mamma Mia.’ Queen’s single ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ had enjoyed a nine week run and by coincidence, Queen’s single contains the famous “mamma mia, mamma mia, mamma mia let me go” line.

February 1st, 2004 – The term ‘wardrobe malfunction’ is born when Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake performed at the Super Bowl. TV network CBS apologized for its broadcast where Janet’s breast was exposed during their performance. CBS quickly cut away from the scene but still received waves of angry phone calls from viewers complaining about the indecency. Timberlake insisted it had been an accident later saying “I am sorry that anyone was offended by the wardrobe malfunction during the half-time performance of the Super Bowl.”

February 2nd, 1989 – George Michael received undisclosed damages in excess of $170,000 from several newspaper articles which libeled Michael, stating that he had crashed a party of Andrew Lloyd Weber’s and was drunk and abusive.

February 3rd, 1959 – It's the "day the music died" when Buddy Holly, The Big Bopper and Ritchie Valens died in a crash shortly after take-off from Clear Lake, Iowa. The single engine plane was used becuase of problems with their tour bus’s heating system. All three were traveling to Fargo, North Dakota, for the next gig on their Winter Dance Party Tour.

February 4th, 1983 – Karen Carpenter dies at the age 32 of cardiac arrest at her parent’s house in Downey, California. The official report listed the cause of death as imbalances associated with anorexia.

February 5th, 1967 – The News Of The World reported that Mick Jagger had taken LSD at the Moody Blues’ home in the UK. Jagger sued the paper for libel in an on-going feud between the News Of The World and The Stones.