This Week in Music History

January 9th, 1997 – It’s the day after David Bowie’s 50th birthday and he’s throwing a ‘Birthday Bash’ at the Madison Square Garden with special guests Sonic Youth, Robert Smith of The Cure,The Foo Fighters, Lou Reed and Billy Corgan. Bowie is also performing and the proceeds would go to the Save The Children fund.

January 10th, 1984 - Cyndi Lauper becomes the first female artist in 17 years to be nominated for five Grammy Awards: Album of the Year, Best New Artist, Best Female Pop Vocal Performance, Record of the Year, and Song of the Year.

January 11th, 2000 – Whitney Houston is now under investigation after allegedly trying to smuggle 15.2 grams of Marijuana out of Hawaii. A security officer found the drug in the singer’s handbag, Houston then walked away when he tried to detain her.

January 12th, 2003 – Singer-songwriter Maurice Gibb of Bee Gees fame died at the age of 53 in a Miami Hospital after a heart attack during abdominal surgery. Over the course of The Bee Gees career, they had released over 20 albums, and had the 1979 world-wide No.1 album ‘Spirits Having Flown.’ Maurice Gibb was married to the Scottish singer Lulu from 1969 to 1973. In 2002, Maurice was made a Commander of the British Empire, along with his brothers.

January 13th, 1970 – Steel Mill, featuring Bruce Springsteen, played at The Matrix in San Francisco, California. Boz Scaggs was originally scheduled as headliner, but had to cancel at that last minute due to illness. A rock critic who had shown up to review Scaggs instead wrote a great review of Steel Mill for a local San Francisco paper.

January 14th, 1984 – Paul McCartney was at No.1 on the UK singles chart with ‘Pipes Of Peace.’ With this release McCartney made chart history by becoming the first artist to have a No.1 in a group, (The Beatles), in a duo, (with Stevie Wonder), in a trio, (with Wings) and as a solo artist.

January 15th, 1967 – The Rolling Stones perform “Let’s Spend the Night Together” on The Ed Sullivan Show. However, censors were able to convince Mick Jagger he should sing the less salacious line “Let’s spend some time together.”