Today in Music History for Aug. 24:
In 1841, cellist Henri Billet, who may well have been the first Russian musician to visit Canada, appeared at the Theatre royal in Quebec City.
In 1860, 250 singers from "The Montreal Musical Union," an orchestra and soloists performed the "Cantata in Honour of the Prince of Wales" on occasion of the prince's visit to Montreal. The work was written by Montreal resident Charles Wugk Sabatier.
In 1956, people waited outside for hours before the opening of London's first rock club, Studio 51.
In 1960, Stevie Wonder was the first musician to reach No. 1 on the pop and R&B charts with 鈥淔ingertips, Part 2鈥� and No. 1 on the album chart with "The 12-Year-Old Genius."
In 1965, "The Rolling Stones" met their future manager, Allen Klein, for the first time at a hotel in London. Less than two years later, he was running "The Stones'" business affairs. In 1969, Klein was hired by "The Beatles" to try to sort the financial mess at their Apple Corps Ltd.
In 1967, "The Beatles" saw the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi lecture for the first time at the Park Lane Hilton Hotel in London. At a private meeting following the lecture, the Maharishi accepted "The Beatles" as his disciples and invited them to a spiritual regeneration which he would conduct two days later in North Wales. "The Beatles," along with "Rolling Stone" Mick Jagger and his girlfriend Marianne Faithfull, attended.
In 1968, three members of "Country Joe and the Fish" were assaulted in a hotel elevator in Chicago by Vietnam veterans, who asked the group, "Don't you like America?" The band was in Chicago to perform for protesters outside the Democratic National Convention.
In 1968, drummer Keith Moon of "The Who" drove a Lincoln into the swimming pool of a hotel in Flint, Mich.
In 1970, the Saskatchewan Centre of the Arts officially opened in Regina. The centre is the home of the Regina Symphony Orchestra.
In 1976, Arista Records announced the signing of British folk-rock singer Al Stewart. He had just had a hit on Columbia with "The Year of the Cat," and the label switch prompted a complicated lawsuit.
In 1978, trumpeter-singer-bandleader Louis Prima died in New Orleans at age 66. He'd been in a coma since brain surgery in 1975. Prima's novelty hits in the 1940s included "Bell-Bottom Trousers" and "Oh, Babe." Prima provided the voice of an orangutan in Disney's 1969 animated feature "The Jungle Book."
In 1979, the new wave group "The Cars" played for 500,000 people in New York's Central Park.
In 1980, Stevie Wonder played a $100-ticket fundraiser at the Roxy Theatre in Los Angeles to raise money for the family of Eula Love, who was killed by police in a dispute over her gas bill.
In 1981, Mark David Chapman was sentenced in New York to 20 years to life in prison for shooting music icon John Lennon to death the previous Dec. 8. Lennon had given Chapman his autograph only hours before the 25-year-old drifter shot him outside Lennon's apartment building on New York's Upper West Side. Lennon's wife, Yoko Ono, was with him when he was killed.
In 1983, Jerry Lee Lewis's wife, Shawn Michelle Stephens, was found dead at their home in Hernando, Miss. An autopsy revealed she died of a methadone overdose.
In 1986, Italy's "La Scala" opera company made its first North American appearance in more than a decade with a performance of Verdi's "I Lombardi" at the Pacific Coliseum in Vancouver. The opera, set in the time of the Crusades, needed the extra space of the Coliseum for its huge sets and action scenes.
In 1988, country singer-songwriter Nat Stuckey, who first hit the country top-10 in 1966 with "Sweet Thang," died in Nashville of lung cancer. He was 54.
In 1989, 6,000 people paid from $75 to $1,500 each to see "The Who" and an all-star cast in "Tommy" at the Universal Amphitheatre in Los Angeles. It was one of two performances of the rock opera during "The Who's" reunion tour.
In 1990, Sinead O'Connor stirred up controversy by demanding that "The Star Spangled Banner" not be played before her show at the Garden State Arts Centre in Holmdel, N.J. The centre banned any further appearances by O'Connor, and several radio stations in New York and New Jersey stopped playing her records.
In 1990, heavy metal group "Judas Priest" was cleared in a $6.2 million civil lawsuit, which claimed that subliminal suggestions on their songs led two youths to shoot themselves in 1985.
In 1992, the Vancouver Parks Board cancelled a free concert by Bryan Adams, set for Labour Day, in Stanley Park. The board rejected demands by Adams's manager, Bruce Allen, that a previously-agreed-upon 42,000-person attendance limit be lifted, citing fears of damage to the park. Allen said the move was necessary to overcome potential ticket-scalping and security problems.
In 1995, singer-actor-author Gary Crosby, son of Bing, died in Burbank, Calif., of lung cancer. He was 62. Two duets with his father, "Sam's Song" and "Play a Simple Melody," made a double-sided No. 3 hit in 1950.
In 1998, Grand Ole Opry comedian Jerry Clower died in Nashville following heart bypass surgery. He was 71.
In 1999, renowned classical guitarist Alexandre Lagoya died at age 70.
In 2005, American singer Justin Timberlake accepted an apology and undisclosed damages from the British tabloid newspaper "News of the World" that falsely accused him in a July 2004 article of cheating on girlfriend Cameron Diaz with British model Lucy Clarkson. Clarkson agreed to pay "a sum equal to that which she agreed to receive from the "News of the World" for her story.
In 2008, a float plane piloted by "Barenaked Ladies" frontman Ed Robertson crashed into the woods north of Bancroft, Ont., near Baptiste Lake. Robertson, his wife and two friends survived uninjured.
In 2011, music industry executive Frank Dileo, who managed Michael Jackson's career in the 1980s and returned as his manager in the superstar's final days, died at age 64.
In 2011, Esther Gordy Edwards, who helped build Motown Records alongside her brother Berry Gordy Jr. and led efforts to turn its original Detroit headquarters into a museum, died at age 91.
In 2013, Julie Harris, one of Broadway's most honoured performers, whose roles ranged from the flamboyant Sally Bowles in "I Am a Camera" to the reclusive Emily Dickinson in "The Belle of Amherst," died of congestive heart failure at age 87. She won five Tony awards for best actress in a play and honoured again in 2002 with a sixth Tony, a special lifetime achievement award.
In 2020, singer-songwriter Justin Townes Earle, son of country rocker Steve Earle, died at 38. New West Records confirmed his death, but did not immediately give details.
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The Canadian Press
