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Today In Music History

July 26 in Music History: Happy Birthday, Mick Jagger

Mick Jagger performs with the Rolling Stones in Miami, 2019.
Mick Jagger performs with the Rolling Stones in Miami, 2019.Rich Fury/Getty Images

July 26, 2023

History Highlight:

Mick Jagger is 80. Best-known as lead singer and one of the founding members of the Rolling Stones, Jagger's career has spanned over five decades, and he has been described as one of the most popular and influential frontmen in the history of rock & roll. 

Also, Today In: 

1960 - Sam Cooke releases "Chain Gang." 

1968 - The Jackson 5 join Motown Records, signing a one-year contract. They move from their home in Gary, Indiana, to Los Angeles, where they became huge stars, hitting #1 in the US with their first four singles. 

1968 - The Rolling Stones album Beggar's Banquet is scheduled for release, but withdrawn by their label, Decca, over concerns with the album cover, which shows a toilet covered in graffiti. The album is later released with a picture of an invitation on the cover. 

1970 - Jimi Hendrix played in his hometown of Seattle for the last time when he appeared at Sicks Stadium. 

1974 - Graffiti artists were hired to spray paint sites in London to promote the U.K. release of The Rolling Stones' new single "It's Only Rock 'n' Roll". 

1975 - Van McCoy and the Soul City went to No. 1 on the U.S. singles chart with "The Hustle", his only US chart hit. 

1975 - The Eagles land their first #1 album when One Of These Nights hits #1 in the US. Their fourth album, it stays on top for five weeks. 

1977 - Elvis Costello was arrested as he performed outside a CBS Records sales conference at The London Hilton Hotel. 

1977 - Led Zeppelin cut short their 11th North American tour after Robert Plant's five-year-old-son Karac died unexpectedly of a virus at their home in England. 

1986 - Peter Gabriel hits #1 in the US with "Sledgehammer," bumping his old band, Genesis (with "Invisible Touch") out of the top spot. 

1990 - Brent Mydland from The Grateful Dead was found dead on the floor of his home aged 38 from a drug overdose. 

1992 - Mary Wells died at 49-years old of laryngeal cancer. Wells helped define the sound of Motown in the early 1960s along with the Supremes, the Miracles, the Temptations, and the Four Tops. She was known for her singles, "The One Who Really Loves You", "Two Lovers", the Grammy-nominated "You Beat Me to the Punch" and her signature hit, "My Guy". 

1994 - Motown Records releases the Boyz II Men song "I'll Make Love To You" against the group's wishes - they think it sounds too much like their earlier hit "End of the Road." In this case, the record company gets it right: the song becomes the biggest hit of 1994 in America. 

1997 - Puff Daddy and Faith Evans went back to No. 1 on the U.K. singles chart for another three weeks with 'I'll Be Missing You'. 

2000 - The file-sharing service Napster was ordered by a U.S. federal judge to cease trading copyrighted music files within the next 48 hours. 

2000 - Oasis were booed off the stage during a show at the Paleo Festival in Switzerland after Liam Gallagher had insulted the 35,000-strong audience. 

2002 - Beyoncé makes her film debut, playing Mike Myers' love interest, Foxxy Cleopatra, in Austin Powers in Goldmember. Her catch phrase: "I'm a whole lotta woman." Britney Spears also shows up in the film as a fem-bot who gets blown up by Myers. 

2006 - The final edition of Top of the Pops was recorded at BBC Television Centre in London. 

2006 - Paul McCartney's first guitar was sold at an Abbey Road Studios auction for 330,000 pounds, or about half-a-million U.S. dollars. 

2012 - "Searching For Sugar Man", an Academy Award-winning documentary about Detroit Rocker Sixto "Sugar Man" Rodriguez, was released in the UK. 

2013 - Oklahoma guitarist J.J. Cale, who wrote the songs "Crazy Mama', "Call Me The Breeze" and "After Midnight," died at age 74. 

2015 - Bobbi Kristina Brown, daughter of Whitney Houston and Bobby Brown, died at age 22. The cause of death was eventually revealed as "immersion associated with drug intoxication." 

2015 - The first Black Lives Matter conference at Cleveland State University turns into a protest with activists chanting the chorus of Kendrick Lamar's "Alright" in defiance of police harassment. 

2021 - Slipknot drummer Joey Jordison dies at 46. 

Birthdays 

Darlene Love is 82. 

Betty Davis an American funk and soul singer was born on this day in 1944. She passed away in 2022. 

Roger Taylor, drummer from Queen, is 74. 

Gary Cherone of Extreme is 62. 

Singer/keyboardist Duncan Mackay (of 10cc) was born today in 1950. 

Singer Dobie Gray was born today in 1940. 

Highlights for Today in Music History are gathered from This Day in Music, Song Facts and Wikipedia.