Music Almanac: December 4

Jay-Z

Birthdays

• 1915 - Eddie Heywood (d. 1989)
• 1934 - Wink Martindale (78)
• 1936 - Larry Davis (d. 1994)
• 1939 - Freddy Cannon (73)
• 1942 - Bob Mosley (Moby Grape) (70)
• 1944 - Anna McGarrigle (68)
• 1944 - Chris Hillman (Byrds) (68)
• 1944 - Dennis Wilson (Beach Boys) (d. 1983)
• 1947 - Terry Woods (Pogues, Steeleye Span) (65)
• 1948 - Southside Johnny (born John Lyon) (64)
• 1951 - Gary Rossington (Lynyrd Skynyrd) (61)
• 1955 - Brian Prout (Diamond Rio) (57)
• 1956 - Herbert Grönemeyer (56)
• 1959 - Bob Griffin (BoDeans) (53)
• 1962 - Vinnie Dombroski (Sponge) (50)
• 1969 - Jay-Z (born Shawn Carter) (43)
• 1972 - Justin Welch (Elastica) (40)
• 1973 - Kate Rusby (39)
• 1981 - Lila McCann (31)

Deaths

• 1964 - Rabon Delmore (Delmore Brothers) - Lung cancer (36)
• 1976 - Tommy Bolin (Zephyr, James Gang, Deep Purple) (25)
• 1993 - Frank Zappa - Prostate cancer (52)
• 2007 - Pimp C (born Chad Butler) - Overdose (33)

On This Day

• 1956 - Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash and Carl Perkins came together at Sun Studios in what has become known as the Million Dollar Quartet session.
• 1975 - Patsy Collins, a bodyguard for Deep Purple, is killed when he fell six floors down an elevator shaft in Jakarta, India.
• 1976 - Workers at EMI's U.K. facility went on strike, refusing to print the Sex Pistols' Anarchy in the U.K.
• 1980 - Led Zeppelin announced to the world that they were breaking up with the press release "We wish it to be known that the loss of our dear friend, and the deep sense of undivided harmony felt by ourselves and our manager, have led us to decide that we could not continue as we were.”
• 1980 - Prince opened his Dirty Mind tour of North America in Buffalo, NY.
• 1988 - Roy Orbison played his final show in Cleveland, OH.
• 1989 - The Supreme Court released a decision saying that Prince did not steal the song U Got the Look from his half-sister Lorna Nelson.
• 1991 - Paula Abdul received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
• 1994 - Among the honorees at the Kennedy Center Honors awards are Aretha Franklin and Pete Seeger.
• 1995 - The third annual Country Music Cares concert was held in Nashville for World AIDS Day. Performers included Mary Chapin Carpenter, Pam Tillis, David Ball, Bryan White and John Berry.
• 2000 - A Bob Marley tribute was held in Jamaica with Lauren Hill, Jimmy Cliff, the Black Crowes and others.
• 2002 - Whitney Houston went on American television and admitted that she had addictions to drugs, alcohol and sex that almost killed her. She blamed her wild lifestyle on missing part of her youth because of an early start to her career.

Divorces

• 1987 - Madonna and Sean Penn (Madonna filed and rescinded it a week later)

Recorded

• 1944 - Eddy Arnold has his first recording session.

Released

• 1961 - Duke of Earl - Gene Chandler
• 1961 - Baby It's You - Shirelles
• 1964 - Beatles for Sale - Beatles (U.K. album, 8 tracks were included on U.S. release Beatles '65)

Broadcasts

• 2004 - Saturday Night Live - Ashlee Simpson (the infamous lip-synching incident)