Music History for August 8

Today's:

1857 - Composer Cecile Chaminade was born.

1923 - Benny Goodman, at the age of 14, took a job as a clarinet player on a Chicago-based excursion boat on Lake Michigan.

1960 - 25,000 copies of "Tell Laura I Love Her" were destroyed by Decca Records. It was said that the song was "too tasteless and vulgar for English sensibility."

1970 - Janis Joplin bought a headstone for the grave of blues singer Bessie Smith. Smith was one of Joplin's idols.

1975 - Hank Williams, Jr. fell 500 feet down a mountain in Montana. After, two years of surgeries he returned to music.

1983 - The Metallica single "Whiplash" was released. It was their first single.

1986 - David Crosby (Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young) was released from prison after serving a sentence for drug and weapons possession.

1989 - Danny Elfman's musical score Batman: Motion Picture Score was released.

1992 - James Hetfield (Metallica) was injured by a stage explosion at a concert in Montreal. A riot occurred at the same show when Axl Rose cut Guns 'N' Roses' set short because of a sore throat.

2000 - Attorney generals in 28 states filed a lawsuit that alleged that record companies forced discount stores to raise CD prices in 1995.

2006 - Travis Barker (Blink-182) filed for a divorce from ex-beauty queen Shanna Moakler.