2 DECEMBER
In Music History
2023 At Madison Square Garden, Kiss play their last show - in physical form, at least. At the end of their set, they play a video introducing their avatars. "The band deserves to live on because the band is bigger than we are," Paul Stanley says.
2014 Bobby Keys, whose saxophone can be heard on Rolling Stones tracks "Can't You Hear Me Knocking?" and "Tumbling Dice," dies at age 70.
2013 Reggae star Junior Murvin dies at age 67.
2011 Police in Arkansas find the country singer Mindy McCready hiding in a closet two days after she kidnapped her 5-year-old son from her mother, who was living with the child in Florida. McCready, who did not have custody of her son, was seven months pregnant with twins at the time.
2011 Soul singer Howard Tate, original performer of the Janis Joplin hit "Get It While You Can," dies at age 72 from complications of multiple myeloma and leukemia.
2009 Scottish singer-songwriter Eric Woolfson (of The Alan Parsons Project) dies of kidney cancer at age 64.
2008 Odetta Holmes, known by the mononym Odetta, dies of heart disease at age 77. The blues singer was often called "The Voice of the Civil Rights Movement."
2006 Glam rocker Dave Mount (drummer for Mud) dies at age 59.
2003 Robin Antin, the choreographer who founded The Pussycat Dolls as a dance troupe in 1995, holds auditions for a new lineup that can be part of their push into music. "We're looking for really, really hot girls - insanely beautiful girls with beautiful voices," she says. Antin ends up choosing Nicole Scherzinger as the main Doll who does just about all the singing. When their debut album is released in 2005, they become a global sensation.
2002 Richard Dangle, lead guitarist of the Fabulous Wailers, dies.
1998 Rapper Juice WRLD, known for his hit "Lucid Dreams (Forget Me)," is born in Chicago.
1991 Morten Harket accepts a BMI Award in London on behalf of his band a-ha for achieving one million radio plays of their hit "Take On Me" in America.
1991 The US Supreme Court rules that The Shirelles, Gene Pitney and B.J. Thomas are owed $1.2 million in unpaid royalties.
1991 Charlie Puth is born in Rumson, New Jersey. After building a following on YouTube and graduating from the Berklee College of Music, he releases two huge hits in 2015: "Marvin Gaye" and "See You Again."
1986 Jerry Lee Lewis checks into the Betty Ford Clinic for addiction to painkillers.
"Thriller" Video Debuts On MTV
1983Michael Jackson's 14-minute "Thriller" video debuts on MTV. Directed by John Landis, the short film shows Michael Jackson turning into a werewolf and leading a dance routine with various undead creatures.
Read more2 DECEMBER
Featured Events
1999 Jay-Z stabs the record executive Lance "Un" Rivera at a party at Manhattan's Kit Kat Klub, believing Rivera bootlegged his album Vol. 3... Life and Times of S. Carter. The rapper pleads guilty to misdemeanor assault and is sentenced to three years probation.
1995 "One Sweet Day," Mariah Carey's duet with Boyz II Men, hits #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and holds the top spot for a record 16 weeks.
1981 Britney Spears is born in McComb, Mississippi, raised in Louisiana. At 11 she joins the cast of The Mickey Mouse Club; at 16 she releases her first single, the #1 hit "...Baby One More Time."
1972 The Temptations "Papa Was A Rolling Stone" hits #1 in the US. Running 6:58, it's one of the longest chart-topping singles.
1957 Al Priddy, a disc jockey at the Portland, Oregon, radio station KEX, is fired for playing the Elvis Presley version of "White Christmas," which the station has banned, their program manager saying it "desecrates the Spirit of Christmas and transgresses the composer's intent." The story makes national news, but it turns out to be a brilliant publicity stunt - Priddy is back on the air two weeks later, with the station claiming letters were pouring in to support the DJ. As part of the stunt, Priddy recorded the GM calling in to "fire" him for playing the song and played the conversation on his show before he left.
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