This Day in Music History — September 4

1952 : Gladys Knight & The Pips form at a birthday party for her brother Bubba.

1965 : While The Who shop for a guard dog, their van and $10,000 worth of equipment is stolen.

1982 : Frank Zappa’s single “Valley Girl” reaches #32 on the US Billboard Hot 100. This marks the sole time Zappa charted in the Top-40 in the United States, despite being an international hit abroad and producing a career total of 62 albums in his lifetime.

2002 : Kelly Clarkson beats Justin Guarini to become the first winner of American Idol.

2007 : The Bob Dylan “biographical” movie, I’m Not There: Suppositions On A Film Concern Dylan, premieres at the Venice (Italy) Film Festival.

This Day in Music History — August 28

1960 : A 17-year-old Barry White completes his four-month prison term for stealing 300 tires from a Cadillac dealership. Having heard Elvis sing “It’s Now Or Never” in prison, he leaves determined to make music his life.

1963 : Martin Luther King delivers his famous “I Have A Dream” speech at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC. The music connection: Peter, Paul and Mary play their hit version of Bob Dylan’s Blowin’ In The Wind before King speaks.

1986 : Tina Turner receives a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

1986 : The anti-corporate-pollution benefit concert Get Tough On Toxics is held in Long Beach, CA, featuring members of Eagles, Fleetwood Mac, and Neil Young.

2009 : DJ AM (real name Adam Goldstein) is found dead in his New York city apartment. This came nearly a year after AM and friend Travis Barker survived a fatal plane crash that claimed the lives of 4 others.