Today In Music History

In 1998, an appeals court in San Francisco ruled The Kingsmen were owed hundreds of thousands of dollars in royalties from their 1963 recording of "Louie Louie." The band's contract gave them nine per cent of the profits or licensing fees, but never received a cent from two companies who held the recording rights.

In 1956, singer Nat "King" Cole was beaten up on stage by six anti-black vigilantes in Birmingham, Alabama. The white audience did not interfere.

In 1962, Stuart Sutcliffe, the Beatles' original bass guitarist, died at 21 following a brain hemorrhage in Hamburg, West Germany. Sutcliffe was invited in 1959 by fellow art student John Lennon to join his group, The Quarrymen, even though Sutcliffe couldn't play. He left the group in 1961.

In 1970, Doors lead singer Jim Morrison offered to display his genitals to a Boston audience. The group's keyboardist, Ray Manzarek, physically removed Morrison from the stage. Morrison had been arrested in Miami a year earlier for "lewd and lascivious behaviour" during a performance...