It’s February 18th and these are some of the things that happened on this day in pop music history:
- In 1990, Freddie Mercury made his final public appearance with Queen when they received a Brit Award for Outstanding Contribution to British Music at the Dominion Theatre in London. Mercury died on Nov. 24, 1991 at 45.
- In 1974, Beatles drummer Ringo Starr released "Oh My My,” the third single from his album Ringo. Featuring backing vocals by Merry Clayton and Martha Reeves, it was a Top 5 hit in Canada.
- In 2005, Britney Spears slammed US Weekly for publishing five pages of photographs of her honeymoon in Fiji with Kevin Federline. She said employees of the resort sold the images. US Weekly responded with a statement that read: “Coming from a celebrity who sold pictures of both her wedding and her stepdaughter, it's unlikely the issue here is privacy. Could it be that Britney is seeing red after not seeing the green from these photos? Britney Spears should start a magazine if she'd like to dictate her own coverage.”
- In 1947, Dennis DeYoung was born in Chicago. In his early teens, he started a band with neighbours Chuck and John Panozzo. After adding James Young and John Curulewski to the line-up, the band became Styx, with hits like “Mr. Roboto” and “Come Sail Away.”
- In 2012, funeral services are held at the New Hope Baptist Church in Newark, New Jersey for Whitney Houston, who died Feb. 11, 2012 at age 48. Among those who performed at the memorial were Stevie Wonder, Alicia Keys and R. Kelly.
- In 1953, Robin Peter Kendall Bachman was born in Winnipeg. As Robbie Bachman, he was the drummer for Bachman-Turner Overdrive (with brother Randy Bachman), who had hits like “Takin’ Care of Business” and “You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet.”
And that’s what popped on this day.