It’s July 1st and these are some of the things that happened on this day in pop music history:
- In 2013, Avril Lavigne married Nickelback frontman Chad Kroeger at the Château de La Napoule in France. It was her second marriage and his first – but the Canadian couple announced their separation a little more than two years later.
- In 1945, Angela Trimble was born in Miami. She was adopted as an infant and renamed Deborah Ann Harry. After working as a backing vocalist for a folk rock group, she formed Blondie and went on to have success with hits like “Heart Of Glass,” “Call Me” and “The Tide Is High.”
- In 2009, Michael Jackson, who died a week earlier, became the first act to sell more than 1 million song downloads in a week.
- In 2007, Duran Duran, Elton John, Fergie, Pharrell and Canada’s Nelly Furtado performed at London’s Wembley Stadium to mark the birthday of Princess Diana, who died in 1997.
- In 1999, Jennifer Lopez released her debut album, On The 6. It included hit singles like “Waiting for Tonight” and “If You Had My Love.”
- In 2005, R&B-soul singer Luther Vandross died of a heart attack in a New Jersey hospital at the age of 54. He had suffered a stroke two years earlier that left him wheelchair-bound.
- In 1971, Melissa Arnette Elliott was born in Virginia. She formed an all-female R&B group in the 1989 and then, as Missy Elliott, launched a rap career with her 1997 album Supa Dupa Fly.
- In 2006, American Idol winner Taylor Hicks went to No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 with his debut single, “Do I Make You Proud?”
- In 1951, Frederick William Schneider III was born in New Jersey. In the late ‘70s he debuted with a band called The B-52s, which went on to have hits like “Rock Lobster,” “Roam” and “Love Shack.”
And that’s what popped on this day.