Rock and Metal history, December 4
1942: Chris Hillman (of The Flying Burrito Brothers, The Byrds) is born in Los Angeles, California.
1951: Gary Rossington is born in Jacksonville, Florida. He becomes a founding member and guitarist of both Lynyrd Skynyrd and the Rossington-Collins Band. Rossington is inducted into the Rock and Hall of Fame in 2006 as a member of Lynyrd Skynyrd.
1956: Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis and Johnny Cash recorded together (the Million Dollar Quartet). The session would not be released for 25 years.
1964: The Beatles released their fourth album, "Beatles For Sale"
, which would spend 11 weeks as the #1 album in the UK.
1965: The Byrds' scored their second US number one hit with "Turn, Turn, Turn". Unlike their first chart topper, "Mr. Tambourine Man", the entire band was allowed to play on the recording instead of studio musicians. "Turn, Turn, Turn" made it to #26 in the UK.
1965: The Rolling Stones release December's Children (And Everybody's) in the US.
1970: Iron Butterfly played at Edmonton Gardens in Edmonton, Alberta.
1971: Pink Floyd were at Decca studios in West Hampstead, London composing, writing, and making initial demos for what would become Dark Side of the Moon.
1971: Led Zeppelin went to number one with Led Zeppelin IV. The album featured the rock classic ‘Stairway To Heaven’, it remained in the charts for nearly five years.
1975: Kiss earn their first Gold album with Alive!.
1976: American guitarist Tommy Bolin died from a heroin overdose aged 25, the day after opening a show for Jeff Beck in Miami, Florida. Bolin was a member of Zephyr (1969 to 1971,) The James Gang (1973 to 1974,) and Deep Purple (1975 to 1976.)
1977: Scorpions released the album "Taken By Force". This was the first Scorpions album to feature drummer Herman Rarebell and the final studio album to feature guitarist Uli Jon Roth.
1979: An unknown band called U2 performed at a small venue in London. They were mislabeled as “The U2s” and only played to nine people. The show ended abruptly after The Edge broke a guitar string.
1980: Jimmy Page, Robert Plant and John Paul Jones inform the public of their decision not to re-form Led Zeppelin following the death of drummer John Bonham. Page and Plant did get together for a highly successful tour in 1995.
1987: Metallica released the "Cliff 'Em All" video collection. The bootleg and unprofessional recordings had been shot during 1982-1986 when Cliff Burton was still with the band.
1989: At the Beeb is a live album by the British rock band Queen, released on vinyl, cassette tape, and CD in 1989. Subsequently, it was released by Hollywood Records in 1995 in the United States and Canada under the title At the BBC on CD and as limited edition picture disc vinyl. The album comprises tracks recorded in two sessions for the BBC Radio 1 Sound of the 70s programme. The first four tracks were recorded on 5 February 1973; the rest were recorded on 3 December 1973. All but one track appeared on the album Queen; the exception is "Ogre Battle" which appeared on Queen II. All these tracks would later be released on the 2016 album On Air along with other session recordings.
1988: Roy Orbison played his final gig when he appeared at The Front Row Theater in the Cleveland suburb of Highland Heights. Orbison died of a heart attack two days later.
1993: 52-year-old Frank Zappa died of pancreatic cancer at his Los Angeles home, surrounded by his wife and children. At a private ceremony the following day, Zappa was interred in an unmarked grave at the Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in Westwood, Los Angeles. The next day his family publicly announced: "Composer Frank Zappa left for his final tour just before 6:00 pm on Saturday."
2013: REO Speedwagon, Styx, Richard Marx and Survivor play a "Rock to the Rescue" concert in Bloomington, Illinois to benefit victims of a November 17 tornado in the area. Longtime REO guitarist Gary Richrath joins the band for "Ridin' the Storm Out," his first appearance with the group since he left in 1989. It's the last time he plays with the band, as he dies in 2015.
2015: Rammstein release XXI, which includes all six previously-released albums.
