Funny

The Oriental Burlesquers, featuring "Champion Lady Bag Puncher" Belle Gordon, play at Kernan's Theatre, Washington, DC, USA.

Stephen Friedland is born in Jersey City, New Jersey, USA. He will find some success and notoriety as singer and songwriter Brute Force, whose best-known composition The King Of Fuh prominently includes a double entendre, referring repeatedly to the "Fuh King", i.e. a King in the Land of Fuh. George Harrison of The Beatles will acquire the track, produced by The Tokens in New York City, and will overdub 11 strings of the London Phiharmonic Orchestra. However, after learning that neither EMI in the UK or Capitol Records in the USA would distribute the single, Apple Records will press and distribute a limited edition of 1,000 copies in 1969.

Chuck Willis, best known for his version of C.C.Rider, dies in hospital, aged 30, in Chicago, Illinois, USA. He had suffered from stomach ulcers for many years, and died of peritonitis during surgery in a Chicago hospital. Ironically, his current single on the day he died was entitled What Am I Living For?.

While out to dinner in Los Angeles, California, USA, with his wife and father-in-law, Joe Smith of Warner Bros. Records plays a tape of comedian Allan Sherman's first album, My Son, The Folk Singer, which had been recorded earlier that day. According to Smith, "A guy at the next booth said, 'What is that? I want twenty-five of those. I'll write you a check. We thought we had something."

The Top Five Singles on radio station WHBQ 560 AM in Memphis, Tennessee, USA, for the week beginning on this date are as follows :

1. Blue Velvet - Bobby Vinton

2. Little Deuce Coupe/Surfer Girl - The Beach Boys

3. My Boyfriend's Back - The Angels

4. Hello Muddah, Hello Faddah - Allan Sherman

5. Hey Girl - Freddie Scott

When Bob Dylan plays at The Queen Elizabeth Theater, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, the poster for the event mis-spells his name as Bob Dylon.

David Bowie And The Lower Third audition for the BBC's Talent Selection Group in London, England, UK, Europe, in hopes of getting work on BBC music radio and tv shows. The trio performs Chim-Chim-Cheree and an original composition called Baby That's A Promise but the Selection group is singularly unimpressed, describing the band as a "Routine beat group" with "nothing to recommend it." Bowie himself was called an "amateur sounding vocalist who sings wrong notes and out of tune."

The University of California in Los Angeles, California, USA, announces that students taking music degrees will be expected to study The Rolling Stones as part of their curriculum.

The Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band plays at The Winter Gardens, Malvern, UK.

Pacific Gas And Electric, Lee Michaels, Lonnie Mack and The Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band play the second of two nights at The Kinetic Playground, 4812 North Clark Avenue, Chicago, Illinois, USA.

Jerry Garcia of The Grateful Dead is suitably embarrassed when a naked girl jumps out of a birthday cake which has been wheeled onstage at Roosevelt Stadium, Jersey City, New Jersey, USA, during a celebration gig to mark his 31st birthday.

When Yes play at The Free Trade Hall, Manchester, England, UK, Europe, keyboardist Rick Wakeman's roadie brings him a takeaway curry in the middle of the set, which he spreads out atop his keyboards and eats, much to the annoyance of the other band members.

Van Halen, Cheap Trick, Ted Nugent, Boomtown Rats, Aerosmith and others play in The California Music Festival, Memorial Coliseum, Los Angeles, California, USA. Van Halen, who arrive in a fleet of sixteen white limousines, have invited over 300 'personal guests' to the show. A chimpanzee dressed as David Lee Roth and two diminutive bodyguards greet the band's guests at the gate.

London-based Stiff Records is fined £50 for publicly displaying and selling a promotional t-shirt bearing the incontrovertibly true slogan, "If it ain't Stiff, it ain't worth a fuck."

In Sokolow, Czechoslovakia, Europe, a concert scheduled for the next day by folksy Canadian singer-songwriter Bruce Cockburn, is cancelled by East German government officials. It is stated that after seeing a publicity photograph of Cockburn wearing an earring, the officials decided he was too 'subversive' to be allowed to perform.

Matthew John Trippe of Tampa, Florida, USA, files an unusual lawsuit against Motley Crue. Trippe, who has a history of mental health issues and trouble with the law, claims that he was secretly hired to pose as Nikki Sixx and toured, wrote and recorded with the band for a time during 1983 and 1984.

While on tour in Italy, Europe, Bruce Springsteen meets a group of street musicians in the Piazza Di Spagna, Rome, and joins the group on acoustic guitar to perform I’m On Fire and The River for an audience of passers-by.

When controversial rap band 2 Live Crew perform at The Ozone Club outside of Atlanta, Georgia, USA, they are warned by police that they will be arrested if they perform their vulgar songs. So the group encourages the crowd to sing the obscene lyrics for them, resulting in about 500 people singing, "that’s the way we like to fuck" as hapless police officers look on. No arrests are made.

Sinead O'Connor disguises herself with a brown wig and baseball cap to watch demonstrators at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center, Saratoga Springs, New York State, USA, protesting her refusal last week to allow the playing of the American national anthem before a concert. She watches as about 10 demonstrators sing the anthem outside the arts center gates and urge fans not to enter. Later, during her concert, she thanks her fans for their support.

When Rod Stewart marries New Zealand model Rachel Hunter in Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, California, USA, he is quoted as saying, "I've found the girl that I want. I won't be putting my banana in anybody's fruit bowl from now on'. The couple will part in 1999.

Mick Jagger of the Rolling Stones becomes (arguably) rock's sexiest grandad when his daughter Jade gives birth to her first daughter, Assissi.

Musical arranger, composer, bandleader and recording artist Jack Fascinato dies in Palm Springs, California, USA. His 1959 album Music From A Surplus Store, integrating sound effects produced by, or imitating, common junk-store items including oil cans and bedsprings, became highly collectable.

B.B. King plays Merry Christmas Baby for an audience including Pope John Paul II and sundry assembled cardinals during a concert at The Vatican, Rome, Italy, Europe. Before the show King was granted an audience with The Pope, during which he gave one of his treasured 'Lucille' guitars to the pontiff.

A new main-belt asteroid (i.e. a minor planet) is discovered by I.P. Griffin at Auckland, New Zealand. He names it 23990 Springsteen in honour of Bruce Springsteen.

It is announced that a dog-sized dinosaur, whose remains were recently discovered on the island of Madagascar, has been named Masiakasaurus knopfleri in honour of guitarist and songwriter Mark Knopfler, whose music inspired the team of palaeontologists who made the discovery.

When Bob Dylan turns up to play at Jackson County Fairgrounds, Central Point, Oregon, USA, he is refused entry by security guards because he does not have a backstage pass.

Britney Spears is photographed in public wearing a t-shirt bearing the slogan MILF In Training. In recent days she has also been seen out and about wearing such slogans as I'm A Virgin (but this is an old t-shirt), How Could I Say No? and Shut Up And Do Me. Speculation mounts about why she has chosen to present such messages to the watching world.

Record producer and musician Roger Greenawalt performs his "Beatles Complete On Ukulele" concert for the first time, by playing all 185 original songs written by The Beatles in one day on ukulele with sixty guest singers at Elizabeth Streb's SLAM Action Lab in Brooklyn, New York City, USA.

During the third lap of the Pro 250 Motocross racing championship in Mammoth, California, USA, pop diva Pink holds up a sign reading 'Will you marry me?' as her driver-boyfriend Carey Hart flashes past her on the track. Hart pulls off the track and agrees to her proposal.

British rock vocalist Ian Brown announces that he is sponsoring London-based non-league football team Chiswick Homefields FC. Their new strip is now emblazoned with the message, "Ian Brown - The Greatest"

At a marathon fund-raising event [for the Red Cross hurricane-relief fund] in The Boat, a nightclub in Kensington Market, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, a relay of DJs play just one song, Ace Of Spades by Motorhead continuously for six hours, notching up a total of 128 consecutive plays of the same track.

The Minor Planet Center at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, officially announces that a recently-discovered minor asteroid has been given the name '(110393) Rammstein' in honour of the German band Rammstein.

During the MTV Europe Music Awards, Kanye West takes to the stage, interupting an award acceptance speech by Justice And Simian, and claiming that his video for Touch The Sky should have won because it "cost a million dollars and Pamela Anderson was in it."

When Faith Hill and Tim McGraw play a show in Lafayette, Louisiana, USA, a female fan reaches out and grabs McGraw's nether regions. When Hill and McGraw return for an encore, Hill berates the fan, declaring, "Somebody needs to teach you some class, my friend. You don't go grabbin' somebody else's, somebody's husband's [privates], you understand me? That's very disrespectful!"

128 musicians gather in the Alexandra Palace Theatre, London, England, UK, Europe, to perform Music Pieces, a composition by Jason Pierce [of Spiritualized], Peter Raeburn and Nick Foster, in which each musician plays just one note in each piece of melody, chord or drum pattern. The project is a tv promo for the launch of the latest generation of Walkman digital media players.

It is reported that Dallas, Texas-based Def Leppard tribute band Pyromania has recently placed an advertisement seeking a one-armed drummer who must have "flame-retardant kit and stick". The ad also warns prospective candidates "No dope fiends. If you're wired you're fired."

A Foo Fighters gig at Western Springs Speedway, Auckland, New Zealand, Oceania, is registered as seismic activity by monitoring service GeoNet, who report that the force of the moshing was detected between 1.5 and 2 kms from the venue.

It is reported that a newly-discovered species of Brazilian tree frog has been named Dendropsophus ozzyi in honour of Ozzy Osbourne, because of its distinctive high-pitched bat-like calls.

Mayor of London Boris Johnson performs a spoken version of Jessie J's Bang Bang live on the Capital Breakfast show in London, England, UK, Europe, to promote the New Year's Eve 2014 fireworks display in central London.

Belgian band Hypochristmutreefuzz release their debut LP, Hypopotomonstrosesequipedaliophobia, which is a word meaning "the fear of long words".