Today’s history highlights a bizarre payment method for an American rock band in the Soviet Union, an unbelievable ticket sales record, and a legendary music catalog acquisition.

Notable Births

• 1810: Composer Samuel Sebastian Wesley was born.
• 1892: Composer Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji was born.

🎵 Major Events & Releases (On-This-Day)

• 1956: Bob Rickman, a DJ from Washington, DC, created the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Elvis Presley.
• 1970: Stephen Stills was arrested at a motel in La Jolla, California, on cocaine possession charges and was later released on a $2,500 bail.
• 1976: Nick Lowe’s debut solo single, “So It Goes,” was released.
• 1985: Michael Jackson successfully outbid Paul McCartney and Yoko Ono for the ATV music-publishing catalog. Jackson paid $47.5 million for the rights to more than 250 songs written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney.
• 1989: Bon Jovi’s New Jersey became the first U.S. album to be legally released in the Soviet Union. Because rubles could not leave Russia, the Russian label Melodiya paid the band with a truckload of firewood.
• 1999: An astonishing 765,000 tickets for a Backstreet Boys North American tour were sold in a single day.

Bio-Musik Feature: Austin’s Live Music Pioneers

Continuing our dive into the Texas music archives, today we highlight a foundational band that helped shape the Latin Alternative and Rock en Español sound within the Austin scene.

• Vallejo: Formed by three brothers from El Campo, Texas, Vallejo relocated to Austin in the 1990s and quickly became a cornerstone of the city’s Latin rock movement. Merging heavy rock riffs with infectious Latin percussion and funk, their sound paved the way for future Latin Alternative acts in the Live Music Capital of the World. Their breakout independent success and notoriously high-energy live shows at historic Austin venues cemented their reputation, proving that the city’s musical tapestry extends far beyond outlaw country and blues.