December 18, 2020

Paul McCartney releases McCartney III. He’s a one-man band on the album, playing all the instruments and writing all the songs, which he also did on the prequels, McCartney in 1970 and McCartney II in 1980.

December 19, 2012

 Madonna gets angry at fans at a concert in Santiago, Chile, for smoking cigarettes near her against her wishes. The singer lectures the audience: “If you’re going to smoke cigarettes, I’m not doing a show. You don’t care about me, I don’t care about you. All right? Are we going to play that game? I’m not kidding. I can’t sing if you smoke.”

December 20, 2009

James Gurley (guitarist for Big Brother & the Holding Company) dies of a heart attack in Palm Desert, California, at age 69.

December 21

2005 Elton John and his partner David Furnish take part in a civil ceremony (gay marriage is not legal in England) to make their union official. Guests at the ceremony, which takes place in Windsor, England, include George Michael, Sharon Stone, and Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne. Nine years later, with gay marriage legal, they get married.

1991 “Bohemian Rhapsody“ goes back to #1 on the UK charts after the death of Freddie Mercury and stays there for five weeks. In America, the song gets new life the next year when used in the movie Wayne’s World.

December 22, 1988

During an interview, Phil Collins jokes about wanting to make a film version of “Goldilocks and the Three Bears” with Danny DeVito and Bob Hoskins. DeVito later reads the interview and contacts Phil about actually making the movie. Hoskins also signs on (as well as Kim Basinger as Goldilocks) but they do not make the film.

December 23,1999 

Cristin Keleher, an unemployed musician in Hawaii, breaks into George Harrison‘s Maui home and makes herself at home, ordering pizza, drinking root beer, doing laundry, and calling her mother before authorities arrive to arrest her. They eventually charged her with breaking and entering and theft, and serves four months. “I thought I had a psychic connection with George,” she says.

December 24, 1987

Roger Waters cuts a deal with his former Pink Floyd bandmates, ending a long legal standoff over whether the band can continue without him. David Gilmour and Nick Mason may use the name Pink Floyd, but Waters gets the copyright on The Wall concept. Gilmour and Mason have already released the album A Momentary Lapse of Reason as Pink Floyd.

December 25, 2016

George Michael dies of heart failure aged just 53 in bed at his riverside home in Goring-on-Thames, Oxfordshire. His boyfriend, Australian hair stylist Fadi Fawaz found him.