thebuzzr Independent Music Coverage

October 14, 1972

Michael Jackson’s “Ben,” a song about a boy and his love for a pet rat, hits #1 in the US.

October 15, 2014 

At the St. Louis club Blueberry Hill, Chuck Berry performs for the last time. The rocker, who dies in 2017, played monthly gigs at the venue starting in 1996.

October 16, 1976 

Disc jockey Rick Dees hits #1 in the US with “Disco Duck,” a goofy number that envisions Donald Duck enjoying the spoils of the disco era. It is the last novelty song to top the Hot 100.

October 17, 1977

Lynyrd Skynyrd release Street Survivors, the last album with frontman Ronnie Van Zant and guitarist Steve Gaines, as both are killed only three days later after the band’s plane goes down en route to Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

October 18, 2000

Rage Against The Machine lead singer Zack De La Rocha quits the politically charged rock outfit, releasing a statement saying, “Our decision-making process has completely failed. It is no longer meeting the aspirations of all four of us collectively as a band, and from my perspective, has undermined our artistic and political ideal.”

The other three members form Audioslave with Chris Cornell; Rage returns to action (with De La Rocha) in 2007.

October 19, 1991

At a gig in Texas, Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain gets in a fight with a bouncer. While crowd surfing, the bouncer shoves him back into the crowd by the face, to which Cobain responds by driving the butt of his guitar into the bouncer’s own mug. Barely back on his feet, Cobain gets a sucker punch to the back of the head before his bandmates jump in to help him.

October 20, 1977

Lynyrd Skynyrd members Ronnie Van Zant and Steve Gaines die in a plane crash in Mississippi. Gaines’ sister Cassie, a backup singer with the group, is also killed along with two pilots and the band’s manager. Other members of the group are badly injured.