December 15

 

The music industry lost one of its greatest architects on this day in 2006 when Ahmet Ertegun died at 83 from injuries sustained at a Rolling Stones concert, ending the life of the Atlantic Records co-founder who signed Led Zeppelin, Aretha Franklin, and countless legends…

 

Country music's most volatile union began today in 1944 when Hank Williams married Audrey Sheppard at a gas station in Andalusia, Alabama, beginning the turbulent relationship that would inspire some of his greatest heartbreak songs before ending in bitter divorce…

 

Rock's eternal bachelor Rod Stewart married supermodel Rachel Hunter today in 1990 in Beverly Hills, beginning the union that would produce two children before their 1999 separation added another chapter to the singer's legendary romantic history…

 

Hair metal royalty met prime-time television today in 1994 when Bon Jovi guitarist Richie Sambora married actress Heather Locklear, creating one of the 1990s' highest-profile celebrity couples before their divorce 13 years later…

 

We remember Max Yasgur on his birthday today in 1919, the dairy farmer whose willingness to lease his 600-acre Bethel, New York property made Woodstock possible, standing by the festival despite community opposition before his death in 1973…

 

World War II claimed one of swing's brightest stars on this day in 1944 when bandleader Glenn Miller's plane disappeared over the English Channel, the trombonist and "In the Mood" composer presumed dead at 40 in one of the war's most famous unsolved mysteries…

 

We honor rock and roll's baptizer Alan Freed on his birthday today in 1922, the Cleveland DJ who popularized the term "rock 'n' roll" and championed Black artists to white audiences before payola scandals destroyed his career and he died broken in 1965…

 

We remember talent scout extraordinaire John Hammond on his birthday today in 1910, the Columbia Records A&R man who discovered Billie Holiday, Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, and Aretha Franklin, making him the most influential figure in 20th-century popular music before his death in 1987.