Events in Music
Music History
Dec 1 Sex Pistols using profanity on TV, gets them branded as "rotten punks"
Film Premiere
Dec 18 Second remake of "A Star is Born" film, directed by Frank Pierson and starring Barbra Streisand and Kris Kristofferson, premieres
- Dec 20 Richard Adler and Will Holt's musical "Music Is", based on William Shakespeare's "Twelfth Night", opens at St James Theater, NYC; runs for 8 performances
- Dec 22 "Your Arm's Too Short..." opens at Lyceum NYC for 429 performances
- Dec 22 East Germany grants rock singer Nina Hagen her request to leave the country, after refusing her stepfather re-entry
- Dec 26 Richard Adler and Will Holt's musical "Music Is", based on Shakespeare's "The Tempest", starring Christopher Hewitt, and directed by George Abbott, closes at St James Theater, NYC after 8 performances
- Dec 28 "Fiddler on the Roof" opens at Winter Garden Theater NYC for 167 performances
Birthdays in Music
- Dec 4 Amie Comeaux, American country music singer, born in Brusly, Louisiana (d. 1997)
- Dec 5 Evonne Hsu, Taiwanese-American Mando-pop singer, born in Longview, Texas
- Dec 7 Mark Duplass, American filmmaker and musician (The Morning Show), born in New Orleans, Louisiana
- Dec 7 Sunny Sweeney, American country music singer-songwriter ("From a Table Away"; "Drink Myself Single"), born in Houston, Texas
- Dec 8 Naimee Coleman, Irish singer and songwriter, born in Dublin, Ireland
- Dec 12 Dan Hawkins, British rock guitarist (The Darkness), born in Chertsey, England
- Dec 25 Tuomas Holopainen, Finnish rock keyboardist and songwriter (Nightwish), born in Kitee, Finland
Deaths in Music
- Dec 4 Tommy Bolin, American rock guitarist and songwriter (Deep Purple), dies of heroin and other substances overdose at 25
Benjamin Britten (1913-1976)
Dec 4 English composer (The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra; Peter Grimes), dies of heart failure at 63
- Dec 12 John "Jack" Cassidy, American stage and screen actor and Grammy Award-winning singer (Shangri-La; The Eiger Sanction: She Loves Me; Columbo), dies in an apartment fire at 49
- Dec 12 Vinko Zganec, Croatian ethnomusicologist (b. 1890)
- Dec 28 Freddie King, American blues singer (Hideaway), dies at 42
Composers
Drummers
Guitarists
Pianists
Singers
Songwriters