December 27, 1983 — Walter Scott, lead singer of Bob Kuban & The In-Men, is shot to death by his second wife's lover, an eerily coincidental followup to the group's 1966 hit "The Cheater." His body is discovered four years later floating face down in cistern in a St. Louis, Missouri, suburb.

December 28, 1983 — Beach Boys drummer Dennis Wilson, the only surfer in the group, drowns during a dive off a boat slip into frigid water in Marina Del Rey, California, after drinking heavily earlier in the day.

December 29, 1902 — Scott Joplin's most famous song, "The Entertainer," is copyrighted. It's an early Joplin rag, and although he did not invent ragtime, a 2019 New York Times appreciation called his style "a combination of jumpy timing and sweet-sounding piano work." It said, "Joplin mixed a European classic sensibility with black folkloric music" — a blend that would lead to jazz, boogie woogie, swing, rhythm and blues, and rock 'n' roll.

December 30, 1950 — The Dominoes record their monster hit "Sixty-Minute Man," spending 14 weeks at #1 R&B in 1951 and reaching #17 pop — the first significant R&B record to crossover. The disc also marks one of the first times gospel-trained singers found success singing R&B, according to Charlie Gillett’s book The Sound of the City: The Rise of Rock and Roll. Larry Birnbaum's Before Elvis: The Prehistory of Rock ’n’ Roll cites the raunchy tune as unleashing a wave of racy material.

December 31, 1961 — The Beach Boys perform professionally for the first time under that name at a Ritchie Valens Memorial Dance in Long Beach, California.
                               1985 — Rick Nelson dies in an airplane crash near DeKalb, Texas.


January 1, 1953 — Country music star Hank Williams (right), a hillbilly boogie influence on many later rockers, dies of heart failure at age 29 in the back seat of a chauffeured limousine enroute to a New Year's Day concert in Canton, Ohio.

                        1959 — Johnny Cash performs at San Quentin prison in San Rafael, California to an audience that includes Merle Haggard, who is serving time for burglary.
                        1962 — The Beatles audition for Decca Records, which rejects them and instead signs The Tremeloes ("Silence Is Golden"). According to a 1964 autobiography by Fab Four manager Brian Epstein, the label explained that "Guitar groups are on their way out."