Today in rock history: On this date in 1986, worldwide superstar rock band Queen played its last-ever concert with original frontman and lead singer, Freddie Mercury. Closing out its "Magic" tour, in support of their 1986 album A Kind of Magic, the band performed at Knebworth Park in Stevenage, England in front of an audience of more than 120,000 fans. The band was benefiting from the enormous reaction and attention it had received from a performance at Live Aid the year prior and was in the midst of attracting a brand new, younger group of fans. The final songs Mercury would perform with the band he’d fronted for over 15 years were “We Will Rock You” and “We Are the Champions.” Freddie Mercury would die from AIDS-related complications five years later and, although he’d never tour or perform live with Queen again, he continued to write and record music with Queen right up until his untimely death.

TODAY IN ROCK HISTORY
R.I.P. Freddie Mercury, The Kinks' Muswell Hillbillies and more

Today in rock history: On this date in 1995, the original members of KISS played together for the first time in over 15 years. After founding members drummer Peter Criss and guitarist Ace Frehley left the band, Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley carried on with a variety of other members filling the two vacancies. The original four were reunited for the recording of an MTV Unplugged special which was a huge hit. The performance was released on home video as well as on CD in 1996 and went on to achieve gold sales status. The reunion went over so well that Criss and Frehley were invited to rejoin the band for a massive worldwide reunion tour that wound up becoming the highest-grossing rock tour of the year. The reformation was brief though; by the early 2000s, both Criss and Frehley would depart again and be replaced so that the band could continue to tour.

Today in rock history: On this date in 1963, Whitney Houston was born in Newark, New Jersey. The daughter of famed gospel and pop singer Cissy Houston, Whitney’s enormously successful solo career got off to a rousing start with her 1985 self-titled debut album which wound up becoming the best-selling debut album by any female artist in music history. Hit records and sales awards continued to pile up as Whitney’s meteoric success continued. Her sophomore album was the first by any female artist to debut at No. 1 on Billboard’s pop albums chart and Houston would be regarded as one of the best-selling artists of all time, with worldwide record sales topping the 200 million mark, after the 1992 soundtrack for the film she also starred in, The Bodyguard, surpassed anticipated sales numbers and became the best-selling soundtrack album of all time. Gold, platinum and multi-platinum awards were common and plentiful for Whitney; sadly, her life came to an end in 2012 at the age of 48 due to coronary artery disease combined with drug use, a vice the gifted singer had wrestled with for many years. Houston left behind a gaping hole in the world of pop music and will always be remembered by her legions of fans.

Today in rock history: On this date in 1968, rock and roll supergroup Cream released its blockbuster third album, Wheels of Fire. The 2-LP set was comprised of one studio album along with one live album which showed off the trio’s mastery of both arenas. The studio album contained the Cream classic “White Room” and the live album featured a smoking version of blues great Robert Johnson’s “Crossroads” featuring an arrangement Cream guitarist Eric Clapton put together. A huge worldwide success, the album rose to No. 3 in the band’s native England and went all the way to No. 1 here in America. Wheels of Fire is also significant in that it’s the very first double-album set to ever achieve platinum sales status. The album would be Cream’s penultimate release, with its follow-up, the appropriately titled 1969 release Goodbye serving as the trio’s farewell before Clapton, bassist Jack Bruce and drummer Ginger Baker would embark on other musical projects.