5 AUGUST
In Music History
1980 The Osmonds officially disband.
1979 Phonogram Records signs Def Leppard.
1978 "Substitute," a cover of a Righteous Brothers song recorded by an all-girl South African group called Clout, becomes a surprise hit, reaching #2 in the UK. Just one problem: they didn't play on the song, a male group called Circus did.
1977 The Police, The Damned and The Clash play the second Mont de Marsen Punk Festival, held at a bullring in France.
1976 NBC airs the 15th anniversary Beach Boys special It's OK, featuring cameos by John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd.
1973 Brian Eno and Robert Fripp finish recording their first collaborative album, (No Pussyfooting). It is a combination of Eno's experiments with tape recorders and Fripp's "Fripptertronics" electric guitar technique, recorded in three sessions over the course of a year, starting on September 8, 1972.More
1972 Music mogul Clive Davis catches Aerosmith's act at Max's Kansas City in New York and immediately signs them with CBS Records for $125,000.
1972 '50s nostalgia picks up steam at the London Rock & Roll Show. Held at Wembley Stadium, Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Bill Haley, Bo Diddley, and Jerry Lee Lewis all perform.
1968 Guitarist Luther Perkins, a member of Johnny Cash's backing band, dies two days after being trapped in a house fire in Hendersonville, Tennessee, at age 40.
1965 Production is halted on the Jan & Dean movie, Easy Come, Easy Go when 17 crew members are injured in an on-set railroad accident, with Jan Berry suffering a broken leg. The film is shelved.
1964 Adam Yauch (aka MCA of the Beastie Boys) is born in Brooklyn, New York.
1964 The Beach Boys record "When I Grow Up (To Be A Man)."
1961 Themetta Suggs gives birth to Chuck Berry's second child, Chuck Berry Jr.
1959 Pat Smear (guitarist for Foo Fighters) is born Georg Albert Ruthenberg in Los Angeles, California.
1959 Singer/songwriter Pete Burns (of Dead Or Alive) is born in Port Sunlight, Bebington, Chesire, England.
The Runaways Form, Becoming The First All-Girl Hard Rock Band
1975The first all-female hard-rock band is formed when producer Kim Fowley puts together The Runaways, featuring Joan Jett, future Bangle Michael Steele, and Lita Ford.
Read more5 AUGUST
Featured Events
2017 Sam Hunt's "Body Like a Back Road" lands at #1 on the Country chart for the 25th week, breaking the record previously held by Florida Georgia Line's "Cruise."
2016 There are spectacular fireworks, awe-inspiring acrobats, and sensational dancers at the opening ceremony of the Summer Olympics in Rio, but supermodel Gisele Bundchen gets the biggest reaction when she takes a long walk across the stage to "The Girl From Ipanema," performed by the composer's grandson, Daniel Jobim.
1978 The Rolling Stones' disco-flavored "Miss You" hits #1 in America, where it stays for one week, knocking Andy Gibb's "Shadow Dancing" from a seven-week run at the top.
1976 At a show in Birmingham, England, an inebriated Eric Clapton speaks out in favor of the right-wing National Front, repeating their slogan, "Keep Britain white," and adding, "I used to be into dope, now I'm into racism." Clarifying his statements years later, Clapton says, "I made some fairly racial comments, but they weren't directed at any particular minority. It was a feeling of loss of identity and losing my Englishness."
1975 Stevie Wonder signs the largest contract for a single artist in history: $13 million over seven years for seven albums with Tamla/Motown.
1962 Marilyn Monroe dies of a barbiturate overdose at age 36 in Brentwood, Los Angeles, California. Musically, she's known for an iconic performance of "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend."
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