Pick a Day

Music History Events: Song Inspirations

February 3, 1959 Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and J.P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson are killed in a plane crash. Don McLean would call it "The Day the Music Died" in his 1971 hit "American Pie."More

May 31, 1956 Buddy Holly sees the John Wayne film The Searchers. Wayne's line, "That'll be the day," inspires him to write a song with that title.

December 10, 1953 The first issue of Playboy magazine is published (Marilyn Monroe is on the cover). Over the next two decades, "playboy" shows up in several hit songs: "Playboy" by Marvelettes (1962) "He's Just A Playboy" by The Drifters (1964) "Playboy" by Gene & Debbe (1968) "International Playboy" by Wilson Pickett (1973)More

November 26, 1942 Casablanca, starring Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman, premieres at the Hollywood Theatre in New York City. The World War II-era romance revives an old love song - "As Time Goes By" - and inspires the Al Stewart hit "Year of the Cat."More

September 10, 2008 Abingdon Street in Peoria, Illinois, is designated "Fogelberg Parkway" after their native son Dan Fogelberg. The street is where the events of his song "Same Old Lang Syne" took place.

November 19, 2007 At Caroline Kennedy's 50th birthday party, guest performer Neil Diamond reveals that his 1970 hit "Sweet Caroline" was actually written about her.

September 30, 2006 Shine On, Jet's sophomore album, is released to mixed reviews. Most notably the indie music website Pitchfork's review is nothing but a video of a chimpanzee urinating into its own mouth. The title track and third single from the record, "Shine On," is a tribute to Nic and Chris Chester's dad, who died from cancer in 2004.

July 8, 1997 Weezer fan club founders Mykel Allan, 31, and her sister Carli, 29, are killed along with their younger sister, Trysta, in a car accident in Colorado on the way back from one of the band's shows. The girls, who had befriended many up-and-coming Los Angeles-based bands, are honored through many tribute songs, including Weezer's "Mykel and Carli" and Jimmy Eat World's "Hear You Me."

February 16, 1997 Michael Jackson sings "Elizabeth I Love You," which he wrote for the actress Elizabeth Taylor, at her 65th birthday celebration. The event airs on ABC on February 25th.

August 14, 1994 Clifton Clowers, the real-life Tennessee mountain man who was the subject of Claude King's 1964 country smash "Wolverton Mountain," dies at the ripe old age of 101, still on the mountain (which is actually spelled "Woolverton"). Clowers apparently couldn't keep suitors away from his daughters as well as the legend suggested, as he leaves behind 15 grandchildren, 27 great-grandchildren and five great-great-grandchildren.

June 5, 1988 Pattie Boyd, ex-wife of George Harrison, files for divorce from Eric Clapton, who wrote the song "Layla" about her.

December 7, 1987 The Replacements play a drunken, disastrous show at the Pine Street Theatre in Portland, Oregon, that ends with the band throwing their clothes into the audience. It becomes part of their lore and the topic of their song "Portland."

August 21, 1986 Eric Clapton's son Conor is born. Four years later, Conor dies in a tragic accident, prompting Clapton to write "Tears In Heaven."

May 3, 1982 Huey Lewis & the News play a great gig at the Agora in Cleveland. On the ride out, Lewis looks at the skyline and thinks, "The heart of rock and roll is beating in Cleveland." A song is born.

July 23, 1979 Iran's new leader, the Grand Ayatollah Seyyed Ruhollah Musavi Khomeini, bans rock and roll as a corruptive influence on the people, a decision that eventually inspires both the graphic novel Perseopolis and the Clash song "Rock The Casbah."

March 28, 1979 The day after they are married, Eric Clapton sings "Wonderful Tonight" to his new wife Pattie at his concert in Tucson, Arizona. He wrote the song about her while waiting for her to get ready to go out.

October 23, 1978 "Mother" Maybelle Carter dies in Hendersonville, Tennessee, at age 69, inspiring her son-in-law Johnny Cash's song "Tears in the Holston River."

August 24, 1977 Country legend Waylon Jennings is arrested for cocaine possession in New York City by federal agents, an event which will inspire his song "Don't You Think This Outlaw Bit's Done Got out of Hand?" The charges are later dropped.

March 21, 1976 The French actress Claudine Longet, ex-wife of Andy Williams, shoots her live-in lover, the famed skier Spider Sabich, at his home in Aspen, Colorado. The shooting is ruled an accident, and Longet is sentenced to 30 days in jail for criminal negligence. Her case inspires the Rolling Stones song "Claudine."

November 10, 1975 The SS Edmund Fitzgerald sinks suddenly in Lake Superior during a storm, killing all 29 men aboard and inspiring Canadian folkie Gordon Lightfoot to write a song about the tragedy, "Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald."

June 17, 1973 Dolly Parton records "I Will Always Love You," a song written about her mentor, Porter Wagoner.

April 21, 1973 Tony Orlando and Dawn's "Tie A Yellow Ribbon Round The Ole Oak Tree" hits #1 in the US. The song is based on a fictional newspaper story about a man returning from jail who asks his wife to tie a yellow handkerchief on the landmark oak tree in town if she still loves him.

November 15, 1972 Harry Chapin's son Josh is born, which gives him a new appreciation for the poem his wife Sandy wrote (about her ex-husband) called "Cat's In The Cradle." Harry puts music to the poem and it becomes his biggest hit.

April 27, 1972 24-year-old Phil King, a former booking agent for Blue Oyster Cult, is murdered over a gambling debt, inspiring the band's song "Deadline."

December 10, 1971 At the "Free John Sinclair Rally" in Ann Arbor, Michigan, John Lennon debuts his new song, fittingly called "John Sinclair." Stevie Wonder, Bob Seger and Phil Ochs also appear at the rally, which is an effort to get Sinclair, who was sentenced to 10 years in prison for possession of two marijuana joints, out of jail. Sinclair was released two days later.

July 8, 1969 Singer/actress Marianne Faithfull, girlfriend of Mick Jagger, attempts suicide with barbiturates while on the set of the film Ned Kelly (also starring Mick). She is dropped from the cast of the movie, eventually recovers, and when awaking from her coma, tells friends that "wild horses couldn't drag me away." The Rolling Stones song "Wild Horses" is built around that phrase.

June 20, 1969 David Bowie records "Space Oddity," which he wrote after seeing the 1968 Stanley Kubrick movie 2001: A Space Odyssey.

March 22, 1969 Two days after their wedding in Gibraltar, John Lennon and Yoko Ono begin their "Bed-in," inviting members of the media into their Amsterdam hotel room where they are promoting peace with songs, signs and dialogue. These events are outlined in the song "The Ballad of John and Yoko."

July 12, 1968 Micky Dolenz of The Monkees marries the model Samantha Juste, who is the "disc girl" on the BBC show Top Of The Pops. Dolenz, who met her on the show, wrote some of The Monkees song "Randy Scouse Git" about her. They divorce in 1975.

September 29, 1967 John Lennon flips on the radio while working on "I Am The Walrus" and hears a BBC broadcast of the Shakespeare play King Lear, which he decides to mix into the song.