27 DECEMBER
In Music History
1947 Albert Hodges, the father of English singer-songwriter Chas Hodges (of Chas & Dave), commits suicide the day before his son's fourth birthday.
1944 Amy Beach, composer and popular concert pianist, dies of heart disease at age 77.
1944 Foreigner guitarist Mick Jones is born in Portsmouth, England. Along with lead singer Lou Gramm, he's the primary songwriter in the band, whose hits include "Juke Box Hero" and "I Want to Know What Love Is."
1943 Peter Sinfield (keyboardist, lyricist for King Crimson) is born in Fulham, London, England.
1942 Mike Heron (of Incredible String Band) is born James Michael Heron in Edinburgh, Scotland.
1941 Mike Pinder (original keyboardist for The Moody Blues) is born in Erdington, Birmingham, England.
1941 Les Maguire (pianist for Gerry and the Pacemakers) is born in Wallasey, Cheshire, England.
1940 Al Jolson and Ruby Keeler divorce after a dozen years of marriage.
1932 With 6,200 seats and a stage spanning 10,000 square feet, the world's largest indoor theater of the time, Radio City Music Hall, opens in New York City with a massive six-hour show.
1931 Scotty Moore (Elvis Presley's original guitarist) is born in Gadsden, Tennessee.
1931 Jazz pianist Walter Norris is born in Little Rock, Arkansas.
1906 Hollywood composer and pianist Oscar Levant is born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
John Lennon's "Starting Over" Hits #1
1980Weeks after his death, John Lennon's "(Just Like) Starting Over" goes to #1 in America.
Read more27 DECEMBER
Featured Events
1986 "Reet Petite," a #6 UK hit for Jackie Wilson in 1957, goes to #1 29 years later when it is re-released, and stays at the top for four weeks. Wilson died three years earlier after being incapacitated by a heart attack.
1985 The Krush Groove Christmas party becomes the first rap show held at Madison Square Garden. A tie-in with the movie Krush Groove, the concert features performances by LL Cool J, Run-DMC, Whodini and other acts who appeared in the film. The event makes headlines for the violence that follows, as 14 people are arrested for various crimes.
1975 The #1 song in America is "Let's Do It Again," a surprisingly lubricious song by the gospel group the The Staple Singers. The song was written by Curtis Mayfield for the film of the same name starring Bill Cosby and Sidney Poitier.
1967 After establishing his career as a poet and writer, Leonard Cohen releases his first album, Songs of Leonard Cohen, on Columbia Records. The album doesn't sell particularly well at first, peaking at #83 on the Billboard charts, but Cohen's powerful voice and lyrics in oft-covered tracks like "Suzanne" and "So Long, Marianne" become highly influential.
1960 Returning from Hamburg, Germany, The Beatles play a show in their hometown of Liverpool, England, with Chas Newby filling in for Stu Sutcliffe, who stays in Germany and never rejoins the band. The show gets a lot of attention, and is an early taste of Beatlemania.
1927 Show Boat opens at the Ziegfeld Theatre on Broadway, changing the paradigm for modern musicals.More
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