5 DECEMBER
In Music History
1981 Damaged, Black Flag's debut album, is released. It will go on to become one of the most influential albums in the hardcore punk genre.
1980 U2 play their first show in the US when they perform at The Ritz Ballroom in New York City.
1980 The movie Flash Gordon, with a theme song by Queen, opens in theaters.
1976 Two days after he is shot in an assassination attempt, Bob Marley performs at the Smile Jamaica concert, which he organized in an effort to promote peace in the country. The concert becomes more of a political event after the shooting, which was carried out by a political party who saw Marley as a threat. About 80,000 Jamaicans attend the concert, where Marley takes the stage for 90 minutes.
1976 The journalist Phil Sutcliffe takes Stewart Copeland of the band Curved Air to see a Newcastle band called Last Exit. Sutcliffe introduces Copeland to Last Exit's bass player, Sting. A few months later, they form The Police.
1975 Earth, Wind and Fire's Gratitude album is certified Gold.
1975 Fleetwood Mac's self-titled album is certified Gold.
1969 Badfinger release "Come And Get It," a song written by Paul McCartney, in the UK on the Beatles' label, Apple Records.
1969 The Rolling Stones release the foreboding album Let It Bleed, with the classic tracks "Gimme Shelter" and "Midnight Rambler." The next day, a fan is killed during their performance at the Altamont Speedway.
1968 The Rolling Stones hold a "Beggar's Banquet" at Elizabeth Rooms, London, to promote their release of the new album with the same name. The "banquet" ends with a pie fight.
1968 Glen Graham (drummer for Blind Melon) is born in Columbus, Mississippi.
1965 Johnny Rzeznik (frontman for The Goo Goo Dolls) is born in Buffalo, New York.
1964 The Beach Boys' Beach Boys Concert album hits #1 for the first of 4 weeks, claiming the top spot for the rest of December.
1960 Billboard reports on a spate of answer songs to Elvis Presley's hit "Are You Lonesome Tonight?," writing, "All of the answer disks are by fem artists, indicating the effect that Elvis still has his large, loyal and young female following."
1960 Jack Russell (Great White vocalist) is born in Montebello, California.
Beyonce Channels Etta James In Cadillac Records
2008The musical biopic Cadillac Records premieres in US theaters, with Beyoncé in a starring role as soul legend Etta James.
Read more5 DECEMBER
Featured Events
2003 Coldplay frontman Chris Martin marries actress Gwyneth Paltrow a year after meeting her backstage at one of his concerts. They divorce in 2016 after consciously uncoupling.
1998 Billboard changes the way they calculate the Hot 100, finally accounting for airplay. Previously, if a song wasn't available for purchase as a single, it couldn't chart. As labels withheld singles to goose album sales, popular songs like "Don't Speak" and "One Headlight" were conspicuously absent from the chart, prompting the change.
1993 Onetime Gin Blossoms guitarist Doug Hopkins commits suicide at age 32. Hopkins was fired from the group before the release of their debut album, New Miserable Experience, but the biggest hits from that album, "Hey Jealousy" and "Found Out About You," were songs he wrote.
1980 Speaking with Rolling Stone's Jonathan Cott, John Lennon gives his last print interview; he is killed three days later.
1932 Richard Wayne Penniman, who will become known as Little Richard, is born in Macon, Georgia.
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