5 DECEMBER
In Music History
1960 Mary Wells releases her debut single, "Bye Bye Baby."
1955 The BMI Annual Awards in New York City score big for R&B, with rhythm and blues songs winning a record eleven awards.
1947 Jim Messina (of Buffalo Springfield, Poco, Loggins & Messina) is born in Maywood, California.
1946 Canadian pop rocker Andy Kim is born Andrew Youakim in Montreal, Quebec.
1945 Flight 19 disappears over the Bermuda Triangle, inspiring a song by B.A. Robertson.
1945 Eduardo "Eddie" Serrato (drummer for ? & the Mysterians) is born
1938 Singer-songwriter J.J. Cale, a forerunner of the Tulsa Sound, is born John Weldon Cale in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.
1936 Chad Mitchell (of the Chad Mitchell Trio) is born in Portland, Oregon.
1922 Songwriter Don Robertson is born in Beijing, China. Aside from his own 1956 hit, "The Happy Whistler," he penned songs for several artists, including Elvis Presley ("Anything That's Part of You," "Love Me Tonight," among others), The Chordettes ("Born to Be with You") and Les Paul and Mary Ford ("Hummingbird").
1912 Blues legend Sonny Boy Williamson, author of "Shotgun Blues" and "No Way Out," is born Alex Miller in Tallahatchie County, Mississippi. This is the date he claims he was born, but his headstone (erected 12 years after his death) reads March 11, 1908.
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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