27 JULY
In Music History
1985 Paul Young hits #1 with "Everytime You Go Away," a cover of a Hall & Oates song released in 1980. It's the only Hall & Oates cover ever to make the Top 40.
1984 Metallica release their second album, Ride The Lightning, via Megaforce Records. It is reissued a short time later when they sign to Elektra Records.
1983 Metallica launch their Kill 'Em All For One tour (with co-headliners Raven) at the Royal Manor in New Brunswick, New Jersey.
1981 Blondie frontwoman Debbie Harry releases her first solo album, KooKoo. Its highest charting single is "Backfired," which hits #43 in the US, but the album still sells over 500,000 copies.
1976 Bruce Springsteen sues his manager Mike Appel for fraud and mismanagement. Appel counter-sues, and the legal action keeps Springsteen from recording for about 15 months, a time Springsteen spends touring. The case eventually settles out of court.
1976 John Lennon ends his four-year fight to stay in the US as a special government hearing grants him a green card (Number A-17-597-321).
1974 After 23 years, Dinah Shore leaves the NBC network when it cancels her morning program Dinah's Place to make room for game shows.
1974 John Denver's "Annie's Song" hits #1 for the first of two weeks.
1973 Thousands of people hit Watkins Glen, New York, for the "Summer Jam" one day before the music festival is scheduled to begin. The crowd is already so large and so raucous that The Band turn their sound-check into a mini-set. The Allman Brothers Band follows in similar character by rocking through "One Way Out" and "Ramblin' Man." The Grateful Dead come next with a two-set explosion. This impromptu jam tires them not at all, and the next day they still scramble psyches with two long sets.
1973 The self-titled debut by the New York Dolls is released via Mercury Records (and produced by Todd Rundgren). The album spawns such glam/proto-punk classics as "Personality Crisis," "Looking for a Kiss," "Trash," and "Jet Boy."
1968 The Rascals release "People Got To Be Free."
1968 Mama Cass Elliot releases "Dream A Little Dream Of Me."
1967 Juliana Hatfield is born in Wiscasset, Maine.
1962 Soul Asylum bass player Karl Mueller is born in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
1950 Paper Lace rhythm guitarist Michael "Mick" Vaughan is born in Sheffield, Yorkshire, England.
Prince Stars In Purple Rain
1984Prince stars in the film Purple Rain. The movie, in which he plays as an upstart musician who clashes with his band, parallels his life story, but is not strictly autobiographical, and he didn't write or direct it.
Read more27 JULY
Featured Events
2007 The Simpsons Movie debuts. Early in the film, Green Day sink into Lake Springfield.
1996 "Wannabe" hits #1 in the UK, making the Spice Girls the first all-female group to top the chart with their debut single.
1983 Madonna releases her first album. The self-titled debut doesn't burn up the charts and is derided by Rolling Stone (which calls her voice "irritating as hell"), but gets traction in dance clubs, setting the stage for her breakout second album, Like A Virgin.
1976 Later depicted in the movie What's Love Got to Do with It, Tina Turner files for divorce from her husband Ike. They have been married 16 years.
1970 A free concert in Chicago becomes a riot when fans pelt the stage with rocks and bottles before Sly & the Family Stone can go on. The band titles their next album There's a Riot Goin' On.More
1958 Esso Oil (formerly Standard Oil, later Exxon), issues a report warning that listening to rock music in the car could waste gas because "the rhythm can cause a driver to unconsciously jiggle the gas petal."
1940 Billboard issues its first chart detailing what records are selling the most copies. Titled "National List of Best Selling Retail Records," it's a precursor to the Hot 100 and the first to count record sales (the existing charts are for sheet music sales, jukebox play and radio plugs). It's not an exact science, as Billboard polls record stores to find out what is selling - a practice that stays in effect until the '90s, when call-a-clerk is replaced with Soundscan technology. The first chart is dominated by big band hits, with "I'll Never Smile Again" by Tommy Dorsey (featuring Frank Sinatra on vocals) at #1 and three songs by Glenn Miller in the Top 10.
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