5 MARCH
In Music History
1981 Songwriter E.Y. "Yip" Harburg ("Over The Rainbow") dies in a car accident at age 81.
1977 18-year-old Kate Bush writes "Wuthering Heights" after catching the end of a BBC adaptation of Emily Bronte's novel of the same name. The ethereal tune becomes her debut single the following year and hits #1 in the UK.
1977 Barbra Streisand's "Love Theme From A Star Is Born (Evergreen)" hits #1 in the US. The song was written for the 1976 film she starred in with Kris Kristofferson.
1974 Smokey Robinson appears on NBC-TV's Police Story.
1971 Led Zeppelin begins their "Thank You" tour of small clubs that supported them when they started out, charging the same prices they charged in 1968.
1970 Bob Dylan records "Alberta #1," "Alberta #2," "Gotta Travel On," and "All The Tired Horses."
1970 John Frusciante is born in New York City. He does two stints with the Red Hot Chili Peppers.
1969 Elvis Presley records "Change Of Habit" and "Let's Be Friends."
1969 Elvis Presley goes to Hollywood and begins filming his last non-concert movie, Change Of Habit, co-starring Mary Tyler Moore as a nun who falls for Elvis.
1969 The rock magazine Creem is published for the first time.
1968 Syd Nathan, the record executive who founded King Records and launched James Brown's career, dies of heart disease at age 63.
1968 Jerry Lee Lewis opens as Iago in Catch My Soul, a rock musical version of Shakespeare's Othello, in Hollywood.
1968 The 1910 Fruitgum Company's "Simon Says" is certified gold.
1966 Staff Sergeant Barry Sadler's "The Ballad Of The Green Berets" hits #1 for the first of five weeks.
1966 Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass's album Going Places hits #1 in America. It's the second of five #1 albums for the group in the span of 1965-1968.
America Meets the Osbournes
2002MTV launches its new reality television show, The Osbournes, which chronicles the domestic life of heavy metal singer Ozzy Osbourne and his family. In its first season, it becomes the most-viewed series on MTV.
Read more5 MARCH
Featured Events
2021 Kings Of Leon release their album When You See Yourself in a non-fungible token (NFT) auction that also includes digital artwork and "Golden Tickets." Other acts (notably, Grimes) have sold NTF art, but KoL is the first big name to try it with an album and VIP package.More
2013 Sugar Ray frontman Mark McGrath and rapper Coolio appear on Celebrity Wife Swap, where they send their respective partners to each others' homes. McGrath's wife, Carin, struggles with all the chores she has to do at Coolio's house, while Coolio's girlfriend Mimi - who leaves him just weeks after the episode is taped - squirms under the watchful eye of helicopter parent McGrath.
2009 Michael Jackson announces his "This Is It" series of concerts to be held at the O2 Arena in London. The shows quickly sell out, but Jackson dies before they begin.
2006 "It's Hard Out Here for a Pimp" from the movie Hustle & Flow wins an Oscar for Best Song, just the second rap song to get the award, after "Lose Yourself" by Eminem. Three 6 Mafia become the first rappers to perform at the ceremony.More
1983 Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean" hits #1 for the first of seven weeks.
1975 Rod Stewart meets the Swedish actress Britt Ekland when she comes backstage after his concert at the Los Angeles Forum, kicking off an affair that results in a famous song and a nasty lawsuit.More
1953 America learns of Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin's death when Air Force Staff Sergeant Johnny Cash intercepts a coded message from Russia. Cash enlisted in 1950 after he turned 18 and was assigned to the 12th Radio Squadron Mobile of the US Air Force Security Service at Landsberg, West Germany, where he proved his skill as a Morse Code operator.
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