Pick a Day

18 MAY

In Music History

1991 Bananarama release Pop Life, their first album without bandmate Siobhan Fahey, who left the group in 1988 amid tensions over their pop-oriented image. It's also their last release as a trio. Jacquie O'Sullivan replaces Fahey on the album, but leaves later that year due to the press constantly comparing her with the former 'Nana.

1982 Actor/singer Eric West is born Eric Rosa in New York City. Records the single "Can You Help Me?" in 2002, which becomes a huge hit in Latin America.

1980 Drummer Peter Criss leaves Kiss. He is replaced by Eric Carr, but returns to the band (along with Ace Frehley) in 1996.

1978 The Buddy Holly Story, starring Gary Busey as Holly, is released in the US.

1976 Warren Zevon releases his self-titled album, produced by Jackson Browne. It doesn't sell very well, but Linda Ronstadt covers three of the tracks: "Hasten Down The Wind," "Carmelita," and "Poor Poor Pitiful Me."

1975 The Bay City Rollers appear at BBC Radio "Fun Day" at the Mallory Park racetrack in Leicestershire, England, where they are set to perform on an island in the middle of a lake. When throngs of fans try to swim to the Rollers, mayhem ensues and they never get to perform.

1970 Mark Richardson (drummer for Skunk Anansie) is born in Leeds, England.

1969 Martika, known for her 1989 US #1 hit "Toy Soldiers," is born Marta Marrero to Cuban parents in Whittier, California.

1968 Archie Bell & the Drells hit #1 in America with the funk-tacular "Tighten Up."

1967 Josh Clayton-Felt of School of Fish is born.

1966 The Hollies record "Bus Stop."

1966 Sixteen-year-old Bruce Springsteen records for the first time when his band, The Castiles, cut two songs ("Baby I" and "That's What You Get") at a studio in the Brick Mall Shopping Centre in New Jersey. Springsteen wrote both songs, which later emerge on bootlegs, with his bandmate, George Theiss.

1964 The Animals record the folk song "House Of The Rising Sun" in a matter of minutes at a London studio. A few months later, it becomes a huge hit, going to #1 in both the UK and US.

1963 Roy Orbison begins a UK tour in Slough, England, with The Beatles, whose song "From Me to You" is #1 in that territory.

1959 Wilbert Harrison's "Kansas City," written by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, hits #1 in America.