Pick a Day

21 MAY

In Music History

1993 Sliver, starring Sharon Stone and William Baldwin, is released in the US. The movie is panned by critics, but its prominent use of UB40's cover of the Elvis Presley original "Can't Help Falling in Love" helps give the band their second #1 hit in the States. The song was originally released as the first single from their 1993 album, Promises and Lies.

1988 "Eighteen Wheels And A Dozen Roses" by Kathy Mattea hits #1 on the Country chart. It's the second chart-topper from her fourth album, Untasted Honey, following "Goin' Gone."

1983 David Bowie's "Let's Dance" hits #1 on the US chart.

1983 Michael McDonald marries the singer Amy Holland; they met when he produced her debut album in 1980. The marriage endures and they have two children together: son Dylan and daughter Scarlett.

1983 "Little Red Corvette" goes to #6 in the US, giving Prince his first Top 10 hit on the Hot 100. The video is one of the first by a black artist to go in hot rotation on MTV.

1981 Bob Marley's funeral, attended by an estimated 100,000, takes place in Kingston, Jamaica, followed by his burial in St. Ann's, where he was born. He's laid to rest with his red Gibson Les Paul guitar, a Bible opened to Psalm 23, a soccer ball, and a stalk of ganja placed in the casket by his widow, Rita.

1979 Elton John becomes the first western act to tour the U.S.S.R. when he plays the first of eight concerts at a show in Leningrad.

1979 Time magazine runs a story on Rickie Lee Jones titled "The Duchess of Coolsville," a reference to the song "Coolsville" on her debut album. The moniker sticks.

1977 Stevie Wonder hits #1 in America with "Sir Duke," a tribute to Duke Ellington, who died in 1974.

1976 Blue Öyster Cult release their most popular album, Agents Of Fortune. Thanks to "(Don't Fear) The Reaper," it sells over a million copies in America.

1975 After a show in Knoxville, Tennessee, Alice Cooper leaves one of his stage props, a 13-foot boa constrictor, in the hotel bathroom, where it escapes down the toilet. The snake shows up two weeks later in a room occupied by country singer Charley Pride; Cooper learns to put the lid down.

1972 The Notorious B.I.G., aka Biggie Smalls, is born Christopher George Latore Wallace in Brooklyn, New York. He releases just one solo album before he is murdered in 1997, but leaves a legacy as one of the most creative and distinctive rappers of his time.

1970 At the Record Plant in Los Angeles, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young record "Ohio," a song Neil Young wrote about the Kent State Shootings from two weeks earlier.

1964 The Drifters record "Under The Boardwalk" the day after their lead singer, Rudy Lewis, is found dead. He is replaced by former member Johnny Moore.

1962 Dee Dee Sharp records "Gravy (For My Mashed Potatoes)."