Pick a Day

27 MAY

In Music History

2022 Season 4 of the Netflix series Stranger Things airs with a scene featuring the 1985 Kate Bush song "Running Up That Hill." The song starts trending and enters the Top 10 in 34 different territories, including America, where it lands at #8. Bush's previous chart peak in the US was #30 when the song was first released.

2014 At his trial for historic sexual offenses, Rolf Harris sings a few bars of his hit "Jake The Peg." He's also known for the 1969 chart-topper "Two Little Boys."

2012 On his 90th birthday, actor Christopher Lee announces the release of his Heavy Metal single "Let Legend Mark Me as the King."

2012 Lady Gaga is forced to cancel a scheduled concert performance in Jakarta, Indonesia, after Islamic protesters threaten to stop the show themselves. Bearing banners saying "Go to hell, Lady Gaga," the protesters cite the singer's loose morals and revealing costumes as evidence that she is corrupting the youth. The island of Bali remains a predominantly Hindu enclave within Indonesia, with much of the rest of the population Islam, Christian, or Sikh.

2011 Gil Scott-Heron, a spoken-word performer who dubbed himself a "bluesologist," dies at age 62. Although he had been diagnosed as HIV-positive several years earlier, his cause of death is not released.

2011 A species of Afrotropical spider is named in honor of composer Brian Eno. The creature is called Pseudocorinna brianeno.

2009 Gerard Way (of My Chemical Romance) becomes a father when wife Lyn-Z (of Mindless Self Indulgence) gives birth to daughter Bandit Lee.

2004 At a radio station-sponsored show in Sydney, Vines lead singer Craig Nicholls has a meltdown on stage, yelling at fans and kicking at a photographer, who files assault charges against him. It's one of many on-stage outbursts for Nicholls since the band rose to fame in 2002. Before his trail, he's diagnosed with Asperger syndrome, which helps clear him of the charges and leads him to a path where he's better able to manage his mental health.

2004 The Bee Gees are made Commanders of the Order of the British Empire by Prince Charles at Buckingham Palace; Maurice's son Adam accepts on behalf of his father, who'd just died six months earlier.

2003 Italian composer Luciano Berio dies at age 77.

1999 Lionel Richie and his wife Diane Alexander have their first child, Miles Brockman.

1990 The Stone Roses play a concert on Spike Island, an abandoned chemical plant in Widnes, Cheshire, England, that draws 28,000 fans and comes to define the Madchester movement, inspiring Oasis and Pulp, who released a song about it in 2025 called "Spike Island."

1988 The Monsters of Rock tour, with a lineup of Metallica, Van Halen, Scorpions and Dokken, kicks off with a show at the Alpine Valley Music Theatre in Wisconsin. Metallica emerge super-sized, and soon after the tour release their album ...And Justice for All. Dokken, strained from infighting and exhaustion, break up after the tour.

1987 U2's concert in Rome sets off earthquake alarms as a result of the noise level.

1977 The Sex Pistols' "God Save The Queen" is released, selling about 150,000 copies in a week despite being nightparted on BBC's Radio 1 and declined by some record stores.