15 OCTOBER
In Music History
1987 Joe Satriani's second full-length solo album, Surfing with the Alien, is released. The popular all-instrumental album kicks open the door for similarly styled "guitar shred" albums.
1985 Power Windows, Rush's 11th album, is released. It is the last Rush album to achieve Platinum status until Roll the Bones comes out six years later.
1984 The Judds, a mother-daughter duo from Kentucky, upend the "Urban Cowboy Movement" with their throwback debut album, Why Not Me. It yields three #1 Country singles: "Girls' Night Out," "Love Is Alive," and "Why Not Me."More
1983 The debut studio album by Alcatrazz is issued, No Parole from Rock n' Roll, which features guitar work from a then-unknown Yngwie Malmsteen and spawns such melodic metal nuggets as "Island in the Sun" and "Hiroshima Mon Amour."
1980 R&B singer Bobby Lester (of The Moonglows) dies of cancer at age 49.
1977 Debby Boone's "You Light Up My Life" goes to #1 in America, where it stays for 10 weeks, becoming the biggest song of 1977. The song is from a movie of the same name starring Didi Conn as an aspiring singer.
1977 Paul Simon releases "Slip Slidin' Away."
1974 Tom Waits releases his second album, The Heart of Saturday Night. Written as a tribute to Beat novelist Jack Kerouac, its songs celebrate blue collar (and no collar) life lived "cruising the strip" and exploring pool halls, nightclubs, and all-night restaurants. It fails to capture Waits mainstream radio success, but moves him closer to the cult-hero status that will shape his career.
1973 Neil Young releases the live album Time Fades Away.
1973 Stones guitarist Keith Richards is banned from entering France for two years when he is found guilty by a Nice court of using, supplying and trafficking cannabis.
1973 The US Supreme Court upholds, by a 7-2 vote, the 1971 FCC directive that bans radio DJs from playing songs that glorify drugs.
1973 Having experienced respiratory problems for the past four days, Elvis Presley is admitted for two weeks to Memphis' Baptist Memorial Hospital with what is termed "pneumonia." Dr. George Nichopoulos, Elvis's personal physician, discovers his patient's addiction to Demerol.
1970 R&B singer/rapper Ginuwine is born Elgin Baylor Lumpkin in Washington, D.C.
1970 Music video director Chris Cunningham is born in Reading, Berkshire, England. Before working with artists like Björk ("All Is Full Of Love"), Madonna ("Frozen"), and Aphex Twin ("Windowlicker"), Cunningham starts his film career in model-making and prosthetic make-up. Hand-picked by renowned director Stanley Kubrick, he does animatronic work on what becomes the Stephen Spielberg film AI: Artificial Intelligence.More
1969 John Fogerty is inspired to write "Effigy" after President Richard Nixon casually dismisses millions of protesters who show up worldwide for the Moratorium to End the War in Vietnam. "Effigy" becomes the final track on Willy and the Poor Boys and is notable for being the lone song on the album that is not upbeat.
Rick Nelson Gets Booed At The Garden Party
1971Rick Nelson (formerly Ricky) plays the "Rock & Roll Spectacular" concert at Madison Square Garden. When he plays some newer songs, the hit-hungry audience boos. Nelson writes the song "Garden Party" about the experience, and it becomes a hit, reviving his career.
Read more15 OCTOBER
Featured Events
2014 At the St. Louis club Blueberry Hill, Chuck Berry performs for the last time. The rocker, who dies in 2017, played monthly gigs at the venue starting in 1996.
2003 The Louis Armstrong House Museum opens its doors to the public. Located in the Corona neighborhood of Queens, New York, the home was the longtime residence of the late singer. He and wife Lucille Wilson moved in as newlyweds in 1943 and stayed until Armstrong's death in 1971.
1995 Paul McCartney and his wife Linda appear on an episode of The Simpsons where they help Lisa become a vegetarian. Paul explains that if you play "Maybe I'm Amazed" backwards, you'll hear a recipe for lentil soup.
1977 Debby Boone's "You Light Up My Life" hits #1 for the first of 10 weeks, the longest consecutive chart run in the history of the Hot 100 at the time.
1964 Cole Porter dies of kidney failure at age 73. He had suffered with chronic pain since the late-'30s when he was severely injured in a horseback-riding accident, leading to years of operations and an eventual amputation of his right leg.
1960 The famous lineup of The Beatles records together for the first time when Ringo Starr replaces an ailing Pete Best as the group backs up Rory Storm and the Hurricanes guitarist Wally Eymond on a recording of George Gershwin's "Summertime."
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