18 OCTOBER
In Music History
1979 Police break up a 15-man robbery ring set up in the parking lot of Madison Square Garden during an Earth, Wind & Fire concert at the venue.
1979 After a series of renovations, New York's legendary venue Radio City Music Hall re-opens with a showing of its first film, Disney's Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs.
1975 Rapper Baby Bash is born Ronnie Ray Bryant in Vallejo, California. Known for songs like "Cyclone," featuring T-Pain, and "What Is It," featuring Sean Kingston.
1975 John Denver's album Windsong hits #1 in America.
1974 Peter Svensson (main songwriter/guitarist for The Cardigans) is born in Huskvarna, Sweden.
1969 The Jackson 5 make their national TV debut, performing "I Want You Back" on the ABC variety show Hollywood Palace. In January 1970, the song tops the Hot 100.
1969 The Temptations' "I Can't Get Next To You" hits #1 for the first of two weeks.
1969 Rod Stewart joins Faces, formerly known as Small Faces.
1967 The Richard Lester movie How I Won The War, an antiwar satire featuring John Lennon in the role of Pvt. Gripweed, opens at London's Premiere Theatre, with all four Beatles attending.
1967 Louis Armstrong, 66 years old, releases "What a Wonderful World." It goes to #1 in the UK, but takes a lot longer to catch on in his home country of America, where it doesn't make much impact until 1988 when it's used in the film Good Morning, Vietnam.
1966 The Jimi Hendrix Experience play their first major gig, supporting the French pop star Johnny Hallyday at the Olympia Theatre in Paris.
1964 The Animals begin their first UK tour as headliners, playing the ABC Club in Manchester with supporting acts Carl Perkins, Gene Vincent, The Nashville Teens, and Tommy Tucker.
1964 At a nine-hour session at Abbey Road Studios, The Beatles record "Eight Days A Week," "Kansas City"/"Hey-Hey-Hey-Hey!," "Mr. Moonlight," "I Feel Fine," "I'll Follow The Sun," "Everybody's Trying To Be My Baby," "Rock And Roll Music," and "Words Of Love."
1963 Chuck Berry is released from prison after serving 20 months for a Mann Act violation (transporting a minor across state lines for immoral purposes).
1961 Wynton Marsalis, jazz trumpeter, composer and teacher, is born in New Orleans, Louisiana. Won the 1997 Pulitzer Prize for Music for Blood on the Fields, a three-and-a-half hour jazz oratorio telling the story of a couple finding freedom from slavery.
Second SNL Is Paul Simon's Show
1975Saturday Night Live airs its second episode, hosted by Paul Simon, who gets most of the airtime.
Read more18 OCTOBER
Featured Events
2008 Adele is the musical guest on Saturday Night Live, performing "Cold Shoulder" and "Chasing Pavements." Sarah Palin is on the show, which leads to a huge audience and lots of exposure for Adele, giving her a big boost in America.
2000 Rage Against The Machine lead singer Zack De La Rocha quits the politically charged rock outfit, releasing a statement saying, "Our decision-making process has completely failed. It is no longer meeting the aspirations of all four of us collectively as a band, and from my perspective, has undermined our artistic and political ideal." The other three members form Audioslave with Chris Cornell; Rage returns to action (with De La Rocha) in 2007.
1974 Al Green's "Grits Incident": When a stewardess friend of Green's shows up to meet the singer, he ends up at his Memphis home with her and his companion, Mary Woodson, who is dangerously obsessed with the singer. When Green goes into the bathroom to brush his teeth, Woodson bursts in and pours a pot of boiling grits on him, burning him badly before going in the next room and killing herself with his gun. Green takes these disturbing events as a sign from God and focuses his career on gospel music and preaching.More
1969 Promoter Richard Nader puts on the first "Rock and Roll Revival" concerts, with performances by Chuck Berry, The Coasters, The Shirelles, Sha Na Na and Bill Haley. Held at Madison Square Garden's Felt Forum, the two shows sell out, leading to a series of similar concerts and the emergence of the "oldies" format.More
1961 Mirisch Pictures releases the film version of the Broadway musical West Side Story, starring Natalie Wood, Richard Beymer, and Rita Moreno. The soundtrack features music by Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim - including the song "Somewhere," later recorded by Tom Waits, Aretha Franklin, Josh Groban, Kylie Minogue, and others.
1947 Celebrated songwriter Laura Nyro, whose compositions include "Wedding Bell Blues" and "And When I Die," is born in New York City. She dies of cancer in 1997 at age 49; in 2012 she is inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
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