5 OCTOBER
Featured Events
2012 Adele posts her new theme to Skyfall, the 23rd film in the James Bond series. The theme song, written by Adele and her songwriting partner Paul Epworth, features a 77-piece backing orchestra. In an informal Billboard poll, 69% of responses vote it the best theme to a Bond film ever.
2000 Gilmore Girls debuts on The WB with an updated version of Carole King's "Where You Lead" as its theme song. Reflecting the show's mother-daughter theme, King sings the song with her daughter Louise Goffin.More
1987 Bruce Springsteen releases his album Tunnel Of Love. He got married for the first time two years earlier, but there are few signs of domestic bliss in the songs. [The release date is often listed as October 9, but news clips from the time show that October 5 is correct.]More
1979 ABBA visits the White House while on tour for the first and only time in America. They meet President Carter's daughter Amy, who is a big fan.
1978 Dolly Parton becomes the first country singer to pose for Playboy.More
1962 Parlophone releases the first Beatles single, "Love Me Do," in the UK. Radio Luxembourg puts it on the air, marking the first time a Beatles single is played on the radio.
5 OCTOBER
In Music History
2014 Leonard Delaney (drummer for The Tornadoes) dies at age 71 after a lengthy battle with Alzheimer's disease.
2011 Steve Jobs, Apple founder and music industry visionary, passes away at age 56 after a battle with pancreatic cancer.
2011 The Martin Scorsese documentary George Harrison: Living in the Material World premieres on HBO. Ringo Starr says in the film: "He had the bag of love-beads personality and the bag of anger."
2011 Scottish Folk-Guitar master Bert Jansch dies at age 67. He was a big influence on Led Zeppelin and Neil Young.
2008 After 17 years living as a couple, Ritchie Blackmore and Candice Night finally tie the knot. Blackmore is formerly of the bands Deep Purple and Rainbow. Night and Blackmore were brought together through a shared love of Renaissance music and together form the band Blackmore's Night, which enjoys nominal success as a British traditional folk / Renaissance music project.
2007 A federal jury finds a Minnesota woman guilty of online music file sharing through the public service KaZaa, fining her $220,000.
2006 Jeffrey Borer, owner of the company that sold Michael Jackson his private Gulfstream jet, is sentenced to six months in prison for ordering employee Arvel Jett Reeves to install two video cameras in it in order to catch Jackson saying something for which he could be blackmailed.
2003 Irish singer-songwriter Damien Rice collects the third annual Shortlist Music Prize, climaxing a four-and-a-half hour concert, featuring Rice and seven of the nine nominees at the Wiltern Theatre in Los Angeles. Styled as a US equivalent to Britain's Mercury Prize, the Shortlist Prize honors cutting-edge performers whose latest albums have sold less than 500,000 copies at the time of their nomination.
2002 Kelly Clarkson's "A Moment Like This" goes from #52 to #1 on the Hot 100, breaking the record for biggest leap to the top spot. The previous record was held by The Beatles, whose "Can't Buy Me Love" went from #27 to #1. Maroon 5 beat Clarkson's record in 2007 when "It Makes Me Wonder" rose to the summit from #64.
2001 After months of wrangling over child support, rapper Eminem's divorce becomes official.
2001 Reba McEntire's TV show Reba premieres on the WB network. The show runs for 6 seasons.
1999 Paul McCartney releases Run Devil Run in the US.
1999 After breaking up in 1983, The Who reform when Roger Daltrey announces that they will play a concert in Las Vegas.
1999 The Corrs perform live on MTV's Unplugged at Ardmore Studios in Wicklow, Ireland. The resulting CD and DVD have sold well over 2 million copies.
1998 HBO is the home of the world premiere of Janet Jackson's new music video "Every Time." The premiere takes place just before the 8 p.m. showing of William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet and serves as a prelude to HBO's premiere of the live concert special from Madison Square Garden, Janet: The Velvet Rope.
Bobby Darin Hits #1 With A Murder Ballad
1959Bobby Darin's swinging version of "Mack the Knife," a song about a killer from The Threepenny Opera, hits #1 on the Hot 100 and stays there for an astonishing nine weeks. Darin, who is known for lighter fare like "Splish Splash," gains a more adult following, putting him on par with Frank Sinatra.
The song was written by the German composers Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht (as "Moritat") for the play, which opened in Berlin in 1928. In 1933, The Threepenny Opera came to Broadway, but flopped. A 1954 revival was more successful, and the cast album got the attention of many musicians in the area. "Mack The Knife" was the standout track, but a bit gruesome, since it's about a dude named Macheath who enjoys stabbing people. In 1956, six different versions made the Hot 100, including a delicious guitar instrumental by Les Paul. The only one with vocals is by Louis Armstrong, who somehow softened the edges with his signature growl. Darin lightened the song by making it swing, turning this Macheath character into one hip (albeit murderous) cat. He didn't think it was suitable as a single, but his boss - Ahmet Ertegun of Atlantic Records - did. Released as the follow-up to his hit "Dream Lover," it becomes the biggest hit of 1959, sending Darin to a new stratum of stardom.
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