Calendar Search Results: art songs
October 3, 1981 Rod Stewart brings out special guest Tina Turner to join him on (what else) "Hot Legs" during his appearance on Saturday Night Live.More
September 25, 1981 The Rolling Stones start their US tour with a concert at JFK Stadium in Philadelphia, where they play to a crowd of 90,000. The tour is sponsored by musk maker Jovan, establishing a new paradigm for corporate involvement.More
September 19, 1981 Thanks to MTV airplay for the lead single "Start Me Up," the Rolling Stones album Tattoo You goes to #1 in America, where it stays for nine weeks. It's their last #1 album in the US.
August 19, 1981 Chris Lowe and Neil Tennant meet at an electronics shop in London and start talking synthesizers. They form Pet Shop Boys, and five years later land their first hit with "West End Girls."
July 20, 1981 Journey release Escape, their most popular album. The ballad "Open Arms" is the highest charting single, but "Don't Stop Believin'" is the one that endures, becoming one of the biggest songs of all time.
June 15, 1981 Billy Martin (guitarist/keyboardist for Good Charlotte) is born in Annapolis, Maryland.
April 21, 1981 Weird Al Yankovic (along with his drummer, Jon "Bermuda" Schwartz) makes his TV debut, playing the Queen parody "Another One Rides The Bus" on Tom Snyder's The Tomorrow Show.
March 28, 1981 Blondie's "Rapture" hits #1 on the Hot 100, becoming the first chart-topper with a rap.More
February 21, 1981 REO Speedwagon's ninth album, Hi Infidelity, goes to #1 in America, displacing John Lennon's Double Fantasy.More
February 17, 1981 Eric Clapton releases his seventh solo album, Another Ticket. The first version was rejected by his record company so Clapton started over with a new producer (Tom Dowd) and wrote new songs, including the hit single "I Can't Stand It."
December 25, 1980 Michael Jackson calls Paul McCartney to wish him Merry Christmas and suggest they write some songs together. They end up recording three duets together (including the lead single to Thriller), but their friendship ends when Jackson buys the publishing rights to many of the Beatles songs co-written by McCartney.More
December 20, 1980 "(Just Like) Starting Over" gives John Lennon his first #1 single as a solo artist in the UK, 12 days after his murder.
November 21, 1980 The morning after throwing a farewell party for his band the Eagles at his Los Angeles home, Don Henley is arrested after calling 911 to get treatment for a 16-year-old prostitute who was apparently having a seizure.More
September 23, 1980 Bob Marley plays his final concert: a 20-song set at the Stanley Theater in Pittsburgh with his group, The Wailers.More
August 19, 1980 "The Breaks" by Kurtis Blow becomes the first rap single certified Gold.More
August 8, 1980 The fantasy musical Xanadu, starring Olivia Newton-John and Gene Kelly, debuts to scathing reviews ("In a word, Xana-don't.") and inspires the Golden Raspberry Awards for the worst films of the year. But it has a killer soundtrack thanks to "Magic."More
June 6, 1980 Urban Cowboy, a Western romance film starring John Travolta and Debra Winger, opens in theaters. The mellow country soundtrack spawns hits from Kenny Rogers, Johnny Lee, and Anne Murray, and spurs a trend of pop-leaning fare in country music dubbed the "Urban Cowboy Movement."More
April 6, 1980 Andrew Wood forms the group Malfunkshun in Seattle, Washington, marking what some consider the beginning of grunge. The music of Malfunkshun makes an impact on Wood's roommate Chris Cornell, who forms Soundgarden. Wood moves on to Mother Love Bone, and after he dies of a heart attack in 1990, that group adds Eddie Vedder and becomes Pearl Jam.
March 29, 1980 Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of The Moon spends its 303rd week on the US album chart beating the record by Carole King's 1971 long player Tapestry.
February 7, 1980 At the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena, Pink Floyd stage the first production of The Wall, an immersive concert performance in which a giant wall is erected on stage as the band plays, representing the alienation between audience and performer.More
January 28, 1980 Nick Carter of Backstreet Boys is born in Jamestown, New York. He is just 13 when he joins the boy band in 1993.
January 14, 1980 Rush release Permanent Waves, their seventh studio album. "The Spirit of Radio" and "Freewill" help make it their first to reach the Top 5 on the US albums chart, where it peaks at #4. The album represents a new direction for the band, with songs becoming denser and more radio friendly, setting the stage for the upcoming Moving Pictures.
December 29, 1979 Paul McCartney's band Wings plays their final show ever during the finale of The Concerts For The People Of Kampuchea benefit series at London's Hammersmith Odeon. McCartney co-organized the concert series, which kicked off December 26, 1979, and also featured performances by Queen, The Who, The Clash, Rockpile and others. After Wings' set at the December 29 concert, the band was joined by a variety of other famous musicians to perform a few songs as an all-star "Rockestra."
December 26, 1979 The Concerts For The People Of Kampuchea benefit series, co-organized by Paul McCartney, premieres at London's Hammersmith Odeon with a performance by Queen. The series, which runs through December 29, also features performances by McCartney and his band Wings, The Who, The Clash, Rockpile and an all-star "Rockestra."
November 10, 1979 "Rapper's Delight" by The Sugarhill Gang becomes first rap song to hit the Billboard Hot 100, entering the chart at #84.More
November 2, 1979 The Who's musical film Quadrophenia, featuring a small part played by Sting, opens in US theaters.
October 24, 1979 The Guinness Book of World Records presents Paul McCartney with a special rhodium album for being the best-selling songwriter in the history of recorded music, having written 43 platinum songs and sold over 100 million records.
October 19, 1979 Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers' third album, Damn The Torpedoes, is released. It includes the band's first two Top 20 hits, "Don't Do Me Like That" and "Refugee," and well as the popular songs "Here Comes My Girl" and "Even The Losers." The album reaches #2 in the US, and becomes Petty & the Heartbreakers' most-successful non-compilation record there, selling over 3 million copies.
September 24, 1979 The Eagles release their sixth album, The Long Run. The lead single is "Heartache Tonight," a song co-written by Bob Seger.
September 21, 1979 Bruce Springsteen debuts his song "The River" at a show in Madison Square Garden. He is performing as part of Musicians United For Safe Energy (MUSE) in a protest against nuclear power. Other artists that go on before him have to contend with the constant droning of "Broooooooooooooce," as he's the main attraction. Bonnie Raitt doesn't figure out until after her set that the crowd was not booing her, just anticipating Springsteen's performance.
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