Calendar Search Results: hot song
January 20, 1982 While performing at the Veterans Memorial Auditorium in Des Moines, Iowa, Ozzy Osbourne bites the head off a bat.More
October 3, 1981 Two months after MTV's debut, Blue Öyster Cult's "Burnin' For You" reaches its peak of #40 in the US - their first Top 40 since "(Don't Fear) The Reaper" - thanks to a video shot in a Los Angeles culvert. Few American acts are making videos, so established rockers like BÖC and REO Speedwagon can get airtime. This changes a few years later when more photogenic artists make videos on a regular basis.
August 15, 1981 "Endless Love," a duet between Diana Ross and Lionel Richie, tops the Hot 100 for the first of nine weeks. It's the theme song from a movie of the same name, starring Brooke Shields.More
August 1, 1981 MTV goes on the air, bringing music videos to the masses - at least the ones with cable.More
July 17, 1981 Universal Pictures releases the romantic drama Endless Love, starring Brooke Shields. The film is quickly forgotten, but the theme song, a duet by Lionel Richie and Diana Ross, spends nine weeks at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and earns Richie an Academy Award nomination for Best Song.
June 20, 1981 Gary U.S. Bonds, last seen on the Hot 100 in 1962, reaches #11 with "This Little Girl," written for him by longtime admirer Bruce Springsteen.
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 Paris Hilton is born in New York City. An heir to the Hilton Hotels empire, she becomes famous as a socialite and reality TV star, then moves into music with the 2006 single "Stars Are Blind," which charts worldwide.
January 22, 1981 The John Lennon tribute issue of Rolling Stone is published with the famous Annie Leibovitz photo of a naked Lennon embracing a fully-clothed Yoko Ono. Lennon's full interview is not published by the magazine until 2010.More
January 15, 1981 Stevie Wonder leads a rally in Washington to get Martin Luther King's birthday declared an official holiday. He performs his song "Happy Birthday," written for King, which becomes a rallying call for the movement.More
December 19, 1980 9 to 5, starring Dolly Parton and featuring the classic theme song by the singer (where she uses her fingernails as an instrument), opens in theaters. Parton, in her first acting role, stars alongside Lily Tomlin and Jane Fonda as disgruntled secretaries who get even with their sexist boss.More
December 9, 1980 The airwaves are filled with the music of John Lennon, who was shot and killed the previous evening. In Philadelphia, Bruce Springsteen opens his concert by telling the crowd, "It's hard to come out here and play tonight, but there's nothing else to do."
December 8, 1980 John Lennon, 40 years old, is shot and killed outside his apartment in New York City.More
December 8, 1980 Annie Leibovitz photographs John Lennon and Yoko Ono at their apartment in New York City for a feature in Rolling Stone. Lennon is shot and killed hours later.
November 15, 1980 "Lady," written by Lionel Richie, becomes a #1 Hot 100 hit for Kenny Rogers. It stays at the top for six weeks.
October 25, 1980 Barbra Streisand's "Woman In Love" hits #1 on the Hot 100. The song is written by two of the Bee Gees: Barry and Robin Gibb.
August 5, 1980 Pat Benatar releases her second album, Crimes Of Passion. "Hit Me With Your Best Shot" is the big hit, but her Young Rascals cover "You Better Run" gets a music video that becomes the second one aired on MTV (after "Video Killed The Radio Star") when the network launches a year later.
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
March 22, 1980 Pink Floyd tops the Hot 100 with "Another Brick In The Wall (part II)," which stays a total of four weeks. It's a rare hit single for the band, whose only other Top 40 appearance is "Money," which hit #13 in 1973.More
February 27, 1980 Michael Jackson wins his first Grammy: Best R&B Performance for "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough." Other winners include Donna Summer (Best Female Rock Vocal Performance for "Hot Stuff"), Earth, Wind & Fire (Best R&B Group Vocal Performance for "After the Love Has Gone"), and The Doobie Brothers (Record of the Year and Song of the Year for "What A Fool Believes").
December 3, 1979 Before The Who concert at Riverfront Coliseum in Cincinnati, 11 people are trampled to death and dozens are injured in a rush to enter the arena. Like many concerts of the day, there are no reserved seats, a practice known as "festival seating." The resulting controversy (and lawsuits) force promoters to rethink the practice.More
November 14, 1979 Hot on the heels of his wildly successful Rust Never Sleeps album, Neil Young releases Live Rust, an album of live performances from the Rust Never Sleeps tour.
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
August 20, 1979 Bob Dylan, a recent convert to Christianity, releases the faith-driven album Slow Train Coming. It includes "Gotta Serve Somebody," which peaks at #24, becoming Dylan's last single to crack the top 40 in the US.More
July 14, 1979 Donna Summer's "Bad Girls," a song about prostitutes, hits #1 in America.More
June 12, 1979 Electropop singer Robyn is born Robin Miriam Carlsson in Stockholm, Sweden. In 1995 the 16-year-old releases her debut album, Robyn Is Here, which yields her first pair of Top 10 hits on the Billboard Hot 100: "Do You Know (What It Takes)" and "Show Me Love."
March 10, 1979 Gloria Gaynor's "I Will Survive" hits #1 on the Hot 100. It becomes a female-empowerment anthem, but the song was written by two men.More
October 13, 1978 Queen release their "Fat Bottomed Girls"/"Bicycle Race" single, featuring a cover photo that combines imagery from both songs.More
October 5, 1978 Dolly Parton becomes the first country singer to pose for Playboy.More
September 30, 1978 Exile's "Kiss You All Over" hits #1 on the Hot 100, where it stays for four weeks. The group doesn't place another song higher than #40 ("You Thrill Me"), but returns as a country act in the '80s and score 10 Country chart-toppers.
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