Calendar Search Results: hot song
May 9, 1960 The birth control pill is introduced in the US, inspiring Loretta Lynn to sing a song about it.More
October 23, 1959 "Weird Al" Yankovic is born Alfred Matthew Yankovic in Downey, California, and raised in Lynwood. He's an architecture student at California Polytechnic State University in 1979 when he gets the idea to spoof The Knack hit "My Sharona" as "My Bologna," leading to a career as the top parody artist in history.More
October 5, 1959 Bobby 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.More
February 3, 1959 Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and J.P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson are killed in a plane crash. Don McLean would call it "The Day the Music Died" in his 1971 hit "American Pie."More
December 22, 1958 The Chipmunks hit #1 on the Hot 100 with the squeaky-clean festive favorite "The Chipmunk Song." It's the last Christmas song to top the chart until "All I Want For Christmas Is You" 61 years later in 2019.More
August 16, 1958 Madonna Louise Ciccone is born in Bay City, Michigan. Shortening her name to a mononym, she becomes the best-selling female singer of all time.More
August 4, 1958 Billboard combines its unwieldy system of five separate sales, jukebox, and DJ charts to make one master chart, the Billboard Hot 100. The first #1 is Ricky Nelson's "Poor Little Fool."
May 3, 1958 The popular disc jockey Alan Freed hosts a rock concert at the Boston Arena (a hockey rink) that does not go well. The city doesn't host another rock concert until 1964.More
January 13, 1958 Marty Robbins' #1 country hit "The Story of My Life" peaks at #15 on the Hot 100. It's the first hit from Burt Bacharach and Hal David, who become one of the most prolific and renowned songwriting duos of the '60s and '70s.
May 16, 1956 Doris Day introduces her signature song, "Que Sera, Sera (Whatever Will Be, Will Be)," in the Alfred Hitchcock thriller The Man Who Knew Too Much.More
April 3, 1956 Elvis Presley performs "Heartbreak Hotel" and "Blue Suede Shoes" onboard the aircraft carrier USS Hancock in San Diego. It's broadcast live on The Milton Berle Show.
November 10, 1955 In his Nashville hotel room, songwriter Mae Axton plays Elvis Presley a demo of a song she's co-written called "Heartbreak Hotel."
July 8, 1954 Dewey Phillips at WHBQ in Memphis becomes the first DJ to play an Elvis Presley song when he spins "That's Alright Mama" on his Red Hot & Blue show. The switchboard lights up, so Phillips keeps playing the song, giving Elvis some prime publicity early in his career.
March 10, 1954 The Threepenny Opera opens at the Theater de Lys in New York's Greenwich Village. A revival of a German production from 1928, the standout scene is when the Street Singer does "Mack The Knife," a song about the murderous Macheath.More
February 26, 1953 Michael Bolton is born Michael Bolotin in New Haven, Connecticut. Before reaching soft-rock stardom, he fronts a hard-rock band called Blackjack.More
January 28, 1953 Derek Bentley is hanged for the murder of Police Constable Sidney Miles, who on November 2, 1952, was shot dead on a Croydon rooftop by 16-year-old Christopher Craig. Christopher Craig, too young to be executed, was paroled in 1963. The murder and trial later become the topic of the Ewan MacColl song "Ballad Of Derek Bentley."
October 7, 1951 John Mellencamp is born in Seymour, Indiana. He has Spina bifida, but survives thanks to an experimental surgery performed at Riley Children's Hospital in Indianapolis.More
May 13, 1950 Stevie Wonder is born Stevland Morris in Saginaw, Michigan.More
December 15, 1949 The Birdland jazz club, named after Charlie Parker, opens in New York City. It quickly becomes a hotspot, with Parker, Miles Davis, John Coltrane and many other luminaries performing there until it closes in 1965.
December 30, 1946 Punk rock icon Patti Smith is born in Chicago. Never all that popular (her big hit is a reworking of "Because The Night," written by Bruce Springsteen), she's one of the most influential singer-songwriter-poets of her time.More
December 25, 1946 Jimmy Buffett is born in Pascagoula, Mississippi. He's raised in Mobile, Alabama, but his true home will always be in "Margaritaville."More
September 2, 1946 Billy Preston is born in Houston, Texas. He is raised in Los Angeles, California. Aside from being a sought-after session musician for acts like The Beatles and The Rolling Stones, the affable performer with the gap-toothed grin becomes a star in his own right with a number of funky hits throughout the '70s.More
July 29, 1946 Jazz great Charlie Parker falls asleep while smoking and sets his hotel bed on fire. He is arrested after wandering through the hotel lobby wearing nothing but socks. The incident leads to a stay at the Camarillo State Hospital (a mental institution), which inspires his song "Relaxin' at Camarillo."
December 11, 1944 Brenda Lee is born Brenda Mae Tarpley in Atlanta, Georgia. Her small stature and big voice inspire the nickname "Little Miss Dynamite," which she lives up to by blowing up the charts with rockabilly bops ("Sweet Nothin's"), pop ballads ("I'm Sorry"), and Christmas tunes ("Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree") throughout the '60s.
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September 12, 1944 R&B singer Barry White is born Barry Eugene Carter in Galveston, Texas. He is raised in South Central Los Angeles.More
January 11, 1942 Clarence Clemons, the saxophone player in Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band, is born in Virginia.More
July 27, 1940 Billboard issues its first chart detailing what records are selling the most copies. Titled "National List of Best Selling Retail Records," it's a precursor to the Hot 100 and the first to count record sales (the existing charts are for sheet music sales, jukebox play and radio plugs). It's not an exact science, as Billboard polls record stores to find out what is selling - a practice that stays in effect until the '90s, when call-a-clerk is replaced with Soundscan technology. The first chart is dominated by big band hits, with "I'll Never Smile Again" by Tommy Dorsey (featuring Frank Sinatra on vocals) at #1 and three songs by Glenn Miller in the Top 10.
February 17, 1940 Gene Pitney is born in Hartford, Connecticut. He has a string of hits in the '60s, including "(The Man Who Shot) Liberty Valance" and "Only Love Can Break A Heart."
December 12, 1938 Connie Francis is born Concetta Rosa Maria Franconero in Newark, New Jersey. A huge star in the late '50s and early '60s, she becomes the first woman to top the Hot 100 as a solo artist when "Everybody's Somebody's Fool" hits #1 in 1960. In 2025 she returns to the zeitgeist when her 1962 B-side ""Pretty Little Baby" goes viral on TikTok.
April 3, 1938 Songwriter Jeff Barry is born Joel Adelberg in Brooklyn, New York. In 1964, 17 songs he co-wrote make the Hot 100, including three chart-toppers: "Do Wah Diddy Diddy," "Chapel Of Love" and "Leader of the Pack."
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