Calendar Search Results: i he w
April 3, 1961 Eddie Murphy is born in New York City. In 1985, he has a hit with "Party All The Time," written and produced by Rick James. Murphy also makes the charts with the novelty song "Put Your Mouth On Me" and the Michael Jackson collaboration "Whatzupwitu."
April 1, 1961 Mark White, guitarist and keyboardist for the English new wave group ABC, is born in Sheffield, Yorkshire, England.
March 25, 1961 Elvis Presley plays a benefit for the USA Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, which turns out to be his last concert for eight years as he shifts his focus to movies.
March 20, 1961 Elvis Presley's "Surrender" hits #1 for the first of two weeks.
March 12, 1961 Elvis Presley records "I'm Coming Home," "Gently," "In Your Arms," "Give Me The Right," "I Feel So Bad," "It's A Sin," "I Want You With Me," "There's Always Me"
March 9, 1961 The Supremes' first single, "I Want A Guy," is released. Despite a push from their label, Motown, it flops, as does their next several singles.
February 27, 1961 Chubby Checker's "Pony Time" hits #1 in America for the first of five weeks.
February 25, 1961 Elvis Presley plays the first of two charity shows in Memphis. It's his first concert since entering the army in 1958.
February 16, 1961 Andy Taylor (guitarist for Duran Duran) is born in Cullercoats, Northumberland, England. He later joins supergroup The Power Station while Duran Duran are on hiatus. The success of his new venture persuades him to leave the band he helped form as a teenager.
February 15, 1961 Jackie Wilson is shot in Manhattan. The following issue of Melody Maker carries the front page headline Girl Fan Shoots Jackie Wilson, but controversy over the incident persists in spite of Wilson's claim that this is what really happened.
February 14, 1961 The Platters sue Mercury Records for breach of contract in Chicago, citing the record label's refusal to pay royalties for songs on which leader Tony Williams does not, in fact, sing lead.
February 13, 1961 Henry Rollins is born Henry Garfield in Washington, DC. A die-hard punk fan from an early age, he becomes Black Flag's lead singer in 1981. When that group dissolves in 1986, he launches the Rollins Band and builds a second career as a writer, spoken-word artist, and actor (catch him on Season 2 of Sons of Anarchy).
February 13, 1961 Lawrence Welk's "Calcutta" hits #1 for the first of two weeks.
February 9, 1961 The Beatles, with a lineup of Paul McCartney, John Lennon, George Harrison, bass player Stuart Sutcliffe and drummer Pete Best, play the Cavern Club in Liverpool for the first time, earning £5 for the lunchtime gig. They become regulars at the club, where they end up doing 291 more shows.
February 8, 1961 Sam Llanas (vocalist, guitarist of The BoDeans) is born in Wisconsin.
February 8, 1961 Motley Crue lead singer Vince Neil is born in Los Angeles. His distinctive vocals and commanding stage presence help them rise to the top of the hair metal mountain, but he has a tempestuous relationship with his bandmates. He leaves the group in 1992, returning in 1997.
February 4, 1961 Johnny Burnette is rushed to Hollywood's Cedars of Lebanon Hospital to undergo an emergency appendectomy. The medical crisis forces Burnette, then on the charts with "You're Sixteen," to cancel $10,000 worth of domestic engagements and postpone a European tour.
February 3, 1961 Bob Dylan makes his first recordings after moving from Minnesota to New York City, at the home of friends Sid and Bob Gleason in East Orange, New Jersey. They include versions of "San Francisco Bay Blues" and "Jesus Met The Woman At The Well."
January 30, 1961 Songwriters Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller announce that they are forming their own independent production company.
January 30, 1961 The Shirelles' "Will You Love Me Tomorrow?" hits #1 in America. It's the first big hit for the songwriting team of Gerry Goffin and Carole King.
January 29, 1961 Eddie Jackson (bassist for Queensryche) is born in Robstown, Texas.
January 29, 1961 Five days after arriving in New York from Minnesota, Bob Dylan meets his ailing folk hero, Woody Guthrie, tracking him down in East Orange, New Jersey. Dylan pays tribute with "Song To Woody," which appears on his first album the following year.More
January 27, 1961 Margo Timmins (lead vocalist of Cowboy Junkies) is born in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. She is one of six children, including brothers Michael and Peter, who become her bandmates.
January 24, 1961 Mel Blanc, who was the voice of Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck and many other cartoon favorites, gets in a horrible car accident on a stretch of road in Los Angeles known as "Dead Man's Curve." Hearing the news, Roger Christian is inspired to write a song about the treacherous turn.
January 24, 1961 Bob Dylan arrives in New York after dropping out of the University of Minnesota. He immediately gets to work, playing a show at the club Cafe Wha? in Greenwich Village.
January 23, 1961 Nina Simone's "Trouble in Mind" peaks at #92, where it will stay for one week.
January 19, 1961 The night before John F. Kennedy's inauguration, Frank Sinatra throws a star-studded gala to eradicate the Democratic Party's $2 million campaign debt. With the help of Peter Lawford, fellow Rat Packer and husband of JFK's sister Patricia, Sinatra enlists elite entertainers for the evening, including Nat King Cole, Harry Belafonte, Gene Kelly, Ethel Merman, and actors Laurence Olivier, Janet Leigh, Tony Curtis, and Bette Davis.More
January 15, 1961 The Supremes sign with Motown Records. Along with Mary Wilson, Diana Ross and Florence Ballard, there is a fourth member, Barbara Martin, who leaves a year later. All except Martin are under 18 (Ross is 16) and need parental consent, which is granted after label boss Berry Gordy and his sister, Esther, win over their parents.
December 28, 1960 The Connie Francis movie Where The Boys Are is released. The movie - risqué for its time - is about four college girls on Spring Break. It leads to a whole genre of Spring Break movies and popularizes Fort Lauderdale, Florida, where it was shot, as the destination of choice.
December 27, 1960 Returning from Hamburg, Germany, The Beatles play a show in their hometown of Liverpool, England, with Chas Newby filling in for Stu Sutcliffe, who stays in Germany and never rejoins the band. The show gets a lot of attention, and is an early taste of Beatlemania.
©2026 Songfacts®, LLC