Calendar Search Results: i was at
February 21, 1982 Murray The K dies at age 60. As a disc jockey in New York City, he held showcase concerts featuring many top acts - Stevie Wonder, The Lovin' Spoonful and The Supremes were just a few of the artists to play his revues. He also was an early champion of The Beatles, hyping the band when they came to America and calling himself "The Fifth Beatle."
February 19, 1982 Ozzy Osbourne urinates on a statue near the Alamo, desecrating a Texas landmark.More
February 15, 1982 The Tennessee General Assembly votes the bluegrass tune "Rocky Top," originally recorded by The Osborne Brothers and made popular by Lynn Anderson, the fifth official state song. It was written by celebrated husband-and-wife songwriting team Felice and Boudleaux Bryant.
January 20, 1982 While performing at the Veterans Memorial Auditorium in Des Moines, Iowa, Ozzy Osbourne bites the head off a bat.More
December 9, 1981 Sonny Til (lead tenor for The Orioles) dies of heart failure and diabetes in Washington, D.C., at age 53.
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 18, 1981 Genesis release their "abstract" album, Abacab, in the UK.More
August 24, 1981 The Rolling Stones release Tattoo You. The big hit from the album is "Start Me Up," which they first recorded with a reggae rhythm in 1977. That version was scrapped, but they rocked it up for Tattoo You with better results.
August 22, 1981 "Girls On Film" hits #5 in the UK, giving Duran Duran their breakthrough hit in Britain. It does not chart on its US release, but surges in popularity after its music video goes into heavy rotation on MTV. The clip, directed by Godley and Creme, has to be heavily edited for TV as it was only intended to be played in nightclubs and features adult themes and nudity.
August 1, 1981 MTV goes on the air, bringing music videos to the masses - at least the ones with cable.More
June 1, 1981 Brandi Carlile is born in the tiny town of Ravensdale, Washington. After dropping out of high school, she cuts her teeth performing in the Seatle music scene and puts out her first album in 2005. As her music gets more refined, her audience grows, and by 2019 she's a consistent Grammy winner with a legion of fans.
May 11, 1981 Bob Marley dies at age 36 after a long battle with cancer.More
May 10, 1981 Kraftwerk release their eighth studio album, Computer World, featuring prescient songs about the influence of computers on society.More
April 4, 1981 Styx hit #1 in the US with Paradise Theatre, a concept album based on the rise and fall of a theatre in Chicago.More
March 28, 1981 Blondie's "Rapture" hits #1 on the Hot 100, becoming the first chart-topper with a rap.More
February 10, 1981 Natalie Cole is trapped in her suite on the 26th floor of the Las Vegas Hilton hotel when it catches fire.More
February 7, 1981 "Celebration" by Kool & the Gang goes to #1. It becomes the de-facto party song to celebrate just about any festive event, but there's a deeper meaning many don't know about: It was inspired by a passage in the Quran where angels gather to celebrate the creation of humankind.
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
January 15, 1981 Phil Collins plays "In The Air Tonight" on Top of the Pops with a paint can and brush nearby as props, seemingly a reference to the painter with whom his first wife cheated on him.More
December 27, 1980 Weeks after his death, John Lennon's "(Just Like) Starting Over" goes to #1 in America.More
December 14, 1980 At Yoko Ono's request, a 10-minute worldwide silent vigil takes place at 2:00 p.m. EST for John Lennon, who was shot and killed six days earlier. Lennon was cremated without a funeral, so the vigil is the public outpouring of support and mourning. A large crowd gathers in Central Park near where Lennon lived with Yoko to take part; this becomes a tradition on each anniversary of Lennon's death.
December 8, 1980 John Lennon, 40 years old, is shot and killed outside his apartment in New York City.More
October 27, 1980 Steve Took, original percussionist of T. Rex, dies in New Kensington, London, at age 31. Although he had taken drugs, his official cause of death was asphyxiation after inhaling a cocktail cherry.
July 25, 1980 AC/DC release Back In Black, their first album without lead singer Bon Scott, who died five months earlier.More
May 16, 1980 Paul McCartney releases McCartney II, which, like most of his first solo album issued 10 years earlier, was recorded at his home studio with Paul playing every instrument. Forty years later, he does it again with McCartney III.
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 Brian Johnson of the band Geordie gets a new, slightly more high-profile gig: replacing the deceased Bon Scott in AC/DC. Johnson's first album with the band is Back In Black, which becomes the second-best selling album worldwide behind Thriller.More
March 7, 1980 The Loretta Lynn biopic Coal Miner's Daughter, directed by Michael Apted, debuts in theaters. Sissy Spacek, who does her own singing, wins an Oscar for her portrayal of the country singer. Beverly D'Angelo costars as Lynn's mentor Patsy Cline.More
February 19, 1980 AC/DC lead singer Bon Scott dies after a night of heavy drinking. The coroner's report lists "acute alcohol poisoning" as the cause of death, classified under "death by misadventure."More
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