Calendar Search Results: na songs
March 11, 1981 LeToya Luckett, one of the four original members of Destiny's Child, is born in Houston, Texas.
February 21, 1981 REO Speedwagon's ninth album, Hi Infidelity, goes to #1 in America, displacing John Lennon's Double Fantasy.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 12, 1981 The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) donates several rock albums to the Library of Congress, including Bob Dylan's Blonde on Blonde and KISS' Alive!
December 31, 1980 Bruce Springsteen plays an epic show at the Nassau Coliseum lasting 4 hours, 38 minutes and covering 38 songs. The best we can tell, it's the longest Springsteen show ever.
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 5, 1980 Speaking with Rolling Stone's Jonathan Cott, John Lennon gives his last print interview; he is killed three days later.
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.
October 3, 1980 Diamond Head, one of the leading bands of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal movement, issue their debut album, Lightning To The Nations. Mega-DH fans Metallica cover five of the album's seven songs over the years: "Am I Evil?", "Helpless," "The Prince," "It's Electric," and "Sucking My Love." Other NWOBHM bands like Iron Maiden, Def Leppard and Saxon eclipse Diamond Head in terms of popularity, but the Metallica covers speak to their influence and ensure their place in history.
September 25, 1980 Rapper T.I. is born Clifford Harris in Atlanta. Gun charges keep him in legal trouble for much of the '00s, but he still manages to release three #1 albums. His biggest year is 2008, when his songs "Live Your Life" and "Whatever You Like" both reach the top.
September 20, 1980 With a re-released "Modern Girl" reaching #8 in the UK, Sheena Easton becomes one of the few British female singers to place two songs in the Top 10 simultaneously ("9 To 5" is also on the charts.)
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
July 19, 1980 Laguna Beach, California's Vorpal Gallery opens a new exhibit featuring paintings by Joni Mitchell, John Mayall, Klaus Voorman, and Ron Wood.
July 18, 1980 Closer, the second and final album from Joy Division, is released just two months after the suicide of founding member and singer Ian Curtis. Its claustrophobic, synth-laden sound, combined with Curtis's nihilistic lyrics make it a defining moment in England's post-punk scene.
July 14, 1980 Malcolm Owen (original singer for Ruts) dies of a heroin overdose at age 26.
July 14, 1980 The combustible couple Glen Campbell and Tanya Tucker open the Republican National Convention in Detroit with a duet of the National Anthem. Campbell later admits they were "higher than the notes we were singing." Other performers at the convention include Vicki Lawrence, Donny & Marie Osmond, and Pat Boone.
May 18, 1980 Battling epilepsy and depression, Joy Division lead singer Ian Curtis hangs himself at his home in England.More
May 2, 1980 At the University of Birmingham, England, Joy Division play what transpires to be their final show, two weeks before singer Ian Curtis commits suicide at the age of 23. The show features the band's only live performance of the song "Ceremony," which is later released as the debut single by New Order - a new act formed from the surviving members.
April 28, 1980 Tommy Caldwell (original frontman for The Marshall Tucker Band) dies at age 30 when his Jeep overturns during an accident.
April 16, 1980 Academy Award-winning composer Morris Stoloff - who worked with the likes of Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis, Jr., and Dinah Shore during his long tenure as music director at Columbia Pictures - dies at age 81.
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").
February 11, 1980 WKRP in Cincinnati, a TV series that takes place at a rock radio station, runs an episode devoted to the tragic events of December 3, 1979 when 11 fans were killed at a Who concert at Riverfront Coliseum in Cincinnati.
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 25, 1980 Alicia Keys is born Alicia Augello Cook in Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan, New York. Her background as a classically trained pianist influences her stage name. "It's like the piano keys," she explains, "And it can open so many doors." Her first album, Songs In A Minor, featuring her own compositions, goes to #1 in 2001.
January 24, 1980 The Ants of Adam & The Ants leave to join Bow Wow Wow, whose manager, the punk godfather Malcolm McLaren, presents the offer. Adam Ant had paid McLaren £1000 for musical advice, for which he learned about African beats, but lost his band, which he quickly replaced.
January 9, 1980 At The Fast Lane in Asbury Park, New Jersey, Bruce Springsteen takes the stage with the cover band Atlantic City Expressway to perform his song "The Promised Land." The group's lead singer is a 17-year-old high school kid named John Bongiovi, who later forms the band Bon Jovi.
January 6, 1980 Georgeanna Tillman (of The Marvelettes) dies of lupus and sickle cell anemia a month shy of her 36th birthday.
January 1, 1980 Cliff Richard becomes just the third rock act honored with an MBE (Member of the British Empire) designation, following The Beatles and Elton John.
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."
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