Calendar Search Results: on the mar
November 2, 1978 Alice Cooper appears on The Muppet Show, where he performs "Welcome to My Nightmare" and "School's Out." He also offers to give the Muppets fame and riches if they'll sign their souls over to him. Kermit is horrified. Gonzo spends the entire episode looking for a pen.
October 24, 1978 The movie version of The Wiz, which debuted as a Broadway stage production in 1975, hits theaters. The all-black cast includes Diana Ross as Dorothy and Michael Jackson as the Scarecrow. The film marks Jackson's acting debut.
October 7, 1978 Merle Haggard marries his third wife: Leona Williams, a bass player and singer with Loretta Lynn. The marriage lasts six years.
October 6, 1978 ABBA members Benny and Anni-Frid split after three years of marriage. The group's other male-female pair had been married in 1971.
August 23, 1978 The Strokes frontman Julian Casablancas is born in New York City. His parents are business mogul John Casablancas, founder of Elite Model Management, and Jeanette Christiansen, a Danish model who was crowned Miss Denmark of 1965. In 2001, Julian's band reinvents guitar rock with their debut album, Is This It.
July 24, 1978 The film Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band opens in America, and it tanks hard. Savaged by critics, it becomes a legendary Hollywood flop despite appearances by Peter Frampton, Billy Preston, Aerosmith and The Bee Gees.More
July 1, 1978 The Texxas Jam takes place at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas, Texas, with Aerosmith, Van Halen, Journey and Ted Nugent performing. 80,000 fans brave the 100 degree heat, cooled down by fire hoses brought in by the organizers. For Aerosmith, it marks a low point in their career as drug use and infighting are about to break up the band, and their performance suffers.
May 8, 1978 Donny Osmond gets married at the age of 21 to Debra Glenn. The union is bad for his career as his teen fanbase loses interest when he's no longer an eligible bachelor, but it's great for his personal life. The couple enjoys a happy marriage and welcomes five children.
April 22, 1978 Bob Marley headlines the historic One Love Peace Concert in Jamaica, the singer's first appearance in his home country since an assassination attempt two years before. At the concert, Marley manages to unite Jamaican Prime Minister Michael Manley with rival Edward Seaga, who had both been using local warlords to battle for power.
March 22, 1978 A Beatles parody special called The Rutles: All You Need Is Cash, airs on ABC. The special stars various members of the Monty Python troupe. It also features cameo appearances by George Harrison, Mick Jagger, Paul Simon and many Saturday Night Live cast members. More
December 23, 1977 Cat Stevens converts to Islam and changes his name to Yusuf Islam.More
December 17, 1977 Elvis Costello gets banned from Saturday Night Live when he abruptly halts his performance of "Less Than Zero" and plays the searing "Radio Radio" instead.More
December 14, 1977 At the peak of the disco era, the film Saturday Night Fever opens in theaters. The soundtrack contains two previous #1 hits and four new ones.More
December 6, 1977 Jackson Browne releases Running On Empty, a live album compiled from performances at various stops on his summer tour. Live albums typically rely on songs that have already been released, but this one features all new songs, the first major rock album to do so.More
October 21, 1977 Meat Loaf releases the landmark album Bat Out Of Hell. Written by Jim Steinman and produced by Todd Rundgren, it's one of the most popular albums of the '70s, eventually selling over 14 million copies in America.
October 3, 1977 The TV event Elvis In Concert, filmed just weeks before The King's death, is shown on CBS, with good friend Ann-Margret hosting. It shocks many with the depiction of a bloated and drug-addled Elvis Presley in his final days.
October 1, 1977 #1 on the Hot 100 is "Star Wars Theme/Cantina Band" by Meco. It's a 15-minute song made up of Star Wars music set to a disco beat. There's even an R2-D2 bleeping solo.More
September 29, 1977 David Bowie sets up a trust fund for Rolan Bolan, the son of the recently deceased Marc Bolan, Bowie's close friend and frontman of glam rock band T. Rex.
September 11, 1977 Rapper Ludacris is born Christopher Brian Bridges in Champaign, Illinois. In his teens, he moves with his mother to Atlanta, Georgia, where he makes his mark in music.
September 3, 1977 The Grateful Dead, with support acts The Marshall Tucker Band and New Riders Of The Purple Sage, headline a show at Raceway Park in Englishtown, New Jersey, that lasts 11 hours and sets an American non-festival record for a ticketed concert with 107,019 in attendance. That record stands until 2024 when it's broken by George Strait.
August 27, 1977 Jimmy Buffett marries his second wife, Jane Slagsvol, of Columbia, South Carolina, who had co-written two of his songs, "Something So Feminine About A Mandolin" and "Kick It In Second Wind." They remain married today.
August 27, 1977 Jackson Browne plays the Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia, Maryland. His performances of "Running On Empty" and "The Load Out/Stay" from the show are released on the album Running on Empty.
August 5, 1977 The Police, The Damned and The Clash play the second Mont de Marsen Punk Festival, held at a bullring in France.
June 30, 1977 Marvel Comics publishes a Kiss comic book with a vial of their blood mixed into the ink.More
June 18, 1977 Tina Weymouth and Chris Frantz, the bass player and drummer (respectively) of Talking Heads, get married. It sticks, and in 2002 they become the first married couple inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame when the band is inducted.
June 15, 1977 Former 5th Dimension singers Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis, Jr. host a summer TV variety series on CBS. They are the first African American married couple to host a network television series.
June 1, 1977 Bob Marley and The Wailers play the first of four nights at the Rainbow Theatre in London. There are six nights booked at the Rainbow, but the last two shows are called off because of a serious toe injury Marley sustained in a friendly soccer game with French journalists just before the tour's start in Paris. Subsequently, the tour's second leg in the United States is postponed and then canceled.
May 25, 1977 George Lucas' space opera Star Wars debuts in theaters, accompanied by an instantly iconic score from John Williams.
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May 12, 1977 The Sex Pistols sign with Virgin Records for £15,000 after being dropped by both EMI and A&M. This one takes, and Virgin issues their landmark album, Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols. "I've always liked Richard Branson because, pompous rich t--t that he is, he has a great sense of rebelliousness," lead singer Johnny Rotten says.
February 8, 1977 Television release their debut album, Marquee Moon. It doesn't chart in the US but is later hailed by many critics as landmark, with a guitar sound that influences a number of New Wave and rock acts.
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