Calendar Search Results: take it o
September 18, 1961 Bobby Vee's "Take Good Care Of My Baby," written by Carole King and Gerry Goffin, hits #1 for the first of three weeks.
May 29, 1961 Melissa Etheridge is born in Leavenworth, Kansas. Her 1988 self-titled debut album makes an impact with songs like "Bring Me Some Water" and "Like the Way I Do," but her fourth album, Yes I Am, takes her to a new level in 1993 with the hits "I'm the Only One" and "Come to My Window."
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 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
May 9, 1960 The birth control pill is introduced in the US, inspiring Loretta Lynn to sing a song about it.More
November 29, 1959 At the second Annual Grammy Awards, Bobby Darin wins for Best New Artist and also takes the award for Record of the Year for "Mack The Knife," which is still at #1 on the Hot 100. This is the first time the event is televised, and also the only time the ceremony is held at the end of the year instead of early the following year, meaning nothing in December 1959 is Grammy eligible. This faux pas is rectified with awards for 1960 given out in early 1961.
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
May 4, 1959 Country singer Randy Travis is born Randy Bruce Traywick in Marshville, North Carolina. It takes while for him to get a record deal, but when he does, he's off to the races, with 15 #1 Country hits from 1986-1994.
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
August 7, 1958 Bruce Dickinson, who takes over as Iron Maiden's lead singer in 1981, is born in Worksop, Nottinghamshire, England. His soaring vocals lead the band into a new era as they become one of the most popular UK rock bands. Dickinson-sung hits include "Aces High" and "Bring Your Daughter To the Slaughter."
July 30, 1958 Kate Bush is born in Bexleyheath, Kent, England. At 19, she releases her debut single, "Wuthering Heights," which goes to #1 in the UK.More
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
April 13, 1958 Mickey Mantle, Yogi Berra and Whitey Ford sing "Take Me Out To The Ballgame" on The Ed Sullivan Show along with the song's writer, Jack Norworth.
March 24, 1958 Elvis Presley goes to the Memphis Draft Board and enters the United States Army.More
March 17, 1958 The first "Greatest Hits" compilation is released, and it's by Johnny Mathis. It's a huge hit, and the format catches on quickly. The Mathis album stays in the Billboard 200 album chart for over nine years, a record not broken until Pink Floyd's Dark Side Of The Moon.More
October 12, 1957 Little Richard renounces rock and embraces God, telling the crowd at his show in Sydney, Australia: "If you want to live for the Lord, you can't take rock 'n' roll, too. God doesn't like it." After the tour, Richard gives up secular music, gets ordained as a minister, and records Gospel. He doesn't return to rock until 1962.
May 15, 1957 Elvis Presley inhales the cap from one of his teeth and is taken to a Los Angeles hospital to have it removed from his lung.
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
November 9, 1955 The Everly Brothers, recently signed to Columbia as a country act, cut their first tracks in a studio lodged in Nashville's Old Tulane Hotel. The four recordings, which take only 22 minutes to lay down, yield no hits, and the duo is soon dropped from the label.
September 30, 1955 James Dean is killed in a car accident at age 24. Dean dies around the same time rock and roll comes alive (the #1 song the day he dies: Pat Boone's cover of "Ain't That A Shame" - clearly America is at a crossroads).More
September 28, 1955 Louis Armstrong records "Mack the Knife," a song from the play The Threepenny Opera. Armstrong is the first to chart with a vocal version of the song; in 1959, Bobby Darin takes it to #1.
March 28, 1955 Reba McEntire is born in McAlester, Oklahoma. After a slow start in the '70s, she becomes one of the top country singers of the next three decades. "I was always afraid if I didn't use my gift, God would take it away from me and give it to somebody else," she says.
March 15, 1955 Dee Snider (lead singer of Twisted Sister) is born in Astoria, Queens, New York.More
October 2, 1954 Elvis Presley makes his one and only appearance at the Grand Ole Opry, where he sings "Blue Moon Of Kentucky." It doesn't go over well with the crowd, which does not approve of his take on traditional country music. The Opry's talent director, Jim Denny, reportedly tells Presley he should go back to driving a truck. Elvis swears never to return.
March 21, 1952 Cleveland stakes a claim on rock history when the Moondog Coronation Ball is held at the Cleveland Arena. Organized by the WJW DJ Alan Freed ("Moondog" on the air), it is widely considered the first rock concert. It may also be one of the shortest, as it is shut down after one song.More
October 2, 1951 Sting is born Gordon Matthew Thomas Sumner in Wallsend, Northumberland, England. He earns his nickname when a fellow musician says he looks like a bee in his yellow-and-black striped sweater. He is working as a schoolteacher when his band The Police hit the big time.More
May 9, 1949 Billy Joel is born in The Bronx, New York, raised in Hicksville on Long Island.More
October 9, 1948 Jackson Browne is born Clyde Jackson Browne in Heidelberg, Germany, where his American serviceman father is stationed. After doing time in the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band and as a staff songwriter, he releases his first album in 1972, the same year the Eagles land their first hit with "Take It Easy," co-written by Browne.
January 8, 1947 David Jones is born in London. At age 18, he changes his name to David Bowie (after the Bowie knife) to avoid confusion with Davy Jones of The Monkees.More
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
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