Calendar Search Results: tv
March 6, 1982 Beauty and the Beat hits #1 in America, making The Go-Go's the first all-girl band with a #1 album.More
November 21, 1981 "Physical" by Olivia Newton-John hits #1 in the US. The sweaty aerobics anthem stays at the top spot for 10 weeks, making it the biggest hit of 1981.More
November 7, 1981 "Private Eyes" by Hall & Oates hits #1, thanks to a detective-themed video that gets lots of airplay on MTV, which debuted three months earlier.
October 3, 1981 Two months after MTV's debut, Blue Öyster Cult's "Burnin' For You" reaches its peak of #40 in the US - their first Top 40 since "(Don't Fear) The Reaper" - thanks to a video shot in a Los Angeles culvert. Few American acts are making videos, so established rockers like BÖC and REO Speedwagon can get airtime. This changes a few years later when more photogenic artists make videos on a regular basis.
September 19, 1981 Thanks to MTV airplay for the lead single "Start Me Up," the Rolling Stones album Tattoo You goes to #1 in America, where it stays for nine weeks. It's their last #1 album in the US.
September 18, 1981 Genesis release their "abstract" album, Abacab, in the UK.More
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
August 1, 1981 "Jessie's Girl" by Rick Springfield goes to #1 in America the same day MTV goes on the air. Springfield, a former soap opera star, is a great fit for the music video medium and gets a big boost from the network.
August 1, 1981 Hans Zimmer plays keyboards in the video for the Buggles' "Video Killed The Radio Star," the first music video to air on MTV. Zimmer goes on to become a renowned Hollywood film composer, winning the Oscar for Best Original Score for The Lion King (1994) and Dune (2021).
July 9, 1981 The ABC News show 20/20 runs a story called "Rappin' To The Beat," becoming the first national TV news magazine to cover rap music. "You never miss the fact there's no melody," Hugh Downs says in his introduction. "It's all beat and talk." The coverage suggests rap may be more than just a passing fad.
April 21, 1981 Weird Al Yankovic (along with his drummer, Jon "Bermuda" Schwartz) makes his TV debut, playing the Queen parody "Another One Rides The Bus" on Tom Snyder's The Tomorrow Show.
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
March 1, 1981 NBC airs Elvis And The Beauty Queen, starring Don Johnson as Elvis Presley. The TV special tells the story of his last years and his affair with Linda Thompson.
February 21, 1981 REO Speedwagon's ninth album, Hi Infidelity, goes to #1 in America, displacing John Lennon's Double Fantasy.More
February 17, 1981 Paris Hilton is born in New York City. An heir to the Hilton Hotels empire, she becomes famous as a socialite and reality TV star, then moves into music with the 2006 single "Stars Are Blind," which charts worldwide.
February 14, 1981 The Funky 4 + 1 become the first hip-hop group to perform on national TV when they do "That's The Joint" on Saturday Night Live. Debbie Harry of Blondie, an early proponent of rap music, is the host.
January 16, 1981 The TV series Harper Valley P.T.A., inspired by the Jeannie C. Riley song and the 1978 movie of the same name, debuts on NBC. Barbara Eden, who played scandalous single mom Stella Johnson in the movie, reprises her role. The show lasts two seasons.
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
October 8, 1980 Talking Heads release their fourth album, Remain In Light, their last produced by Brian Eno. The song "Once In A Lifetime" gets a video showing David Byrne's herky-jerky stage moves; it becomes an MTV favorite, aired the first day the network goes on the air.
September 13, 1980 The TV series Solid Gold premieres. Like its genre-mates American Bandstand and Soul Train, the show consists of Top-40 music (mostly recorded) in a studio with a dance stage and floor. A feature of the show is a specialty crew of "Solid Gold dancers" who bump and grind to the tunes. Dionne Warwick is the host for the first season, but the show rotates through numerous hosts during its course. The show runs almost eight seasons before discontinuing in 1988.
August 29, 1980 TV star Valerie Bertinelli goes to a Van Halen concert in Shreveport, Louisiana, and finagles her way backstage to meet Eddie Van Halen, whom she considers a "cutie." It's a love connection: They get married less than a year later and have a son, Wolfgang, in 1991. They split in 2001 and finalize their divorce in 2007.
August 5, 1980 Pat Benatar releases her second album, Crimes Of Passion. "Hit Me With Your Best Shot" is the big hit, but her Young Rascals cover "You Better Run" gets a music video that becomes the second one aired on MTV (after "Video Killed The Radio Star") when the network launches a year later.
July 25, 1980 AC/DC release Back In Black, their first album without lead singer Bon Scott, who died five months earlier.More
July 10, 1980 Jessica Simpson is born in Abilene, Texas. She's first known as a singer, releasing her debut single, "I Wanna Love You Forever," in 1999. She becomes a reality TV star in 2002 with the MTV series Newlyweds: Nick & Jessica, and in 2005 she enters the world of film, playing Daisy Duke in The Dukes Of Hazzard.
May 16, 1980 The Carpenters' last TV special, Music, Music, Music, airs on ABC. Guest stars include Ella Fitzgerald, John Davidson, and Nelson Riddle.
April 8, 1980 The TV movie Kenny Rogers as The Gambler, based on the song "The Gambler," airs on CBS. It becomes the highest-rated TV movie of the year and leads to four sequels, all starring Rogers.
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.
January 26, 1980 Prince performs on American Bandstand, where he's interviewed on national TV for the first time. Host Dick Clark has a hard time getting more than a few words out of him. When he asks how many instruments Prince plays, he pauses before answering, "a thousand."
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