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December 26, 1979 Chris Daughtry is born in Roanoke Rapids, North Carolina. He places fourth on the fifth season of American Idol but becomes one of the show's most successful alums after forming his band Daughtry.
December 22, 1979 Rupert Holmes' "Escape (The Pina Colada Song)" hits #1 on the Hot 100. It retains the top spot for two more weeks, becoming the last chart-topper of the '70s and the first of the '80s.
December 21, 1979 At the San Diego Sports Arena, Linda Ronstadt holds a fundraising concert for her boyfriend, California governor Jerry Brown, who is running for president. Chicago and the Eagles also perform.
December 21, 1979 Willie Nelson makes his acting debut in the Sydney Pollack film The Electric Horseman, starring Robert Redford and Jane Fonda. He also sings five songs for the soundtrack, including the #1 country hit "My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys."More
December 15, 1979 The Buggles song "Video Killed The Radio Star" reaches its American chart peak of #40 (in the UK, it hit #1 in September). On August 1, 1981, it becomes the first music video played on MTV. Record stores in areas with high cable penetration are baffled when folks show up looking for the song.
December 8, 1979 Ingrid Michaelson is born in Staten Island, New York. The indie-pop singer finds acclaim through sync placements in commercials for Old Navy ("The Way I Am") and TV shows like Grey's Anatomy ("Keep Breathing") before going on to write the music and lyrics for the Broadway musical The Notebook.
December 7, 1979 "Christmas Rappin'" by Kurtis Blow becomes the first rap song released on a major label - Mercury Records. It sells about 400,000 copies and provides the template for his next single, "The Breaks," which becomes the first rap Gold record.
December 4, 1979 Fleetwood Mac fans at The Forum in Inglewood get a brassy surprise when the USC Trojan Marching Band is brought out to perform "Tusk." The USC band, which appears on the recording, makes four more appearances at Forum concerts with Fleetwood Mac over the next seven days.
December 3, 1979 Before The Who concert at Riverfront Coliseum in Cincinnati, 11 people are trampled to death and dozens are injured in a rush to enter the arena. Like many concerts of the day, there are no reserved seats, a practice known as "festival seating." The resulting controversy (and lawsuits) force promoters to rethink the practice.More
November 30, 1979 Pink Floyd's album The Wall is released, seeing out the '70s in spectacular fashion as it sells over 13 million copies. The powerful concept album's themes of isolation and despair resonate with legions of fans, and it even spawns a #1 single - "Another Brick In The Wall (part II).More
November 24, 1979 "No More Tears (Enough Is Enough)" by Barbra Streisand and Donna Summer becomes the first duet between two women to hit #1 in America.
November 22, 1979 After taking three months off following the suicide death of his friend, the actor Freddie Prinze, Tony Orlando starts performing again when he plays a concert in San Carlos, California.
November 17, 1979 John Glascock (bass guitarist for Jethro Tull) dies at age 28 of a congenital heart valve defect paired with an infection from an abscessed tooth.
November 17, 1979 The Guinness Book of World Records verifies ABBA as the biggest-selling recording group in history.
November 10, 1979 "Rapper's Delight" by The Sugarhill Gang becomes first rap song to hit the Billboard Hot 100, entering the chart at #84.More
November 6, 1979 Running on a platform that includes making businessmen wear clown suits, Jello Biafra of the punk band Dead Kennedys comes in fourth in his run for mayor of San Francisco. Dianne Feinstein is the winner.
November 2, 1979 The Who's musical film Quadrophenia, featuring a small part played by Sting, opens in US theaters.
October 24, 1979 The Guinness Book of World Records presents Paul McCartney with a special rhodium album for being the best-selling songwriter in the history of recorded music, having written 43 platinum songs and sold over 100 million records.
October 19, 1979 Following a vicious legal battle with MCA Records, the third Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers album, Damn The Torpedoes, is released on the label's new subsidiary, Backstreet Records.More
October 19, 1979 Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers' third album, Damn The Torpedoes, is released. It includes the band's first two Top 20 hits, "Don't Do Me Like That" and "Refugee," and well as the popular songs "Here Comes My Girl" and "Even The Losers." The album reaches #2 in the US, and becomes Petty & the Heartbreakers' most-successful non-compilation record there, selling over 3 million copies.
October 19, 1979 Prince releases his sophomore album, Prince, containing the #1 R&B hit "I Wanna Be Your Lover" and the original version of "I Feel For You," later a hit for Chaka Khan. It's his first album certified Platinum for sales over 1 million.
October 18, 1979 Ne-Yo is born Shaffer Chimere Smith in Camden, Arkansas, raised in Las Vegas, Nevada. He first breaks through as a songwriter, penning lyrics to Mario's "Let Me Love You" and Beyonce's "Irreplaceable" before scoring a #1 hit of his own in 2006 with "So Sick."
October 18, 1979 Police break up a 15-man robbery ring set up in the parking lot of Madison Square Garden during an Earth, Wind & Fire concert at the venue.
October 4, 1979 Jimmy Buffett appears on the cover of Rolling Stone ahead of his forthcoming Volcano album. The article details his experience recording the Caribbean-flavored tracks near a dormant volcano at George Martin's AIR Studios in Montserrat.More
October 3, 1979 Instrumentalist Nate Wood (of The Calling) is born.
October 1, 1979 Marvel publishes the first Alice Cooper comic book. The story takes place in a sanitarium and is based on his stay in rehab.
September 27, 1979 While performing (ominously) "Better Off Dead" at the Universal Amphitheater in Los Angeles, Elton John collapses at his piano and is rushed offstage. He returns 15 minutes later to finish the show, citing "exhaustion" as the cause of his collapse.
September 27, 1979 Jimmy McCulloch (lead guitarist for Paul McCartney & Wings) dies of heroin-induced heart failure in Maida Vale, North West London, at age 26.
September 25, 1979 Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical Evita makes its debut on Broadway with Patti LuPone after a successful year on London's West End.More
September 24, 1979 The Eagles release their sixth album, The Long Run. The lead single is "Heartache Tonight," a song co-written by Bob Seger.
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