Calendar Search Results: y o u t u b e r
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
September 11, 1981 Charles Kelley of the trio Lady A is born in Augusta, Georgia. His brother is the singer Josh Kelley.
September 10, 1981 After their show in Copenhagen, Iron Maiden announce that lead singer Paul Di'Anno will be leaving the band. He's replaced by Bruce Dickinson, who leads the band to new heights, starting with their 1982 album The Number Of The Beast.
September 5, 1981 Soft Cell hit #1 in the UK with an electronic cover of "Tainted Love," a song originally released by the American soul singer Gloria Jones in 1964. The song also charts in America, reaching #8 in July 1982. It's the only hit for the duo in the States, but they have many more in their native UK.
September 4, 1981 Beyoncé Knowles is born in Houston, Texas. She finds fame as the lead singer of the '90s girl group Destiny's Child before becoming Queen Bey.
August 28, 1981 Guy Stevens (music producer/manager) dies of a prescription drug overdose in South London, England, at age 38. He produced The Clash's third album, London Calling.
August 24, 1981 The Rolling Stones release Tattoo You. The big hit from the album is "Start Me Up," which they first recorded with a reggae rhythm in 1977. That version was scrapped, but they rocked it up for Tattoo You with better results.
August 15, 1981 "Endless Love," a duet between Diana Ross and Lionel Richie, tops the Hot 100 for the first of nine weeks. It's the theme song from a movie of the same name, starring Brooke Shields.More
August 14, 1981 Four years after Elvis Presley's untimely death, a Memphis judge rules that his estate is no longer financially beholden to his manager, "Colonel" Tom Parker.
August 7, 1981 The animated sci-fi film Heavy Metal is released. Although it shares its name with the hard-rock genre, the film isn't intended to have anything to do with music, but instead is an anthology of various stories from the comic magazine Heavy Metal. Almost as an afterthought, an all-star soundtrack is added, featuring songs by Sammy Hagar, Devo, Blue Öyster Cult, Cheap Trick, Journey, and Black Sabbath, to name a few.More
August 1, 1981 MTV goes on the air, bringing music videos to the masses - at least the ones with cable.More
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 27, 1981 Blondie frontwoman Debbie Harry releases her first solo album, KooKoo. Its highest charting single is "Backfired," which hits #43 in the US, but the album still sells over 500,000 copies.
July 25, 1981 Air Supply's brand of soft rock reaches its peak as "The One That You Love" hits #1 in America. The duo, which formed in Australia, specialize in "love" songs. Others include "Making Love Out Of Nothing At All" and "All Out Of Love."
July 20, 1981 Journey release Escape, their most popular album. The ballad "Open Arms" is the highest charting single, but "Don't Stop Believin'" is the one that endures, becoming one of the biggest songs of all time.
July 17, 1981 Universal Pictures releases the romantic drama Endless Love, starring Brooke Shields. The film is quickly forgotten, but the theme song, a duet by Lionel Richie and Diana Ross, spends nine weeks at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and earns Richie an Academy Award nomination for Best Song.
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.
July 5, 1981 At the "Rock Werchter" festival in Belgium, The Cure play a 9-minute version of "A Forest" when they are told to hurry off stage so Robert Palmer can begin his set.More
June 17, 1981 At Earls Court in London, Pink Floyd play the last of 31 performances of The Wall, a unique stage show where a giant wall is erected (and torn down) as the band plays the album in its entirety. It's Roger Waters' last concert with the band, which breaks up in 1983 and carries on without him a few years later.
June 12, 1981 John Gourley is born in Willow, Alaska. He's raised in nearby Wasilla, where he forms Portugal. The Man, who have a hit in 2017 with "Feel It Still." He honors his Alaskan heritage throughout his career - the band's 2025 album Shish is a reference to the Alaskan village of Shishmaref.
June 11, 1981 13-year-old Celine Dion releases her first single, "Ce n'était qu'un reve," in her native Canada. It earns her a local following and leads the way for her debut album, La voix du bon Dieu, in November. For the rest of the decade, she records in her native French and becomes quite popular in Canada and across Europe. She starts recording in English at the start of the '90s.
June 1, 1981 Brandi Carlile is born in the tiny town of Ravensdale, Washington. After dropping out of high school, she cuts her teeth performing in the Seatle music scene and puts out her first album in 2005. As her music gets more refined, her audience grows, and by 2019 she's a consistent Grammy winner with a legion of fans.
June 1, 1981 The first issue of the heavy metal magazine Kerrang is published as a special pull-out by UK weekly music paper Sounds, with AC/DC on the front cover.
May 28, 1981 Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five are the opening act for The Clash, who play the first of eight shows at Bond's in Times Square, New York (future home of Tower Records). The rappers are booed and assaulted with various projectiles as the crowd does not appreciate their act.
May 26, 1981 Isaac Slade, lead singer of The Fray ("How To Save A Life," "You Found Me") is born in Boulder, Colorado.
May 16, 1981 Ernie Freeman, a pianist known for R&B and pop arrangements from the '50s through the '70s, dies at a heart attack at age 58. Won Grammy awards for his arrangements of Frank Sinatra's "Strangers in the Night" and Simon & Garfunkel's "Bridge Over Troubled Water."
May 12, 1981 Debbie Harry branches off from Blondie, announcing her solo career. She continues working with the band, which proves more successful.
May 11, 1981 Bob Marley dies at age 36 after a long battle with cancer.More
May 10, 1981 Kraftwerk release their eighth studio album, Computer World, featuring prescient songs about the influence of computers on society.More
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