Calendar Search Results: y o u t u b e r
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
April 28, 1981 Original T. Rex bass player Steve Currie dies in a car accident at age 33, four years after the group's lead singer Marc Bolan met his demise in a similar fashion.
April 23, 1981 Jerry Lee Lewis and Carl Perkins, who are in Germany appearing at different festivals, join Johnny Cash on stage in Stuttgart for a performance that is recorded and released as the album The Survivors. The trio toured together back in 1957.
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 31, 1981 At the first ever Golden Raspberry Awards (aka The Razzies), Neil Diamond takes home the prize for Worst Actor for his performance as Yussel Rabinovitch in The Jazz Singer. Laurence Olivier, who played Cantor Rabinovitch in the film, also scores a Razzie for Worst Supporting Actor, an honor he shares with John Adames for Gloria.
March 28, 1981 Blondie's "Rapture" hits #1 on the Hot 100, becoming the first chart-topper with a rap.More
March 22, 1981 After a U2 show at the Foghorn Tavern in Portland, Oregon, Bono leaves a briefcase behind with notes, lyrics and concepts for their second album, October. He's forced to come up with new ideas and lyrics on the fly, and the album suffers. The contents of the briefcase are finally returned to him in 2004 after they're recovered from a garage in Tacoma, Washington.
March 14, 1981 The California punk rockers Black Flag play the Peppermint Lounge in New York City. In the audience are all three future members of Beastie Boys and Thurston Moore, who goes on to form Sonic Youth. Also in the crowd: Henry Rollins, who takes over as Black Flag lead singer later that year.
March 14, 1981 After toughing out a concert in Madison, Wisconsin, in severe pain, Eric Clapton is flown to St. Paul, Minnesota, where he's treated for severe ulcers that nearly kill him. The rest of the tour is cancelled, and Clapton spends almost six weeks in the hospital recovering. In January 1982, he returns to Minnesota and enters rehab to treat the alcohol addition that caused his ulcers.
February 27, 1981 The Who release "You Better You Bet," their first single since the death of their drummer, Keith Moon, in 1978. Their new stickman is Kenney Jones, formerly of the Faces.
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 15, 1981 Mike Bloomfield, a renowned guitarist with The Paul Butterfield Blues Band and The Electric Flag, is found dead in his car under mysterious circumstances. Al Kooper, who played with him on many Bob Dylan sessions, surmises that Bloomfield overdosed and his drug dealer drove him to a secluded spot to be found later.
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.
February 12, 1981 Riding the (permanent) wave of their previous album, Rush release Moving Pictures. Featuring "Tom Sawyer," "Limelight" and "YYZ," it becomes the best-selling album in the Rush discography. "The Camera Eye" is the last 10-minute-long song Rush ever record in the studio.
February 11, 1981 Kelly Rowland is born in Atlanta, Georgia. She becomes the first member of Destiny's Child to land a hit away from the group when "Dilemma," her 2002 duet with Nelly, goes to #1 in America.
February 10, 1981 Natalie Cole is trapped in her suite on the 26th floor of the Las Vegas Hilton hotel when it catches fire.More
February 9, 1981 Bill Haley dies of an apparent heart attack at age 55. With "Rock Around The Clock," Haley had the first big hit of the rock era, but his fortunes faded quickly as the '50s came to an end, and the second half of his life was mired in financial problems and a struggle to regain musical relevance.
February 7, 1981 "Celebration" by Kool & the Gang goes to #1. It becomes the de-facto party song to celebrate just about any festive event, but there's a deeper meaning many don't know about: It was inspired by a passage in the Quran where angels gather to celebrate the creation of humankind.
February 3, 1981 At The Who concert at the Rainbow Theatre in London, Pete Townshend drinks four bottles of brandy onstage, and instead of playing, mouths off to the crowd. His bandmates just keep playing without him. Months later, Townshend gets treatment for his alcoholism but turns to drugs, once again putting his life in danger. In early 1982, he rehabs again and finally gets sober.
January 22, 1981 The John Lennon tribute issue of Rolling Stone is published with the famous Annie Leibovitz photo of a naked Lennon embracing a fully-clothed Yoko Ono. Lennon's full interview is not published by the magazine until 2010.More
January 15, 1981 Stevie Wonder leads a rally in Washington to get Martin Luther King's birthday declared an official holiday. He performs his song "Happy Birthday," written for King, which becomes a rallying call for the movement.More
January 15, 1981 Pitbull is born Armando Pérez in Miami. His high-energy, Latin-flavored rap finds an audience with his 2004 debut album M.I.A.M.I., but he goes international with his 2009 hit "I Know You Want Me (Calle Ocho)."
January 15, 1981 Phil Collins plays "In The Air Tonight" on Top of the Pops with a paint can and brush nearby as props, seemingly a reference to the painter with whom his first wife cheated on him.More
January 12, 1981 The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) donates several rock albums to the Library of Congress, including Bob Dylan's Blonde on Blonde and KISS' Alive!
December 31, 1980 Bruce Springsteen plays an epic show at the Nassau Coliseum lasting 4 hours, 38 minutes and covering 38 songs. The best we can tell, it's the longest Springsteen show ever.
December 27, 1980 Weeks after his death, John Lennon's "(Just Like) Starting Over" goes to #1 in America.More
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