Calendar Search Results: y o u t u b e r
February 7, 1980 At the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena, Pink Floyd stage the first production of The Wall, an immersive concert performance in which a giant wall is erected on stage as the band plays, representing the alienation between audience and performer.More
February 7, 1980 AC/DC appear on Top of the Pops, where they perform "A Touch Too Much." It's lead singer Bon Scott's last appearance with the band, as he drinks himself to death 12 days later.
February 4, 1980 The Ramones release their fifth album, End of the Century, produced by Phil Spector. Dee Dee Ramone claims Spector pulled a gun on him during the sessions.More
February 2, 1980 The Specials hit #1 in the UK for the first time with "Too Much Too Young," but they're busy touring America, where their ska sound has yet to find much of an audience.
January 25, 1980 Alicia Keys is born Alicia Augello Cook in Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan, New York. Her background as a classically trained pianist influences her stage name. "It's like the piano keys," she explains, "And it can open so many doors." Her first album, Songs In A Minor, featuring her own compositions, goes to #1 in 2001.
January 24, 1980 Clever marketing: Pink Floyd advertise their upcoming world tour to promote their album The Wall with a special billboard on Los Angeles' Sunset Strip that is gradually covered up each day with a brick until an entire wall is built over it.
January 16, 1980 Traveling to Japan for a tour with Wings, Paul McCartney packs about half a pound of marijuana in his luggage, which lands him 10 days in a Tokyo jail upon arrival. He had the weed in New York and wanted to bring it with him to smoke on tour, saying, "This stuff was too good to flush down the toilet, so I thought I'd take it with me." After McCartney's arrest, Wings' tour of Japan is immediately canceled. Paul never plays another show with the band.
January 9, 1980 At The Fast Lane in Asbury Park, New Jersey, Bruce Springsteen takes the stage with the cover band Atlantic City Expressway to perform his song "The Promised Land." The group's lead singer is a 17-year-old high school kid named John Bongiovi, who later forms the band Bon Jovi.
January 8, 1980 Prince makes his national television debut, performing "I Wanna Be Your Lover" and "Why You Want To Treat Me So Bad" on the NBC variety show Midnight Special.
January 7, 1980 R&B singer Larry Williams dies at age 44 of a gunshot wound to the head in what's eventually deemed a suicide, though some speculate he was murdered. Known for a string of enduring rock 'n roll hits from the mid-'50s, including "Bony Moronie" and "Short Fat Fannie."
December 29, 1979 Paul McCartney's band Wings plays their final show ever during the finale of The Concerts For The People Of Kampuchea benefit series at London's Hammersmith Odeon. McCartney co-organized the concert series, which kicked off December 26, 1979, and also featured performances by Queen, The Who, The Clash, Rockpile and others. After Wings' set at the December 29 concert, the band was joined by a variety of other famous musicians to perform a few songs as an all-star "Rockestra."
December 28, 1979 The Kate Bush Christmas Special, also known as Kate, airs on the BBC. The singer performs songs from her first three albums and introduces the holiday tune "December Will Be Magic Again." Peter Gabriel guest stars, singing "Here Comes The Flood" and, with Bush, a duet of Roy Harper's "Another Day."
December 26, 1979 The Concerts For The People Of Kampuchea benefit series, co-organized by Paul McCartney, premieres at London's Hammersmith Odeon with a performance by Queen. The series, which runs through December 29, also features performances by McCartney and his band Wings, The Who, The Clash, Rockpile and an all-star "Rockestra."
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 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 17, 1979 Yellowcard frontman Ryan Key is born in Jacksonville, Florida. As a teenager he works at the Warped Tour every year they come through town, so he's thrilled in 2004 when his band becomes a headliner.
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 29, 1979 Michael Jackson's "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough" is certified Gold.
November 26, 1979 In London, Bill Haley, on what would be his last tour of the UK, plays for Britain's Queen Elizabeth II at the Royal Command Performance.
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 19, 1979 Frank Zappa's one and only rock opera, Joe's Garage, is released. The opera mixes styles of blues, jazz, doo-wop, lounge, orchestral, rock, pop and reggae. It draws controversy for profane lyrics but is hailed as a cultural milestone and landmark album. The work also looks forward to Zappa's later crusade against the PMRC with its themes of government censorship, and introduces a few memes into the Zappa lexicon, including "The Central Scrutinizer," "a little green rosetta," and of course, the term "roto-plooker."
November 14, 1979 Hot on the heels of his wildly successful Rust Never Sleeps album, Neil Young releases Live Rust, an album of live performances from the Rust Never Sleeps tour.
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 3, 1979 Days before his 18th birthday, teen idol Leif Garrett, under the influence of drugs and alcohol, crashes his mother's Porsche 914 en route to buy cocaine. He escapes serious injury but his best friend, Roland Winkler, is left a paraplegic.
November 3, 1979 Everybody's talkin' 'bout "Pop Muzik" by M, which hits #1 in the US. M is the British electro musician Robin Scott.
November 1, 1979 Bob Dylan debuts the songs from his new album, a Christian polemic called Slow Train Coming, on the first night of his new tour in San Francisco, California. A shocked audience boos the new material throughout the set.
October 29, 1979 Legendary bebop trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie appears on The Muppet Show and performs with The Electric Mayhem. It's the only time that the otherwise all-muppet band features a bongo player.
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