27 SEPTEMBER
In Music History
1990 Singer-songwriter Mitski is born Mitsuki Laycock in Japan. Her dad works for the US State Department, so she lives in several countries before settling in America and becoming a top indie artist, breaking through with her 2018 album Be The Cowboy.
1990 Marvin Gaye receives a posthumous star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1500 Vine Street.
1987 Austin Carlile is born in Pensacola, Florida. He fronts the metal groups Attack! Attack!, and later, Of Mice & Men, leaving in 2016 when his genetic condition called Marfan syndrome becomes too much to bear.
1984 Avril Lavigne is born in Belleville, Ontario, Canada. She is raised in Napanee, Ontario.
1984 Alphaville releases "Forever Young."
1982 Rapper Lil Wayne is born Dwayne Michael Carter Jr. in New Orleans, Louisiana. At age 9, he becomes the youngest member of Cash Money Records.
1981 Gracie Fields dies on the island of Capri aged 81.
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.
1979 Jimmy McCulloch (lead guitarist for Paul McCartney & Wings) dies of heroin-induced heart failure in Maida Vale, North West London, at age 26.
1976 After appearing on the The Porter Wagoner Show for seven years, Dolly Parton gets her own TV variety show, Dolly!, which premieres on ABC. The show lasts one season; Parton returns in 1987 with another variety show, this time unexclaimed: Dolly.
1976 Ringo Starr releases Ringo's Rotogravure.
1975 John Denver's "I'm Sorry" hits #1, giving him his second chart-topper of the year, following "Thank God I'm A Country Boy."
1973 After becoming a devotee of the guru Sri Chinmoy, Carlos Santana starts using the name Devadip, which means "the Lamp of the Light Supreme."
1973 The syndicated music show Don Kirshner's Rock Concert debuts with a performance by The Rolling Stones, making their first appearance on US television in six years. Fittingly, they play "It's Only Rock 'N' Roll."
1970 After 22 years on various networks, the last Ted Mack's Amateur Hour show airs on CBS.
Dylan Plays For Pope
1997Bob Dylan plays "Knocking On Heaven's Door" and "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall" for Pope John Paul II and an audience of 300,000 at the World Eucharist Congress in Bologna, Italy. For the 77-year-old Pope, it's a chance to connect with young people, and the pontiff does so by invoking Dylan's song "Blowin' In The Wind" during his sermon. Dylan's invite is not without controversy, as the future Pope Benedict fears the "rock prophet" and his music are at odds with the Roman Catholic faith.
Read more27 SEPTEMBER
Featured Events
2004 Legendary rock producer Phil Spector, best known for creating the "Wall Of Sound" on hits like The Ronettes' "Be My Baby" and The Righteous Brothers' "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'," is indicted for the February 2003 murder of actress Lana Clarkson at his estate in Alhambra, California.
2000 U2, whose video for "Where The Streets Have No Name" comes from a rooftop concert, play another roofie, this time atop the Clarence Hotel in Dublin to play their new songs "Beautiful Day" and "Elevation" for air on Top Of The Pops.
1995 With gangsta rap drawing negative publicity, Time Warner sells their share of Interscope Records to the founders, Jimmy Iovine and Ted Field. The next release is Dogg Food by Tha Dogg Pound, which goes to #1 in America.
1986 Cliff Burton (Metallica's second bassist) dies in a bus crash in Sweden during Metallica's Damage Inc. tour in support of the Master of Puppets album. Burton, age 24, is asleep in his bunk when the bus skids off the road. He is thrown from the window and crushed when the vehicle rolls over him.
1986 The Beatles' re-released version of "Twist And Shout" peaks at #23 thanks to its use in the movie Ferris Bueller's Day Off.
1980 Kurtis Blow becomes the first rapper to perform on national television when he does "The Breaks" on Soul Train. Host Don Cornelius is flummoxed. "It doesn't make sense to old guys like me," he tells Kurtis in the interview segment.More
©2024 Songfacts®, LLC