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Featured Events
1986"Reet Petite," a #6 UK hit for Jackie Wilson in 1957, goes to #1 29 years later when it is re-released, and stays at the top for four weeks. Wilson died three years earlier after being incapacitated by a heart attack.
1985The Krush Groove Christmas party becomes the first rap show held at Madison Square Garden. A tie-in with the movie Krush Groove, the concert features performances by LL Cool J, Run-DMC, Whodini and other acts who appeared in the film. The event makes headlines for the violence that follows, as 14 people are arrested for various crimes.
1975The #1 song in America is "Let's Do It Again," a surprisingly lubricious song by the gospel group the The Staple Singers. The song was written by Curtis Mayfield for the film of the same name starring Bill Cosby and Sidney Poitier.
1967After establishing his career as a poet and writer, Leonard Cohen releases his first album, Songs of Leonard Cohen, on Columbia Records. The album doesn't sell particularly well at first, peaking at #83 on the Billboard charts, but Cohen's powerful voice and lyrics in oft-covered tracks like "Suzanne" and "So Long, Marianne" become highly influential.
1960Returning from Hamburg, Germany, The Beatles play a show in their hometown of Liverpool, England, with Chas Newby filling in for Stu Sutcliffe, who stays in Germany and never rejoins the band. The show gets a lot of attention, and is an early taste of Beatlemania.
1927Show Boat opens at the Ziegfeld Theatre on Broadway, changing the paradigm for modern musicals.More27
In Music History
2016Actress Carrie Fisher, known for her iconic role as Princess Leia in Star Wars, dies of a heart attack at age 60. The daughter of Singin' in the Rain actress Debbie Reynolds and former wife of Paul Simon (see "Hearts And Bones"), she also inspired the Blink-182 song "A New Hope": "Princess Leia where are you tonight; and who's laying there by your side."
2014Alicia Keys gives birth to a second son, Genesis Ali Dean, with husband Swizz Beatz.
2013Vanessa Carlton marries John McCauley of Deer Tick in a ceremony officiated by Stevie Nicks.More
2008Delaney Bramlett (of the '70s blues-rock duo Delaney & Bonnie) dies from complications of gall bladder surgery at age 69.
2004Hank Garland, a Nashville session guitarist who performed with Johnny Cash and Patsy Cline, dies of a staph infection at age 74.
2003Dick St. John (of the '60s pop duo Dick & Dee Dee) dies at age 63 after a fall from the roof of his home.
1989Chuck Berry is sued by the former cook of his restaurant - The Southern Air, in Wentzville, Missouri - who claims Berry installed hidden cameras in the ladies restrooms and collected the videos. Over 200 former customers take part in a class action suit against Berry, which is eventually settled out of court.
1983Rock 'n' roll singer Walter Scott (of Bob Kuban & the In-Men) is shot in the back and left floating in a cistern, where he is found four years later. James H. Williams Sr., who married Scott's second wife, JoAnn, after the singer's disappearance, is found guilty of the murder. JoAnn also receives a five-year prison sentence for hindering the prosecution.
1982Billy Joel plays a benefit concert in Allentown, Pennsylvania as his song "Allentown" makes its way up the charts.
1981"Georgia On My Mind" composer Hoagy Carmichael dies of heart failure at age 82.
1978Big Star guitarist Chris Bell dies in a car accident at age 27.
1978Bob Luman, known for the 1960 novelty hit "Let's Think About Living," dies of pneumonia at age 41.
1978The BBC comes under fire when it plays part of the Sex Pistols' "God Save The Queen," which has been banned on the network, on a show called "Listen To The Banned." The educator Dr. Rhodes Boyson calls it "another sign of the declining public morality which so rightly worries the general public."
1975The Faces are formally disbanded.
1974Bob Dylan records "Idiot Wind" and "You're A Big Girl Now."
John Lennon's "Starting Over" Hits #1
1980
Weeks after his death, John Lennon's "(Just Like) Starting Over" goes to #1 in America.
The song is about Lennon's relationship with Yoko Ono, how he's ready to leave their previous issues behind (he was a jealous guy) and start fresh - a sentiment many married couples can relate to, and the basic plot line of many romantic comedies.
It's Lennon's first single in five years, issued in America on October 27, 1980, the same day a mentally disturbed fan named Mark David Chapman buys a gun. The song is climbing the chart when on December 8, Chapman uses that gun to shoot Lennon, killing the 40-year-old superstar.
Lennon's music saturates the airwaves and sells out in stores in the wake of the shooting. "(Just Like) Starting Over" rises to the top of the chart and stays there for five weeks, serving as a celebration of his life and a painful reminder that it ended too soon.
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