1958: "Jerry Lee Lewis Day" was held in Lewis's hometown of Ferriday, Louisiana.
1963: Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, Peter, Paul & Mary and Pete Seeger performed at the first Monterey Folk Festival, held over three days in Monterey, California.
1967: The Bob Dylan documentary Don't Look Back, reliving Dylan's 1965 British tour, premiered at the Presidio Theater in San Francisco, California.
1968: The Monkees performed at the Lagoon Patio Gardens, a venue inside the famous amusement park, for about 5,000 fans. (Note: Several websites report that the Monkees appeared at Olympia Stadium in Salt Lake City, Utah, on May 21, 1968. There was not and never has been an Olympia Stadium in that city. There was an Olympia Stadium in Detroit, Michigan, and the Monkees performed there on January 14, 1968. The group did perform in Salt Lake City in 1968, though, but the information badly damages the credibility of the websites. According to the official website for the Monkees, they performed in Salt Lake City May 17 at the Lagoon Patio Gardens.)
1969: The Soundtrack to "Hair" had a hold on #1 on the Album chart for the fourth straight week. Blood, Sweat & Tears was #2, Glen Campbell's Galveston was #3 and Nashville Skyline from Bob Dylan captured spot #4. The rest of the Top 10: Donovan's Greatest Hits, Cloud Nine by the Temptations was #6, In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida, featuring the song of the same name by Iron Butterfly, was #7, Creedence Clearwater Revival had #8 with Bayou Country, Help Yourself by Tom Jones fell to 9 and the debut from Led Zeppelin entered the Top 10.
A great time to be alive, listening to "Aquarius" by the great 5th Dimension...
1969: "Aquarius/Let The Sunshine In" by 5th Dimension was once again the #1 song on the Adult Contemporary chart.
1969: "Aquarius" remained as the #1 song in the land for a sixth week, making it one of The Top 20 Songs of the Rock Era* to that point. "Hair" by the Cowsills was #2 while the Beatles climbed from 10 to 3 with "Get Back". "It's Your Thing" from the Isley Brothers was song #4 and the great One-Hit Wonder* song from Mercy--"Love (Can Make You Happy)" moved from 11 to 5. The rest of the Top 10: The great instrumental "Hawai'i Five-O" from the television show of the same name by the Ventures was #6, Simon & Garfunkel climbed to #7 with their classic "The Boxer", Donovan's probing song "Atlantis" was #8, Ray Stevens kept things light at #9 with "Gitarzan" and the Guess Who reached the Top 10 with "These Eyes".
1971: The popular musical Godspell debuted in New York City, off-Broadway at first, at the Cherry Lane Theatre, before hitting Broadway five years later. (Note: several websites report that 'Godspell' debuted on May 13. The official date of opening is May 17, 1971, according to the magazines 'Billboard' and 'Atlantic'.)
1974: Frankie Avalon hosted The Midnight Special on NBC-TV, featuring Sam & Dave, Fabian and Shirley & Lee.
1974: Elton John performed "Candle In The Wind" and "Rocket Man" in his television special Say Goodbye to Norma Jean and Other Things on ABC.
1975: Dumb ol' Mick Jagger. Put his hand through a window at Gosman's Dock restaurant in Montauk, New York. Required 20 stitches. (Note: some websites say the restaurant is in Long Island, New York. Long Island is not a city but rather the name of an island. Gosman's Dock is located in Montauk, New York.)
1975: "Rainy Day People" reached #1 on the Adult Contemporary chart for Canada's Gordon Lightfoot.
Earth, Wind & Fire were one of the great groups of all-time...
1975: That's the Way of the World, the Soundtrack to the movie from Earth, Wind & Fire, reached #1 on the chart as Chicago VIII dropped to #2. The Soundtrack to "Tommy" was #3, followed by Led Zeppelin's Physical Graffiti and Bad Company's Straight Shooter. The rest of the Top 10: Have You Never Been Mellow from Olivia Newton-John, the Soundtrack to "Funny Lady" at #7, An Evening with John Denver, the singer's live album at #8, Welcome To My Nightmare from Alice Cooper was #9 and Hearts from America was #10.
The Ozarks enjoyed their biggest hit "Jackie Blue"...
1975: It was a pretty solid Top 10--"He Don't Love You (Like I Love You)" by Tony Orlando & Dawn was #1 for a third week, Freddy Fender had #2 "Before The Next Teardrop Falls" and "Jackie Blue", the great Ozark Mountain Daredevils song, was #3. Earth, Wind & Fire moved up to 4 with "Shining Star" and the Carpenters hit the Top Five with "Only Yesterday". The rest of the Top 10: The Blackbyrds were at 6 with "Walking In Rhythm", "Thank God I'm A Country Boy" by John Denver moved from 14-7, Ace featuring great lead singer Paul Carrack moved into the Top 10 with "How Long", Paul Anka's "I Don't Like To Sleep Alone" was at #9 and the former #1 with the long title "(Hey Won't You Play) Another Somebody Done Somebody Wrong Song" by B.J. Thomas was #10.
1978: The Carpenters television special Space Encounters aired on ABC.
1978: Andy Gibb and ABBA were the guests on Olivia Newton-John's special Olivia on ABC-TV.
1978: Thank God It's Friday, the movie starring Donna Summer, premiered in Los Angeles.
1980: Paul and Linda McCartney were the guests on the television show Saturday Night Live.
1980: The Soundtrack to "Urban Cowboy", one of the best soundtrack albums of the rock era, was released.
1980: "Let's Get Serious" by Jermaine Jackson reached #1 on the R&B chart.
1980: "The Rose", the title song from the movie in which she starred in, was #1 on the Adult Contemporary chart for Bette Midler.
1980: Against the Wind, the great Bob Seger album, was #1. Pink Floyd was stuck at 2 with The Wall, while Glass Houses by Billy Joel and Mad Love by Linda Ronstadt maintained their positions for a fifth week.
Christopher Cross's first single was well received...
1980: "Call Me" from Blondie remained #1 for the fifth week and it wasn't done yet. "Ride Like The Wind" by Christopher Cross would have to settle for being one of the top #2 songs in history. Air Supply had #3 with "Lost In Love" while "Funkytown" from Lipps, Inc. moved from 19 to 4. The rest of the Top 10: "With You I'm Born Again" from Billy Preston & Syreeta was #5, "Sexy Eyes" by Dr. Hook held down #6, Billy Joel remained at 7 with "You May Be Right", "Don't Fall In Love With A Dreamer" by Kenny Rogers and Kim Carnes edged up to #8, "Another Brick In The Wall" by Pink Floyd fell to #9 and Ambrosia had a huge hit on their hands at #10 with "Biggest Part Of Me".
1986: Genesis released the single "Invisible Touch".
1986: "On My Own" from Michael McDonald and Patti Labelle, was #1 on the R&B chart, where it would spend four weeks at the top.
1986: "Greatest Love Of All" by Whitney Houston was once again #1 on the Adult Contemporary chart.
1986: Incredibly, Whitney Houston climbed back to #1 on the Album chart in its 60th week of release.
1986: The smash "Greatest Love Of All", which reached #1 on this date, was largely the reason for the resurgence in the Whitney Houston album.
1987: Tom Petty's home in Encino, California was consumed by a fire, causing a million dollars in damage.
1989: Jack Hall, guitarist of Wet Willie, died.
1992: Lawrence Welk died of pneumonia in Santa Monica, California at the age of 89.
1993: Barry Manilow was on the CBS-TV show Murphy Brown.
1995: Chuck Berry, Fats Domino and Little Richard played in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England, their first time together on stage. (Note: some websites report the concert took place in Sheffield, London. The concert wasn't in two locations. Sheffield is not in the county of London, but rather in South Yorkshire. In fact, the two cities are 167 miles apart. The three rock pioneers appeared in Sheffield, South Yorkshire.)
1999: Bruce Fairbairn died at the age of 49 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. He produced albums by Aerosmith, Bon Jovi and Krokus.
Hands off our name!
1999: No Doubt filed a lawsuit against a clothing manufacturer with the same name, claiming the company violated No Doubt's copyright service mark.
2000: The Eagles had a similar claim against the "Hotel California" restaurant in Dallas, Texas, claiming trademark violations.
2002: Little Johnny Taylor ("Part Time Love" from 1963) died of a heart attack at the age of 59 in Conway, Arkansas.
2003: Radiohead performed at the Olympia in Dublin, Ireland. Guitarist The Edge of U2 was among the fans in the audience.
2005: Kylie Minogue was diagnosed with breast cancer.
2008: Bob Flick of the Brothers Four ("Greenfields" hit #2 for four weeks in 1960) married actress Loni Anderson.
2010: Songwriters Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, who wrote "Hound Dog", "Jailhouse Rock", "Love Me", "Don't" and many others for Elvis Presley, "Kansas City" for Wilbert Harrison and "Charlie Brown" for the Coasters, were given the Outstanding Achievement Award for Musical Collaborators by the National Association of Recording Merchandisers in Chicago, Illinois.
2012: Donna Summer, whose amazing voice helped her score 33 hits, including 14 Top 10's and five #1 songs, died at the age of 63 after a battle with lung cancer in Naples, Florida.
Born This Day:
1941: Malcolm Hale, lead guitarist of Spanky & Our Gang, was born in Butte, Montana; died October 30, 1968 of carbon monoxide poisoning due to a faulty heating system in his home in Chicago, Illinois.
1944: Jesse Winchester ("Say What" from 1981), whose songs have been recorded by the Everly Brothers, Anne Murray, Wilson Pickett, Patti Page, Reba McEntire, Joan Baez, Jimmy Buffett, Fairport Convention, Emmylou Harris and Elvis Costello, was born in Shreveport, Louisiana; died April 11, 2014 of cancer in Charlottesville, Virginia.
1949: Bill Bruford, drummer and founding member of Yes, who later joined King Crimson, was born in Sevenoaks, Kent, England.
1949: Keith (James Barry Keefer, who had the hit "98.6" in 1967) was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
1952: Roy Adams, current drummer of the Climax Blues Band, was born in Birmingham, Warwickshire, England.
1958: Paul Di'Anno, singer with Iron Maiden, was born in Chingford, London, England. (Note: some websites claim Paul was born in West Ham, London. According to the book 'Iron Maiden: The Ultimate Unauthorized History of the Beast' by Neil Daniels, Di'Anno was born in Chingford, London.
1961: Enya (Eithne Ni Bhraonain) was born in Donegal, Ireland.
1963: Page McConnell, songwriter and keyboardist of Phish, was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
1965: Trent Reznor, singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist of Nine Inch Nails, was born in Mercer, Pennsylvania.
1970: Jordan Knight of New Kids on the Block was born in Worcester, Massachusetts. (Note: 'Allmusic.com' claims Knight was born in Boston, Massachusetts, but 'MTV' and other credible sources state that he was born in Worcester.)
1973: Josh Homme, guitarist, songwriter and founding member for Queens of the Stone Age, was born in Joshua Tree, California.
1974: Andrea Corr of the Corrs was born in Dundalk, County Louth, Ireland.
1963: Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, Peter, Paul & Mary and Pete Seeger performed at the first Monterey Folk Festival, held over three days in Monterey, California.
1967: The Bob Dylan documentary Don't Look Back, reliving Dylan's 1965 British tour, premiered at the Presidio Theater in San Francisco, California.
1968: The Monkees performed at the Lagoon Patio Gardens, a venue inside the famous amusement park, for about 5,000 fans. (Note: Several websites report that the Monkees appeared at Olympia Stadium in Salt Lake City, Utah, on May 21, 1968. There was not and never has been an Olympia Stadium in that city. There was an Olympia Stadium in Detroit, Michigan, and the Monkees performed there on January 14, 1968. The group did perform in Salt Lake City in 1968, though, but the information badly damages the credibility of the websites. According to the official website for the Monkees, they performed in Salt Lake City May 17 at the Lagoon Patio Gardens.)
1969: The Soundtrack to "Hair" had a hold on #1 on the Album chart for the fourth straight week. Blood, Sweat & Tears was #2, Glen Campbell's Galveston was #3 and Nashville Skyline from Bob Dylan captured spot #4. The rest of the Top 10: Donovan's Greatest Hits, Cloud Nine by the Temptations was #6, In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida, featuring the song of the same name by Iron Butterfly, was #7, Creedence Clearwater Revival had #8 with Bayou Country, Help Yourself by Tom Jones fell to 9 and the debut from Led Zeppelin entered the Top 10.
1969: "Aquarius/Let The Sunshine In" by 5th Dimension was once again the #1 song on the Adult Contemporary chart.
1969: "Aquarius" remained as the #1 song in the land for a sixth week, making it one of The Top 20 Songs of the Rock Era* to that point. "Hair" by the Cowsills was #2 while the Beatles climbed from 10 to 3 with "Get Back". "It's Your Thing" from the Isley Brothers was song #4 and the great One-Hit Wonder* song from Mercy--"Love (Can Make You Happy)" moved from 11 to 5. The rest of the Top 10: The great instrumental "Hawai'i Five-O" from the television show of the same name by the Ventures was #6, Simon & Garfunkel climbed to #7 with their classic "The Boxer", Donovan's probing song "Atlantis" was #8, Ray Stevens kept things light at #9 with "Gitarzan" and the Guess Who reached the Top 10 with "These Eyes".
1971: The popular musical Godspell debuted in New York City, off-Broadway at first, at the Cherry Lane Theatre, before hitting Broadway five years later. (Note: several websites report that 'Godspell' debuted on May 13. The official date of opening is May 17, 1971, according to the magazines 'Billboard' and 'Atlantic'.)
1974: Frankie Avalon hosted The Midnight Special on NBC-TV, featuring Sam & Dave, Fabian and Shirley & Lee.
1974: Elton John performed "Candle In The Wind" and "Rocket Man" in his television special Say Goodbye to Norma Jean and Other Things on ABC.
1975: Dumb ol' Mick Jagger. Put his hand through a window at Gosman's Dock restaurant in Montauk, New York. Required 20 stitches. (Note: some websites say the restaurant is in Long Island, New York. Long Island is not a city but rather the name of an island. Gosman's Dock is located in Montauk, New York.)
1975: "Rainy Day People" reached #1 on the Adult Contemporary chart for Canada's Gordon Lightfoot.
1975: That's the Way of the World, the Soundtrack to the movie from Earth, Wind & Fire, reached #1 on the chart as Chicago VIII dropped to #2. The Soundtrack to "Tommy" was #3, followed by Led Zeppelin's Physical Graffiti and Bad Company's Straight Shooter. The rest of the Top 10: Have You Never Been Mellow from Olivia Newton-John, the Soundtrack to "Funny Lady" at #7, An Evening with John Denver, the singer's live album at #8, Welcome To My Nightmare from Alice Cooper was #9 and Hearts from America was #10.
The Ozarks enjoyed their biggest hit "Jackie Blue"...
1975: It was a pretty solid Top 10--"He Don't Love You (Like I Love You)" by Tony Orlando & Dawn was #1 for a third week, Freddy Fender had #2 "Before The Next Teardrop Falls" and "Jackie Blue", the great Ozark Mountain Daredevils song, was #3. Earth, Wind & Fire moved up to 4 with "Shining Star" and the Carpenters hit the Top Five with "Only Yesterday". The rest of the Top 10: The Blackbyrds were at 6 with "Walking In Rhythm", "Thank God I'm A Country Boy" by John Denver moved from 14-7, Ace featuring great lead singer Paul Carrack moved into the Top 10 with "How Long", Paul Anka's "I Don't Like To Sleep Alone" was at #9 and the former #1 with the long title "(Hey Won't You Play) Another Somebody Done Somebody Wrong Song" by B.J. Thomas was #10.
1978: The Carpenters television special Space Encounters aired on ABC.
1978: Andy Gibb and ABBA were the guests on Olivia Newton-John's special Olivia on ABC-TV.
1978: Thank God It's Friday, the movie starring Donna Summer, premiered in Los Angeles.
1980: Paul and Linda McCartney were the guests on the television show Saturday Night Live.
1980: The Soundtrack to "Urban Cowboy", one of the best soundtrack albums of the rock era, was released.
1980: "Let's Get Serious" by Jermaine Jackson reached #1 on the R&B chart.
1980: "The Rose", the title song from the movie in which she starred in, was #1 on the Adult Contemporary chart for Bette Midler.
1980: Against the Wind, the great Bob Seger album, was #1. Pink Floyd was stuck at 2 with The Wall, while Glass Houses by Billy Joel and Mad Love by Linda Ronstadt maintained their positions for a fifth week.
Christopher Cross's first single was well received...
1980: "Call Me" from Blondie remained #1 for the fifth week and it wasn't done yet. "Ride Like The Wind" by Christopher Cross would have to settle for being one of the top #2 songs in history. Air Supply had #3 with "Lost In Love" while "Funkytown" from Lipps, Inc. moved from 19 to 4. The rest of the Top 10: "With You I'm Born Again" from Billy Preston & Syreeta was #5, "Sexy Eyes" by Dr. Hook held down #6, Billy Joel remained at 7 with "You May Be Right", "Don't Fall In Love With A Dreamer" by Kenny Rogers and Kim Carnes edged up to #8, "Another Brick In The Wall" by Pink Floyd fell to #9 and Ambrosia had a huge hit on their hands at #10 with "Biggest Part Of Me".
1986: Genesis released the single "Invisible Touch".
1986: "On My Own" from Michael McDonald and Patti Labelle, was #1 on the R&B chart, where it would spend four weeks at the top.
1986: "Greatest Love Of All" by Whitney Houston was once again #1 on the Adult Contemporary chart.
1986: Incredibly, Whitney Houston climbed back to #1 on the Album chart in its 60th week of release.
1986: The smash "Greatest Love Of All", which reached #1 on this date, was largely the reason for the resurgence in the Whitney Houston album.
1987: Tom Petty's home in Encino, California was consumed by a fire, causing a million dollars in damage.
1989: Jack Hall, guitarist of Wet Willie, died.
1992: Lawrence Welk died of pneumonia in Santa Monica, California at the age of 89.
1993: Barry Manilow was on the CBS-TV show Murphy Brown.
1995: Chuck Berry, Fats Domino and Little Richard played in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England, their first time together on stage. (Note: some websites report the concert took place in Sheffield, London. The concert wasn't in two locations. Sheffield is not in the county of London, but rather in South Yorkshire. In fact, the two cities are 167 miles apart. The three rock pioneers appeared in Sheffield, South Yorkshire.)
1999: Bruce Fairbairn died at the age of 49 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. He produced albums by Aerosmith, Bon Jovi and Krokus.
Hands off our name!
1999: No Doubt filed a lawsuit against a clothing manufacturer with the same name, claiming the company violated No Doubt's copyright service mark.
2000: The Eagles had a similar claim against the "Hotel California" restaurant in Dallas, Texas, claiming trademark violations.
2002: Little Johnny Taylor ("Part Time Love" from 1963) died of a heart attack at the age of 59 in Conway, Arkansas.
2003: Radiohead performed at the Olympia in Dublin, Ireland. Guitarist The Edge of U2 was among the fans in the audience.
2005: Kylie Minogue was diagnosed with breast cancer.
2008: Bob Flick of the Brothers Four ("Greenfields" hit #2 for four weeks in 1960) married actress Loni Anderson.
2010: Songwriters Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, who wrote "Hound Dog", "Jailhouse Rock", "Love Me", "Don't" and many others for Elvis Presley, "Kansas City" for Wilbert Harrison and "Charlie Brown" for the Coasters, were given the Outstanding Achievement Award for Musical Collaborators by the National Association of Recording Merchandisers in Chicago, Illinois.
2012: Donna Summer, whose amazing voice helped her score 33 hits, including 14 Top 10's and five #1 songs, died at the age of 63 after a battle with lung cancer in Naples, Florida.
Born This Day:
1941: Malcolm Hale, lead guitarist of Spanky & Our Gang, was born in Butte, Montana; died October 30, 1968 of carbon monoxide poisoning due to a faulty heating system in his home in Chicago, Illinois.
1944: Jesse Winchester ("Say What" from 1981), whose songs have been recorded by the Everly Brothers, Anne Murray, Wilson Pickett, Patti Page, Reba McEntire, Joan Baez, Jimmy Buffett, Fairport Convention, Emmylou Harris and Elvis Costello, was born in Shreveport, Louisiana; died April 11, 2014 of cancer in Charlottesville, Virginia.
1949: Bill Bruford, drummer and founding member of Yes, who later joined King Crimson, was born in Sevenoaks, Kent, England.
1949: Keith (James Barry Keefer, who had the hit "98.6" in 1967) was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
1952: Roy Adams, current drummer of the Climax Blues Band, was born in Birmingham, Warwickshire, England.
1958: Paul Di'Anno, singer with Iron Maiden, was born in Chingford, London, England. (Note: some websites claim Paul was born in West Ham, London. According to the book 'Iron Maiden: The Ultimate Unauthorized History of the Beast' by Neil Daniels, Di'Anno was born in Chingford, London.
1961: Enya (Eithne Ni Bhraonain) was born in Donegal, Ireland.
1963: Page McConnell, songwriter and keyboardist of Phish, was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
1965: Trent Reznor, singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist of Nine Inch Nails, was born in Mercer, Pennsylvania.
1970: Jordan Knight of New Kids on the Block was born in Worcester, Massachusetts. (Note: 'Allmusic.com' claims Knight was born in Boston, Massachusetts, but 'MTV' and other credible sources state that he was born in Worcester.)
1973: Josh Homme, guitarist, songwriter and founding member for Queens of the Stone Age, was born in Joshua Tree, California.
1974: Andrea Corr of the Corrs was born in Dundalk, County Louth, Ireland.
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