Four days before Halloween was the world premiere of the more recognizable version of Modest Mussorgsky’s “Night on Bald Mountain”:

The song was an appropriate theme for the Friday-bad-horror-flick-show “The Inferno” on WMTV in Madison:

Britain’s number one song today in 1957:

The number one song today in 1963 was the Four Tops’ only number one:

The number one song today in 1973:

Today in 1975, Time and Newsweek demonstrated journalistic groupthink when they chose the same cover story on a then-obscure musician, Bruce Springsteen:

The number one British album today in 1990 was Paul Simon’s “The Rhythm of the Saints”:

Presenting, in order, the Best British Group and Worst Female Singer in the 1991 Smash Hits Poll:

The small list of birthdays starts with Byron Allred, who played keyboards for the Steve Miller Band:

Simon Le  Bon of Duran Duran …

Peter Dodd played guitar for the Thompson Twins:

Scott Weiland of the Stone Temple Pilots:

Finally, today in 1980, Steve Took, a former member of T Rex, choked to death on a cherry pit. He choked to death because the magic mushrooms he had taken numbed all sensation in his throat.