Category: Music

We begin with an entry from the It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time Dept.: Today in 1956, Chrysler Corp. launched its 1957 car lineup with a new option: a record player. The record player didn’t play albums or 45s, however; it played only seven-inch discs at 16⅔ rpm. Chrysler sold them until 1961.

Today in 1957, Little Richard was on an Australian tour when he publicly renounced rock and roll and embraced religion and announced he was going to record Gospel music from now on. The conversion was the result of his praying during a flight when one of the plane’s engines caught fire.

Little Richard returned to rock and roll five years later.

The number one song today in 1963:

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The number one song today in 1975 (and I remember when it was number one) was credited to Neil Sedaka, with a big assist to Elton John, making it arguably Sedaka’s most rock-like song even with flutes:

The number one album today in 1980 was the Police’s “Zenyattà Mondatta”:

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Proving that there is no accounting for taste, I present the number one song today in 1960:

The number two single today in 1970 was originally written for a bank commercial:

Britain’s number one album today in 1970 was Black Sabbath’s “Paranoid”:

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My favorite Ray Charles song was number one today in 1961:

Today in 1969, the BBC’s “Top of the Pops” refused for the first time to play that week’s number one song because of what singers Serge Gainsbourg and Jane Birkin were supposedly doing while recording “Je T’Aime … Moi Non Plus”:

According to a classmate of mine, Madison radio stations play Britain’s number one single today in 1971 too often:

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The number one song today in 1955 …

… not to be confused with …

… or …

The number one British song (which is not from Britain) today in 1964:

Today in 1971, John Lennon released his “Imagine” album:

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Today in 1975, one of the stranger episodes in rock music history ended when John Lennon got permanent resident status, his “green card.” The federal government, at the direction of Richard Nixon, tried to deport Lennon because of his 1968 British arrest for possession of marijuana.

A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals ruled that trying to deport Lennon on the basis of an arrest was “contrary to U.S. ideas of due process and was invalid as a means of banishing the former Beatle from America.”

The number one British single today in 1978 came from that day’s number one album:

The number one album today in 1989 was Tears for Fears’ “Seeds of Love”:

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You had better get on board for the number one song today in 1970:

The number one song today in 1973:

Britain’s number one album tonight in 1984 was David Bowie’s “Tonight”:

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The number one album today in 2002 was “Elvis Presley’s Number One Hits,” despite (or perhaps because of) the fact that Presley had been dead for 25 years:

Strangely, “Elvis Presley’s Number One Hits” didn’t include this number one hit:

Just two birthdays of note, and they were on the same day: Kevin Cronin of REO Speedwagon …

… was born the same day as David Hidalgo of Los Lobos:

The number one song today in 1959 …

… came from a German opera:

The number one British song today in 1961:

The number one British song today in 1974 came from the movie “The Exorcist”:

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The number one U.S. album today in 1974 was a collection of previous Beach Boys hits, “Endless Summer”:

The number one song today in 1991:

Birthdays begin with Carlos Mastrangelo, one of Dion’s Belmonts:

Richard Street of The Temptations …

… was born one year before Milwaukee’s own Steve Miller:

Brian Connolly of Sweet:

Brian Johnson of AC/DC:

Harold Faltermeyer:

Lee Thompson of Madness:

Dave Dederer of Presidents of the United States (though none of the band’s members have ever been president):

Today in 1957, the sixth annual New Music Express poll named Elvis Presley the second most popular singer in Great Britain behind … Pat Boone. That seems as unlikely as, say, Boone’s recording a heavy metal album.

The number one British song today in 1962, coming to you via satellite:

Britain’s number one album today in 1969 was the Beatles’ “Abbey Road”:

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We begin with this unusual event: Today in 1978, the members of Aerosmith bailed out 30 of their fans who were arrested at their concert in Fort Wayne, Ind., for smoking marijuana:

Britain’s number one single today in 1987:

Today in 1992 on NBC-TV’s “Saturday Night Live,” Sinead O’Connor torpedoed her own career:

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