There seems to be a blue theme today, starting with the first birthday, Harold Melvin, who had Blue Notes:

Carly Simon:

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Proving that there is no accounting for taste, I present the number six song today in 1972:

Twenty years later, Billy Joel got an honorary diploma … from Hicksville High School in New York (where he attended but was one English credit short of graduating due to oversleeping the day of the final):

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Today in 1956, perhaps the first traffic safety song, “Transfusion,” reached number eight:

Today in 1975 was not a good day for Alice Cooper, who broke six ribs after falling off a stage in Vancouver:

Today in 1979, the Knack released “My Sharona”:

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Today in 1959, along came Jones to peak at number nine:

Today in 1968, here came the Judge to peak at number 88:

Today in 1985, Glenn Frey may have felt the “Smuggler’s Blues” because it peaked at number 12:

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Today’s takeaway is that in 1982, Paul McCartney released “Take It Away”:

Birthdays today start with the great Lalo Schifrin:

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Birthdays today begin with guitarist Chet Atkins:

Bobby Nunn of the Coasters:

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Nothing but birthdays today, beginning with Tommy DeVito of the Four Seasons:

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Today in 1967 was the Monterey International Pop Festival:

Happy birthday first to Paul McCartney:

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The number five song today in 1967 …

… was 27 spots higher than this song reached in 1978:

Birthdays start with Jerry Fielding, who composed the theme music to …

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Dueling ex-Beatles today: In 1978, one year after the play “Beatlemania” opened on Broadway …

… Ringo Starr released his “Bad Boy” album …

… while Paul McCartney and Wings released “I’ve Had Enough”:

The number six song one year later (with no known connection to Mr. Spock):

Stop! for the number eight single today in 1990 …

… which bears an interesting resemblance to an earlier song:

Put the two together, and you get …

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