5 FEBRUARY
In Music History
1990 Hasbro introduces the New Kids On The Block dolls, which come with personal interview cassettes. It's one of many marketing opportunities for the group, who also sell phones, buttons, and fanny packs.
1981 Joni Mitchell is inducted into Canada's Juno Hall of Fame.
1979 The Pointer Sisters' "Fire" is certified Gold.
1979 Fifteen months after announcing his retirement on stage, Elton John is back in action in Stockholm with the first show of his A Single Man tour.
1977 Mary MacGregor's "Torn Between Two Lovers" hits #1 for the first of two weeks.
1976 Elvis Presley records "For the Heart," "Hurt," and "Danny Boy."
1972 Paul Simon releases "Mother and Child Reunion."
1971 Sara Evans is born in Boonesboro, Missouri.
1969 Bobby Brown is born in Roxbury, Boston, Massachusetts.
1968 Spin Doctors frontman Chris Barron is born Christopher Barron Gross in Hawaii. He moves with his family to Australia at age 8, then to Princeton, New Jersey at 12, where he goes to high school with John Popper of Blues Traveler.
1967 Pop Stars And Drugs – Facts That Will Shock You screams the headline of the British newspaper News of the World. The article describes LSD parties thrown by The Moody Blues and attended by Pete Townshend, Ginger Baker and other prominent rock stars, and claims that Mick Jagger took Benzedrine tablets and lured girls back to his apartment to smoke hash. Jagger sues for libel, as it was actually Brian Jones with the Benzedrine. The paper responds by staking out Jagger and tipping police to drug activity at Keith Richards' Redlands estate. On February 12, police raid the place, arresting Jagger, Richards and Marianne Faithfull on drug charges.
1967 Chilean composer Violeta Parra commits suicide at age 49.
1966 Petula Clark's "My Love" hits #1 on the Hot 100 for the first of two weeks.
1964 Bass player Duff McKagan is born Michael Andrew McKagan in Seattle, Washington. With the Seattle drug scene causing problems, he heads to Los Angeles, where he forms Guns N' Roses.
1961 Gene Pitney releases "Love My Life Away."
Paul Simon Announces Farewell Tour
2018Paul Simon announces his final tour, the Homeward Bound Tour.
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Featured Events
2017 Lady Gaga opens the Super Bowl halftime show with a verse from "God Bless America," followed by the song Woody Guthrie wrote as a parody, "This Land Is Your Land."More
2012 The Super Bowl XLVI halftime show becomes the most-watched television event in history, at 118 million views. Performing artists include Madonna, LMFAO, Nicki Minaj, and Cee Lo Green.
2008 On the day of the Super Tuesday primary elections in America, luminaries from across many genres of music (country - not so much) voice their enthusiastic support for Barack Obama, who wins big in the primaries on his way to the White House.More
1988 The John Hughes film She's Having A Baby debuts in US theaters. Kevin Bacon and Elizabeth McGovern star as a young married couple whose lives are about to be upended by the birth of their first child. The soundtrack features Kate Bush's heart-wrenching ballad "This Woman's Work," written and recorded expressly for the movie.More
1983 Continental shift: "Africa" by Toto replaces "Down Under" by Men At Work at #1 in the US.
1948 Actor Christopher Guest, known as Alan Barrows of the fictional folk trio The Folksmen and Nigel Tufnel of Spinal Tap, is born in New York City. The mockumentary This Is Spinal Tap tells us Tufnel was born in Squatney, London.
1929 Hal Blaine, the famous session drummer coined the term "Wrecking Crew" for the prolific group of Los Angeles studio musicians, is born in Holyoke, Massachusetts.
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