31 MAY
In Music History
1983 After a break in which David Byrne and Jerry Harrison release solo albums and Chris Frantz and Tina Weymouth form Tom Tom Club, Talking Heads return with their fifth album, Speaking In Tongues. It contains their biggest hit, "Burning Down The House."
1980 Fall Out Boy drummer Andy Hurley is born in Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin.
1980 The disco group Lipps, Inc. goes to #1 in America with "Funkytown," a tribute to New York City.
1976 Tom Waits begins a two-week stint performing at Ronnie Scott's Club in Soho, London, England. The club is run by Pete King, and the experience inspires Waits to write "The Piano Has Been Drinking (Not Me) (An Evening with Pete King)."
1975 Freddy Fender's "Before the Next Teardrop Falls" hits #1 in America.
1974 Gordon Lightfoot's Sundown album is certified Gold.
1971 Badfinger record "Day After Day."
1968 While recording vocals for "Revolution," John Lennon does some improvised ranting that is later used in the head-scratching "Revolution 9."
1967 Big Brother & the Holding Company film a scene in the Richard Lester movie Petulia.
1965 Steve White (drummer for The Style Council) is born in Southwark, London, England.
1964 The family-friendly Dave Clark Five go on the Ed Sullivan Show for the first time, performing "Glad All Over." They're a hit with the host, who has them on 18 more times.
1964 Darryl McDaniels, the DMC of Run-DMC, is born in Harlem, New York City. He creates a new rap style by trading off lines with his fellow MC Joseph Simmons (Run). They also become fashion icons, with gold chains, fedoras and sneakers with no shoelaces.
1962 Pop singer Corey Hart is born in Montréal, Québec, Canada.
1961 Chuck Berry opens the Berryland amusement park, complete with guitar-shaped swimming pool, in Wentzville, Missouri, outside of St. Louis.
1954 Vicki Sue Robinson ("Turn The Beat Around") is born in New York.
Five Genesis-related Acts Share Space In Hot 100
1986Genesis enter the Hot 100 with "Invisible Touch," joining four acts by current or former members of the group on the chart.
Read more31 MAY
Featured Events
2014 The trustee for Randy California, leader of the band Spirit who died in 1997, sues Led Zeppelin, claiming a song California wrote called "Taurus" was stolen for the intro to "Stairway To Heaven." After a legal odyssey that includes testimony from Jimmy Page, Led Zeppelin prevails in 2020.
2014 Michael Jackson becomes the first artist with Top 10 hits in five consecutive decades on the Hot 100 as "Love Never Felt So Good" reaches at #9.
1986 Jeff Krulik and John Heyn film the parking-lot antics of fans tailgating at a Judas Priest concert in Landover, Maryland. The result is Heavy Metal Parking Lot, a 16-minute film that captures the energy and absurdity of heavy metal culture in the '80s.More
1976 Ten years after it appeared on The Beatles' Revolver album, Capitol Records issues "Got To Get You Into My Life" as a single in America.More
1976 The Who set the record for "World's Loudest Rock Band" when their show in London measures 126 decibels. Concerned about hearing loss, Guinness later stops certifying the record.
1961 Jimi Hendrix enlists in the Army and is stationed at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, as a member of the 101st Airborne Division. He signs up for three years, but is honorably discharged a little over a year later, ostensibly because he hurt his ankle in a parachute jump, but really because he is a lousy soldier, constantly thinking about or playing his guitar.
1956 Buddy Holly sees the John Wayne film The Searchers. Wayne's line, "That'll be the day," inspires him to write a song with that title.
1948 Led Zeppelin drummer John Bonham is born in Redditch, Worcestershire, England.
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