Pick a Day

13 SEPTEMBER

In Music History

1993 Max Weinberg, drummer with Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band, begins his new job as bandleader for NBC-TV's new show Late Night With Conan O'Brien.

1993 Niall Horan of One Direction is born in Mullingar, Westmeath, Ireland. He's the only member who isn't English.

1991 Alice Cooper plays Freddy Krueger's father in the movie Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare.

1990 Eddie Vedder does some surfing, writes some lyrics, and adds his vocals to three instrumental tracks recorded by the guys he would later join in Pearl Jam. The songs become "Alive," "Once" and "Footsteps."

1988 N.W.A founder Eazy-E releases his debut solo album, Eazy-Duz-It.

1986 "Take My Breath Away," the big, synthy ballad from the movie Top Gun, goes to #1 in America. It's by the group Berlin, but lead singer Terri Nunn is the only band member to perform on the song, which causes friction in the group that leads to their breakup a year later. The song was written and produced by Giorgio Moroder, who also contributed the Kenny Loggins hit "Danger Zone" to the film.

1986 The Communards hit #1 in the UK with their cover of "Don't Leave Me This Way," an American #1 for Thelma Houston in 1977. Their version becomes the top-selling UK single of 1986.

1984 Patti LaBelle makes her feature-film debut in the Norman Jewison drama A Soldier's Story, a WWII-era mystery about the murder of a Black sergeant near a segregated Army base in Louisiana. For her role as blues singer Big Mary, LaBelle wrote and performed the tune "Pourin' Whiskey Blues."

1980 The TV series Solid Gold premieres. Like its genre-mates American Bandstand and Soul Train, the show consists of Top-40 music (mostly recorded) in a studio with a dance stage and floor. A feature of the show is a specialty crew of "Solid Gold dancers" who bump and grind to the tunes. Dionne Warwick is the host for the first season, but the show rotates through numerous hosts during its course. The show runs almost eight seasons before discontinuing in 1988.

1979 ABBA starts their first and only tour of North America with a show at the Edmonton Sports Arena.

1977 Fiona Apple is born in Manhattan to singer Diane McAfee and actor Brandon Maggart.More

1976 Bob Dylan releases Hard Rain.

1976 Lynyrd Skynyrd release their first live album, One More from the Road. It's the only live album the band releases before a 1977 plane wreak ends the original lineup and puts the band out of commission entirely for fourteen years.

1975 The Isley Brothers' LP The Heat Is On hits #1.

1975 Janis Ian's "At Seventeen," a song about dealing with unrealistic standards of beauty (not typical hit song material at the time), peaks at #3 on the Hot 100 for the first of two weeks.