27 SEPTEMBER
In Music History
1947 Meat Loaf is born Marvin Lee Aday in Dallas, Texas. He's often asked how he got his name, so he makes up a few stories, sometimes claiming a football coach told him he had "meat loaf for brains," and other times saying he looked like a wad of meat as an infant.
1944 Randy Bachman (of The Guess Who and Bachman-Turner Overdrive) is born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.
1942 In Passaic, New Jersey, Glenn Miller plays his last concert as a civilian. Ten days later he joins the Army, where he performs for troops. In December 1944, his plane disappears over the Atlantic Ocean.
1941 Don Nix (Booker T. & the MG's) is born in Memphis, Tennessee.
1938 Comedian Bob Hope premieres a new song, "Thanks For The Memory," on his eponymous NBC radio show.
1938 Artie Shaw records "Nightmare."
1898 Broadway producer and composer Vincent Youmans is born in New York City.
1880 The Guildhall School of Music is opened in a disused London warehouse in the city. It has 62 part-time students.
Dylan Plays For Pope
1997Bob Dylan plays "Knocking On Heaven's Door" and "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall" for Pope John Paul II and an audience of 300,000 at the World Eucharist Congress in Bologna, Italy. For the 77-year-old Pope, it's a chance to connect with young people, and the pontiff does so by invoking Dylan's song "Blowin' In The Wind" during his sermon. Dylan's invite is not without controversy, as the future Pope Benedict fears the "rock prophet" and his music are at odds with the Roman Catholic faith.
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Featured Events
2025 Zach Bryan breaks the record for largest ticketed concert, drawing 112,408 fans to his show at Michigan Stadium (the "Big House") in Ann Arbor. It's the first concert in the 98-year history of the stadium, which is primarily used for University of Michigan football games.
2004 Legendary rock producer Phil Spector, best known for creating the "Wall Of Sound" on hits like The Ronettes' "Be My Baby" and The Righteous Brothers' "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'," is indicted for the February 2003 murder of actress Lana Clarkson at his estate in Alhambra, California.
1995 With gangsta rap drawing negative publicity, Time Warner sells their share of Interscope Records to the founders, Jimmy Iovine and Ted Field. The next release is Dogg Food by Tha Dogg Pound, which goes to #1 in America.
1986 Cliff Burton (Metallica's second bassist) dies in a bus crash in Sweden during Metallica's Damage Inc. tour in support of the Master of Puppets album. Burton, age 24, is asleep in his bunk when the bus skids off the road. He is thrown from the window and crushed when the vehicle rolls over him.
1986 The Beatles' re-released version of "Twist And Shout" peaks at #23 thanks to its use in the movie Ferris Bueller's Day Off.
1980 Kurtis Blow becomes the first rapper to perform on national television when he does "The Breaks" on Soul Train. Host Don Cornelius is flummoxed. "It doesn't make sense to old guys like me," he tells Kurtis in the interview segment.More
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