Click on any date below to see music events for that day. Click here to return to the main history page. You can also check the birthday page for even more music makers born on each day than those highlighted here. Note: there are A LOT of links here to other DMDB pages. Please email Dave’s Music Database with any corrections.
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October 11935: Julie Andrews was born. She was best known for star turns in the Broadway musical My Fair Lady, an Oscar-winning performance in her feature film debut of Mary Poppins, and the beloved movie musical The Sound of Music.
1982: The compact disc was introduced. Read more about the history and development of the CD here. October 21951: Sting was born. He scored five #1 songs in the UK with The Police before a solo career that has seen him sell more than 100 million albums and singles. Check out the DMDB podcasts The Best of the Police (1977-1986) and The Best of Sting (1985-2021) based on the DMDB list of the top 100 songs of Sting & the Police. 
1971: Rod Stewart’s Every Picture Tells a Story album hit #1. It topped the UK charts a couple of months earlier. The album featured the #1 hit “Maggie May” and the Faces’ interpretation of “I Know I’m Losing You” as well as the title cut. Music writer Jimmy Gutterman ranked it the best album of all time. 1982: John Mellencamp (then John Cougar) topped the Billboard Hot 100 chart with “Jack and Diane.” It is one of my top 100 songs.
2010: Bruno Mars landed his first #1 as a solo artist with “Just the Way You Are (Amazing).” The song ranks as one of the top 100 love songs and is featured in the DMDB book The Top 100 Songs of the Digital Era (2000-2019).
October 31936: Fred Astaire went to #1 with “The Way You Look Tonight.” He sang it to Ginger Rogers in the movie Swing Time. It won the Oscar for Best Song and would later be named to the Grammy Hall of Fame. The song is also featured in the DMDB book The Top 100 Songs of the Pre-Rock Era, 1890-1953.
1949: Lindsey Buckingham was born. His song “Go Your Own Way” with Fleetwood Mac was the first of four top-ten hits from the group’s monstrous Rumours album.
1969: Gwen Stefani was born. She started off with the alternative-rock-meets-ska-group No Doubt. Their third album, Tragic Kingdom, took off, buoyed by several hits, but most notably “Don’t Speak.” While it didn’t qualify for the Billboard Hot 100, the song spent 16 weeks atop the Billboard radio airplay chart, making it one of the biggest chart-toppers in history.
1992: Abba topped the UK album chart on this day in 1992 with their greatest hits collection entitled Gold. It ranks as one of the top 100 longest-running #1 albums in the UK and one of the top 100 longest-charting albums in the UK. It also ranks as one of the top 100 compilations of all time. October 41913: Al Jolson went to #1 with “You Made Me Love You (I Didn’t Want to Do It)” for the first of seven weeks. The DMDB ranks it as one of the top 100 standards of all time as well as one of the top 100 tin pan alley songs of all time. The Grammy Hall of Fame song is also featured in the DMDB book The Top 100 Songs of the Pre-Rock Era, 1890-1953.
1959: Chris Lowe of the Pet Shop Boys was born. The dance-pop duo was best known for their #1 hit “West End Girls.”
1975: Pink Floyd hit #1 in the UK and U.S. simultaneously with Wish You Were Here. The album was the band’s follow-up to the hugely successful Dark Side of the Moon. Both albums are featured in the DMDB book The Top 100 Albums of All Time. 1980: Queen topped the Billboard Hot 100 with “Another One Bites the Dust.” It would be named the Song of the Year by both Cashbox and Record World. It also won the American Music Award for Pop/Rock Song of the Year.
October 51943: Steve Miller was born. His 1976 hit “Fly Like an Eagle” was from the album of the same name which went four times platinum and reached #3 on the album chart. The song was a #2, gold-selling single.
1947: Brian Johnson of AC/DC was born. His first album with the group, Back in Black, ranks as one of the top 5 bestsellers of all time. 1985: The self-titled debut album from Mike + the Mechanics was released. The side project from Genesis’ Mike Rutherford proved more successful than anyone would have guessed, producing top-10 hits with “Silent Running” and “All I Need Is a Miracle.” The album ranks as one of my top 100 of all time. October 61951: Kevin Cronin, the lead singer of REO Speedwagon, was born. The group topped the charts in 1981 with “Keep on Loving You” and again in 1984 with “Can’t Fight This Feeling.”
1969: On this day in 1969, the Beatles released their double-A-sided single “Come Together” and “Something.” The former went on to top the Billboard Hot 100 chart and the latter peaked at #3. It was a rare release of a George Harrison song as a single. It won an Ivor Novello award and ranks in the DMDB lists of the top 100 love songs and the top 100 power ballads. It’s also one of the most played songs in radio history.
1992: R.E.M. released their album Automatic for the People on this day in 1992. The album peaked at #2 in the U.S. and #1 in the UK. It sold more than 18 million copies worldwide. It featured the songs “Drive,” “Man on the Moon,” and “Everybody Hurts.” October 71951: John Mellencamp was born. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Songwriters Hall of Fame inductee is best known for ‘80s top-ten hits like “Hurts So Good,” “Jack and Diane”, “Pink Houses,” and “Small Town” but has continued to do fantastic (if underappreciated work) long after his commercial peak years. Check out the DMDB podcasts on his music from 1976-2001 and 2003-2023. 
1977: Queen released “We Will Rock You” and “We Are the Champions.” The double-A-sided single reached #4 in the U.S. and sold five million copies. The pair of songs are both in the Grammy Hall of Fame and rank as the best sports anthem of all time.
1989: Tears for Fears hit #1 in the UK with their third album, The Seeds of Love. The album featured “Sowing the Seeds of Love,” “Woman in Chains,” and “Advice for the Young at Heart.” The album peaked at #8 in the U.S. and sold over a million copies. It ranks as one of my top 100 of all time. October 81880: Nora Bayes was born. She charted 39 songs from 1910 to 1923 including the #1 hits “ Over There” and “Make Believe.” However, her biggest hit according to the DMDB was 1919’s “How Ya Gonna Keep ‘Em Down on the Farm After They’ve Seen Paree?.” It also ranks as one of the top 100 vaudeville songs of all time. The #2 hit lamented that rural Americans wouldn’t want to return to farm life after going oversees as soldiers during World War I.
1980: The Talking Heads released Remain in Light. The album, which featured the song “Once in a Lifetime,” has been celebrated for its experimentation and incorporation of world music. It is in the National Recording Registry and is featured in the DMDB book The Top 100 Albums of All Time. 1985: Bruno Mars was born. His song "Uptown Funk" spent 14 weeks at #1 and ranks as the top song of the 21st century according to the DMDB book The Top 100 Songs of the Digital Era (2000-2019). October 91940: John Lennon was born. He ranks as one of the top acts of all time and has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Songwriters Hall of Fame. Check out the DMDB list of his top 40 songs of all time with The Beatles and as a solo artist. 
1965: The Beatles topped the Billboard Hot 100 with the song “Yesterday.” The song was really a solo recording from Paul McCartney. The band weren’t sold on releasing a ballad so it wasn’t put out as a single in the UK. It went on to become one of the group’s most beloved songs, being covered more than 2500 times. It is featured in the DMDB book The Top 100 Songs of the Rock Era, 1954-1999.
1993: Nirvana went to #1 with In Utero. The album was the follow-up to the band’s Nevermind, an album which has been celebrated as one of the most iconic of all time for its role in giving grunge a worldwide audience. While In Utero could never match its predecessor, it did top the charts in the U.S. and UK and sold more than 10 million copies worldwide. It was also critically acclaimed, led by the singles “Heart-Shaped Box” and “All Apologies.” The DMDB ranked it as the album of the year. 2004: Green Day topped the Billboard album chart with American Idiot. The politically-charged rock opera sold more than 18 million copies worldwide. It won the Grammy for Best Rock Album, the Brit Award for Best International Album, and the Juno (Canadian) Award for International Album. October 101955: David Lee Roth was born. As the lead singer of Van Halen, he had a #1 song “Jump” in 1984. The DMDB ranks it one of the top 100 videos of all time.
1958: Tanya Tucker was born. From 1972 to 2003, this Country Music Hall of Fame inductee charted 67 times on the country charts, including 10 #1 hits. Her debut single, “Delta Dawn,” hit #6 in 1972 and ranks as one of the top 200 country songs of all time according to the DMDB. 1970: Black Sabbath went to #1 on the UK album chart with Paranoid. It reached #12 in the United States and has sold 4 million copies. It featured the title cut, "War Pigs," and "Iron Man." The album ranks in top 5 of the top heavy metal albums of all time and is featured in the DMDB book The Top 100 Albums of All Time. October 111958: Daryl Hall was born. As half of the blue-eyed soul duo Hall & Oates, he reached #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 six times. The pair are Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Songwriters Hall of Fame inductees. Their biggest hit was “Maneater,” #1 for 4 weeks in 1982.
1992: Cardi B was born Belcalis Marlenis Almánzar Cephus on this day in 1992. Her first major label album Invasion of Privacy debuted at #1 and sold four million copies. It was promoted by five singles, including the chart-topping “Bodak Yellow (Money Moves),” only the second song by a female rapper to top the Billboard Hot 100.
1997: The Verve topped the UK album chart with Urban Hymns, the Britpop group’s second album. The group were a one-hit wonder in the U.S. with the song “Bitter Sweet Symphony” from this album, but in the UK this was one of the band’s four top-ten hits. Their biggest hit, also from this album, was the #1 song “The Drugs Don’t Work.” October 121969: Martie Maguire of the The Chicks was born. The group, then called The Dixie Chicks, won the Grammy for Album of the Year for Taking the Long Way. They also took home the prizes for Record and Song of the Year with “Not Ready to Make Nice.”
1971: Jesus Christ Superstar opened on Broadway. The Andrew Lloyd Webber/Tim Rice musical didn’t follow a traditional path to success. It started as a studio album before making it to the stage. It ran for 18 months on Broadway but 8 years in London, making it the longest-running musical in London at the time. 2013: Lorde hit #1 with “Royals.” It spent nine weeks on top of the Billboard Hot 100, was the best-selling song of the year, and won a Grammy for Song of the Year. It is also featured in the DMDB book The Top 100 Songs of the Digital Era (2000-2019).
October 131917: The American Quartet hit #1 with “ Over There,” a song written by George M. Cohan that practically became the theme song for World War I. Four different acts took the song to #1, but the version by the American Quartet is the highest ranked according to Dave’s Music Database. It is also featured in the DMDB book The Top 100 Songs of the Pre-Rock Era, 1890-1953.
1941: Paul Simon was born. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Songwriters Hall of Fame inductee has won the Grammy for Album of the Year three times – first as part of the duo Simon & Garfunkel with Bridge Over Troubled Water and then twice as a solo artist with Still Crazy After All These Years and Graceland. Check out the DMDB podcasts The Best of Simon & Garfunkel and The Best of Paul Simon (1972-2016). 
1984: Stevie Wonder’s “I Just Called to Say I Love You ” hit #1. The song is featured in the DMDB book Music of the 1980s.
October 141905: Billy Murray topped the charts with “In My Merry Oldsmobile.” The song was inspired by the first trans-continental automobile race. It ranks as one of the top 100 standards of all time as well as the top 100 tin pan alley songs of all time. It is also featured in the DMDB book The Top 100 Songs of the Pre-Rock Era, 1890-1953.
1978: Usher was born. He had his commercial peak in 2004 when he hit #1 four times, most notably with “Yeah!” for 12 weeks. It was the Billboard song of the year. It is also featured in the DMDB book The Top 100 Songs of the Digital Era (2000-2019).
1995: Oasis debuted at #1 with their second album (What’s the Story) Morning Glory? Rolling Stone magazine’s Dan Hyman called it the “quintessential Britpop masterpiece.”It spent 10 weeks on top and is featured in the DMDB book The Top 100 Albums of All Time. October 151875: Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1 premiered. In 1958, pianist Van Cliburn’s recording of the concerto spent seven weeks atop the Billboard album chart. Van Cliburn’s recording has also been named to the Grammy Hall of Fame and the National Recording Registry. The concerto also ranks in the top 5 classical works of all time. 1966: The Four Tops hit #1 with “Reach Out (I'll Be There).” The song has been inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame and the National Recording Registry. It ranks as one of the top 10 Motown songs of all time and is featured in the DMDB book The Top 100 Songs of the Rock Era, 1954-1999.
1977: Debby Boone hit #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 for the first of 10 weeks with “You Light Up My Life.” She went on to win the Grammy for Best New Artist and “You Light Up My Life” won Song of the Year. She never reached the top 40 again.
1983: Genesis topped the UK album chart with their self-titled album. The band’s twelfth album was their second consecutive top-ten album in the United States and sold more than 4 million copies. Seven of the album’s nine cuts made the Billboard mainstream rock chart, including “Mama” (#5) and “That’s All” (#2). The latter was also the group’s first top-ten hit on the Billboard Hot 100. The album also ranks as one of my top 100 albums of all time. October 161791: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto in A major was performed for the first time. It was one of his final works as he died less than two months later at the age of 35. It ranks as one of the top classical works of all time. 2004: Green Day hit the charts with “Boulevard of Broken Dreams.” It peaked at #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 but was a big #1 song on multiple Billboard charts, including the Adult Top 40, adult alternative, mainstream rock, and alternative rock charts. The song won a Grammy for Record of the Year.
2010: Cee-Lo Green hit #1 in the UK with “Fuck You (aka ‘Forget You’).” The song was co-written by Bruno Mars and received Grammy nominations for Record and Song of the Year. It is also featured in the DMDB book The Top 100 Songs of the Digital Era (2000-2019).
October 171967: The first stage production of Hair. It was a very different kind of musical that spoke to the hippie generation. The cast album topped the Billboard album chart for 13 weeks and sold five million copies. It ranks as one of the top 5 musicals/cast albums of all time according to Dave’s Music Database. 1970: The Jackson 5had their fourth consecutive chart-topper on this day in 1970 with “I’ll Be There.” The Grammy Hall of Fame song ranks as one of the top love songs of all time, the top Motown songs of all time, and the top R&B songs of all time. Mariah Carey took the song back to #1 in 1992.
1972: Eminem was born. The rapper ranks as one of the top acts of all time and has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. He’s topped the Billboard Hot 100 five times, most notably with “Lose Yourself” for 12 weeks. Check out the DMDB podcast Best of Eminem, 1998-2022 based on the DMDB list of his Top 50 Songs. 
October 181904: Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 5 premiered. he wrote the symphony in the summers of 1901 and 1902 about his relationship with Alma, his eventual wife. It rates as one of the top classical works of all time and, more specifically, one of the top 25 symphonies of all time. 1926: Chuck Berry was born. The man known as “The Architect of Rock and Roll” ranks as one of the top acts of all time and has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Songwriters Hall of Fame, and Blues Hall of Fame. He crafted one of the most iconic guitar riffs of all time with 1958’s “Johnny B. Goode.” Music historian Steve Sullivan said, “No other record defines the very essence of rock ‘n’ roll like ‘Johnny B. Goode.’” 
1954: The first transistor radio was introduced. It revolutionized how music could be consumed as people could now take music with them wherever they went. Read more here. 1988: Sonic Youth released their fifth album, Daydream Nation. Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic.com called it “a masterpiece of post-punk art rock.” Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain and Radiohead’s Thom Yorke both cited the album as an influence on their music. It is in the National Recording Registry ranks as one of the top 5 alternative rock albums of all time. October 191923: Maurice Ravel’s orchestral version of Pictures at an Exhibition premiered. The piece was originally composed by Modest Mussorgsky in 1874. The progressive rock group Emerson, Lake & Palmer also recorded a version of it in 1971. Mussorgsky’s version is in the Grammy Hall of Fame and National Recording Registry. 1945: Jeannie C Riley was born. Her 1968 song “Harper Valley P.T.A.” hit #1 on the pop and country charts. It ranks in the top 30 of the DMDB list of the top country songs of all time.
1985: A-ha rose to the top of the Billboard charts with “Take on Me.” The song is often wrongly cited as a one-hit wonder (the group also reached the top 20 with “The Sun Always Shines on TV”) but is unquestionably one of the signature videos of the early days of MTV. It ranks as one as one of the top 5 all time videos. “Take on Me” is also featured in the DMDB book Music of the 1980s.
October 201928: Al Jolson topped the charts with “Sonny Boy” for the first of eight weeks. The Grammy Hall of Fame song was Jolson’s twenty-first of 23 #1 songs, but the biggest of his career. The song is featured in the DMDB book The Top 100 Songs of the Pre-Rock Era, 1890-1953.
1950: Tom Petty was born. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Songwriters Hall of Fame inductee gave us plenty of staples for classic rock radio. Check out the DMDB podcast The Best of Tom Petty, 1976-2016 based on the DMDB list ranking his top 100 songs. 
1971: Snoop Dogg was born. Dr. Dre introduced him to the world in 1993 with “Nuthin’ But a ‘G’ Thang,” a #2 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 and a chart-topper on the R&B charts. It ranks as one of the top 5 all-time rap/hip-hop songs.
1977: Tragedy struck when Lynyrd Skynyrd’s plane crashed while on the way to a scheduled show in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Singer Ronnie Van Zant, guitarist Steve Gaines, and backup singer Cassie Gaines were killed in the crash along with 3 others. Read more here. October 211977: Meat Loaf’s Bat Out of Hell album was released on this day in 1977. While it never reached the top 10 on the Billboard album chart in the United States, it has sold 50 million copies worldwide, ranking as one of the top 5 best-selling albums in history. 1991: Tori Amos released “Silent All These Years.” It was the introduction to her music for most people. The song was inspired by Hans Christian Andersen’s book Little Mermaid. While it stalled at #65 on the Billboard Hot 100, the album Little Earthquakes went on to sell two million copies. It ranks as one of my top 100 songs.
1995: Doja Cat was born. The American singer/songwriter and rapper hit #1 with “Say So” in 2020. It has been played more than a billion times on Spotify and has been certified 6 times platinum in the United States.
October 221976: Bob Seeger’s Night Moves album was released on this day in 1976. It was his first top-ten album and sold over six million copies, thanks to now radio staples such as the title cut, “Mainstreet,” “Rock and Roll Never Forgets,” and “The Fire Down Below.” 1985: Zac Hanson was born. With his brothers, the trio Hanson topped the charts with “Mmmbop” in 1997. The DMDB ranks it as one of the top 100 earworms of all time.
2012: Kendrick Lamar released his major label debut Good Kid, m.A.A.D. City. It sold three million copies and reached #2 on the Billboard album chart. It won the Soul Train Award for R&B album of the year and ranks as one of the top 100 rap albums of all time. October 231940: Songwriter Ellie Greenwich was born. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Songwriters Hall of Fame inductee and husband Jeff Barry wrote such classics as the Ronettes’ “Be My Baby,” Ike & Tina Turner’s “River Deep, Mountain High,” and the Dixie Cups’ “Chapel of Love.” See the DMDB’s ranking of her top 30 songs here.  Ellie Greenwich & Jeff Barry
1999: Santana hit #1 for the first of 12 weeks with “Smooth” featuring lead vocals from Matchbox 20’s Rob Thomas. The song went on to win the Grammys for Record and Song of the Year. In 2021, it ranked #3 all time on Billboard magazine’s list of the biggest hits of the Hot 100 era (1958-2021). It is also featured in the 10th anniversary edition of the DMDB book The Top 100 Songs of the Rock Era, 1954-1999.
2001: The iPod was introduced. It revolutionized how people could consume music, letting them have 1000 digitized songs stored on a device the size of a deck of cards. Read more about its history here. October 241881: While vaudeville can be traced as far back as the 1790s and Paris, the birth of American vaudeville is generally ascribed to this date in 1881 when Tony Pastor staged his first self-proclaimed "clean" show in New York. It became the dominant form of entertainment, integrating elements of minstrel shows, burlesque, magic, circus, music, and more. To read more about the birth of the form, click here. You can also check out the top 100 vaudeville songs of all time. 1962: James Brown recorded a live performance which would be released as Live at the Apollo. The album has been included in the Grammy Hall of Fame and National Recording Registry. It is featured in the DMDB book The Top 100 Albums of All Time and stands at #1 on the list of the top live album of all time according to Dave’s Music Database. 1986: Drake was born. He’s reached #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 eleven times, most notably with 2016’s “One Dance” (10 weeks) and 2018’s “God's Plan” (11 weeks). He ranks as one of the top 100 acts of all time according to the DMDB. 
2023: The Rolling Stones released Hackney Diamonds, their first studio album of all-new, original material, in 18 years. Check out two DMDB podcasts on their music: 1962-1980 and 1981-2023. 
October 251944: Jon Anderson was born. He is best known as the lead singer of Yes from 1968 to 2008. Check out the Dave’s Music Database podcast on The Best of Yes (1968 to 2023). 
1984: Katy Perry was born. Her 2010 album Teenage Dream was only the second album in history (after Michael Jackson’s Bad in 1987) to land five #1 songs on the Billboard Hot 100. 
1986: Bon Jovi topped the album chart with Slippery When Wet. The album produced two chart-topping songs in “You Give Love a Bad Name” and “Livin’ on a Prayer” as well as the top-ten hit “Wanted Dead or Alive.” The album spent 8 weeks on top and has sold more than 28 million copies worldwide. It was the best-selling album of the year and is one of the top 100 bestsellers of all time. October 261911: Mahalia Jackson was born. Her 1948 gospel classic “Move on Up a Little Higher” has been inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame and National Recording Registry and was included in the Recording Industry Association of America’s Songs of the 20th Century list.
1970: Elton John charted with “Your Song.” It was his first top-ten hit on the Billboard Hot 100. He’s gone on to rack up 29 top ten hits over six decades, most recently with “Hold Me Closer” in 2022. “Your Song” is in the Grammy Hall of Fame and is featured in the DMDB book The Top 100 Songs of the Rock Era, 1954-1999.
October 271958: Simon Le Bon was born. As the lead singer of Duran Duran, he reached the top 10 in the United States on eleven occasions, including the #1 hits “The Reflex” (1984) and “A View to a Kill” (1985). However, the band’s highest ranked song according to the DMDB is 1982’s “Hungry Like the Wolf,” a #3 hit which ranks as one of the top 100 videos of all time.
1968: Scott Weilandwas born. He sadly died of a drug overdose in 2015, but in his 48 years he made a name for himself as the lead singer of Stone Temple Pilots and Velvet Revolver. See his top 20 songs here. 
1986: This one’s a personal favorite. On this day, XTC released the album Skylarking which featured the controversial song “Dear God.” The song ranks in the top ten of favorite songs of all time. The album is one of my top 100 favorite albums.
October 281893: Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 6 in B Minor (“Pathétique”) was first performed on this day in 1893. It ranks as one of the top classical works of all time as well as one of the top 25 symphonies ever. 1936: Charlie Daniels was born. His 1979 song “The Devil Went Down to Georgia” topped the country charts and reached #3 on the pop charts. It ranks as one of the top 10 country songs of all time according to the DMDB.
1958: Songwriter Desmond Child was born. From 1986 to 2008, the Songwriters Hall of Fame inductee chalked up thirteen top-ten hits including the #1 hits “You Give Love a Bad Name,” “Livin’ on a Prayer,” and “Bad Medicine” by Bon Jovi and “Livin’ La Vida Loca” by Ricky Martin. Check out the DMDB podcast The Best of Desmond Child ( 1979-2009) based on the DMDB list of his top 50 songs. 
1964: The T.A.M.I. Show was held at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium in Santa Monica, California on October 28 and 29. It featured the Beach Boys, Chuck Berry, James Brown, Marvin Gaye, Gerry & the Pacemakers, Lesley Gore, Jan & Dean, the Miracles, the Rolling Stones, the Supremes, and more. Read more here. October 291787: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Don Giovanni premiered. It ranks as one of the top classical works of all time as well as #3 on the DMDB list of the top operas of all time. 1904: The Haydn Quartet landed at #1 with “Sweet Adeline (You’re the Flower of My Heart).” The song ranks in the DMDB lists for the top 100 standards of all time, the top 100 tin pan alley songs of all time, and the top 100 vaudeville songs of all time. It is featured in the DMDB book The Top 100 Songs of the Pre-Rock Era, 1890-1953.
1957: Toni Childs was born. While most people may not know the name, she was briefly in the band Berlin before Terri Nunn became the lead singer. Childs went on to have a solo career, which kicked off with a gold record with her debut album, Union, in 1988. It ranks as one of my top 100 favorite albums of all time.
1920: Orchestra leader Paul Whiteman was one of the most successful acts in chart history, hitting #1 thirty times. His debut chart single, “Whispering,” hit on this day in 1920. It spent 11 weeks at #1 and has become one of the top 100 songs of all time. It is in the Grammy Hall of Fame and National Recording Registry. It is also featured in the DMDB book The Top 100 Songs of the Pre-Rock Era, 1890-1953.
1939: Eddie Holland was born. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Songwriters Hall of Fame inductee was one-third of the famed Holland-Dozier-Holland songwriting team behind many of Motown’s biggest hits in the 1960s, including #1 songs by the The Four Tops (“Reach Out (I'll Be There),” “I Can’t Help Myself (Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch)”) and the Supremes (“Stop! In the Name of Love,” “Baby Love,” “You Can’t Hurry Love”). He stretched his impact into the late ‘80s, hitting #1 Steve Winwood’s "Roll with It." Check out the top 100 songs of Holland-Dozier-Holland here.
l to r: Lamont Dozier, Eddie Holland, Brian Holland; image from irishtimes.com
1995: Oasis released “Wonderwall,” the third single from their sophomore album, (What’s the Story) Morning Glory?. It was a top-ten hit in the United States and reached #2 in the UK. It ranks #1 on the list of the top 50 Britpop songs.
October 311908: One of the most beloved songs in history hit #1. Billy Murray & the Haydn Quartet topped the charts with “Take Me Out to the Ball Game,” who author Don Tyler has said is only behind “Happy Birthday to You” and “The Star-Spangled Banner” as the most played and/or sung songs in America. The song ranks in the DMDB’s lists of the top 100 vaudeville songs of all time, the top 100 tin pan alley songs of all time, and the top 100 standards of all time. It is also featured in the DMDB book The Top 100 Songs of the Pre-Rock Era, 1890-1953.
1981: Journey first charted with “ Don’t Stop Believin’” on this day in 1981. It reached #9, one of three top-ten hits from their Escape album. However, the song experienced multiple revivals in the 2000s, being featured in the TV show Glee, the final episode of The Sopranos and the musical Rock of Ages. It eventually became the best-selling digital track of the 20th century.
1987: John Mellencamp’s album The Lonesome Jubilee topped the Canadian album charts on this day in 1987 for the first of eight weeks. In the United States, this was Mellencamp’s fourth consecutive top-ten, multi-platinum album featuring at least two top-ten hits. In this case, it was the songs “Paper in Fire” and “Cherry Bomb.” This album also ranks as one of my top 100 of all time. Resources/Related Links:First posted 11/14/2023; last updated 12/2/2023. |
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