What happened on January 4
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196066 yrs ago
Marty Robbins' "El Paso" tops the Hot 100
The gunfighter ballad led the first chart of 1960 and was his only pop No. 1. He kept a long run on the country charts, with 17 No. 1 country singles.
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196462 yrs ago
Bobby Vinton's "There! I've Said It Again" goes to No. 1
The ballad spent four weeks on top of the Hot 100 until the Beatles' "I Want to Hold Your Hand" replaced it.
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196759 yrs ago
The Doors release their debut album
Elektra issued the record, cut at Sunset Sound in Hollywood. Its seven-minute "Light My Fire" was trimmed to under three minutes for radio and went to No. 1, lifting the album to No. 2.
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197155 yrs ago
Loretta Lynn releases the album Coal Miner's Daughter
Its title song, the album's only single, topped the country chart and became her signature. The title later named her best-selling autobiography and the 1980 film of her life.
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197551 yrs ago
Elton John's "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" hits No. 1
His cover of the Beatles song held No. 1 on the Hot 100 for two weeks. After it, the next 14 chart-toppers each lasted just one week, a record streak at the time.
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1710316 yrs ago
Composer Giovanni Battista Pergolesi is born
He died at just 26, but his Stabat Mater became the most often printed piece of music of the 18th century, and his comic La serva padrona stirred up a famous Paris opera feud.
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194284 yrs ago
Guitarist John McLaughlin is born in Doncaster
He played on Miles Davis's Bitches Brew, then led the Mahavishnu Orchestra, mixing electric jazz-rock with Indian and classical ideas. Later, in Shakti, he blended jazz with Indian music.
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194680 yrs ago
Arthur Conley is born in Georgia
After Otis Redding heard him, he had Conley re-record a song for his own label, and together they reworked a Sam Cooke tune into "Sweet Soul Music". Cut in Muscle Shoals, it reached No. 2 in the US and sold a million.
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195670 yrs ago
Joy Division's Bernard Sumner is born
The guitarist of Joy Division stepped up to sing after Ian Curtis's death, becoming the voice and lyricist of New Order.
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198640 yrs ago
Thin Lizzy's Phil Lynott dies at 36
The band's singer, bassist and main songwriter turned the folk song "Whiskey in the Jar" into a rock hit, and broke big with "The Boys Are Back in Town" from Jailbreak.
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201115 yrs ago
Gerry Rafferty, the voice of "Baker Street", dies
The Scottish songwriter's "Baker Street", with its famous saxophone line, reached No. 2 in the US, and his album City to City knocked Saturday Night Fever off the top in 1978.
Nothing matches these filters on January 4.