11 ready-to-read segments for January 3, lead story first. Free to use on air; a quick credit to Today in Tunes is appreciated.
On this day in 1970, 56 years ago: "Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head" tops the Hot 100. B. J. Thomas's song from the film Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid took over the No. 1 spot from the Supremes and stayed four weeks. It was his first chart-topper. Here's B. J. Thomas with “Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head.”
On this day in 1964, 62 years ago: Jack Paar shows the Beatles to American TV viewers. Paar aired BBC concert footage of the band, mostly as a joke, to an audience of around 30 million. It came a month before their first trip to the US.
On this day in 1974, 52 years ago: Bob Dylan and the Band open their 1974 tour. The tour began at Chicago Stadium and ran to 40 concerts in 21 cities. Recordings from it became the live double album Before the Flood, released that June.
On this day in 1976, 50 years ago: Bay City Rollers' "Saturday Night" reaches No. 1. The Scottish teen idols' chanted anthem had flopped in Britain in 1973. A re-recorded version with Les McKeown singing gave them their first Hot 100 No. 1, if only for a week.
On this day in 1909, 117 years ago: Pianist-comedian Victor Borge is born in Copenhagen. "The Clown Prince of Denmark" mixed concert piano with comedy routines like "phonetic punctuation". He fled Nazi-occupied Europe in 1940, reaching America with $20.
On this day in 1919, 107 years ago: Jazz pianist Herbie Nichols is born in Manhattan. An adventurous composer who often paid the bills playing Dixieland, he finally recorded for Blue Note in the mid-1950s. His tune "Serenade" became "Lady Sings the Blues" for Billie Holiday.
On this day in 1926, 100 years ago: Producer George Martin is born in London. Called the "fifth Beatle", he wrote most of the band's orchestral arrangements and played keyboards on several of their records. He produced 30 UK No. 1 singles, the last being Elton John's "Candle in the Wind 1997".
On this day in 1945, 81 years ago: Stephen Stills is born in Dallas, Texas. He wrote Buffalo Springfield's "For What It's Worth" and co-founded Crosby, Stills & Nash. In 1997 he became the first person inducted twice into the Rock Hall on the same night.
On this day in 1975, 51 years ago: Daft Punk's Thomas Bangalter is born in Paris. One half of the French house duo, he also had a 1998 club smash as part of the trio Stardust with "Music Sounds Better with You", a No. 2 hit in the UK.
On this day in 2014, 12 years ago: Phil Everly dies at 74. With his brother Don he made "Bye Bye Love" and "Cathy's Clown", and in 1986 the Everly Brothers became the first duo in the Rock Hall. Paul McCartney counted them as a major Beatles influence.
On this day in 2025, 1 years ago: Soul singer Brenton Wood dies at 83. His breezy 1967 single "Gimme Little Sign" reached No. 9 in the US and No. 8 in the UK and sold over a million copies, while "The Oogum Boogum Song" was another hit that year.
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