This Day in Music
On this day in music, December 8, 1980, John Lennon was shot and killed outside of the Dakota building in New York City, where he lived with his wife, Yoko Ono, and youngest son, Sean. His 25-year-old killer, Mark David Chapman, initially approached the former Beatle for an autograph. At the time of his death, the 40-year-old musician was in the middle of a highly successful solo career, while he and Ono had released their fifth studio album, Double Fantasy, weeks earlier. The following day, the newly-widowed Ono publicly declared, “John loved and prayed for the human race. Please do the same for him.”
In 2019, superstar MC and emo-rap pioneer, Juice WRLD, died tragically at just 21 years old. The Chicago-born artist was a vital part of the wildly influential SoundCloud movement, parlaying his internet celebrity into a record deal with Grade A Productions and Interscope Records in 2017. In 2020, his third studio album, Legends Never Die, debuted at No.1 on the Billboard 200, becoming one of the most successful posthumous albums of all time.
In 1976, the Eagles released Hotel California, their fifth studio album and first full-length with guitarist Joe Walsh. Hotel California produced two No.1 singles (the title track and “New Kid in Town”) and topped the Billboard 200 for eight non-consecutive weeks, eventually becoming the band’s best-selling release, and one of the highest-selling albums of all time.
In 1961, The Beach Boys’ first single, “Surfin’,” was released on Candix Records. In interviews, Brian Wilson has recalled that he came up with the idea for “Surfin’” on the piano, while repeatedly singing the title, and Mike Love contributed the hook, which he borrowed from Jan and Dean’s 1959 smash, “Baby Talk.”
In 1968, singer, songwriter, and guitarist Graham Nash left The Hollies to work with David Crosby and Stephen Stills. Together, the trio formed the seminal folk-rock group, Crosby, Stills & Nash (and later Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young with Neil Young).
In 1979, prog-rockers Styx scored their first and only No.1 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 with “Babe.” The song was a No.6 hit in the UK.
In 1973, Roxy Music earned their first UK No.1 album with Stranded. In the US, it peaked at No.186.
In 2013, Metallica became the first band to play on all seven continents when they performed a show inside a dome at the Argentine Antarctic Base Carlini.
In 2004, 38-year-old metal icon Dimebag Darrell, best known as the guitarist in Pantera and Damageplan, was shot and killed while on stage at a show in Columbus, Ohio.
BORN ON DECEMBER 8
1925: Sammy Davis Jr.
1939: Jerry Butler (The Impressions)
1942: Toots Hibbert (Toots and the Maytals)
1943: Jim Morrison (The Doors)
1947: Gregg Allman (The Allman Brothers Band)
1957: Phil Collen (Def Leppard)
1962: Marty Friedman (Megadeth)
1966: Sinead O’Connor
1973: Corey Taylor (Slipknot)
1974: Nick Zinner (Yeah Yeah Yeahs)
