Sunday
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
1
Paul Simon
and
Peter Frampton
go to Philadelphia to see the Philadelphia Fury -- the North American Soccer League team of which they and
Yes
keyboardist
Rick Wakeman
own parts -- open its season against the Washington Diplomats.
Blondie
's "Denis," a remake of
Randy and the Rainbows
' 1963 hit "Denise," tops the New Musical Express British pop chart.
2 Soap operas invade prime time as Dallas
introduces J.R. Ewing ( Larry Hagman
) and his oil-rich family on the show's CBS debut. The first successful primetime soap since Peyton Place,
it catches the zeitgeist with over-the-top, big-budget melodrama, and oozes high fashion, high stakes, and high jinks galore. Its audience builds slowly but surely and by the 1981-82 season it will become the most popular series on American television, spawning spinoff Knots Landing
as well as a host of imitators ( Dynasty, Flamingo Road, Secrets of Midland Heights,
etc.)
3 Blues guitar giant
B.B. King
, joins famed defense lawyer
F. Lee Bailey
for a rap session and concert for inmates of Norfolk Prison in Boston, Massachusetts, as part of their ongoing duties as co-chairmen of FAIRR (Foundation for the Advancement of Inmate Rehabilitation and Recreation). Portions of the Norfolk concert are shot by ABC-TV for inclusion on a subsequent episode of
Good Morning America.
It's a rather strange night at the Oscars. When outspoken Palestinian rights activist Vanessa Redgrave
wins best supporting actress for Julia,
she peppers her acceptance speech with politics and her refusal "to be intimidated by the threats of a small bunch of Zionist hoodlums." The bewildered audience gasps, alternately booing or applauding. The tension in the room lightens considerably when perky Debby Boone
sings "You Light Up My Life,"
the eventual winner for Best Song.
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9 Donna Summer
's "Last Dance," which she performed in the 1978 disco-based comedy Thank God It's Friday,
wins an Oscar for Best Original Song at the 51st annual Academy Awards.
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16
NBC's four-part miniseries Holocaust: The Story of the Family Weiss
debuts.
17
Carl Sagan
wins the Pulitzer Prize for Literature for The Dragons of Eden.
18
19
Arista Records releases the
Patti Smith Group
's single "Because the Night," coauthored by Smith and
Bruce Springsteen
. The song will become Smith's only charting single, reaching #13 later this year, and will also be covered by Springsteen in concerts.
Over forty rock & roll performers petition
President Carter
to end America's commitment to nuclear power. Some of the performers -- including
Bruce Springsteen, Jackson Browne, James Taylor, Carly Simon
, the
Doobie Brothers, Gil Scott-Heron, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
and others -- will later get together for antinuclear benefit concerts that will be recorded for the
No Nukes
album.
Outside of New York City punk-rock club CBGB,
Dead Boys
drummer
Johnny Blitz
is nearly killed when he is stabbed during a streetfight. A week-long benefit will be held for Blitz at CBGB shortly, featuring many of New York's top punk performers, including the
Ramones, Blondie
, (with special guest
Robert Fripp
, one-time leader of
King Crimson
) and others.
In a Washington, D.C., news conference, a former Cambodian information minister reveals that as a result of the tyrannical rule of the Khmer Rouge, more than two million of his countrymen have been murdered or have died from starvation or disease and that the deaths are continuing.
20
21
Ex-
Fairport Convention
singer
Sandy Denny
dies at age 31 from a cerebral hemorrhage suffered in a fall down a flight of stairs in her London home. Denny was a smooth and tender-voiced folk vocalist who was originally a member of the folk band The Strawbs
in 1967 and with Fairport recorded the original version of "Who Knows Where the Time Goes" (later made popular by Judy Collins
) during her tenure with the band between 1968 and 1970.
22 Bob Marley and the Wailers
perform at the One Love Peace Concert at the National Arena outside Kingston, Jamaica, making their first public appearance in their homeland since the attempt on Marley's life in December 1976. The concert was organized by youth leaders of Jamaica's feuding political parties in an effort to end the violence of the past five years. Also appearing at the concert are
Culture, Dennis Brown, Big Youth, Jacob Miller, Trinity
and
Peter Tosh
, who lights up a spliff onstage and lectures the government wisdom of legalizing marijuana. But the climax of the event comes at the end of Marley's performance, when he calls
Prime Minister Michael Manley
and Opposition leader
Edward Seaga
onstage and raises their clasped hands in a gesture of friendship and unity.
Actor Will Geer
, best known for his portrayal of Grandpa Zebulon Walton in the The Waltons,
dies of respiratory failure in Los Angeles at age 76. His 'Grandpa Walton' character's death was written into the show's sixth season, whose March 30, 1978 episode was the last one he appeared in.
23
Ex-
Sex Pistol
bassist
Sid Vicious
films his rendition of
Paul Anka
's pop standard "My Way" for the
Sex Pistols
' film
The Great Rock n' Roll Swindle.
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25 London's 100 Club, birthplace of punk rock, closes its doors to punk music following a performance by the band
Alternative TV
, which features
Mark Perry
, editor of the now-defunct punk fanzine Sniffin' Glue.
ABC airs its Vega$
TV pilot movie; the series proper
will start later in the year on Sept. 20.
26
Ringo Starr
's TV special,
Ringo,
a musical update of
The Prince and the Pauper,
airs on American TV. Intended to promote his upcoming album Bad Boy,
the special includes newly recorded versions of "Act Naturally," "Yellow Submarine," and "You're Sixteen" (a duet with Carrie Fisher
).
George Harrison
narrates, and other friends dropping by for cameos include Angie Dickinson, Mike Douglas, Art Carney, John Ritter
and Vincent Price
. Despite the star wattage it garners very low ratings, finishing fifty-third out of sixty-five shows.
27
28 FM,
a film about the battle between progressives and regressives at a radio station, premieres in Los Angeles. It stars comedian
Martin Mull, Eileen Brenan
and
Cleavon Little
, with appearances by
Linda Ronstadt, Jimmy Buffett, REO Speedwagon
and
Tom Petty
. The soundtrack also features
Steely Dan, Neil Young
, the
Eagles, Billy Joel, Warren Zevon, Steve Miller
and
B.B. King
. More people buy the soundtrack than see the film, and Steely Dan's title track "FM (No Static at All)" becomes a #22 hit in July. Two more music-themed movies, Thank God It's Friday
and The Buddy Holly Story,
will also hit the theaters in a few weeks.
29
30
The
Clash
, the
Tom Robinson Band
and
X-Ray Spex
perform at a Rock Against Racism rally in London.