Sunday
Monday
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Saturday
5
"Sleepy" John Estes
dies at age seventy-seven after suffering a stroke in a Brownsville, Tennessee, hospital. Estes was one of the authentic country blues singers and guitarists "rediscovered" by young blues and folk-music enthusiasts in the early Sixties. In the Seventies, he recorded with
Ry Cooder
and
Mike Bloomfield
, and the
Joy of Cooking
had a minor hit with his "Going to Brownsville."
Alice Cooper
, preparing for his first American concert appearance in two years (kicking off on June 19 in Anaheim, California), suffers a setback when his boa constrictor -- for many years a feature of his stage act -- is mortally bitten by the live rat it was fed for breakfast ("Like being hit on by your Wheaties," mourns Cooper). A public audition for a new performing snake is scheduled for June 13 at the ABC Entertainment Center in Century City, California, where a panel of judges consisting of Cooper,
Jaye P. Morgan, Howard Kaylan
and
Mark Volman
(
Flo and Eddie
) will choose a boa named Angel from a field of forty slithering herpetoids.
Avowed Grateful Dead
-head Bill Walton
leads the Portland Trailblazers in defeating the Philadelphia 76ers, 109-107, to clinch the NBA championship.
6
Stevie Wonder
delivers an unannounced lecture to a UCLA class studying the record industry. (The
Billboard
- sponsored course is titled "Number One with a Star.") Wonder discusses his up-and-down relationship with Motown Records and then performs a brief set -- his first in the U.S. in a year and a half.
7
8
9
In Carey v. Population Services International,
the Supreme Court rules 7 to 2 that it is unconstitutional for states to insist that nonprescription contraceptives be sold only in drug stores or by doctors, and that minors at least 16 years of age can be allowed access to contraceptives.
10
Joe Strummer
and
Topper Headon
of the
Clash
are arrested for painting their band's name on a London wall.
12
13
14 The U.S. Supreme Court rules in National Socialist Party of America v. Village of Skokie
that Frank Collins
' neo-Nazi group is permitted to demonstrate in Chicago's predominantly Jewish suburb of Skokie, Illinois, home to many Holocaust survivors and their descendants. The event never happens in Skokie but instead the following year in Chicago's own Marquette Park and causes much internal division among its backers, the ACLU, many of whom are Jewish. This causes many ACLU members to resign as well as many former ACLU supporters to stop contributing, and was the basis of the 1981 tele-film named for the town, Skokie
.
Actor and voiceover artist Alan Reed
, best known as the voice of Fred Flinstone in the 1960s cartoon sitcom The Flintsones
, dies at 69.
15
16
"Beatlemania," a musical revue based on songs by
John Lennon
and Paul
McCartney
and starring four
Beatle
lookalikes, opens at the Winter Garden Theatre on New York City's Broadway. The show will run for 1,006 performances, moving later to Broadway's Lunt Theatre and then the Palace Theatre before closing in 1980.
17
Michael Schenker
, the German lead guitarist of the English heavy-metal band
UFO
, disappears after a concert in Leeds, England, and is feared to be sick, dead or absconded by Moonies. He will turn up in Germany six months later, explaining that he wanted to quit UFO but didn't know how to say so in English, so he simply left without a word. Schenker will, however continue to play on and off with UFO until 1980, when he forms the
Michael Schenker Group
.
18 Knife-wielding hoodlums, offended by the
Sex Pistols
' antimonarchist stance in their hit single "God Save the Queen," attack the group's
Johnny Rotten
on a London street, slashing his face and hands. The following day, Sex Pistol
Paul Cook
will be jumped by another gang of royalists and beaten with an iron pipe.
The New York Yankees dugout becomes a verbal battlefield as manager Billy Martin
and outfielder Reggie Jackson
hurl obscenities at each other on national TV.
Fleetwood Mac
's new album Rumours
and their latest single "Dreams"
both top their respective charts. Rumours,
which hints at the incestuous romantic woes of the band's members, spends 31 weeks at No. 1, a run unsurpassed by any album since.
The Top Five
1. "Dreams"
- Fleetwood Mac
2. "Got to Give It Up, Pt. 1"
- Marvin Gaye
3. "Gonna Fly Now (Theme from 'Rocky')"
- Bill Conti
4. "Feels Like the First Time" - Foreigner
5. "Lucille" - Kenny Rogers
19
20
Island Records releases
Steve Winwood
's eponymous first solo album and first record under any name since
Traffic
's
When the Eagle Flies
three years earlier.
Steve Winwood
will reach #22 on the American LP chart.
Crude oil begins to flow through the Alaska pipeline for the first time.
21
Watergate conspirator H.R. Haldeman
enters the Lompoc federal prison in California to serve his sentence for his role in the scandal and cover-up. Former Richard Nixon
attorney general John Mitchell
begins his sentence the next day at a military prison in Alabama. Haldeman had been convicted of obstruction of justice and perjury, while Mitchell was targeted for conspiracy, obstruction of justice and perjury. Mitchell, who once told Washington Post
reporter Carl Bernstein
that his publisher Katherine Graham
will "get her tit caught in a big fat wringer if that's published," will be paroled for medical reasons after serving only 19 months.
22
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24
Harvest/EMI Records releases the first punk compilation album, Live at the Roxy. The set includes concert numbers by the
Buzzcocks, Eater, Johnny Moped, X-Ray Spex
, the
Adverts, Slaughter and the Dogs
, the
Unwanted
and
Wire
, recorded at London's preeminent punk club.
25 The
Emotions
' "Best of My Love"
hits Number One on the R&B chart; two months later, it will do the same on the pop chart. The female vocal trio was formed in 1968 by the three
Hutchinson
sisters,
Wanda, Sheila
and
Jeanette
, who had been singing gospel music professionally since the beginning of the decade. "Best of My Love," recorded after touring with
Earth, Wind and Fire
, was written and produced by EW&F frontman
Maurice White
. In 1979, the Emotions will team up with EW&F for "Boogie Wonderland" -- a hit which, like "Best of My Love," sets gospel-style singing to a disco beat -- but "Best of My Love" will remain the Emotions' biggest commercial success.
The
Floaters
' first single, "Float On," enters the R&B chart, where it will reach Number One in August. Peaking at #2 on the pop chart, it will be this Detroit vocal quartet's biggest hit.
The Top Five
1. "Got to Give It Up, Pt. 1"
- Marvin Gaye
2. "Gonna Fly Now (Theme from 'Rocky')"
- Bill Conti
3. "Undercover Angel"
- Alan O'Day
4. "Feels Like the First Time" - Foreigner
5. "Lucille" - Kenny Rogers
26
"Elvis has left the building"... for the last time: Elvis Presley
makes what will be his last public appearance with a concert at the Market Square Arena in Indianapolis, Indiana. The last song he sang was his own personal favorite, "Can't Help Falling in Love."
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29
The U.S. Supreme Court rules in Coker v. Georgia
that rape without murder is no longer a capital crime.
30 Marvel Comics, the publishing company that introduced such superheroes of American pop culture as Spider Man, issues the first of two comic books based on the costumed and masked stage characters of the members of
Kiss
. The red ink for the initial printing was reportedly mixed with small amounts of blood from each member of the group.
Kiss
releases its sixth studio album, Love Gun.
Featuring a gender reversal cover of The Crystals
' 1963 hit single "Then He Kissed Me," it will peak at No. 4, becoming the shock rockers' most successful album.