Music History Today: October 5, 2020

October 5, 1978: Dolly Parton becomes the first country singer to pose for Playboy.

Dolly Parton recently turned 74, but the music icon says she has no plans to stop working any time soon. In fact, she has some specific aspirations in mind for when she hits the big 7-5. 

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"I plan to be on the cover of Playboy magazine again," Parton said in a recent interview Sunday with 60 Minutes Australia. "I thought it would be such a hoot if they'll go for it – I don't know if they will – if I could be on the cover again, when I'm 75," she added.  

Read more: USA Today

October 5, 1959: Bobby Darin's version of "Mack the Knife" hits Number 1 on the Hot 100.

“Mack The Knife” was originally a German song, from Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht’s The Threepenny Opera, and the lyrics in the original German are even more gruesome than they were in the version that Bobby Darin hit with.

Still, the stuff Darin was singing was, by just about any standard, pretty hardcore: “Now on the sidewalk, ooh, Sunday morning / Lies a body just oozing life.”  

Read more: Stereogum

October 5, 1970:  Eric Clapton released the single "After Midnight."

The song “After Midnight” was written by J.J. Cale. In 1970, Eric recorded it for his first solo album, “Eric Clapton.” Released as a single, it peaked at #18 on the U.S. charts.  

Read more: Where's Eric

October 5, 1973: Elton John releases the album Goodbye Yellow Brick Road. The first single from it  was "Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting."

"Saturday Night's Alright For Fighting' was the weirdest one," John said. "That was so hard to record. The only way we could record it in the end was for the band to play it, and then I put the piano in and sang afterwards. 

Elton John

(It was) the first time I've ever recorded standing up, singing and leaping around the studio, going crazy.  It was also hard because it's not a typical piano number."  

Read more: Nights with Alice Cooper

October 5, 1974: America achieved their first Number 1 on the Easy Listening chart with "Tin Man."

A member of band America, Dewey Bunnell's Tin Man” would easily be the winner of “The Most Enigmatic Song Ever Done by America” if not for his “Horse With No Name.” Though none of his songs were calculated to seem like cosmic messages rendered in secret code in need of translation, they did lend themselves to that function. 

Read more: American Songwriter

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