Music History Today: January 3, 2021

January 3, 1987: Aretha Franklin was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the first woman to be so honored. 

On January 3, 1987, Aretha Franklin made history when she became the first woman ever to be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. 

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After a career that ultimately spanned over 60 years and earned her more than a dozen Grammy awards, it's entirely fitting that she should claim the pioneering accomplishment. 

Read more: I Like Old Stuff

January 3, 1957: Fats Domino recorded "I'm Walkin'."

The song, written by Domino and Dave Bartholomew, was inspired (so the story goes) by an incident where Domino’s car broke down and a fan commented upon the fact that Domino was walking. 

Fats Domino

Domino thought to himself, “Yeah, I’m walking,” and wrote the song in his head as he walked. Whatever the inspiration was, the song went to #1 on the R&B Chart and #4 on the Pop Singles Chart in 1957. It was a hit for a young Ricky Nelson as well.  

Read more: Daily Dowop

 

January 3, 1970: B.J. Thomas' "Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head" hit Number 1 in the US for the first of four weeks.

Though it’s Thomas’s voice, scratchy from laryngitis, that sings “Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head” over the classic bicycle sequence in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, composer Bacharach initially brought the song to Ray Stevens.

Robert Redford and Paul Newman in
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.

Stevens passed, and his loss was Thomas’s gain. “I don’t know why anyone would pass on a song that’s going to be in a Paul Newman movie,” Thomas said in a recent interview. “I don’t get it.” 

Read more: Vanity Fair

January 3, 1976: The Bay City Rollers hit Number 1 with their first single release, "Saturday Night." 

The mid-’70s were lean times for teen sensations. At the beginning of the decade, the Billboard charts had seen an explosion of bubblegum, and a few key figures briefly became stars: the Jackson 5, the Osmonds, the Partridge Family’s David Cassidy. 

Bay City Rollers

Through 1976, even as disco rose up and took over, that state of affairs remained mostly unchanged — except for the one-week blip where a bunch of fake teenagers from Scotland swooped in and scored their sole #1 hit. 

Read more: Stereogum

January 3, 1984: Huey Lewis & the News released the single "I Want A New Drug."

"I Want a New Drug" is a song by American rock band Huey Lewis and the News from their third album Sports. According to Lewis, he wrote the song in only a few minutes.  

Huey Lewis & the News

"I was on the way to my attorney's house, and I thought of it in the car. I pulled up and walked in. I said, 'Bob, give me a piece of paper, I've got to write this down'." According to Lewis, the song is a love song, and the meaning of the word "drug" in the song was purposely open ended. 

Read more: Wikipedia

(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman
Aretha Franklin