It’s May 13th and these are some of the things that happened on this day in pop music history:
- In 1950, Stevland Hardaway Judkins was born in Saginaw, Michigan. As a boy he sang in the church choir, learned to play the piano and harmonica, and formed a singing duo with a friend. At 11, he was signed to Motown as Little Stevie Wonder. He went on to become a successful singer-songwriter with hits like “Superstition,” “You Are The Sunshine of My Life” and “I Just Called To Say I Love You.”
- In 1985, Bruce Springsteen married Julianne Phillips near Portland, Oregon. The couple separated in early 1988 and were divorced the following year.
- In 1989, Bon Jovi went to No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 with “I’ll Be There For You,” the band’s fourth song to top the chart.
- In 1966, Darius Carlos Rucker was born in South Carolina. He went on to become frontman for Hootie & the Blowfish, whose hits included “Hold My Hand” and “Only Wanna Be With You,” and then launched a successful solo country music career.
- In 2010, 12-year-old Greyson Chance appeared on an episode of The Ellen DeGeneres Show to perform a cover of Lady Gaga’s “Paparazzi” – the song he was seen doing at a school music festival in a video that went viral. The buzz around Chance never translated into commercial success. He came out as gay in 2017.
- In 1978, The Bee Gees song “Night Fever” from the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack is bumped from the top spot on the Billboard Hot 100 after an eight-week run by Yvonne Elliman’s “If I Can’t Have You.” Elliman’s song was written by… the Bee Gees.
And that’s what popped on this day.