The Current

Great Music Lives Here ®
Listener-Supported Music
Donate Now

Today in Music History: Fleetwood Mac's 'Rumours' goes No. 1

Cover art for Fleetwood Mac's 'Rumours.'
Cover art for Fleetwood Mac's 'Rumours.'Warner Bros.

January 28, 2020

History Highlight:

Today in 1978, The Fleetwood Mac album Rumours went No. 1 in the U.S. The songs "Go Your Own Way", "Dreams", "Don't Stop", and "You Make Loving Fun" were released as singles. Rumours is Fleetwood Mac's most successful release and along with winning the Grammy Award for Album of the Year in 1978, the record has sold over 40 million copies worldwide, making it one of the best-selling albums of all time.

Also, in:

1968 - Jim Morrison of The Doors was arrested and charged with public drunkenness after harassing a security guard at a Las Vegas adult movie theater.

1984 - Frankie Goes To Hollywood started a five-week run at No. 1 on the U.K. singles chart with "Relax". Arguably one of the most controversial singles in British music history, "Relax" was banned by the BBC and several commercial British radio stations, although significant radio personalities including John Peel continued to play the song.

1988 - Eleven years after it was released, The Sex Pistols' album Never Mind The Bollocks, Here's The Sex Pistols went Gold in the U.S. with sales over $500,000.

1998 - Oasis guitarist Noel Gallagher played a 20-minute solo gig at the King's Head pub in Santa Monica in front of 250 fans.

2007 - Dreamgirls: Music from the Motion Picture was at No. 1 on the U.S. album chart.

2009 - Lynyrd Skynyrd keyboard player Billy Powell died at the age of 56 of a heart attack at his home in Orange Park, FL.

2016 - Jefferson Airplane lost two members on this day: 1. Guitarist, singer and songwriter Paul Kantner died in San Francisco at the age of 74. He was known for co-founding Jefferson Airplane and spin-off band Jefferson Starship. 2. Singer Signe Toly Anderson died at age 74. She was also one of the founding members of Jefferson Airplane. She sang on the first Jefferson Airplane album, Jefferson Airplane Takes Off, most notably on the song 'Chauffeur Blues'.

2017 - British musician and keyboardist, and longtime member of the heavy metal band Black Sabbath, Geoff Nicholls died at age 68. Until his death, Nicholls played keyboards with former Black Sabbath singer Tony Martin, in his band Tony Martin's Headless Cross.

Birthdays:

Robert Wyatt, of Soft Machine, is 75.

Jamaican electronics musician King Tubby was born today in 1941.

Sarah McLachlan is 52.

Rakim is 52.

Highlights for Today in Music History are gathered from This Day in Music, Paul Shaffer's Day in Rock, Song Facts and Wikipedia.