If you’re interested in rock and roll, movies, television or sports, we’ve got some of the timeless moments in all of the categories. Looking back at September 19 throughout entertainment history is an ideal way to begin your Saturday!

ROCK & ROLL HISTORY


1969 – CCR released the double-sided smash Down On The Corner / Fortunate Son.
The songs peaked at #3 and #14, respectively, although Fortunate Son became the more legendary of the two. It became an anti-war movement anthem, an expressive symbol of the counterculture’s opposition to U.S. military involvement in the Vietnam War and solidarity with the soldiers fighting it.


1973 – 26-year-old musician Gram Parsons died of a drug overdose (morphine and tequila) in a California motel room.
Parsons played with The Byrds on their seminal album Sweetheart Of The Rodeo before forming the Flying Burrito Brothers and later released two celebrated solo albums.
His death inspired one of the more bizarre automobile-related crimes on record: Two of his friends stashed his body in a borrowed hearse and drove it into the middle of the Joshua Tree National Park, where they doused it with gasoline and set it on fire.


1981 – Simon & Garfunkel reunited for a free concert in front of an estimated 500,000 fans in New York’s Central Park.
While the duo may have appeared to be thrilled at teaming up again after a bitter split in 1970, the tensions that caused the breakup were still present from the start of rehearsals all the way through the event.
The concert created a renewed interest in Simon & Garfunkel’s work, and attempting to put their disagreements behind them, they undertook a world tour beginning in May 1982, but their relationship grew even more contentious. For the majority of the tour, they did not speak to one another.


1985 – Representatives from the Parents Music Resource Center (including Tipper Gore), three musicians – Frank Zappa, Dee Snider, and John Denver – and Senators Paula Hawkins and Al Gore testified before the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee on the subject of obscenity in rock music.
The PMRC was arguing for a ratings system on music. The musicians made the case that this was censorship, but the PMRC prevailed and warning labels were ordered on album containing explicit lyrics.


2004 – Skeeter Davis (born Mary Frances Penick) died after a courageous battle with breast cancer. She was 72.
Davis is the only woman in the history of the Billboard charts to hit the Top Ten singles list on all four singles charts: Hot 100, Country, Easy Listening, and Soul/Rhythm & Blues, and she did it with just one song … The End Of The World in 1963.


2008 – Session drummer Earl Palmer died after a long illness. He was 83.
A member of the famed Wrecking Crew session musicians and a member of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, Palmer played on some of rock’s greatest songs: You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’ (Righteous Brothers), Tutti Frutti, Lucille, Slippin’ And Slidin’, Long Tall Sally (Little Richard), Lawdy Miss Clawdy (Lloyd Price), Rockin’ Robin (Bobby Day), La Bamba (Ritchie Valens), Walking To New Orleans, My Girl Josephine, My Blue Heaven (Fats Domino), Porpoise Song, Tapioca Tundra (Monkees), Ramblin’ Rose (Nat ‘King’ Cole), I Hear You Knocking (Smiley Lewis), Be Bop Baby (Ricky Nelson), What Now My Love (Sonny & Cher), Please Let Me Wonder (Beach Boys), Run To Him, The Night Has A Thousand Eyes (Bobby Vee), You Send Me (Sam Cooke) and that only slightly touches the surface.

MOVIE/TV HISTORY


1952 – Adventures of Superman premiered on television.
The series aired for six seasons (104 episodes) and starred George Reeves (Superman/Clark Kent), Phyllis Coates, who was replaced in the second season by Noel Neill (Lois Lane), Jack Larson (Jimmy Olsen), and John Hamilton (Perry White).


1962 – The Virginian, starring James Drury, premiered on NBC, beginning a nine-year run. It was the first western to air in 90-minute installments.


1965 – The F.B.I. premiered on ABC. The program, starring Efrem Zimbalist, Jr. as Inspector Lewis Erskine, ran for nine seasons.


1970 – The Mary Tyler Moore Show premiered on CBS, beginning a seven year run.
Moore played the role of Mary Richards, associate producer at the fictional WJM news program in Minneapolis. Edward Asner co-starred as Mary’s boss Lou Grant, and Ted Knight played the role of Ted Baxter, the bumbling WJM newscaster.
Other co-stars throughout the series’ run included Valerie Harper, Cloris Leachman, Gavin MacLeod, Georgia Engel, and Betty White.

goodfellas
1990 – The Martin Scorsese-directed and Mafia-inspired film Goodfellas, starring Ray Liotta, Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci, opened in theaters around the United States.
The movie earned six Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture and Best Director. Pesci won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his performance as psychotic mobster Tommy DeVito.

SPORTS HISTORY


1947 – Jackie Robinson was named Major League Baseball’s Rookie of The Year as voted by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America.
Originally, the award was known as the J. Louis Comiskey Memorial Award, named after the Chicago White Sox owner, and was given to just one player representing all of baseball.
In 1949, the 3rd year of the award, baseball began giving out one award for each league.
The award was renamed the Jackie Robinson Award in July 1987.


1988 – U.S. Olympic diver Greg Louganis hit his head on the diving board during the Summer Olympics in Seoul, South Korea.
Louganis suffered a concussion after hitting his head on the springboard while performing a reverse 2 1/2 pike during the preliminary round.
The injury did not keep him out of the competition, as he not only completed the preliminary round, but went on to attempt a similar dive in the finals, en route to the gold medal.


2001 – Roger Clemens became the first pitcher in major league history to start a season with a 20-1 record when he pitched the New York Yankees to a 6-3 victory over the Chicago White Sox.
The eventual Cy Young Award winner lost his next two games but still finished the season at 20-3.


2017 – Former middleweight boxing champion Jake LaMotta died from complications of pneumonia at the age of 95.
His six-fight rivalry with Sugar Ray Robinson was one of the most notable in the history of boxing even though Robinson won five of those bouts.
LaMotta, who lived a turbulent life in and out of the ring – he was married seven times – was portrayed by Robert De Niro in the 1980 film Raging Bull.

Compiled by Ray Lemire ©2005-2020 RayLemire.com / Streamingoldies.com. All Rights Reserved.