1975: "Please Mr. Postman" became a US number one for the second time when The Carpenters took it to the top of the Billboard Hot 100. The Marvelettes version led the hit parade in January, 1961. Although the Beatles also recorded a popular version of the song, it didn't make the American Top 40.

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1978: Randy Newman had a lot of people upset when his song "Short People" hit the top of the Cash Box best sellers list. The song was meant to poke fun at all prejudice and did just that with the line "short people got no reason to live". Before "Short People", Newman was most noted for writing Three Dog Night's 1970 chart topper, "Mama Told Me Not To Come". More recently, he could be heard singing "It's a Jungle Out There", the theme to the US TV show Monk.

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1956: James Brown And The Famous Flames sign a recording contract with King Records. As a signing bonus, they receive $200. Their first effort, "Please, Please, Please", would become a million seller later in the year, but their next nine releases failed to live up to the success of their debut.

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1959: Buddy Holly was in the recording studio for the last time. He laid down tracks for "Slippin' and Slidin'", "Wait 'Til the Sun Shines Nellie", "Love Is Strange", "Dearest" and "Smokey Joe's Cafe". Alone with an acoustic guitar and tape recorder in his New York City apartment, he would make his final recordings, including "Peggy Sue Got Married", "Crying, Waiting, Hoping", "That's What They Say", "What To Do", "Learning The Game" and "That Makes It Tough". The recordings would be overdubbed posthumously and released by Coral Records.

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1961: Del Shannon records his first single, "Runaway", which will top the US charts by April. The song was written by Shannon and keyboardist Max Crook, and would later be rated as #466 on Rolling Stone's list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.

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