Happy Monday from 93.7 BOB FM! It’s time for your weekly rewind, and this week in history (November 10th through 16th) gives us huge album debuts, a classic comeback, and the story of how a legendary Beatle lost a bet to Elton John!
November 16, 1974: The Bet That John Lennon Lost
This is one of the most famous stories in rock history! On November 16, 1974, John Lennon earned his first and only solo #1 hit in the US during his lifetime with “Whatever Gets You Thru The Night.”
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The Deal: Lennon had a friendly bet with Elton John (who played piano and sang backing vocals on the track). Elton was so confident the song would hit #1 that he made Lennon promise to join him on stage if it did.
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The Show: Lennon kept his word, making a surprise appearance at Elton John’s Madison Square Garden show on November 28th—what would be John Lennon’s final major public performance. Backstage after the show, Lennon reunited with Yoko Ono after a period of separation.
November 10, 1973: Elton John’s Magnum Opus Hits #1
The same week Lennon reached the top, his collaborator, Elton John, was celebrating a massive achievement. On November 10, 1973, Elton John’s double-LP masterpiece, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, hit #1 on the Billboard 200 album chart, where it would stay for eight weeks.
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Timeless Hits: The album is a treasure trove of classics, including the title track, “Candle in the Wind,” “Bennie and the Jets,” and “Saturday Night’s Alright for Fighting,” and remains his best-selling studio album worldwide.
November 16, 1985: A City Built on Rock and Roll
On November 16, 1985, Starship—the latest incarnation of the band that started as Jefferson Airplane—reached the #1 spot on the Billboard Hot 100 with the massive anthem, “We Built This City.”
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A Brand New Era: The hit marked the band’s first #1 under the new Starship name, a feat the previous versions (Jefferson Airplane and Jefferson Starship) never achieved. The song is an unmistakable defining track of the mid-’80s pop-rock sound.
