“Let me tell ya something. Nowadays, everybody’s gotta go to shrinks, and counselors, and go on “Sally Jessy Raphael” and talk about their problems. What happened to Gary Cooper? The strong, silent type. That was an American. He wasn’t in touch with his feelings. He just did what he had to do. See, what they didn’t know was once they got Gary Cooper in touch with his feelings that they wouldn’t be able to shut him up!”— Tony Soprano
“The Sopranos” debuted on HBO tonight in 1999. David Chase’s morality tale set in the New Jersey mob life, dealt with the personal and professional struggles of Tony Soprano, a capo in the DiMeo crime family.
The show won two Emmys for Best Prime Time Drama and its stars, James Gandolfini and Edie Falco also won two and three Emmys respectively.
Writer and creator David Chase won a slew of Emmys as well. Chase won his first Emmy as a writer in 1978 for “The Rockford Files,” which aired it’s last original episode tonight in 1980.
Today in 1776, Thomas Paine published, “Common Sense” a pamphlet that outlined why those in America wanted their freedom from Great Britain. Consider it the first blog to go viral.
Teenagers all over the country woke up today in 1984 with a ringing in their ears after listening to “1984” by Van Halen all night long. Arguably just as thought provoking as “Common Sense,” Van Halen’s sixth album was the biggest seller, moving over 12 million copies. “Jump,” “Panama,” “Hot For Teacher,” and “I’ll Wait” all belong in the pantheon of VH songs. It was the last David Lee Roth era album for the band, who, after being re-buffed by Patty Smyth of Scandal (now Mrs. John McEnroe), took on Sammy Hagar as their new singer.
Dwight Clark made “The Catch” today in 1982. With the 49ers down 27-21 to the Cowboys in the NFC Championship game, Joe Montana and the 49ers got the ball with just under five minutes left and drove down the field. The drive was capped off by a third down and three play that saw Montana roll to his right and find Clark in the back of the end zone. The play kicked off the 49ers dominant era of the ’80s.
Happy birthday to rockers Rod Stewart (68) and Pat Benatar (60) and their top tens:
Stewart:
- Tonight I’m Yours
- Young Turks
- The First Cut is the Deepest
- The Killing of Georgie Pt I and II
- I Was Only Joking
- Forever Young
- Tonight’s The Night
- Maggie May
- You Wear It Well
- Downtown Train
Benatar:
- We Belong
- Promises in the Dark
- All Fired Up
- Shadows of the Night
- Love is a Battlefield
- Hit Me With Your Best Shot
- Sex as a Weapon
- Hell is For Children
- Invincible
- Heartbreaker
— Bill Hubbell
“Every Picture Tells A Story.” That’s both a “thank you” for your help today, BH, and a suggestion for Rod’s top ten…
I scribbled down about 16 songs off the top of my head and that was certainly one of them. That was next up from the “old school” era and if pushed, I’ll admit to liking it more than “Maggie May,” but you can’t have a Rod list without Maggie May. If pushed even further, I’d admit to liking three other songs from the “lame” years better as well: Lost in You, Rhythm of My Heart and Baby Jane. Ok, not Baby Jane, that’s just absurd. I figured I pushed it too far already by having my top two be from the first “non-cool” Rod album.